Meagan and her close friend Samantha, both school teachers, lived together in an apartment in Denver. On mornings when Samantha had class, Meagan would help to watch her 2-year-old daughter, Hannah. Also part of the household was Meagan’s pet, Willie, a particularly intelligent and chatty parrot.
Willie was indeed funny and a good talker. In addition to some vocabulary learned from Meagan, he became a great mimic (会模仿的动物) of cats, dogs, and chickens. Plus, he could sing along to the radio. The bird was a nice playmate for the little girl, and he always knew how to lift her spirits. The bird was more than just a pet; he was a member of the family.
One day, with Samantha at school, Hannah had comfortably positioned herself in front of morning cartoons while Meagan was busy cooking in the kitchen, preparing the little girl her favorite breakfast treat, an apple pie. When Meagan was done baking the apple pie, she placed it at the center of the kitchen table to cool. She looked at Hannah and, confident the child was fully engaged with the TV, walked out of the kitchen quickly to use the bathroom.
Meagan was gone maybe 30 seconds. And suddenly, she heard the bird going crazy, screaming loudly. She heard two very distinct words from the parrot’s mouth. “Mama! Baby!” Repeated over and over again. “Mama! Baby! Mama! Baby!”
Meagan ran out of the bathroom to find Hannah in the kitchen, holding the partly eaten apple pie, fighting for breath, her face and lips a terrifying shade of blue. And Willie was still screaming loudly.Hannah had climbed up on a chair, gotten the apple pie from the kitchen table and was clearly choking on it.
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。
With a pounding heart, Meagan grabbed Hannah immediately.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Around lunchtime, Samantha came back from school.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________2 . Cindy, my dog, was six years old when my son Tony was born. And she was immediately very protective over him. We lived near a busy road. As my son was too young, we were super vigilant for fear that he should go out of the front door.
Cindy knew that our son wasn’t allowed to go through the front door without us, so whenever Tony touched the front door handle, she would push him back. One morning, around 4 am, our son somehow managed to “escape” through his bedroom window, and Cindy had to follow.
At 5 am, the police woke us knocking on the door. They said, “Your son was nearly killed but the dog saved him.” They then repeated what the truck driver had said.
He told them that he was driving along in the dark and in the distance he could see something “light coloured” moving on the road. As he got closer, he could see a dog at the side of the road barking at it. At the last moment, he realized that it was a child and was about to change the direction. The dog was still barking, glancing(扫视) between the truck and the child. While the driver was braking(刹车), the dog ran out into the road, jumped at the child’s back and threw him out of the path of the truck. At the same time, the truck hit the dog and she was killed.
The driver said that he’d never believe what he saw unless it was with his own eyes. He thought that the dog definitely knew the danger, which was why she was barking so anxiously. He said “that dog just saved that kid’s life and it knew what it was doing.”
That was 39 years ago and I still miss Cindy every day.
1. Which of the following is the closest in meaning to the underlined word “vigilant”?| A．Careful. | B．Desperate. |
| C．Upset. | D．Confident. |
| A．An on-duty policeman. |
| B．A frightened dog. |
| C．A moving light. |
| D．A small child. |
| A．Serious and fierce. |
| B．Brave and loyal. |
| C．Helpful and mild. |
| D．Quiet and cute. |
| A．A Terrible Accident |
| B．A Dangerous Escape |
| C．A Barking Hero |
| D．A Careless Driver |
Hurriedly, Melissa came running to Rocky’s house out of breath. “Come with me quickly! There is a dog near the shrubs behind my house which is barking loudly. I think something is wrong with him. Let’s go and see what happened,” said Mel.
After putting down the book he was reading, Rocky went with Mel and saw a small dog trying to untangle himself from the shrubs. Being unable to set himself free, he thought barking would help him. Seeing this, Rocky and Mel immediately helped him out and he walked with a limp. Just then, Jason, Jenny, and Lindsay walked towards them.
“Hi, whose dog is this?” asked Lindsay, “We don’t know. I heard him barking and called Rocky to help him come out of the shrubs,” replied Mel. “He has cuts on his body and is bleeding,” observed Jenny.
“What should we do?” questioned Mel. “He hasn’t got a collar around his neck so I suppose he is a stray dog. Let’s hand him over to the center for stray animals,” said Jason.
The friends took him to the center. The vet treated his wounds and gave him some milk. When the friends were about to leave, the dog looked at them with sad eyes and barked softly. Jason went to him and said, “Rest up, old fellow. We will come to visit you soon.”
A few days later, the friends visited the center and met the stray dog. He ran to them barking happily. They played with the dog that they named Bruno. After half an hour, the friends returned home.
The next morning, Rocky said, “Today is ‘World Animal Day’. Let’s go and meet Bruno.” The friends walked to the center and saw that Bruno was wearing a collar with the words “Brave Bruno” written on it. They were all surprised at this and wondered why he was wearing such a collar.
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:
The manager told them about the special collar.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2:
“Wow, Bruno, you are the best dog ever,” said Mel.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ellen Kalish runs a center for rescued wild animals in New York. One day, a woman called and asked if she could help an owl (猫头鹰). The caller told her the tiny owl was in the Christmas tree in a shopping center in New York! Kalish was surprised. She has been helping wild animals for 20 years, but she has never heard a story like that.
The traditional Christmas tree was a 75-foot-tall Norway spruce (云杉) from Oneonta, New York. When workers were unwrapping (移去……上的包裹物) the tree, one of them spotted the creature. He was buried in the base of the tree, Kalish said. At first the worker thought the owl might be injured. He would not let go of the tree’s base (底座).
One of the workers called his wife and told her he was taking the owl home. He asked if she could find a place that could help wildlife. The woman then called Kalish.
Kalish then set out to fetch the owl. On the way, she looked at the pictures the woman sent her on the phone. The owl is the smallest of his kind living in the Northeast. How did he end up being stuck in the tree in the first place? “He could have gone to the tree to rest or sleep and got trapped later,” she said. “Maybe once the tree was loaded onto a truck, the branches made it hard for him to escape. Or he might have been too scared to move.” Her driver guessed the owl might have flown in from Central Park in New York, but Kalish didn’t agree. “That would be the last place he would want to go,” Kalish said. “The area around the tree is busy and noisy. Why would he pick that tree if he had a choice not to? He’s smart, and he wouldn’t do that.”
Para. 1: An hour later, Kalish met the woman who first called her at a gas station.
Para. 2: The owl didn’t spend much time at the center.
