Bill is a retired oil field engineer. His hands are thick, and his fingers branch out in all directions. He moved back to America late in his career. His wife died of a serious disease so he had to raise his three daughters on his own. In my parents’ eyes, Bill is hardworking and helpful.
Every day, when I pass by his yard to go to school in the morning, I often see him standing in his front door, smiling at me. But in my heart, Bill is the last person I am willing to talk with in the world. When I was 7 years old, I picked fruits in his garden without his permission. He scolded (责骂) me severely and let me apologize to him in front of my parents. I hated him and swore (发誓) not to talk with him any more. What’s more, there is a scar (伤疤) on his face, which makes me more afraid to get close to him.
Recently, Bill, in his seventies, invited my friends in our neighborhood to his house to spend weekends. Of course, Bill also invited me several times but I turned him down.
My friends told me that they were surprised to find Bill was also experienced in playing basketball, and they invited Bill to teach them to play basketball on weekends. Besides, Bill often offered them sodas. It’s rare to see a bond that bridges generations. But I didn’t care all of these any longer.
One week ago, my friends came to my home and expected me to join their basketball team to have a match with the team from another neighborhood. I like playing basketball and I am good at it so I agreed immediately. But when I was told Bill would give us guidance and it was he that let my friends invite me to join the team, I hesitated. Eventually, I was persuaded to have a try.
The match started. Because I wanted to prove myself, I tried my best to shoot every time I caught the ball. I didn’t pass the ball to my teammates. Ten minutes passed and our team didn’t win one point.
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。
I felt at a loss when Bill called time out.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When each player in our team was celebrating our winning the game, I came up to Bill.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Nancy’s heart felt heavy as she stood in the sad crowd. The words spoken by the priest (牧师) filled the air—saying goodbye to her beloved son, Matthew. Tears welled up in her eyes, but she couldn’t fully grasp the gravity of the moment. How could she accept that her only son was gone, a victim of a drunk driver’s careless driving?
As the funeral (葬礼) service progressed, Nancy struggled to focus on the words being spoken. The pain of loss saddened her, leaving her feeling empty. It seemed that no one else could truly understand the depth of her sorrow. While others would move on with their lives, Nancy knew that she would forever be changed.
Suddenly, Nancy’s attention was drawn to a young boy standing near another freshly dug grave (墓穴). Tears streamed down his face, and he appeared lost and alone. Both were experiencing the cruel loss of a beloved family member. The same fate created an instant connection.
A silent promise formed in Nancy’s heart as she made a decision to approach the boy. She understood the need for comfort during times of sorrow, especially for a child who had been left to go through the painful journey alone.
As the ceremony drew to a close, people offered their support to Nancy, but their words seemed distant. After all her relatives and friends left, she approached that grave. On the tombstone was a name: Marianne. Next to it lay a photograph of a young woman about her age. All of a sudden, Nancy realized what had happened to the boy: his mother passed away recently.
注意：1．续写词数应为150个左右;2．请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Turning around, Nancy noticed that the boy had appeared behind her.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The day when the boy came to Nancy’s home as a family member finally came.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The day that I met my best friend for the first time, I was anxiously reviewing for an important exam in the local library. Because I kept being disturbed by others, I was unable to make any progress, The last straw was when I heard someone singing behind me. I turned around and gave the person a dirty look. It was a tall girl about the same age as me and she had a slight smile on her face. Standing near the “English Literature” section, she seemed to be looking for a book. “How could she be so selfish (自私的)?” I thought angrily.
I picked up my books, looked into her eyes and said angrily, “Please be considerate in public. I’ve been unable to study because of your terrible singing”
I still hate thinking of that moment. Let me tell you the rest of the story though.
Two hours later, I realized I’d forgotten my most important textbook in the library. What was worse, the library had already closed. I was close to tears. Just then, the phone rang. A soft voice introduced the speaker as Li Hua and asked if I was Jane. After confirming that I was, she told me that she had noticed my book in the library. As my phone number was in it, she called and told me she didn’t live far away and could bring it to me.
Paragraph 1: I sighed (叹息) with relief and agreed to meet her at the store down the road.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2: Can you believe we became best friends?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Jumping Over Boundaries
When I was in elementary school, we had an annual sports day. Girls could do many things like hopscotch, jump rope, tetherball, and dodgeball, except high jumping. Only boys could do high jumping.
That’s what I wanted to do — high jumping. So I went to the coach.
“Girls don’t do high jumping,” the coach said. “Girls have all these other things they can do.” He excitedly described how much fun it would be.
I’d been high jumping in the backyard with my five brothers for years. Although I am a girl, I did high jumping pretty well. My brothers could rarely beat me. Whenever my back crossed the bar, that feeling is extremely wonderful. I went home and told my mother what the coach had said. My mother, a small, thin woman only four feet eleven inches tall, said, “I think we should go visit him.”
“Visit who?” I asked confusedly.
“The headmaster.”
“Visit the headmaster?” I was terrified. Would I get in trouble? Would my mother and I be crossing boundaries we shouldn’t cross?
My mom and I went to Mr. White’s office. “Linda wants to do the high jump,” my mother said.
“Mrs. Martinez, you don’t understand. This is the tradition of our Annual Sports Day,” he said.
“But Mr. White, I don’t know where it says that girls cannot do this.”
The headmaster couldn’t find any rules that said girls couldn’t do the high jump. “I have to think about this,” he said at last.
When we got home, my mom told me something I would always remember: this wasn’t just about me. “Maybe other girls want to do this, too,” she said.
My mother waited a week, but still didn’t get the headmaster’s reply. So she walked over to the school again. “Mr. White, please. I ask you this not for me and not for Linda, but let’s just see how it works.” In the end, Mr. White agreed.
I stood on the field of the high jumping competition.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________To my surprise, some of the cheers I got were from boys!
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I sat in my parents’ car. Mom had insisted I go with her to pick up Dad from work. Across from Dad’s office is a bike store. That was the day my eleven-year-old eyes first saw the purple BMX Mongoose bike. From that day on, all I could think about was that bike. I even drew pictures of the bike in class. Every evening afterward, at five thirty, I eagerly went along with Mom to get Dad.
And every day I told my parents, “I want that bike!” But they disagreed and replied that I had already had a perfectly good bike at home. I’d argue it was old and ugly, thinking that my happiness depended on that purple bike. Days later, I found the store had sold that bike. I knew I’d never be happy again.
A week later, returning home from school, I tripped over something. Lying in the weeds near a river and some wooded lots, was a bike — the exact bike from the store. “Hey, whose bike is this?” I shouted, scanning the area. No one replied, and there was no one in sight. Maybe its owner didn’t want it any longer. I couldn’t leave it lying in the weeds. So I took it home and hid it behind the garage. Every day after school, I sat there, admiring it. But I didn’t feel like riding and didn’t feel as happy as I had thought. Thinking about the bike made my stomach tighten and uncomfortable.
A few days later, during lunch at school, my friend said, “Did you hear about Tyler, in the other fifth-grade class? He lost his new purple BMX Mongoose bike he had just gotten for his birthday. He left it by a river while playing in the woods. It got dark, and he couldn’t find it.”
“I’d never go off and leave a new bike like that. He doesn’t deserve to have that bike,” I replied. My friend added, “Kids say he’s nice. And they say Tyler is upset because his dad worked overtime to buy the bike for him.” For the rest of the day, I couldn’t stop thinking about Tyler.
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。
After school, I returned home and dragged to my room.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“I know Tyler’s house,” Mom said. “I’ll drive you there.”
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Oh, this was terrible. “Thank you for volunteering to coach soccer…” the letter began. Coach? Soccer? Me? That was ridiculous. My knowledge of the sport began and ended with you-can’t-use-your-hands. Later that afternoon, my six-year-old son informed me that goalkeepers are allowed to use their hands. Who knew?
When Community Sports asked for volunteers, I signed up for data entry. Keyboards, I knew. Coaching? Impossible! I quickly called the head coach about the misunderstanding. It did not go well. He had been transferred out of state and would not be coaching at all. Then I called an assistant coach. In broken English, he explained, “We just arrived from India. I know nothing.”
I phoned the Community Sports Commissioner about the matter. “I am sorry,” he said. “Not enough parents are willing to volunteer. If you cannot coach, we will call your team and let them know they will not be playing this season.” Seriously, that was his solution?
“Okay,” I gave in. “I will figure out something. Sure, put me down for coach.”
“Good,” he said. “We have a coaching clinic on Saturday. You might want to attend. It would help.”
With determined resolve, I picked up my son at school. He looked through the coaching book, interested in the pictures of drills. Then he laughed. “Hey, Mom! The word ‘coach’ is by your name. That is so funny.” Funny. I had to agree with him. “Yes, son, I get to be your soccer coach. Since I don’t know much about soccer, I need to learn. Let’s start at the library.”
At home, my husband puzzledly looked at the pile of books and videos under one of my arms and the soccer ball in the other. I told him my trouble. I thought it best if I learned about the game, rules, and some practice drills. So, I bought a soccer ball.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150个左右;
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Our Saturday morning practices and games were quite interesting.
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My neighbor used to be a high-school soccer player.
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Pip is a cute little squirrel (松鼠) from a loving family, whose mother often tells him that sharing is caring.
On a cold morning in the park, Pip was looking for a tree with enough branches to shelter him from the cold. Suddenly, he found a huge one, with many branches, and to his joy, a big, brown acorn was hanging from one of the lower ones.
Knowing how important acorns were at this time of year, Pip moved as fast as his tiny legs could carry him, and climbed up the side of the tree, heading towards the acorn. As he got close to the acorn, he thought about how hungry he was, as he hadn’t had any food for two days. He reached his paw (爪子) forward eagerly and just as he was about to take his first bite, somebody took the acorn from his paws and climbed down the tree. Angry and still hungry, Pip ran after the acorn thief, and jumped across the branches, from tree to tree. He would save his lunch, no matter what!
“Hey! Come back here! That’s my acorn. I found it, fair and square,” shouted Pip, who was out of breath.
The acorn thief was another squirrel, who Pip recognized as Rascal, a squirrel in the park who always stole food from others.
“You will never catch me, Pip! Everyone knows that you are the slowest squirrel in the park and I haven’t eaten today, so this nut is mine!” said Rascal.
Hearing Rascal make fun of him made Pip angrier and run faster. Finally, Pip caught up with Rascal. After what seemed like the longest fight ever, Pip managed to take the acorn out of Rascal’s paws and he ran as fast as he could to hide away. As Rascal tried to follow Pip, a huge tree branch fell on him and stopped him from running after the acorn. Rascal couldn’t climb over the branch and he was forced to admit defeat.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150个左右；2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Pip happily hugged his acorn.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“Why did you help me, Pip?” asked Rascal, quite surprised.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Single mother Krystal works hard to provide daily necessities for her kid. They may not have many material things. But love is clearly in no short supply.
Krystal was having a particularly tough time making ends meet. The bike she rode to work broke and couldn’t be used. But she couldn’t afford a new one. So she had to walk to work, spending an extra hour on the way. Once in a while, she would wonder whether there was hope in life. Her son, 13-year-old William Preston, couldn’t help but notice.
Seeing his mother work so hard to earn money, William, the sweet young man, was always helping his mother with housework. He didn’t want to see his mom walking to work every day. So, he decided he was going to do whatever it took to buy his mom another bike.
William saw on YouTube that a boy bought his mom a bike and then surprised her with it. He also wanted to do that. William came across a cheap used bike on sale on Facebook. And he knew what he needed to do to help out his struggling mom.
In fact, the 13-year-old has been doing yard work for people in his community to make some money. So, he continued to work hard and save money, which was impressive enough for someone his age. But William took it one step further.
Back in his own room, William was staring at the big box of toys that his relatives and friends had bought him as gifts. He treasured the toys. He spent most of his spare time playing with them. Among them was the game player Xbox, his most prized possession (财产). When his mother called him to have supper, he had an idea.
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。
After school, he brought his Xbox to a second-hand shop nearby.
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With the money he had saved, William bought the bike on Facebook.
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In the back of my closet is a small box that has followed me to every new address. It’s the first thing I find a place for as the moving truck pulls away. The only remaining contents in it are dozens of notes in my mother’s tidy writing. My mother, who put her business degree to use running a small company with my father, while raising me, was always prepared and always gave me abundant love. By day she made marketing slogans and distribution strategies. By night: bubble baths and bedtime stories. She and I had the same February birthday. Each year my parents arranged wonderful parties.
When I was 3, she learned she had advanced breast cancer and immediately began to prepare by rescarching every available treatment. Each day, she would sit for hours at our dining table, her straight dark hair tied back, surrounded by piles of paper, studying, technical paragraphs.
When I was 7, the materials on the dining table began to change. Wrapping (包装) paper and ribbons (丝带) took the place of her highlighted pages. Paper creased (折) under her fingers. Knots (蝴蝶结) came together with a tiny creak. She had begun making a gift box for me.
Inside, she packed presents and letters for the milestones of my life she would miss—graduation, wedding, and every birthday until the age of 30. My mother died 10 days before our shared birthday. That morning, when I turned 12 and she would have turned 49, I woke up early and opened the box as my mother had shown me.
Neat rows of brightly wrapped presents glowed like the spring tulips (郁金香) that were just coming up in the front yard. In the package marked “12th Birthday”, I found a little ring with an amethyst (紫水晶) at its center. A white card curling around the present read: “I always wanted a birthstone ring when I was a little girl. I hope you like it, too. Happy birthday, darling girl! Love, your Mommy.”
注意：1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2. 续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好。
On the morning of my high school graduation, I walked to the box.
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Today I hit 31, and I sat in my room, holding the nearly empty box.
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10 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。
We sat on the bus waiting while other passengers piled on. A blond-haired girl, about fifteen years old, took the seat in front of us. The bus driver followed behind her. He demanded her fare (车费).
“You should pay $40, young lady,” the driver said.
“I paid already. Yesterday, online.” the girl said.
“No, no record of it,” the bus driver pointed to the paper in his hand and waved it in her face. “See? No pay. You pay, or you must get off,” the bus driver pointed to the exit door.
“But I don’t have money. And I paid already,” the girl insisted.
The bus driver picked up his mobile phone and made a call to find out if there had been an error with the paperwork. And a few minutes later, he cut the call and said to the girl. “You haven’t paid. You must pay now.”
“But please, I don’t have any money on me now. I must get to Los Angeles today. Please…” the girl begged. Tears streamed down her face.
John and I had boarded the bus heading to Los Angeles. I was excited about experiencing Los Angeles. But while I was sitting there comfortably in my seat, thinking about my next adventure, this girl was in tears, with a man standing in front of her to demand money.
I wasn’t sure what I should do. Was she telling the truth? It wouldn’t be the first time that someone had asked for money by telling a sad story that turned out untrue. Was she really short of money? Maybe the bus driver would show some sympathy and allow her to sort the payment out later?
But no, the bus driver continued to demand that she pay $40 or get off the bus. The girl insisted that she didn’t have money for the fare and had no one she could contact for help. It seemed that the driver would throw her off the bus.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150个左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Suddenly, an old woman with grey hair walked up from the back of the bus.
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I was touched by the kind act done by the old woman who looked in need herself.
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