A young woman was waiting for her flight at an airport. She was leaving for London because she got a new job there. It was said that her new boss was a typical English gentleman — polite, modest, humorous and considerate. She was excited as well as a little nervous about her new life.
With several long hours before her flight, the woman hunted for a book in the airport shops, bought a packet of cookies and found a place to sit. She took out a book and started to read. Although she was absorbed in her book, she happened to see that the man sitting beside her, as bold as he could be, grabbed a cookie or two from the bag in between them. Educated to be well-mannered, she tried to ignore it to avoid an argument. But to show that she was the owner, she started to take cookies from that bag too. Unfortunately, the man didn’t get that hint, since he didn’t stop grabbing the cookies.
“How annoying!” she thought. As the greedy cookie thief kept eating, the woman munched (用力咀嚼) some cookies and watched the clock.
She was getting angrier as the minutes went by, thinking, “If I weren’t so nice, I would blacken his eyes.” With each cookie she took, he took one, too; when only one was left, she wondered what he would do.
With a smile on his face, and a nervous laugh, he took the last cookie and broke it in half. He offered her a half, and ate the other. She grabbed it from him, glared at him and thought, “Oh, brother. This guy has some nerve and he is so rude! Why didn’t he even show any gratefulness?”
She had never known when she had been so angry, and sighed in relief when her flight was called. She gathered her belongings and headed to the gate quickly, refusing to look back at the rude thief. She boarded the plane, sank in her seat, and looked for her book, which was almost complete.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在相应位置作答。
Paragraph 1:
As she reached in her baggage, she gasped (喘气) with surprise.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2:
Surprisingly, she found the man sitting just behind her.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Mark grabbed his keys. He needed to get out of the house quickly. He had been trying to save as much money as possible from the government assistance he received due to his disability, but it was harder and harder with prices rising daily.
Unfortunately, he lost half his right arm in a car accident several years ago, and it was hard to find a new job in his town in Tampa, Florida. He lost his previous job recently when the company went bankrupt (破产). For now, he only had those government checks keeping him fed, but he was tapping into his savings for everything else, and they were running out fast.
One of his friends had gotten him an interview and he was on his way. But after closing and locking his door, Mark turned around and got the shock of his life. A pregnant (怀孕的) woman was lying on his lawn, and/he had no idea how long she had been there.
He grabbed his phone and called 911 quickly, and suddenly, it started to rain. Finally, it came, and he explained to the doctors that he had to move her because of the rain.
“Don’t worry, sir. She’s cold, so it was good that you moved her. Do you know this woman?” asked the doctor. Mark shook his head.
“Can I give you my phone number? If you don’t find her family or anyone, can you call me? My name is Mark Higgins.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” the doctor said, noting down his number and leaving with the woman.
Mark closed his door and sat down on his couch, hoping his heart would stop beating so fast. Suddenly, he remembered his interview and looked at the clock. He was late for it. He dashed to his car, praying they would wait for him.
注意: 1, 续写词数应为150左右；2, 请按如下格式作答。
He got no calls, which meant his interviewers probably didn’t like him due to his being late.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Seeing his lost right arm, David came up with an idea to reward Mark.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I watched my dad scowl (绷着脸) as he listened to the voice coming through the telephone receiver. I heard him say, “Yes, Miss Beisner,” and “I understand what you’re saying, Miss Beisner. I appreciate you sharing this information. We’ll see what we can do about the situation. Thank you for calling. Goodbye.”
Miss Beisner was my first-grade teacher, and I loved her. I thought she felt the same about me, but now I was beginning to wonder. The tone of Dad’s voice, the redness in his cheeks, and his repeated clenching. And unclenching of fists made it pretty clear. This was not a warm and fuzzy good news-from-the-teacher call.
As I was deciding whether I should lock myself in my bedroom for the rest of my life or run away from home, Dad hung up the phone. “Jacquie, come here and sit down. We need to talk.”
Uh-oh. When Dad said, “We need to talk,” it meant he needed to talk, and I needed to listen.
I shuffled (拖着脚走) over to the well-worn brown chair in the corner of the living room, plopped down, and waited to hear the nature of my crime.
Dad told me that Miss Beisner thought I was bright but not working up to my ability. She said I had strong verbal skills but weak study habits. Translation: I never closed my mouth, and I seldom opened a book. Apparently, my failure to memorize the addition facts, or even attempt to, was more than she was willing to put up with. Hence, the telephone call.
Dad ended our one-way conversation with a verbal outline for his plan of attack. Bubbles, our Toy Manchester Terrier, was going to teach me math. Silently, I thought, No way is any dumb dog going to teach me how to add, not even our beloved Bubbles. Out loud, I said, “How?”
Dad summoned Bubbles from her bed near the stove and commanded her to sit. “Bubbles,” Dad said, “how much is five plus three?” Bubbles let out eight loud, crisp barks.
I was incredulous (满腹狐疑的). I couldn’t understand how a dog could add, and I was more than a little embarrassed by the fact that the family dog was smarter than me.
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。
Paragraph 1: After that, I threw myself into math with newfound determination.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2: One day, I asked Dad whether Bubbles really knew how to add.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________An abandoned dog stopped at the front door of the Laceys’ small house, wagging its tail, trembling with shyness and cold. Doris Lacey, whose school had been called off because of the snow, spotted the creature and immediately went up to meet it.
“Where did that come from?” Mrs. Lacey asked as soon as Doris put the dog down in the kitchen. Mr. Lacey was at the table, cleaning his fingernails. “I don’t know where it came from, ” he said mildly, “but I know for sure where it’s going.”
Doris hugged the dog hard against her. She said nothing.
Because of the snow, the roads would be too bad for travel for many days. Mr. Lacey couldn’t get out to take the dog to the animal shelter in the city right away. He agreed to let it sleep in the basement while Mrs. Lacey unwillingly let Doris feed it leftover food.
Four days passed and the dog did not complain. It never cried in the night or barked at the wind. It didn’t tear up everything in the basement. It wouldn’t even follow Doris up the basement steps unless it was invited. It was a good dog.
Several times Doris had opened the door in the kitchen that led to the basement and the puppy had been there, all stretched out, on the top step. Doris knew it had wanted some company and that it had lain against the door, listening to the talk in the kitchen, smelling the food, being a part of things. It always wagged its tail, eyes all sleepy, when she found it there.
Even after a week had gone by, Doris didn’t name the dog. She knew her parents wouldn’t let her keep it, that her father made so little money and any pets were out of the question, and that the dog would definitely go to the shelter when the weather cleared. Still, she tried talking to them about the dog at dinner one night. “She’s a good dog and not much trouble, right?” Doris said, hoping one of them would agree with her. But Mr. Lacey shook his head, “You know we can’t afford a dog, Doris. You try to act more grown-up about this.” Doris fell silent, praying the weather would never 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。
However, the sun was shining the next morning.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Later that afternoon, Mr. Lacey came back with the same dog.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Once upon a time a daughter complained to her father that her life was miserable and that she didn’t know how she was going to make it.She was tired of fighting and struggling all the time. It seemed just as one problem was solved, another one soon followed. Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire.
Once the three pots began to boil, he placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in the second pot and ground coffee beans in the third pot. He then let them sit and boil, without saying a word to his daughter. The daughter complained and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing. After twenty minutes he turned off the burners. He took the potatoes out of the pot and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. He then ladled (舀) the coffee out and placed it in a cup.
Turning to her, he asked, “Daughter, what do you see?”“Potatoes, eggs and coffee,” she quickly replied.
“Look closer,” he said, “and touch the potatoes.” She did and noted that they were soft.
He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg.
Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. “Father, what does this mean?” she asked.
He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs and the coffee beans had each faced the same boiling water. However, they reacted differently. The potatoes were in strong and hard, but in the boiling water, they became soft and weak. The eggs were fragile (易碎的), with the thin outer shell protecting their liquid inside until they were put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the eggs became hard. However,the ground coffee beans were unique. After they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new.
“Which one are you?” he asked his daughter. “When the disaster knocks on your door, how do you respond?Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean?”
注意：续写词数应为150左右。
“Father, I want to be a coffee bean,” said the daughter,
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
In the end, she understands that
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
It was a very cold morning as it had been raining very heavily the previous night. As my mother was feeling a little uncomfortable, my sister volunteered to drive me to school. I overslept and as a result, was a bit late for school. We got into the car hurriedly. The roads were already jammed with traffic. It appeared that everyone was late as well.
My sister was a careful driver and despite the fact that I was late, she refused to drive fast on the slippery road. I was lucky she was such a determined and careful person because a few hundred meters away from the school, we witnessed an accident.
It all happened in an instant, as most accidents do. A car took a left turning without signaling and a school bus crashed into it heavily. A few cars behind the school bus hit the bus as they could not stop in time and soon it became a pile-up. The car was damaged badly while the school bus also had some damage. And the already crowded road became more jammed with vehicles, which came to a mess. We wanted to help the victims. My sister drove to a stop at the roadside not too far from the accident spot.
The scene that greeted us was terrible. I first rushed to the car. The driver, a lady, lay trapped behind the wheel, unable to move. Three schoolchildren were in the back seat, their faces white with fear. Two of them were seriously hurt and bleeding from the head and hands. They were conscious although too weak and frightened to realize what had happened. We called an ambulance and while waiting, we tried as much as possible to help the victims. As a result of our joint efforts, the driver and the children were moved to safety and taken care of.
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。
Then, I rushed to the bus filled with children’s cries.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________After the ambulance had left, two policemen asked me about the accident.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________It took place in a teacher’s family. One day, Ben was playing basketball in the living room after school, when he accidentally threw the ball at a vase sitting on the shelf. The vase dropped to the floor and a large piece broke off. What made Ben more upset was that the vase was not a common decoration but an antique (古董), which was handed down through generations from the 18th century. It was also his mother’s favourite possession. To cover his terrible action, the terrified boy glued the pieces together hurriedly and put the vase back to its place.
As the mother herself dusted the vase every day, she naturally noticed the cracks (裂纹) that evening. To her surprise, the repair work was actually very good. At dinner time, she asked her boy if he broke the vase. Fearing punishment, the suddenly inspired boy said that a neighbour’s cat jumped in from the window and he couldn’t drive it away no matter how hard he tried. It raced around the living room and finally knocked the vase off its shelf. His mother was quite clear that her son was lying, for all the windows were closed before she left for work each morning and opened after she returned. However, in the face of her son’s nervous eyes and the suspicious looks of the other family members, Ben’s mother remained calm. She realized she shouldn’t just simply blame and punish her son for lying. She came up with another idea.
Before going to bed, the boy found a note from his mother in his room, asking him to go to the study at once. The boy thought he would now be punished but, as he had already lied, he was determined to deny everything to the end, no matter how angry his mum became.
In the study, calmly bathed in the light, his mothers face showed no sign of anger. On seeing her son push open the door and cautiously enter, she took a chocolate box out of a drawer and gave him one.
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。
The mother said, “This chocolate is a reward for your imagination: a window-opening cat!”
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Now with some chocolates in hand, the boy’s bad attitude disappeared.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Ballet (芭蕾) was a way of life in Kelly’s family. Her elder sister Serena was now dancing at a top college. Though Kelly’s mom always wanted her to follow in her sister’s footsteps and Kelly herself was good at ballet, her love for ballet had faded years before and she was eager for a new challenge. One day at school, as Kelly left the dance studio she walked past the gym, fascinated by boxers (拳击手) training inside the boxing ring. She was deeply impressed by how hard they hit and how fast they moved. In fact she had long been attracted to boxing.
She pulled a piece of paper from her backpack. The big title Boxing Club Tryout (选拔) caught her eyes. That was what Kelly really wanted to do. She knew her mom had high expectations for her when it came to ballet. Tired of trying to keep up with her sister, Kelly was ready to create her own way.
The next day, she gathered her courage and told Serena about her new passion. At first Serena didn’t understand and thought she was just joking. But when she saw Kelly was serious, she replied, “You know Mom wants you to be a ballet dancer, right? Besides, boxing is only for boys, and you’re so good at ballet. Lean into your strength, Kelly.”
“But this is where I want to put my strength,” Kelly insisted, “and what exactly does ‘only for boys’ mean, anyway? Boxing is a sport for everyone!”
Gradually, touched by her determination and passion. Serena began to understand and support her. Kelly could feel it. Her sister was going to respect her decision no matter what. But that was nothing compared to the preparations for the tryout, where she was required to show her footwork and punching (击打) abilities with other candidates. Kelly wasn’t naturally good at boxing, but she had made up her mind to stick to her choice.
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。
Paragraph 1: Then Kelly began her training for the tryout, keeping it a secret from her mom.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2: The following Monday, results of the boxing tryout came out.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Nilsa stared at the clock on the classroom wall, daydreaming about lunch. Her mother had prepared a thermos (保温瓶) full of sancocho. It was one of Nilsa’s favorite dishes, and the national dish of Panama — a country in central America and the hometown of Nilsa’s family. Just thinking about sancocho made her mouth water.
Finally, it was time for lunch. Nilsa carefully poured some sancocho into a bowl. When she looked up, she saw her classmates staring.
“What is that? It smells really bad,” said Gus, covering his nose. “It’s sancocho,” Nilsa responded. “It’s kind of like chicken soup.” Codi glanced at the bowl and said, “Soup? It’s more like a science experiment.” He laughed, pointed to his lunch, and asked, “That’s one weird lunch. Why don’t you eat something normal, like pizza?”
Nilsa looked at everyone else’s lunches: pizza, fries, and sandwiches. Suddenly she didn’t feel hungry any more.
When Nilsa returned home and complained about her classmates’ negative comments, her mother wasn’t mad. Instead, she listened attentively and reminded Nilsa that there is no such thing as “normal” or “weird” food, and that different cultures have their own unique dishes that are loved and appreciated by those who grew up with them.
Nilsa’s mother also suggested making a fresh batch for Nilsa to bring to school the next day. “Then you can share it with your classmates and tell them sancocho tastes great, and that our family has been eating it for hundreds of years. Your great-grandmother taught your grandmother who then taught me.
Nilsa nodded in excitement, and she was grateful for the opportunity to share her favorite dish with her classmates.
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。
The next day at lunch, Nilsa pulled out her thermos.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When Nilsa returned home and greeted her mother that day, her happiness was beyond description.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Despite coming from a wealthy family, Adam and Cody were kind and helpful. Everybody intown knew their parents, but they preferred to keep a low profile(低调).
One day, Adam and Cody sat on a bench in a park. They held up a sign that read, “Please help.” They also set up a table with some items which they had put on sale. A homeless man usually sat on the bench they were on, but he was nowhere to be found. People gathered around them to see what happened.
A woman went up to them and asked, “Are you two okay? Why are you out here asking for help?”Adam admitted that they were there to help their friend who was currently in hospital.
Concerned, she secretly took a photo of them and sent it to their father, Peter. When he received the picture, he immediately left his meeting to pick up his children. However, when he arrived at the park, he was shocked by what he saw. Dozens of people had lined up to put money in a box and purchase items from the two teenagers.
He approached them immediately. “Adam, Cody, what is going on here?” he asked.
Cody was frightened, but he answered, “Sorry, Dad. We didn’t want you to see this, but we had to do what we could. A few weeks ago, we were walking home from school when we saw a homeless man named Carl sitting on this exact bench. We want to help him.”
“We have been bringing him tea and sandwiches every day, and he’s been so grateful. We’ve also been spending a couple of minutes with him every day exchanging stories. He is such a kind man, Dad. Yesterday, we had food to bring him but he was not on the bench. We walked to the abandoned shack(简陋的小屋)he lives in, and found he was so ill.” he explained.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右，
2.请按如下格式在相应位置作答。
Deeply touched by his sons, Peter joined the line.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The next morning, Peter went to the hospital with Adam and Cody.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
