2 . 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。

“Mom, where do you suppose they are?” my ten-year-old son Danny asked for the twentieth time as he stared out of the window at the range (牧场). “They” were our horses, Ginger, and her three-year-old son, Charcoal, both of whom had been missing for days.

Our range and woods offered plenty of grass for six horses. However, spring thunderstorms during the past ten days had forced the nearby river out of its banks. The other horses had come to the barn (畜棚) during the downpour, but not Ginger or Charcoal.

When the rain stopped, I took Spot, our dog, to do some first-hand searching. We went through trees and brush in wet lowlands near the river. All my calling and Spot’s smelling were in vain.

The next morning, the sun struggled to shine through gray clouds, but dampness filled the air. Suddenly, Danny shouted, “Mom, come quick! There’s Ginger!” The horse stood at the range gate crying impatiently and moving back and forth as if to say “Follow me”.

“Hurry, Danny,” I said, “get the pot with some oats (燕麦). I will bring a rope.” Ginger walked in front and we followed. “I see him! I see him!” Danny shouted. Charcoal was lying on his side, not moving. His right back leg was badly injured.

“Oh, Mom. How long do you think he’s been lying here with no food and nobody to care for him?” Tears formed in Danny’s blue eyes. “Probably several days, but we’ll never know. Ginger took care of him, though, protecting him from attacks from hungry wolves or other wild animals,” I said.

“What can we do now?” Danny asked anxiously. “There’s no way to drive a vehicle down here in all this mud.” “We just have to get him up and lead him out,” I said, keeping my voice confident. “Afterwards, we’ll have to call the vet (兽医) out.”

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。

With our encouragement and the attraction of oats, Charcoal struggled and managed to stand up.

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Upon arriving at the barn, Danny started creating a bed for Charcoal.

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Our Garfield became a mostly indoor cat. He used to wander outside but we discovered he had a terrible sense of direction, so now he has to stay inside. He does not enjoy being on the inside looking out, but it’s safer for him so that’s how it has to be.

When Garfield isn’t sleeping, he’s either sitting on a windowsill (窗台) or sitting with his wet nose pressed against our glass door overlooking the deck (木质平台), like a prisoner behind bars. As he ages, he earns back his outside rights an hour per day because he shows us that he will stay close to the back deck.

When we let him out last week, a thunderstorm arose out of nowhere. By the time we heard the crack of lightning and remembered Garfield was outside, we opened the door to see nothing but strong wind and heavy rain. My daughter Janette put on her rubber boots and raincoat to check around the house, but Garfield was nowhere to be found. The thunderstorm obviously had scared him into a run in the wrong direction. Who knew where he would end up?

It took me forever to fall asleep that night. I prayed (祈祷) someone would protect him and help him find his way home. As I continued praying, I realized that in my daily prayers for my family, I rarely included Garfield. Now that he was gone, maybe forever, I realized what an important part of our family he was. I prayed for his safe return.

My husband Peter was the first one up at 6: 00 a. m. He checked the doorstep, but no Garfield was in sight. I saw my neighbor Heidi taking her dog out for a walk, and I asked her to please keep her eyes open for our cat. Janette and her three brothers all walked around the house that day looking like they had lost their best friend. Peter decided to look for Garfield around the neighborhood.

Peter and I drove around to search the neighborhood.

I was saying to myself “Never say never” when I heard something scratching the door at 10: 00 p.m.

Undoubtedly, Mother Nature is always attractive to kids. In our childhood, how often did we turn a deaf ear to our parents’ advice? Very often! Thus, we landed ourselves in a situation where we greatly regretted our act of not having listened to the advice of the wise.

Such an unforgettable experience I had at the age of 7 gave me an invaluable lesson, after which I deeply understood why my gentle mother was repeating the boring suggestions and I would try to take her suggestions seriously.

In my childhood, I was so crazy about nature that even playing among the colorful flowers in our garden could make my day. Our house was next to the woods which had always stirred up(激起) great curiosity in me in wanting to find out what was within. Every time I saw fascinating butterflies dancing from the woods, my curiosity grew.

But my mother didn’t like me wandering off on my own and always ensured that I was within her sight. Even if she allowed me to explore the surrounding area on my own, it was only to be somewhere near the house. Being as curious as the cat, I always desired to explore the woods. It seemed as if my mother had understood my desire, so she had warmed me on lots of occasions never to enter the woods alone.

“Mom, can I go out and play in the garden?” I asked.

“Sure,” she would reply each time. “Kate, you can play in the garden but you must promise me one thing—only when I’m with you can you go into the woods. There are no cases of animal attacks on humans, but it’s still dangerous for a little kid like you. It’s too easy to get lost in the woods.”

“Sure, you’ve said that many times!” I answered without patience at her repeated reminders.

However, curiosity got the better of me one morning.

“Kate?” Behind the trees covered by the rays of the setting sun came my mother’s voice.

Willie’s 11th birthday was coming. His aunt sent him a birthday present—a small nice notebook. There was a place in it for a pencil. Willie valued it a lot and always kept it in his pocket. When he found something interesting, he would write it down in the book.

One afternoon, after Willie came back from school, he called his best friend, Caper, a well-trained shepherd dog and said, “Come, Caper! Let’s go out and have fun.” They went to the pasture field (牧场) to catch the butterflies and there they found a shaft (通风井), which seemed to be deserted for a long time. Willie sat down on the edge of the shaft, bending over to see how deep it was. Suddenly, he lost his balance and fell in. “Help! Help!” Willie called desperately. But no response at all. He was so far away from the house. He made several attempts to climb up the shaft but again he failed! Now Willie was exhausted and frustrated. When Caper saw his master falling into the shaft, the little good companion ran round and round, reaching down and trying to pull him out. Unfortunately, a piece of rock gave way under his feet, and he fell in the shaft too!

It was getting dark. When Willie’s mother, Mrs. Lee came back from work and found there was no one at home, she was anxious and worried. Without any clue at home, she decided to look for Willie outside. She went to all the trees under which Willie was in the habit of playing, but he was nowhere to be found. By this time, the sun had gone down. A feeling of panic took hold of Mrs. Lee. She comforted herself that Willie might have come back. She rushed back, hoping to find her son at home.

She found Caper sitting in front of the door, with a notebook in his mouth.

Willie told Mum how he came up with the idea after he was successfully rescued.

I had an independent and clever dog named Stickeen. He enjoyed the delicious food that my family prepared for him every day. He often ran out of my sight when walking with me.

Early one morning, I went to explore a nearby glacier (冰川). Stickeen followed me, and together we went upon the glacier. Later, I discovered that we were trapped between two very deep cracks (裂缝) in the glacier. The only way across it was a very thin ice that connected the cracks. I made a path across the “bridge” and got to the other side. But my dog was afraid to have a try and began to cry. After taking another careful look at the large cracks, he ran away hopelessly to find some other crossings. By the time he got back, he was confused of course.

When I reached the other side, he screamed louder than ever, and after running back and forth without searching for a good way to escape, he would return to the edge (边缘) of the crack, crying as if in the sadness of death. I called again and again in a sure voice to come on and fear nothing, but he would think for a moment, look down again at the “bridge”, and shout his unshakable thought that he could never, never come that way, and then lie back hopelessly, as if screaming, “O-o-oh! What a place! No-o-o, I can never go-o-o down there!” At last, I seriously shouted to him that now I must certainly leave him and I could wait no longer if he could not come.

He knew very well what I meant.

When we went back home, Stickeen was a changed dog.

Sam was a junior high school student. He lived in a community in Charlotte and usually had little exposure to country life. So much of what he knew about plants came from text-books. Sam was a kind-hearted person. He longed for a chance to explore nature and he wanted to do his part to beautify the world.

Finally, the opportunity came. On Arbor Day (植树节), his class organized a trip to a local village to plant trees. Sam was excited about it and couldn’t wait to tell his mom the good news. So the next day, Sam and his mom went to buy some tools for planting trees, including a shovel(铲), a bucket, gloves and so on.

On the day of the event, Sam and his classmates arrived early at the starting point. It was a beautiful day and everyone looked particularly happy. With the tools in hand, Sam got into the bus with everyone else and headed off to their destination.

As soon as they reached the village, all the students were divided into three teams by their teacher. One team was responsible for planting the trees, one team for shovelling the soil and one team for watering the trees. At the teacher’s command, everyone started to do their job.

However, it was the first time that many of the students had taken part in planting trees, so they had no idea about how to start. Of course, Sam was one of them. Fortunately, their teacher was a middle-aged man from the countryside who had some knowledge of planting trees. In order to set an example to the students, the teacher started to plant trees himself. After watching the teacher plant the trees, everyone also became busy. Before long, they planted hundreds of trees. Sam watched very carefully, not wanting to miss any of the details. Finally, Sam learned how to plant trees by himself and felt happy.

A few days later, a storm damaged some young trees in the community.

The neighbours praised Sam for what he had done.

I must admit, I haven’t always liked animals. In fact, I distrusted them greatly while growing up, and I still fear the ones I don’t know personally. What set my beliefs in stone was being attacked—not once but many times, including the summer after second grade when I was bitten by a rabbit. Then, when I was nine and riding my dirt bike down the road, a large dog charged me and tried to bite my ankle. After all those negative experiences, there was one thing I knew for sure: All creatures, great and small, were no friends of mine.

After college in California, I returned to live the single life in Las Vega. Then I met Lisa. In no time at all, we fell in love, married and moved into a new house. Despite my avoidance of animals, Lisa had a dog called Bailey. Bailey didn’t like me, but he tolerated my existence once he realized I wasn’t going anywhere.

Things changed as spring came. We welcomed a new member of our family: our son Evan. One evening Evan grabbed hold of the dog’s tail. The irritated dog paused and turned to look at his stuck tail but waited patiently until being released. Still the stories I’d heard of animals attacking babies worries me.

Then my worst fear occurred. I sat on the couch (沙发) reading after a long day while my wife worked at the dining-room table paying the bills. I saw Evan crawl across the family-room carpet as he made his way behind the couch. One minute, all was quiet and then Bailey entered the room and headed to where Evan had crawled. I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard the dog start a fearful barking behind me.

Throwing the book away, I rushed around the couch with great fear.

Having witnessed our dog killing a scorpion (蝎子) and saving my son, I was speechless.

During summer vacation when I was twelve, a sawmill (锯木厂) was operating in the woods near our farm. Early each morning, I’d watch the men cut down big trees, saw them into logs, and deliver the logs to the mill.

The logs were dragged by a team of horses named Jack and Billy. They were gentle, and I petted them every chance I got.

One day, Mr. David, the mill owner, said he’d pay me 15 cents a day to bring fresh water to his men. In 1942, that was a lot of money! I said yes.

One afternoon when Jack and Billy were pulling a log up to the mill, a stick injured Jack’s right front hoof (蹄). After Mr. David removed the stick, the horse driver said that the foot should be doctored. But Mr. David said he didn’t have time for that. He said if the horse couldn’t earn his keep, he’d get one that could.

I felt sick inside. Jack and Billy were my best friends! I couldn’t stop thinking about Jack’s foot and what Mr. David had said.

For the rest of the day the team pulled logs from the woods. By nightfall, Jack was limping badly. Mr. David told his crew that the mill would be closed for three days because he’d be away for the Fourth of July. He offered to pay me a dollar to feed and water the horses while he was gone. I quickly agreed.

The next morning, I rode my bike to Mr. David’s barn. I wanted to look at Jack’s hoof. I reached down and grabbed the hair on the back of his leg, as I’d seen Mr. David do, and Jack lifted up his foot so I could see.

The part inside of the big iron shoe looked red and mushy (烂糊的).

I didn’t know anything about medicine, and Mr. David said he wouldn’t pay for a doctor. But if he didn’t earn his keep, Mr. David would get rid of him. But what could I do?

At my house, I saw our neighbor, Mr. Sherman who raised horses and knew how to care for them.

The morning when Mr. David returned, I jumped on my bike to the mill.