Christmas Day was coming. I was just a kid then, and my big sister told me there was no Santa Claus. I fled to my Grandma because she would be straight with me. I knew Grandma always told me the truth. Grandma was home, and I told her everything. “No Santa Claus?” She shouted. “Ridiculous! Don’t believe it. “Now, put on your coat, and let’s go.”
“Go where, Grandma?” I asked. “Where” turned out to be Kerby’s General Store, the one store in town that had a little bit of just about everything. As we walked through its doors, Grandma handed me ten dollars. “Take this money, and buy something for someone who needs it. I’ll wait for you in the car.” Then she turned and walked out of Kerby’s.
I was only eight years old. I’d often gone shopping with my mother, but never had I shopped for anything all by myself. The store seemed big and crowded, full of people competing to finish their Christmas shopping. For a few moments I just stood there, confused, holding that ten-dollar bill, wondering what to buy and who to buy it for. I suddenly thought of Bobby Decker, who was a kid with bad breath and messy hair. He sat right behind me in Mrs. Pollock’s grade-two class. Bobby Decker didn’t have a coat. I knew that because he never went out for break during the winter. His mother always wrote a note, telling the teacher that he had a cough, but we kids knew that Bobby Decker didn’t have a cough, and he didn’t have a coat. I would buy Bobby Decker a coat! I chose a red one, which looked really warm, and he would like that.
“Is this a Christmas present for someone?” the lady behind the counter asked kindly, as I laid ten dollars down. “Yes.”
The nice lady smiled at me, put the coat in a bag and wished me a Merry Christmas.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好。
Paragraph 1:
That evening, Grandma helped me wrap (包裹) the coat in Christmas paper.
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Paragraph2:
Grandma and I waited breathlessly for Bobby Decker’s front door to open.
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Last year at Christmas time, my wife, three children and I were on our way from Paris to Nice. Somehow everything went wrong. Our hotels were “tourist traps” and our rented car broke down. On Christmas Eve, when we checked into a dirty hotel in Nice, there was no Christmas spirit in our hearts.
It was raining and cold when we went out to eat. We found a small restaurant poorly decorated for the holiday. Only five tables in the restaurant were taken. There were two German couples, two French families, and an American sailor, by himself. They were eating in stony silence except the sailor. He was writing a letter, and a half-smile lighted his face. In the corner a piano player was listlessly (无精打采地) playing Christmas music.
All of us were interrupted by an old French flower woman through the front door. She had a worn overcoat and her old shoes were wet. Carrying her basket of flowers, she went from one table to another. No one bought any. Exhausted and sad, she sat down at a table.
The sailor finished his meal and got up to leave. Putting on his coat, he walked over to the flower woman’s table.
“Merry Christmas,” he said, smiling and picking out a handful of flowers. “How much are they?”
“Two francs, sir.”
The sailor put a twenty franc note in the woman’s hand.
“I don’t have change, sir,” she said. “I’ll get some from the waiter.”
“No, ma’am,” said the sailor, leaning over and kissing the ancient cheek. “This is my Christmas present for you.”
注意：1．所续写短文的词数应为80左右；
2．续写部分的开头语已为你写好；
Then the sailor headed for our table with the flowers in his hand.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Vacations are a chance to take break from work, see the world and enjoy time with family. But do they make you happier? Researchers from the Netherlands set out to measure the effect that vacations have on overall happiness and how long it lasts. They studied happiness levels among 1, 530 Dutch adults, 974 of whom took a vacation during the 32-week study period. The study showed that the largest lift in happiness comes from the simple act of planning vacation. In the study, the effect of vacation expectation lifted happiness for eight weeks.
After the vacation, happiness quickly dropped back to baseline levels for most people. How much stress or relaxation a traveler experienced on the trip appeared to influence post-vacation happiness. There was no post-trip happiness benefit for travelers who said the vacation was “neutral” or “stressful.”
Surprisingly, even those travelers who described the trip as “relaxing” showed no additional jump in happiness after the trip. “They were no happier than people who had not been on holiday,” said the lead author, Jeroen Nawijn, tourism research lecturer at Breda University. The only vacationers who experienced an increase in happiness after the trip were those who reported feeling “very relaxed” on their vacation. Among those people, the vacation happiness effect lasted for just two weeks after the trip before returning to baseline levels.
One reason vacations don’t increase happiness after the trip may have to do with the stress of returning to work. And for some travelers, the holiday itself was stressful. “In comments from people, the thing they mentioned most referred to disagreements with a travel partner or being ill,” Mr. Nawijn said.
Since most of the happiness boost comes from planning and expecting a vacation, the study suggests that people may get more out of several small trips a year than one big vacation, Mr Nawijn said.
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It's not just your mom's arbitrary rule; across cultures and throughout history, elbows(手肘）on the table have long been considered unacceptable behavior. Indeed, the Bible warns of putting your elbows on the table, and in 1530, Dutch philosopher Erasmus repeated the same rule. Even the etiquette(礼节） experts don't advise it. So, why have elbows on the table always been considered rude?
For earlier civilizations, this rule functioned to prevent possible violence at the table."Table manners prevented us from leaving our space and starting a" fight. It was important that people saw you-as considerate or trying hard," says Margaret Visser, author of The Rituals of Dinner. Our place setting's fork and knife already act as an imaginary boundary for bur space at the table, so ignoring" or breaking that border indicates that you have no regard for order and are therefore potentially mentally ill-who: knows what else you're capable of!
Today,while keeping your elbows off the table can't be traced back' to a single culture or civilization, it more belongs to the universal language of principle, which expresses two ideas, that at mealtime one shouldn't do anything that inconveniences other diners, and that a meal is a formal occasion where' one shouldn't behave in a casual way.
However,that's not to say that in the here and now leaving your' elbows on the" table will bring dishonor upon your family. Manners develop with the times to meet our needs and feelings. In fact,some body language now suggests that elbows on the table are a sign of appearing engaged and focused on the conversation at hand.
Above all,being considerate, respectful, 'and honest is more important 'than knowing which fork to use. Whether it's a handshake or a hug, it's the sincerity behind and good intentions of the action that matter most
支持 | 融入高科技技术，增强美感； 吸引更多地游客。 |
反对 | 破坏了故宫地原貌； 要尊重历史和传统。 |
你的观点 | ...... |
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。参考词汇: the Palace Museum 故宫
I could smell the turkey cooking, even in the attic where I was hiding out. I heard a laugh, too, and a bang from something being dropped. Our house was noisier since my new stepsister and step-mother moved in — Jen and Mom.
I called her Mom, but the word felt uncomfortable, like a pair of shoes that pinched (夹脚). I didn’t remember my own mother; she had died in an accident when I was a baby. It had always been just Dad and me. We were a team. Now, so much had changed, and sometimes I wished I had the magic to change it back.
I heard Dad’s footsteps upstairs. “Do you want to take Jen skating?” he asked.
“I guess.” I sighed, thinking about how Dad and I usually spent Thanksgiving Day building a big snowman. But this year, Dad was too busy helping Mom cook the turkey.
“Thanks,” Dad said and put his arm around my shoulders. “We’ll make that snowman later,” he promised.
“Yeah,” I agreed, not too sure we’d have time.
Mom handed us some homemade cookies with smiling faces as we grabbed our skates. I had to admit, Mom came up with good ideas sometimes. Even though I liked that, I still couldn’t help but feel as if she were changing everything.
“No, thanks. I’m not hungry,” I said, although I was, a little.
“Ready?” I asked Jen. She nodded, and we headed out the front door.
The snow crunched under our boots as we walked down the street. The silence was awkward. “Did you go skating a lot last year?” I asked, blurting out the first thing that came to my mind.
Jen shook her head and looked at me. Finally she said, “On Thanksgiving, Mom and I always went to visit some friends on a farm. I especially loved seeing their big turkeys.”
Until then, I’d never even thought about how Jen must be feeling. She not only had a new stepfather and stepbrother; she had a new town and home, too. Jen and her mom used to live near a lake, and she’d had to move up north with us. She’d had more changes than me.
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:
Suddenly, I didn’t feel quite so sorry for myself.
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Paragraph 2:
We were so busy making it that we didn’t hear our parents come outside.
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The family had just moved to Rhode Island, and the young woman was feeling a little sad on that Sunday in May. After all, it was Mother's Day—and 800 miles separated her from her parents in Ohio.
She had called her mother that morning to wish her a happy Mother's Day, and her mother had mentioned how colorful the yard was now that spring had arrived. As they talked, the younger woman could almost smell the tantalizing aroma of purple lilacs (紫丁香) hanging on the big bush outside her parents' back door.
Later, when she mentioned to her husband how she missed those lilacs, he popped up from his chair. “I know where we can find you all you want,” he said. “Get the kids and come on.” So off they went, driving on the country roads of northern Rhode Island. Eventually, he stopped the car.
“Come with me,” he said. “Over that hill is an old cellar hole, and there are lilacs all around it. Go pick a few.”
There, on the top of the hill, were the towering lilacs bushes. While the man examined the cellar hole and tried to explain to the children what the house must have looked like, the woman had been cheered up, drifting among the lilacs. Carefully, she picked some out. She was in no hurry, admiring each blossom as a rare and delicate treasure.
Finally, though, they returned to their car for the trip home. When they were almost home, she suddenly shouted to her husband: “Stop the car. Stop right here!”
In a second, the woman was out of the car and hurrying up a nearby grassy slope with the lilacs still in her arms. At the top of the hill was a nursing home and, because it was such a beautiful spring day, the patients were outdoors, walking with relatives or sitting on the porch (走廊).
注意：
（1）所续写短文的词数应为l50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: The young woman went to the end of the porch, where an elderly patient was sitting in her wheelchair, alone.
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Paragraph 2: Curiosity was aroused among the kids and the husband.
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A mother is a person who, seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.
—Tenneva Jordan
I knew I was not supposed to be quite so excited. I was too old for that. At age eleven, the oldest and my mom's "grown up" girl, I had to keep my cool. I was in middle school after all. But every chance I got, when I was alone, I checked each present under the tree. I read every tag and felt every package, guessing at the contents within. I had examined each gift so often that I could tell which present went to which person without even looking at the tags.
It had been a tough year for my family. Whenever my mom looked over at the tree and scattered（撒）presents, she would sigh and warn us, "There won't be as much for Christmas this year. Try not to be disappointed." Christmas had traditionally been a time for my parents to spoil us. In years past, the presents would pile up and spill out from under the tree, taking over the living room. I had heard the phrase "giving is better than receiving," but thought that whoever had said that must have been out of their mind. Getting presents was the whole point! It was the reason I couldn't get to sleep on Christmas Eve.
On Christmas morning, we eagerly waited in the hallway until Dad told us everything was ready. We rushed into the living room and let the wrapping paper fly. We made weak attempts to wait and watch while other family members opened their presents, but as the time passed we lost our self-control.
"Here's another one for you,” said Mom as she handed me a package. I looked at it, confused. Having spent so much time examining the presents before Christmas, I recognized this one. But it had not been mine. It was my mom's. A new label had been put on it, with my name written in my mother's handwriting.
"Mom, I can't...”
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；
Paragraph 1:
I was stopped by my mother's eager, joyful look.
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Paragraph 2:
I have always remembered that Christmas fondly.
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Every culture has set rules about how people should act. Patterns of good behavior, or manners, show respect and care for others. Yet the details of how to express respect vary.
Greeting people cheerfully is almost always considered polite. But it’s more important in some cultures than others. For example, when you enter a store in France, you should always greet the person working there. Other cultures also value greeting people. But of course the greetings vary as people speak different languages.
When I was growing up in the United States, I once participated in a performance at my church. Afterward, someone gave me a compliment, but I felt like I had done a bad job. So I tried to refuse the compliment, saying, “No, I didn’t do that well.” My mother got my attention and told me that was very rude. Later I learned that refusing a compliment is accepted and even approved of in China.
Some of the biggest cultural differences have to do with table manners. In North America, it’s polite to eat as quietly as possible. That means chewing with your mouth closed and not slurping（吃东西时发出的声音）your soup. The same goes for burping（打嗝）. But in parts of Asia slurping shows that you are enjoying your meal. And burping is a sign of being full and content.
There are also differences in how people eat across cultures. For example, in North America and Europe people use forks to bring food to their mouths. But in Thailand, a fork is only used to push food onto a spoon. In India and the Middle East, people eat with their hands. But eating with the left hand is forbidden. This is because the left hand is considered unclean.
Yet there are also similar points across cultures. Saying “please” and “thank you”, for example, is almost always polite. If you show appreciation and try to follow local customs, people will generally respond well. Showing kindness can bring people together, no matter what culture they come from.
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1. 描述画面；
2. 概述其含义；
3. 谈谈个人感想。
注意：
1.词数100左右；
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
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