Joey was so excited that he could hardly wait to get to the store. He walked so fast that his sister Beth had to run. On his way from school he had seen that baseball cap in the Rogers’ store window. Only a dollar, and this was the last cap! Joey had been longing for the cap for a long time. He wanted it most because nearly every boy at school had one.

Joey thought of his piggy bank, into which he put every coin earned by running errands (差使) for several months. Joey raced home. He held the fat iron pig opened it carefully, and poured out the coins. Ten… twenty… thirty… ninety cents. If only he had one more dime (十分硬币)! Lost in thought, Joey stared out the window.

“What’s wrong, Joey?” asked Mother. Joey told her about the money and the cap. “If you give me what you have, I’ll add a dime,” Mother said, handing him a dollar bill. Joey jumped up, “Oh, thanks, Mom. That’s great!”

And away went Joey and Beth to the store with the dollar bill in Joey’s pocket. They turned the last corner. Ahead was a group of boys and girls talking heatedly and looking down at the sidewalk. One of the children was Ronny, a new boy who had been in this town only for a short time. Ronny’s father had been sick so there wasn’t much money for extras—like a baseball cap.

“What’s the matter?” Beth asked, anxiously.

“It’s Ronny,” answered Susan. “He’s been working and finally saved up a whole dollar, but now it’s lost!”

Joey went over to Ronny. “We’ll all help look. We’ll find it!”

“Ronny was going to get that last cap in the Rogers’ window,” cut in Susan.

“I want it a lot. I want to join them,” Ronny said slowly.

Suddenly Joey remembered how Ronny had watched the fellows playing baseball his eyes lighting up eagerly as they shouted and ran.

Joey stared at the ground, thinking hard.

Forcing a smile, Joey showed Beth the empty pocket.

When I was in middle school, my social studies teacher asked me to enter a writing contest. I said no without thinking. I did not love writing. English was my second language. Writing was so difficult and painful for me.

So, why did he suddenly force me to do something at which I was sure to fail? His reply, “Because I love your stories. If you’re willing to apply yourself, I think you have a good shot at this.” Encouraged by his words, I agreed to give it a try.

I chose Paul Revere’s horse as my subject. Paul Revere was a silversmith (银匠) who rode a horse at night to warn people that British soldiers were coming. My story would come straight from the horse’s mouth. Not a brilliant idea, but funny; and unlikely to be anyone else’s choice.

What did the horse think, as he sped through the night? Did he get tired? Have doubts? Did he want to quit? I sympathized immediately. I got tired. I had doubts. I wanted to quit. But, like Revere’s horse, I kept going. I worked hard. I checked my spelling. I asked my older sister to correct my grammar. I checked out a half dozen books on Paul Revere from the library. I even read a few of them.

When I handed in the essay to my teacher, he read it, laughed out loud, and said, “Great. Now, write it again.” I wrote it again, and again and again. When I finally finished it, the thought of winning had given way to the enjoyment of writing. If I didn’t win, I wouldn’t care.

A few weeks later, when I almost forgot the contest, there came the news. My name was announced as the winner in the writing contest, and I was invited to attend the award presentation. There, when I accepted the award, my heart skipped a beat, my breath caught in my throat, and tears filled my eyes. My teacher was right: I did have a good shot at this.

I went to my teacher’s office after the award presentation.

It was the Easter holidays, and school was closed for two weeks.For me, the Easter holidays were so boring that it was impossible to find something fun to do. My mom had suggested that I do some studies since the promotion test was coming up. However, I didn’t follow my mother’s suggestion. Instead, I went outside to seek out my friends to play with. When I had successfully contacted some of my friends, none of them seemed to be much in a playful mood, but one friend Jimmy agreed to play with me. He suggested we go down to the river and just relax there. The river was not far from my home, and we arrived there quickly.

Just relaxing on the river bank with nothing but some waste logs (木头) , it wasn’t fun for us at first. Clearly what was on our minds was to jump into the river and just take a swim in the clear cool water. So we took off our clothes down to our underwear and walked into the shallow part of the water. The water was truly cool and refreshing and we were starting to have fun then, playing and laughing, as we splashed the cool water onto each other’s faces. Then we started to chase each other around on the river bank and then we ran straight into the river. We were having so much fun that we didn’t notice danger was around the corner.

Before Jimmy could know it, and before he could do anything to keep his balance, he lost his footing on a tree branch, which was in the shallow part of the water, and slipped, bringing his whole entire body into the deep water. He tried to resurface from the water but found it extremely hard to keep his head above the water.

I was scared to see him struggling in the water but I knew I must rescue him. I took a deep breath to keep calm. Looking around, I found a waste log, so I threw it to him immediately and asked him to hold it. At the same time I yelled for help, hoping someone could come to our rescue. Luckily, my mom heard my cries, rushed out of the house and raced towards us. She jumped into the water without hesitation and reached out her hands to pull him. Several neighbors also quickly joined the rescue.

Finally, Jimmy was pulled out of water by my mom and the neighbors.

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6 . 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 was the coolest kid in her class. Whenever she went, she was in the spotlight, with a bunch of kids following her and doing everything she did.

Her deskmate, Landy, however, was not in the cool kids’ group. Being the tallest kid in her class, she was teased by her classmates, who were always chanting “Landy, Landy, long as spaghetti (意大利面 )”. Every time Landy heard those silly chants, she could feel her face burst into flames. God knew how she wished the ground to crack and swallow her!

Catherine didn’t really like it when the kids chanted “Landy, Landy, long as spaghetti”. But she never told them to stop either, and nor did she ever talk to her. She liked being popular.

One weekend, Catherine went over to her grandfather for Thanksgiving. Her grandfather lives on a farm at the opposite end of town, where he keeps chickens. While helping to feed the chickens, Catherine noticed a peculiar one. Curling in the corner, it looked smaller than the others and was almost half-bare!

“What’s the matter with it?” She asked her grandfather, with a puzzled frown on her face. Her grandfather told her how chickens could act. “They have a pecking (啄) order,” he explained, wrinkles of concern spreading around his forehead. “If one chicken is different, the others will push it away and keep pecking it. Sometimes they peck it so much that it dies.”

“Oh, what a poor little thing!” Catherine let out a sigh as she scooped the frightened chicken up in her arms, whose heart was beating fast in the bony little body. Suddenly, she thought of Landy, the girl being “pecked” by her classmates. “I’m going to take it home and take good care of it,” she said with a determined look.

Back in school, Catherine told the cool kids about the chicken. “It’s looking healthy,” she said proudly. “It’s fatter and its feathers are growing. Even the cat likes it. She carries it around the garden, and...” Everyone was entertained by Catherine’s story of her lovely chicken, laughter lingering around the classroom.

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 Catherine spotted Landy sitting by herself in a corner.

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Paragraph 2. But Catherine walked directly toward Landy, regardless of what they said.

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George was so excited he could hardly wait to get to the store. He walked so fast that his sister Beth had to run. “Do you have to hurry like that?” she puffed. On his way from school he had seen that baseball cap in Rogers’ store window. Only a dollar and this was the last cap! George had looked at the cap a long time. He wanted it more than anything. Every boy at school had one.

George thought of his piggy hank, into which he put every coin for running errands (差使) for his family and neighbors.

George raced home, not stopping for anything. He held the fat iron pig, opened it carefully, and poured out the coins. Ten...twenty...thirty...ninety cents. If only he had one more dime (一角硬币)!

Lost in thought, George stared out the window. “What’s wrong, George?” asked Mother George told about the money and the cap. “If you give me what you have, I’ll add a dime,” Mother said, handing him a dollar bill.

George jumped up. “Oh, thanks, Mom. That’s great!” George gave all his coins to Mother and took the dollar bill. And away went George and Beth to the store with the dollar bill in George’s pocket.

They turned the last comer. Ahead was a group of boys and girls, talking heatedly and looking down at the sidewalk.

One of the children was Ronny, a new boy who had been in this town only a short time. Ronny’s father had been sick, so there wasn’t much money for extras - like baseball cap.

“What’s the matter?” Beth asked, anxiously.

“It’s Ronny,” answered one of them. “He’s been working and finally saved up a whole dollar, and now it’s lost!”

George went over to Ronny.

“We’ll all help look. We’ll find it!”

“I was going to get that last cap in Rogers’ window. I wanted it a lot. With that cap, I could join them.” Ronny said slowly.

Suddenly George remembered how Ronny had watched the fellows playing baseball, his eyes lighting up eagerly as they shouted and ran.

George stared at the ground, thinking hard.

Forcing a smile, George showed Beth the empty pocket.

8 . 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。

I was a proud mother of three children, my last little one being delivered in the middle of this pandemic. She was born in August and her name is Aida.

Shortly after having Aida, my mother-in-law showed me something she learned from her friend’s mother in an art class she attended weekly. She had shown me how to knit a scarf (织围巾). She showed me stitches and gave me her half done project. I spent a lot of time breastfeeding my sweet little girl, so I had some extra time to do something with my hands throughout the day. I enjoyed making the scarf so I purchased tons of yarn since it was winter. I wanted to make scarves for my three children as Christmas gifts.

There was a new family that moved in down the street. The only daughter of the family was Jane, a shy girl, aged 14, the same age of my oldest son David. It seemed that she came from a financially disadvantaged family, for she always wore old clothes. Worse still, in such cold days, she had no more clothes to wear and trembled with cold.

Due to the pandemic, society was thrown into crisis mode. Schools were closed, food supplies and deliveries were suspended and children were stuck at home. In such discouraging times, however, they became good companions, talking and playing at home or around the houses.

It was dreadfully cold this winter. Every time David came back from outside, with red face, he always cried, “Mum, it’s freezing outside!” then he came over to see whether I finished the scarf. I could tell how impatient he was to wear my scarf sooner! I had to speed the project to satisfy his expectation. But David comforted me saying he could wait a few days. What a kind and considerate boy he was! Then my great project finally was accomplished on the morning ahead of Christmas.

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 wrapped the scarf around David’s neck.

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Later that day David came back saying Jane also needed a scarf.

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Ali and his younger sister, Zahra, lived with their parents in a poor neighborhood. Their mother was very sick and their father was struggling to find a job, and they had only a little money with which to buy food. As they had not paid the rent for several months, the landlord was breathing down their necks.

One day, Ali took Zahra's shoes to a shoe repairman to be fixed, but he lost them on the way home. It wasn’t until he got home that he realized he had lost the shoes. He was afraid that his parents would be angry and disappointed, so he begged his sister to keep it a secret. Zahra agreed and the two decided to share Ali’s running shoes. Zahra's school hours were in the morning, so she would wear them first. After school, she would rush back and give them to Ali. He could then run to his school, which began in the afternoon. Although he ran as fast as he could, Ali often arrived late and was warned by the school.

Ali heard about a long distance race that was held for the boys in the city.When he learned that the third prize was a new pair of shoes, he decided to take part. He ran home excitedly and promised his sister that he would win her the new shoes.

The day of race arrived. Ali had a strong start, but halfway through the race he began to get tired and his legs began to ache. Getting more and more exhausted he thought only of Zahra and his promise to her. Dreaming of the new shoes he would win for his sister gave him strength, and he stayed right behind the two fastest runners, determined to finish third. Suddenly, as the finish line drew near, another runner collided(碰撞) with Ali from behind and he crashed to the ground.

Ali looked up and saw the other boys rushing ahead.

Filled with delight, Ali walked home quickly.