My teenage son, Jordan, always complained about having to be home earlier than all his friends. He would tell me that he was already seventeen, but still had a curfew (宵禁). He believed he was practically an adult. I pointed out that he was not an adult as he was still in high school.
“You don’t trust me!” he yelled. Before I continued, he rolled his eyes, slammed the door and walked away. I sighed. How could I make Jordan see that I only wanted to keep him safe?
I decided to go for a walk, hoping the December air would clear my head. I opened the front door and nearly stepped on her: a small black cat, just like a meatball. “Hi, Meatball,” I said, bringing her into my arms. I walked back in, touching her neck gently. Meatball seemed happy enough to come in the house, but after an hour or two, she sat by the door, meowing to go back outside.
“Why won’t she just stay in with us all the time?” Nathan, my youngest son asked.
I explained to him that she was happy here but she liked being able to come and go as she pleased.
“That must be nice,” Jordan muttered from the other room, complaining why the cat, not him, could come and go. He even asked me to give Meatball a curfew.
Meatball became a regular.
One night, temperatures were unusually low. Meatball stood at the door, meowing to go outside.
I shook my head at her, afraid that she might freeze to death. She stared at me and meowed again. I patted her head, “I know you’re not happy, but it’s for your own good.”
“Mom’s not being mean to you,” Nathan told the cat. “She’s just trying to keep you from turning into a frozen meatball.” We both laughed at his joke.
The next morning, I couldn’t find Meatball. I asked the kids if anyone had seen her.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右;
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Jordan nodded, “I let her out last night.”
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________As I drove to the animal hospital, Jordan sat in the back, holding Meatball inside his coat.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________It’s just a small, white envelope stuck among the branches of our Christmas tree. No name, no identification, just a short note inside which says what we have done to celebrate Christmas. It has stuck through the branches of our tree for the past 10 years or so.
It all began because my husband Mike hated Christmas—oh, not the true meaning of Christmas, but the commercial aspects of it—the overspending, the anxious running around at the last minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and the dusting powder for Grandma—the gifts given in desperation because you couldn't think of anything else.
Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to avoid the usual shirts, sweaters, ties, and so on. I reached for something special just for Mike. The idea came in an unusual way.
Our son Kevin, who was 12 that year, was wrestling (摔跤) at the junior level at the school he attended. Shortly before Christmas, there was a non-league match against a team supported by an inner-city church. These teenagers, dressed in sport shoes so ragged (破烂的) that shoestrings seemed to be the only thing holding them together, presented a sharp contrast (对比) to our boys in their stylish blue and gold uniforms and new wrestling shoes. As the match began, I was alarmed to see that the other team was wrestling without headgear, a kind of light helmet designed to protect a wrestler's ears. Obviously, the poor team could not afford.
Well, we ended up defeating them. We took every weight class. And as each of their boys got up from the mat, he walked around in his rags with a kind of steet pride that couldn’t acknowledge defeat.
Mike, seated beside me, shook his head sadly, ‘‘I wish just one of them could have won, "he said "They have a lot of potential, but losing like this could take the heart right out of them. ’’
注意∶1. 续写词数应为150左右;
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡相应位置作答,
Paragraph 1:
That’s when the idea for his present came.
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For each Christmas, the envelope has become the tradition of our family.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________A light knock on the door brought me from my kitchen. Because we had just moved into the neighborhood, I couldn’t imagine who it would be. Opening the door, an old man stood there, who was dressed in dirty clothing and wearing dirty rubber boots. His hand hung a plastic bag.
“Can I help you?” I asked.
“Would you like to buy some fresh garden vegetables?” His blue eyes were hopeful.
“Are they from your garden?” I looked inside his plastic bag and saw some carrots with soil.
“Yes,” his voice was soft. “And I can get some apples from a tree in my yard. Would you like some of those, too?”
My heart softened, and I wondered if he was badly in need of money. With a sigh, I said, “Please step inside and I’ll get my money.”
The next day, he knocked at our door again. This time, my little four-year-old daughter got there first. “Oh, hello. Would you like to come in for some tea?” Without a second thought, the old man stepped inside and held out a broken basket with several apples. “From my tree,” he said, removing a worn cap. “You might like to make a pie.”
The three of us sat at the kitchen table and drank our tea. It was obvious that my daughter liked hosting a visitor in her never-ending questions. “What is your name? Where do you live? Why are your clothes so dirty?”
The homeless-looking man laughed as he answered each question. His name was Mr. Locket and he lived around the corner. His wife had passed away several years ago, and his children all lived far away. He was lonely. His need for company had sent him door to door selling fruit and vegetables. Ours was the only door opened to him that day.
注意：1. 续写词数应为100左右；
2. 开头已给出。
Paragraph 1:
When he finished the tea, he said he had to go home and promised to return the next day.
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Several years later, a small envelope was delivered to our home—a letter from the old man’s daughter.
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Afternoon was Mrs. Green's favorite time of day. After a hard day at work, her eyes were tired and her feet hurt. She usually enjoyed the nice long sleep when she was on the bus. Mrs. Green had made friends with the bus driver, Mr. Smith. He always woke her up before her stop. She usually felt fresh again when she got off the bus. But today was different. Mr. Smith wasn't driving. A small man sat in the driver’s seat. "Where's Mr. Smith?" asked Mrs. Green, dropping her money into the box. "I don’t know. Sick, I guess. I just work here, lady." Mrs. Green hoped that Mr. Smith was all right. She didn't like this new driver. She decided not to sleep on the way home today. She didn't want to ask this driver to wake her.
Mrs. Green looked out of the window. It was a warm afternoon. Though she tried hard to stay awake, the gentle rocking of the bus made her fall asleep soon.
Then Mrs. Green felt someone shaking her. "Wake up, lady. We’ve come to the end of the line." Mrs. Green slowly opened her eyes. The bus driver looked down at her, "I said, this is the end of the line, lady. It's time to get off."
Mrs. Green looked out of the window. "Where am I?" she asked. "I was supposed to get off at Brighten Avenue."
"You are at the last stop, lady. Come on, get off the bus."
Mrs. Green had trouble waking up. When the bus driver took her arm and helped her step off the bus, she felt a sense of panic. "Wait a minute," she screamed. "This isn't Brighten Avenue. Where am I? How can I get home?"
"Cool off, lady. You are at the end of the line. You have to get off here." But why can't I ride back with you?" she begged."I have the fare!"
"Sorry, lady," he said as he closed the door. It's against the rules. You have missed the stop, and I can't take you back again."
注意:
1. 续写词数应为 150 左右。
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Mrs. Green watched the bus disappear down the road.
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Suddenly the afternoon sun seemed surprisingly bright.
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It’s funny that you can always tell when somebody’s laughing behind your back. Jodie hadn’t really heard anything, maybe a whisper, but when she turned around, the girls in the back row of the class were looking at her, trying to hide smiles and laughs. She looked back at her teacher. Mr Swales was talking about what people do all day. He also wanted to find out what his students wanted to be when they grew up.
He called on Billy Miter first. “My daddy works in a bank,” Billy Miter said. “I guess I want to work in a bank too. There’s lots of money in the bank.” My parents have a grocery store,” Emmy Disal said. “Papa’s behind the counter and Mama keeps the cash register. But I want to be an airline pilot.”
Jodie liked it when Mr Swales asked them questions like this. He was about to call on Jodie when the girls in the back row burst out laughing.
Shirley Danes yelled, “Jodie’s daddy is a garbage man!”
Everybody in the class laughed out loud. Everybody except Jodie, that is. She felt her face turn bright red. She looked around the whole classroom. Everyone was laughing. Some kids were even holding their noses.
Jodie looked at Mr Swales. He was angry. He almost never raised his voice, but now he did.
“Silence! I want everybody to quiet down this instant.”
The laughter stopped immediately. The sound of cars and people going by out on the street came through the windows.” You should be ashamed of yourselves,” Mr Swales said. “Being a garbage man… I mean, is a difficult and enormously useful job. We should all be grateful to Mr Harris. Where would we be without him? Up to our cars in garbage, that’s where. How would you like that?”
“It’s not funny,” Mr Swales went on. “Garbage is a serious matter. I think you all owe Jodie an apology. And after that, you’re all going to write Jodie’s father, Mr Harris, a nice letter to tell him how much you appreciate what he does for all of us. In other words, keeping our city clear.”
注意:
1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Everyone said “Sorry, Jodie”, but Jodie could tell they didn’t really mean it.
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Jodie’s father came to walk her home from school as usual.
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Jenny was the only child in her home. She had a quarrel with her mother that afternoon and she ran out of the house angrily. She couldn’t help weeping sorrowfully when she thought of the scolding from her mother. Having wandered aimlessly in the street for hours, she felt a little hungry and wished for something to eat, but it was not even possible for her, since she had nothing with her. She stood beside a stand for a while, watching the middle-aged seller busy doing his business. However, with no money in hand, she sighed and had to leave.
The seller behind the stand noticed the young girl and asked, “Hey, girl, would you like some noodles?”
“Oh, yes... but I don’t have money on me...” she replied.
“That’s nothing. I’ll treat you today,” said the man, “come in.”
The seller brought her a bowl of noodles, whose smell was so attractive. As she was eating, Jenny cried silently.
“What is it?” asked the man kindly.
“Nothing, actually I was just touched by your kindness!” said Jenny as she wiped her tears. “Even a stranger on the street will give me a bowl of noodles, while my mother, drove me out of the house. She showed no care for me. She is so merciless compared to a stranger!”
Hearing the words, the seller smiled “Girl, do you really think so? I only gave you a bowl of noodles and you thanked me a lot. But it is your mother who has raised you since you were a baby. Can you number the times she cooked for you? Have you expressed your gratitude to her?”
Jenny sat there, speechless and numb with shock; she remembered Mother’s familiar face and weathered hands. “Why did I not think of that? A bowl of noodles from a stranger made me feel indebted, but I have never thanked my mom for what she has done for me.”
On the way home, Jenny made up her mind to make an apology to her mother for her rudeness as soon as she arrived home.
注意：
1．所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2．至少使用5个短文中标有下划线的关键词语；
3．续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好；
4．续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。
Paragraph 1:
Approaching the doorway, Jenny took a deep breath.
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Paragraph 2：
A gentle touch on her hair called her mind back.
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