One day in 1964, my mother came home from work and announced that she had found a pet for the family. My sister asked what it was. My mother said it was a poodle dog named Pepe.
I couldn’t believe my sister wanted a poodle dog — especially one with such a strange name. But she had made up her mind.
Pepe arrived the next night, his short tail bobbing (摆动) happily. I remained distant, thinking poodles should have stayed in France. My sister played with him until bedtime, and he begged for more attention. I ignored him.
He was a skilled digger, so our backyard fence wouldn’t hold him. We tied him; he pulled out of his collar (颈圈). We drove stakes (木桩) into the ground; he dug them up. We put a harness on him, staked the ground and tied him to the laundry pole; he was still waiting for me at the front door at the end of the day, smiling happily.
Every day, he asked me with his eyes to play with him or take him somewhere. At night, he would wait until I fell asleep, leave his bed by the wall heater and jump onto the end of my bed.
One night, I was in a half dream state. Suddenly, my throat and my eyes hurt, and some animal was whining (哀鸣) in my ear. I opened my eyes and saw fog in my room. I wondered who left the window open. Pepe whined and nibbled (咬) on my blouse. Then I woke up and realized that it wasn’t fog in my room — it was smoke.
I couldn’t breathe standing up, so I got down on the floor and crawled (爬行) beneath the smoke. Pepe followed my every move, his curly-haired stomach struggling on the ground. If I hadn’t been so scared, I would have laughed.
注意：
1. 续写词数应为150个左右;
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
We finally arrived in the kitchen, where the smoke was very thick.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I turned off the burner (炉子) and crawled to open the back door.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
We moved to our new place, and everything was new and unfamiliar. I didn’t have new friends, so most of the time when I was free at home, I stayed with Socky, my cat and friend. One morning in winter, it was very cold outside and people mainly stayed indoors to keep warm. Before going off to my high school in Ouyen, Victoria, I called our pregnant(怀孕的) cat to be fed, but she didn’t come. I thought she’d probably found somewhere to have her kittens and would turn up later. But she didn’t.
When Socky still didn’t come at dinnertime, I anxiously asked my mum, “Where is Socky?” But she didn’t know either. The next day, Socky still didn’t appear and I really started to worry. Socky had kept me company for years, and she was just like my family member.
Socky had given birth to some lovely kittens before. She had a habit of having her kittens in strange places, so first I checked all her hidey-holes where she used to stay but she wasn’t in any of them. I became extremely anxious. What could have happened? “Where are you, dear Socky?” Having waited for hours again, I couldn’t sit still. The next day was Saturday and I had the whole day to search for her. Thinking over all the possible places where she could shelter herself, I rechecked under the house, then in the garage under and behind old books, every place I could think of, but still no Socky.
After lunch I took some food scraps(剩饭) with me in case I found her, then began searching the back shed, which was huge and filled with cardboard boxes full of junk and empty tea-chests(茶叶箱). After about an hour of moving cardboard boxes from one place to another and back again, I was tired out. I sat down on an upturned tea-chest to have a rest when I heard faint mewing(喵). I put my head up against each of the tea-chests, pressing my ear against the plywood(夹板) so I could catch the faint sounds. I had to move each one carefully before I could look inside.
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。
Finally, I found Socky and her three tiny kittens.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Socky was very pleased to see me and purred(发出呼噜声) as loudly as she could.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Bang. . !” Sara pushed the door open. She threw her school bag onto the floor and called out, “I’m home!” No answer. The house was silent. It sounded empty, but she knew it wasn’t. Her mum and dad were working upstairs.
Sara got a glass of orange juice, went into the conservatory (玻璃房) and sat down in her favourite chair. The garden was still in the dark afternoon. On one side, her mum’s garden was neat and tidy with boring short grass, boring straight flowerbeds and boring straight paths. But on the other side, Sara’s Nature Garden looked wild and exciting with big dead sunflowers and tall grasses.
“Nobody is interested in me. Mum and dad only think about their work,” she thought sadly.
Then she recalled: One month earlier, she learned in a magazine that many dogs were abandoned because their owners got bored with them; One hour earlier, she saw a cute dog wagging its tail and licking her friend’s face.
Sara knew today was special. Today things were changing. She couldn’t wait any longer. It’s time to talk to her parents.
So Sara got up from her chair and climbed all the way to the loft (阁楼). “Mum, I want a talk.” said Sara. “Just a minute!” Her mum clicked on the keyboard, took off her glasses and turned to her daughter. Sara coughed, took a deep breath, and told her mum that she wanted a dog. “No, Sara. That’s impossible,” her mum said firmly. Sara went to her father but got the same answer. She rushed into her room angrily and slammed the door shut.
Later, Sara’s mum knocked at the door and went in. “Darling, we know this is important to you. You can have a dog if you take the responsibility. But look at your Nature Garden, your school bag, your bedroom! What a mess! Do you think you can take good care of a dog?” said her mum.
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。
Sara was lost in thought and decided to make some changes.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________With the dog’s company, Sara began her busy but joyful life.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________We met at the Leeds Grenville SPCA. We were here to find the best fit for our little family of three. In my heart, however, I think I already knew which one was the right cat. Portia, a quiet brown tabby (斑猫), watched us with partially closed eyes, seemingly saying, “Take your time…” and I know it’s going to be me. As I neared her cage, one paw extended. Finally we decided to bring home a cat that day.
After a day or two of settling in, Portia became a sort of small and furry nanny to my kids. She would travel from room to room with us during the day, usually staying closest to my son. She wanted to sit where he sat, look out the windows from which he peered, and make courageous attempts to share whatever he was eating. At night, she would sprawl onto his lap during story time. We nicknamed her “Guardian Kitten” for the way she always wanted to be where he was, watching over him as if he were her own.
One day, I was gathering leaves while my child delighted in disturbing the piles. Portia was dozing on the porch, her cars sometimes shifting toward the sound of our voices. Then suddenly, from down the street, a desperate voice cried, “No! Come back here!” The phrase was repeated and the volume increased as the speaker drew closer. A Golden Retriever ignored his owner and reached my property first. In a split second it leaped over the low fence surrounding the front yard.
The dog rushed toward my son with boundless energy and body language that expressed that it wanted to play. “Puppy!” my son exclaimed, spreading his arms apart in a welcoming gesture. Unlike me, he was not aware that this dog would, at the very least, knock him down with its uncontained enthusiasm. And I wasn’t going to be able to close the space between us in time.
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。
When I was wondering how to protect my son, a scream erupted behind me.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
After a while, the owner arrived, out of breath.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Tomatoes: The Real Magical Fruit
“Fresh tomato plants! Straight out of the ground! 50 cents each!” I shouted in the school hall. In my hands, I carried a shoebox with little tomato plants. Their homes were plastic bottles, without the top half. Most people ignored my product, but some handed me 50 cents and picked out a 2-week-old baby tomato plant.
About a month before this, I started gardening. I pulled up grass in my little garden for several days in a row. Satisfied with my work, I continued to the second step — begging my dad to take me to the supermarket. He agreed!
When my dad turned off the engine and opened the door, I practically skipped inside the supermarket. We headed straight for the garden center. I picked up planters, seeds and dirt. My dad helped and showed me the best dirt and tomato plant types to get. We got to the register, and my dad, knowing what would happen, helped me pay.
As soon as I got home, I began to plant them in my garden. The following days witnessed my visits to the garden and my parents were amazed by my devotion to my new-found love.
Then was the part where I met my problem — I planted too many tomato seeds. I realized this all too late, about 10 days later when they all started sprouting (发芽) up and I counted 45 tomato plants. A few days went by and then I ended up with 85 tomato plants.
I did what all high schoolers would do when they messed up — I asked people around. I even got a notebook to write down their suggestions. Sadly, I got the same answer from most people, “Just let them die.” WHAT?! Let my beautiful plants die? They had so much potential! They could make 20 — 30 tomatoes per plant! We were talking about the possibility of around 2,550 tomatoes!
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, I decided to solve it in my way.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The result was better than I had thought.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________We were visiting our daughter when we adopted our Boston terrier, Tad. An adorable puppy, just three months old, he became the family’s center of attention. Each morning, as soon as he heard my daughter Kayla moving around downstairs, he had to be taken down for playtime before she left for work. When she came home from work, we had him waiting for her at the door.
After three weeks we left for home. On the drive, we let Tad talk to Kayla on the phone each night. Once home, every time we called Kayla or she called us, we always put Tad on. He scratched the phone and listened intently and tried to look into the phone to see her.
One Saturday, Kayla called while we were out. She left a message. Tad was standing beside me when I pressed the button to listen to the message. He listened to her talking and cocked his head, grinning at me. I played it again for him.
A few days later, I was taking my shower when I heard the answering machine come on and Kayla leave a message. I thought it was strange when I heard her message repeat and the machine announce, “End of messages.” A few seconds later Kayla’s message began yet again.
Wondering what was going on, I climbed out of the shower, wrapped a towel around myself and headed into the living room. There stood Tad, listening to the answering machine. I stopped and watched. When the message finished, he stood up with his feet against the edge of the low table, reached over with one paw (爪子) and slapped (拍打) the answering machine. The message came on again. He dropped back on the floor and listened happily. I told him “no,” and distracted (使分心) him from the answering machine while I erased (抹去) the message.
注意：
1. 续写词数应为150 词左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
A few days later, I was in the kitchen when I heard, “You have no messages.”
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Knowing what Tad wanted, I called Kayla that night and asked her to leave him a message.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
One day a boy found a bird lying on the ground, squawking (叫喊) for help. Feeling sad for the bird, the boy petted it gently and wanted to help it, but he didn’t know how since he was just 7 years old. So he took the bird in his hands, carried it carefully home and showed it to his parents. At once, his parents took action. They washed the bird and found it injured. With the help of his parents, the young boy dressed the wound. But it would need time and care for the bird to completely recover. As the bird had become dear to his heart, the boy immediately offered to care for the bird.
The boy named his new friend “Lucky”. He began to feed the bird and he even ran out to collect grass to build a soft nest (鸟巢) for the bird. Then, he put the nest beside his bed. The boy and the bird were sleeping together and living together. Soon they became close friends. The boy always told it about his experiences in school and his secrets. Lucky, an extremely patient audience, usually responded to him with a few nods and chirps (叽叽喳喳声). The boy’s parents also loved Lucky. They regarded it as a family member.
In the course of time, Lucky gradually recovered and started to hop (脚跳) and jump a little bit and exercise its wings. That made everyone happier. Soon it would be able to fly. How wonderful!
But what then? The boy became thoughtful and started to think. “If Lucky started to fly, it could simply fly away one day.” But that would not happen. The boy loved his friend so much that he couldn’t imagine parting with it. The boy wondered, “I should surely stay with Lucky forever. But how? Keep the windows closed all the time? That was not practical.”
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。
Paragraph 1:
Then, he made a decision: He bought a small cage and kept Lucky in it.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2:
Knowing the bad situation, the boy’s parents decided to help Lucky as well as their son.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I was eating breakfast at home in Hampshire in March this year, scrolling through social media on my phone, when a story caught my eye. It was about a nine-year-old dog, Charlie, dubbed (称为) the loneliest in Britain. He had been in a rescue centre in Somerset for more than 500 days.
For some reason, nobody wanted to adopt him. I clicked on the link and straight away these huge, sad eyes stared back at me. I was emotional. I turned to my husband, Sam, and said: "We’ve got to have him.” He read the article over my shoulder and felt exactly the same way. We wanted to give Charlie a happy home and a new lease of life.
Over the past few years we have tried to adopt a few different dogs, but we haven’ had any luck — we were never top of the list. Sam and I got used to filling in forms and not hearing anything. We’d almost given up hope.
But Charlie is an older dog and we felt we’d be suited — even older dogs have a lot of love left to offer. So we took our time with the application, sent photographs of our house and garden. We explained why Charlie would be happy with us, and then forgot all about it.
A few days later we received an email from Brent Knoll animal centre, saying we’d been shortlisted. We were thrilled. They asked us to visit Charlie to be interviewed and to see if he liked us.
When we arrived we were taken to the staff room. We didn’t know what to expect. We hadn’t been told much about Charlie’s circumstances, but as he had been given up for adoption and hadn’t been placed with a new owner for so long, we thought there might be issues. But the dog that bounded (蹦跳) in was full of joy and charisma.
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。
He came straight over to us.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
We feel proud that we’ve given Charlie a new home and a second chance.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The year 2013 marked a turning point in my life. In June, my husband was offered a new Job in Ghana. Feeling that I had hit a career bottleneck as a photographer and copywriter (广告文字撰写人), I, without any hesitation, made the decision to relocate with him.
While my husband engaged in work, my visa didn’t grant me the same privilege. But that’s okay. I didn’t know what to do anyway. I was left isolated, homesick and lacking purpose. Our new home was a bungalow near a river that cut across expansive grasslands. With few people around our home, I turned to nature, which had been a fondness of mine since childhood. Every day, I would take my camera and wander around, photographing aimlessly.
It wasn’t long before September arrived, bringing the full flow of the rainy season. After one particularly bad thunderstorm, I found a finch (雀) — a poor little thing barely a month old with one wing broken — on the ground. Evidently, he had been abandoned by his flock, his nest blown from a tree. The sight was heartbreaking. He was the size of my lite finger. His eyes were tightly shut and he was shuddering, too young to survive alone. I somehow felt a connection with it. Immediately I scooped him up and cautiously placed him in a cardboard box with towels, mimicking a nest, and stayed up all night researching how to care for him.
The next day, he seemed to regain some energy. He woke with his mouth open, though still too weak to let out a call. I fed him some food and chirped (叽喳) at him. To my amusement, he chirped back and even climbed into my hand. I affectionately gazed at this adorable creature, who was now boldly pecking (啄) my fingers now and then. A surge of warmth ran through me. Tenderly stroking his feathers, I chirped a lullaby, singing him to sleep. Gradually, his eyes drooped and he drifted off. I couldn’t help but chuckle at the scene — as far as he was concerned, I was his mother.
Para 1. “I will take care of you.” I murmured, making my promise to him.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Para 2. At that moment I realized that as I dedicated myself to the finch’s care, something within me changed.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________One day, some young people from a local rehabilitation (康复) center visited a wildlife park. Tippi, a guide, stood before a cheetah (猎豹). “Her name is Subira. She’s a three-year-old cheetah,” she tole the audience.
All the visitors sitting in the chairs were amazed by the cheetah’s beauty, except a teenage boy, Cory. He pulled a long face and made noises, showing his boredom.
Tippi continued, “The cheetah is the fastest animal on earth.” “Aren’t you, honey?” She asked in a cheerful tone, looking at the cheetah lying atop a tree. Giving Subira a dirty look, Cory replied, “Oh, just a skinny cat. Next! Bring out the stupid tigers or whatever so we can get this over with!” However, the cheetah gently looked at Cory and make a happy sound. “I think she likes you,” Tippi told Cory. “I don’t care,” the boy just replied.
What had happened to Cory? Why was he so angry? The boy had dreamed of someday playing Major League Baseball and having many fans. He knew he had a promising future. That was before the car accident. In it, he lost his leg and also lost his hope, joy and spirit. He felt useless and hopeless.
Now he sat in a wheelchair, angry at the world. He was here today on another “boring field trip” from the rehabilitation program. Suddenly, the creature jumped down. Seeming to show her skills, she immediately ran fast forward. “Oh, she’s so beautiful,” the crowd said.
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。
“She only has three legs!” someone suddenly said, surprised.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
At last, Cory smiled, with his eyes shining with hope and confidence in his professional future.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
