We moved to a small seaside community in New Zealand 10 years ago, because my husband Phil worked as a biologist and he had to do research near the sea. I had seen seals (海豚) around Pilot Bay, which is near here. Sometimes you see them out on the rocks, sunning themselves or playing-but usually in their own territory. They never thought about disturbing their neighbors.
It was a dark winter morning in August this year when a seal came. At 5:50 a.m., I left the house to go fitness training. I went down to the car parked in the driveway and heard a growl (咆哮). I thought our cat, Coco, must have chased a dog under the car. I jumped into the car to avoid getting my ankles bitten, and moved slowly, but then I felt the car hit something. When I got out to have a look, I couldn’t see anything and thought it must have moved on. Then when I got back into my seat, I saw a baby seal in the headlights.
I thought, Oh, my God, “but didn’t panic—the ocean is just down the driveway and I thought it would find its way back. Off I went to the training center and gave everyone there a laugh when I said, “Sorry I’m late; there was a seal under the car.” I didn’t think about it again until I got home. As I walked through the garage (车库), I noticed our baskets had been moved. I wondered if it was the seal, but then I guessed it could not be the seal because I didn’t think it could fit through the cat door, which was the only way into the garage. But I was wrong. As I opened the door to the house, I brushed something and heard this flip-flip-flip-flip sound, and thought, “My God, that is the seal.”
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It was so cute like a lovely soft toy.
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We called Animal Protection Station, and a worker came over.
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I have a passion for fishing and animal protection, which can date back to my childhood. When I was young, my father was a fish and wildlife officer, so he traveled all over the province in the spring and fall. He loved his job, especially the part where he protected nature from human.
He’d taught me to fish alone, in silence, lost in my own thoughts.
I still remembered that special day. Midweek, even in late August, no one was around. Police Outpost Lake is as far as you can go and still be in Canada. Songbirds, ducks, and Canada geese glided (滑翔) by on the breeze, touching down briefly on the water’s surface before flapping and quacking their way back up into the sky, passing in front of the sun, temporarily blocking its warming rays.
“How can I get the fish with these birds making noise?” I complained, rod (鱼竿) in my hand.
“Be patient, Jacob. Birds won’t disturb you.”
Out of the corner of my eyes, I suddenly caught a glimpse of a few great northern loons (潜鸟) stayed together not far from the shoreline. Dad once told me loon usually travel alone, but here were five of them in a group. Maybe it was a family? One loon, making odd sounds, swam away from the group, towards me.
This is unusual.
“Dad! Come here! Take a look at this loon!”
Hearing this, dad laid his rod down on the dirty sand, walking quickly towards me.
The loon rested in the shallow water near shore, not ten feet away from us. It was so close, we could see its red eyes.
“Look at that beak (喙)!”I said. “It could easily hurt us to death with that thing! It could tear our faces! Blind our eyes!”
Walking into the water, getting closer to the loon, we both saw thin wire wrapped around its neck. Fishing line maybe? Was there a hook(钩子)on the line, too? Was the loon asking us for help?
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: Reaching down, I touched its feather, my heart racing.
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Paragraph 2: “Hurry, Dad! I can’t hold this bird forever, you know!” I said.
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One day two years ago, my mother came home from work and announced that she had found a pet for the family. My father, little sister, and I eyed her in doubt.
My sister asked what kind of dog it was. My mother said it was a poodle (贵宾犬) named Pepe. I couldn’t believe she wanted a poodle — especially one with such an ordinary name. But she had made up her mind. “Actually, I’m doing a co-worker a favor,” she said. “The woman who owns Pepe says he hates to be alone and needs children to play with him.”
Pepe arrived the next night. His short tail shook happily. I didn’t get very close to him, thinking he should have stayed with his previous owner. My little sister played with him until bedtime, and he would come to me and begged for more attention. I always ignored him. But no matter how I treated him, he’d always like to be with me. He has always been waiting for me at the front door at the end of the day, smiling happily. He seems to know that I will be coming home from school at that time. Every day, he asks me with his eyes to play with him or take him somewhere. At night, he will wait until I fall asleep, leave his bed by the wall heater, walk down the hall and jump onto the end of my bed.
One night, while everyone was sleeping, I was in a half dream state. My throat hurt, my eyes pained, and some animal was crying in my ear. I opened my eyes and saw fog in my room. I wondered who left the window open. Pepe cried and bit my pajama sleeve (睡衣袖). Then I woke up and realized that it wasn’t fog in my room — it was smoke.
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。
Standing up, I couldn’t breathe.
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I turned off the burner with Pepe around me.
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“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.
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_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________It was 3: 34 in the morning. I was in our apartment on the 22nd floor.
I went to bed at around 2 o’clock in the morning, but for some reason I woke up a minute or so before the quake started. I was comfortable in my bed, about to fall asleep again when suddenly the bed started moving a little. That bed used to move a lot, so I just thought it was my wife rolling over. I looked over to her and she was fast asleep. She wasn’t moving.
My first thought was: OK, it’s just another small quake. We used to get a lot of small quakes in Chile. But this one kept going and then got a bit stronger. It was enough to wake my wife up and she asked me, “Is the room shaking?” It is our way of asking: Are we experiencing a mild earthquake? The noise of the perfume bottles hitting each other in the bathroom and the hanging wine glasses clanging against each other in the dining room confirmed what was happening. I thought, OK, this is just a strong quake, no reason to get out of bed.
When an earthquake starts to get stronger, we have learnt that we have to open the front door because they sometimes become stuck when the building starts to sway (摇晃). So, I went to open the front door while my wife went to see how the kids were. They were still fast asleep. However, on the way to the front door, the shaking increased considerably. When I turned around to go back to the bedroom, the full force of the earthquake started to hit. I had never felt an earthquake that was so strong. I couldn’t move forward and I had to hold onto the wall to stay up on my feet.
The earthquake gave a final strong push of intensity (强度) and then our lights went out. This is the only time in my life when I honestly thought I was going to die.
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。
The terrible shaking eventually stopped.
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___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Feeling trapped in her life, Tiffany Kersten would like to do something different to refresh her life. For an enthusiast for birds, there was no more a better choice than a getaway in the suburb in Wichita, in search of a rare species called the fork-tailed flycatcher (叉尾霸鹟), not to mention its healing effects of getting so close to those lovely creatures, and to the nature.
Tiffany Kersten drove east through Kansas at a fast speed, and watched the Rocky Mountains gradually move away from her rear-view mirror; now she passed through a sea of plains. She’d made it all the way to the suburb of Wichita — and slowed down considerably — when she noticed a county police car tailing her.
Kersten slowed her SUV, hoping the officer would speed past. For a moment, it seemed he would. But he flashed his lights. Kersten’s stomach rolled.
Pulling over to the roadside, she took a deep breath. She couldn’t afford to get a ticket (罚单). What worried her more was that only a few hours of daylight remained. If she were going to see this thing through, she had to go now. The police officer approached her window. “Are you looking for the flycatcher?” he asked.
In fact, she was. After flying from her home in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas to Denver, Kersten had driven 250 miles to Kansas in search of the rare species — the fork-tailed flycatcher. She hoped to check it off her Big Year list — a bird-watching term for the effort to spot as many species as possible in a calendar year. Kersten was chasing a sighting that someone had posted online earlier that day, indicating that a flycatcher might still be hanging out along this stretch of highway. To her surprise and relief, the officer explained that he too was a birder. He’d even been the one to post the sighting. He gave her detailed instruction to the exact location where he’d seen the flycatcher.
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。
Instead of writing her a ticket, the officer wished her good luck on her way to the flycatcher.
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Back home, as she posted the picture on her social media, “I was seeking birds; I was free.”
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I woke up to the sound of rumbling (隆隆声). At first, I thought it was thunder, but then I felt the ground shake beneath me. I sat up in bed, my heart pounding in my chest. It took a few moments for me to realize what was happening — an earthquake. I had always heard stories about earthquakes, but I had never experienced one myself. I knew that I needed to act fast to ensure my survival.
The room was shaking violently, and I struggled to keep my balance. I quickly got out of bed and tried to make my way to the door. I stumbled and fell a few times, but I managed to make it to the door and open it.
As I stepped outside, I met with chaos. The ground was still shaking, and I could hear the sound of buildings collapsing in the distance. People were running in all directions, screaming and crying. I knew that I needed to find a safe place to take cover.
I remembered reading that doorways were one of the safest places during an earthquake, so I made my way to the nearest doorway and waited there. The ground continued to shake, and I had never felt so scared in my life.
After what seemed like an eternity (永恒), the shaking finally stopped. I cautiously stepped out of the doorway, looking around at the destruction that the earthquake had caused.Buildings had crumbled to the ground, and fires were burning in the distance. I remembered that I had a survival kit in my car, so I made my way to the parking lot.
When I got there, I saw that my car had been crushed by debris (碎片) from a nearby building. I realized that I was on my own. I knew that I needed to stay calm and think rationally. I looked around and saw a group of people huddled together across the street. I made my way over to them, and they welcomed me into their group.
注意：
1．续写词数应为150个左右；
2．请按如下格式在相应位置作答。
Together, we worked to find a safe place to take shelter.
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Eventually, after a few days, help arrived, and we were brought to safety.
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I was an extremely shy girl in primary school and couldn’t make friends easily. My teacher, Mr. Doocy, called my mother and explained that I hadn’t spoken a single word in class. And we were more than half way through the school year. Even as a little girl, I knew this was unusual. I watched the free and happy interaction of my classmates with envy.
Mom tried to excuse my behavior as something that I would outgrow. But Mr. Doocy was still quite concerned about me. He asked Mom if I had something at home that I liked. He said he would arrange a show-and-tell activity for the class if I brought it to school. My mom told him about my cat who had given birth to several baby cats about three weeks earlier. I was crazy about those baby cats.
Then Mr. Doocy suggested I bring the baby cats to school the next day and introduce them to my classmates. It seemed that Mom didn’t think this show-and-tell activity would help me and hoped to discourage Mr. Doocy. She explained that I would have to bring the mother cat along with the six baby cats because they were too young to be separated from their mother. She probably thought this would put an end to the plan. But Mr. Doocy said that was fine.
I normally walked to school, but my mother drove me the next morning along with a big brown cardboard box. I struggled to walk toward the classroom with the heavy load. In no time, the group of baby cats caught the attention of my classmates. Their eyes lit up in wonder when they caught sight of my tiny treasures. My heart beat quickly against my chest as pride swelled within me. I had never felt so important in my entire nine years of life!
Mr. Doocy instructed me to sit on the steps outside the classroom so everyone could get a good look inside the container. “Can I hold one?” a little girl asked aloud with excitement. Then all the other children chimed in like a choir, begging to hold one of the baby cats.
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 nodded and said, “Yes.”
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With everyone sitting in the classroom, Mr. Doocy invited me to say something about my cats.
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It was a burning hot day in late summer, when my father drove me and my friends Jim and John to the lumber mill (锯木厂) where he was working.
The workers’ working conditions were really poor. That day the fans weren’t working. The workers were covered in sweat and sawdust, looking discouraged and tired. It was dangerous back-breaking work that paid very little. They did the work because they had no other work to do to support their families.
We had decided to play in the forest nearby the mill. So shortly after looking around the big yard of the mill, we three children ran out to the forest before my father could warn us to take care. Behind the big old trees we played hide-and-seek. We also removed our shoes and climbed to the top of tall trees to see what were in bird nests. With everything seeming so interesting and pleasant we couldn’t hold back our curiosity and excitement.
We three were exploring what attracted each of us when Jim suddenly called out: “Hey! There is a deer here.” Hearing this, John and I tuned and saw a brown-haired figure lying under a tree. We raced towards it. Sure enough, there lay a beautiful little deer on its side with bright big eyes looking at us with fright. I was about to pat it when Jim said, “the deer must have injured somewhere, or it couldn’t be lying here.” What he said sounded reasonable. Having examined the deer carefully, we found one of his front legs was seriously hurt and bleeding from a cut.
“We must do something to stop the bleeding at once.” I said. “But we had no bandage, said John anxiously. Glancing at my white shirt, I had an idea. Taking it off and tearing it into pieces, I folded them, pressed them onto the cut and bound it tightly. Everything done, we breathed a sigh of relief. Patting it gently, we encouraged it to rise. The deer attempted to, but in vain. “It takes time to recover. We should first take it to the mill.” Jim suggested. So we three took turns to carry it. On reaching the mill, I shouted: “Father, we have a wounded deer!”
注意：1. 续写词数应为80左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Hearing this, the workers at work all came out to see what the matter was.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Kay Day, an 87-year-old UK woman, loves elephants. But Day, who suffers from dementia(痴呆), rarely leaves her nursing home room and hasn’t seen a real elephant for a really long time. Until now.
Day is so fond of elephants that her room is full of elephant photos and toys. She dreamed of seeing an elephant up close again but never thought it would happen. On Wednesday, August 9, 2023, Day’s dream became a reality after her nursing home took her on a special trip to the Whipsnade Zoo.
The nursing home collected money to be able to realize Day’s dream. “Day doesn’t join in many activities and tends to spend quite a lot of time alone,” said the nursing home manager. “So when we sat and discussed wishes, we found out she would love to see an elephant. When we found the Elephant Experience at Whipsnade and contacted them, we said we should make her dream come true!”
Day was so excited about going to the zoo that she marked off the days on her elephant-themed calendar. Day’s carers telephoned her family and asked them to come along on the trip to support her on that exciting day.
Since the Whipsnade Zoo is a protection zoo that is working to protect wildlife as well as connect people with nature, the staff runs a lot of programs including various animal experiences and “Be a Keeper” days.
Day often told people around her that she would like to pet and feed the elephants herself as she did many years before. And she said that the elephants’ trunks (象鼻) are her favourite part of the huge animals. “It’s such a wonderful feeling to have an elephant take some food out of your hand, put it in his trunk, curl (卷起) it up and put it in his mouth, ” she told the reporter when she was interviewed.
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。
The day for going to the zoo finally came.
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The moment arrived when Day was able to meet the elephants up close.
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