Charlie was a rich boy who had more toys than you could imagine. His family had a lot of money, and whenever he liked something, they would buy it for him. In reality, then, he had no idea what things cost, and wouldn’t bother to take care of what he had. Nor did he realize how difficult it was for other children to get toys like the ones he had.

A time came, though, when he was so used to all his toys that he began to want something different. One of his uncles found a fine horse and he gave it to Charlie, as something unusual. Charlie was very excited at having a horse. He learned to ride, and was constantly on his horse, going here and there. However, he treated the horse just as badly as he treated all his other toys, and it soon started looking sick. For the first time in his life Charlie became truly worried. He loved the horse, and the fact that his family had offered to buy him a new one meant nothing to him.

One day, while in the countryside, he saw a little girl with a horse. The girl looked very poor, but the horse seemed happy and looked great. Wondering how she had managed this, Charlie secretly followed them, watching everything they did. First he followed them through the forest, where he saw that she never used the stick and never hit the horse. This was the opposite of what Charlie had done to his horse. Then they came to the stable (马厩), and as soon as they arrived the girl fed and watered the horse. Then she carefully cleaned it. Charlie was surprised. He’d never done any of those things for his horse. He saw that the girl spent a lot of time giving care and attention to her horse, and that she did it all on her own. This had never entered Charlie’s mind; he had always been too busy playing and having fun to look after the horse.

Charlie wanted to change and become like the girl.

As a result, Charlie gave up constantly asking for new toys.

4 . 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。

Catherine’s nine-year-old son, Chirag, won his first silver prize at a swim meet. It seemed like he could swim before he could walk. His dad is a competitive swimmer and a former champion, so many people think it is surely in his genes.

That’s wrong! Until a few years ago, Chirag was afraid of water. It wasn’t his fault. His dislike came from Catherine’s childhood phobia (恐惧症).

One summer when Catherine was a child, she and her brother went to a pool to learn basic swimming skills. All that went well and soon it was time for class. A coach was hired and he agreed to do a trial round. He took children to the deep end and asked then to swim across the breadth of the pool. While Catherine’s brother stayed calm and made it, she, however, immediately disliked the task. It was Catherine’s first time in such deep water, and the bottom of the pool seemed so far away that she felt really frightened. She felt she was going to drown (淹死) for lack of air. At that moment, she thought that swimming wasn’t for her. After being rescued from the water, she didn’t swim again.

Fast forward to her thirties, she was a mother of a child and living in an area with a lot of rivers and beaches. Then her son, Chirag, started school, and swimming was a compulsory course. Every Wednesday, the day for the weekly swimming lesson was Chirag’s bad dream. From the previous evening, he would be anxious and teary-eyed about going to school. It turned out that Catherine had passed on her anxiety about swimming to her little boy.

She was always worried about keeping her child safe around water and was starting to realize that the best way to do that was making him learn how to swim. Words of comfort were of no use to Chirag. He still sat outside the pool during his classes. It was obvious that he needed professional lessons to help build his confidence. She needed to challenge herself to encourage her son.

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。

So Catherine signed up for swimming classes with her son.

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To Catherine’s amazement, she didn’t drown!

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Little Tom was a student in senior high school. He was not good at his work and failed many times in the exams, and he never knew why he couldn’t catch up with others.

One day, Tom and his teacher were walking through the forest. He was disturbed by the fact that his mind was in constant unrest. He asked his teacher, “Why most people’s minds are restless, and only a few have a calm mind? What can one do to calm the mind down?”

The teacher looked at Tom, smiled and told him a story:

On one beautiful day, an elephant was standing by the shade of a tree, eating its leaves. Suddenly, a small fly came buzzingly and landed on the elephant’s ear. The elephant stayed calm and continued eating, ignoring the fly. The fly flew around the elephant’s ear, buzzing noisily, yet the elephant seemed to be unaffected. This confused the fly, and it asked, “Are you deaf?”

“No!” the elephant answered.

“Why aren’t you bothered by my buzz?” the fly asked.

“Why are you so restless and noisy? Why can’t you stay calm just for a few moments?” asked the elephant, and peacefully continued eating the leaves.

The fly answered, “Everything I see, hear and feel attracts my attention, and all noises and movements around me affect my behavior.”

“What is your secret? How can you stay so calm and still, while I am buzzing around your ears?”

“I can continue eating peacefully, because my five senses do not disturb my peace.”

“How is it possible?” asked the fly amazed and confused.

“Because I don’t let them rule my attention,” answered the elephant.

“I am in control of my mind and my thoughts, and therefore, I can direct my attention where I want, and ignore any disturbance including your buzz.”

“And therefore,” continued the elephant, “I am completely lost in the act of eating, enjoying my food and chewing it peacefully.”

“What will we be singing for the contest this year?” a student from my high school choir,a singing team, asked eagerly.

I hesitated this moment. “I was thinking,” I said, “maybe we’ll skip the contest and just work hard on the concerts this year. ”

“NO!” the kids protested.

“We’ve got to go to contest!”

“In Class A. ”

“It’s tradition!”

This was true. Awards lined the front wall of the music room from the past successes of large, talented classes. But a change in educational policies, with an emphasis on academics, had reduced my choir to a mere thirty-two students. My section leaders had graduated or been forced to drop music classes, leaving me with young, inexperienced kids who couldn’t read music, couldn’t hold their parts, and could sing only a simple melody or song.

“Maybe we could enter Class B this year,” I suggested, knowing even that would be a near-impossible mission.

“No!” the kids screamed. “Class A!”

I shook my head. “Class A is extremely difficult. ”

“We can do it!” they shouted. “We can do it!”

“I’ll have to think about it,” I said, hoping their enthusiasm would die off in a couple of weeks.

But that didn’t happen. If anything, the class became more fixed. Every day they begged and begged and they insisted. Because I had to protect their self-pride I couldn’t tell them they weren’t good enough. My efforts to prevent their eagerness, by showing them a difficult piece of music from the contest list, simply ended with, “It’s okay, Mrs. Pliszka, we’ll get it. ”

I struggled to make a decision.

When the contest day finally arrived, the kids felt ready to take on the world!

Jared was a boy who was raised by his single father, Steve, and his grandfather Michael. Although he didn’t have much in life, Jared was grateful for what he had. He enjoyed living a simple life with his dad and grandfather.

After school, Jared would often go into his grandfather’s garage and they would repair his car together. Jared was a skilled mechanic and it was all thanks to his grandfather’s patient teaching. And Jared wished one day he would open a car repair shop using his grandfather’s garage. Michael supported it.

Unfortunately, Michael died when Jared was 14. Jared continued to look after his grandfather’s car. One day, his dad entered his room and handed him the key to his grandfather’s car. “Your grandpa wanted me to give this to you on your eighteenth birthday. He said you could decide what to do with the car—either sell it or keep it,” his dad said.

Jared smiled. He was thankful that he now had a car. And he was happy it was a special car that he and his grandfather maintained together. “I’ll keep it! I don’t have to take the bus to school anymore. I can just drive!” Jared replied excitedly.

Then Steve returned to his own room. He hoped Jared would not sell the car. And he hoped someday Jared would find the envelope Michael had secretly left for him. The envelope was put under the driver’s seat of the car. In the envelope, Michael left Jared $15,000. And he had left a note. It read, “I knew you wouldn’t sell my car. Thank you, Jared! I hope the money can help you. Be a good man!”

The following day, when Jared arrived at school, many students saw his car. They didn’t think highly of it because it was old and noisy. But Jared valued it. Later that day, after school, he couldn’t start the car. There appeared to be a problem with it.

Jared decided to repair the car himself.

Confused, Jared quickly opened the envelope.