Not Without My Mama
Thirty-eight. That was how many stray cats (流浪猫) I had been feeding on the street where I lived. I loved them all, but I did have a favorite. A gigantic yellow cat with blue eyes had seized my heart.
I named him Butterball. Often, Butterball would try to jump in my car when I arrived home or come inside my house. I wished that I could bring him inside, but it was not allowed where I lived.
Week after week, I fed the large group of cats. Mostly, none of them wanted to be touched. They would eat in a hurry and leave, but not Butterball. He would stick around for head scratches (抓挠), purring (发出呼噜声) loudly. I noticed that he was always in the company of a small Calico cat.
Though not as friendly, she was touchable.
One day, my dream came true—I bought my own house. The cats, especially Butterball, watched anxiously as I started moving my things to my new home. I began to be away longer as I set up the new place, but I never forgot to go back and feed them every night. Butterball would jump in my car and try to get in extra hugs.
Sometimes, I found him amongst the boxes in the back when I came out with another load. As I packed up the very last load and set out the cats’ nightly dinner, I paused before leaving.
The nights were starting to get cold, and soon winter would be upon us. Upstate New York winters can be bitter. Butterball seemed to know I was leaving for good. I peered into his blue eyes and told him, “I will come back for you.” He turned away as if he didn’t believe me.
The next day, I returned with a group of friends. We set out a bunch of humane traps and caught the strays one by one. We transported them to a no-kill shelter. All, except Butterball.
注意:1. 续写词数应为150词左右;
2. 请按如下格式在相应位置作答。
I intended to take Butterball to my new home.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Surprisedly, I followed him to the bush and found Calico.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________In a small community located at a suburb of Exeter, a disheartening issue had been troubling the neighborhood for years. The once pleasant surroundings were ruined by piles of waste that seemed to multiply with each passing day. Residents were growing tired of the worsening environment, leading many to abandon their homes in search of cleaner neighborhoods. It was in this terrible situation that two young students, Emma and Mia, decided to take matters into their own hands.
Emma and Mia were classmates and best friends from Phillips Exeter Academy, both passionate about environmental preservation and deeply concerned about the pollution crisis their community was facing. Witnessing more and more neighbors’ leaving, they knew they couldn’t stand by any longer. Determined to bring about a change, they undertook a mission that would soon catch the attention of the entire community.
Their journey began with thorough research and planning. The two girls searched carefully on the Internet for information on environmental initiatives and connected with local environmentalists. They organized meetings with residents to understand the issues at hand, collecting data on the types of waste, the sources, and the areas most affected. Armed with this knowledge, Emma and Mia worked out a comprehensive plan and announced it to ask for opinions from the residents. Surprisingly it was strongly supported.
Their strategy was twofold. First, they initiated a waste classification and recycling program. They distributed recycling bins(回收箱) to every household and educated the community about the importance of responsible waste management. Soon, the streets began to show signs of improvement as the volume of garbage inappropriately thrown away decreased gradually.
The second part of their plan was more ambitious. Emma and Mia gathered volunteers from their school and the neighborhood to take part in a massive clean-up campaign. Armed with gloves and trash(垃圾)bags, they began systematically clearing the waste from the streets, parks, and even the local bodies of water. Their firm commitment and hard work inspired others to join the cause.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右;
2. 请按如下格式作答。
Half a year later, the changes were significant.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Emma and Mia received recognition and honors for their work.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________3 . 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。
I was aimlessly pressing buttons on the remote, trying to find something on TV that would occupy my mind for a while. A thunderstorm rolled in just before dusk. The heavy rain and blowing wind intensified my loneliness.
Three years after my child Marie went to college, you’d think I would have adjusted to being alone. Though I coped fairly well during the day, I had a tough time getting through the nights. My friends and family urged me to get out more, but I didn’t seem to socialize well as a lonely mother.
Boredom had taken me to the edge of sleep when the soft rap came at my door. For a moment I thought it was the TV, but when I glanced at the screen, there were cowboys riding across the desert. I turned and looked at the door. Then the rapping came again, soft, hesitant.
I jumped up and hurried to the door to let whoever was on the other side come in out of the rain. When I pulled the door open, I was surprised to see a small, attractive woman. In her arms she carried an equally wet small black puppy. She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could utter a word, I pulled the door open wider. “Come in out of the rain.”
Giving me a grateful nod, she stepped inside, apologizing at the same time for dripping water on my carpet. I was about to comment on her puppy, when she handed him to me. “I almost hit your puppy before I braked hard. He ran into your yard, so I thought he must be yours.”
I took the puppy from her and told her that it wasn’t mine. Anyway, I invited her for some hot coffee. Strangely, while she was drinking the coffee, the puppy was curled up in my lap fast asleep. “He sure likes you,” she said, grinning at the warm sight and left it with me. I named it Rick, and kept it at my side.
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。
The first few days saw me buying the necessities for Rick.
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Apart from our routine walk in the open, I began to socialize as well.
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“Whoa, boy,” Sarai said, holding out a hand to her horse. “You heard what Dad said yesterday. If I can’t get this halter (缰绳) on you today, we’ll have to send you back to the rescue farm. I don’t want to send you back. Don’t you want to stay with me?”
She searched around in the bag. Inside were a variety of yummy horse treats. “Let’s try this again, Amadore.” Sarai pulled out an apple-flavored biscuit and held it out, palm flat. The horse reached toward her hand with his nose, sniffing her.
She held her own breath so as not to scare him. Another inch and she could touch his silky, soft nose. In her excitement, she rushed it and took a step forward. Amadore snorted and stumbled back into the far comer of the stall (马厩).
She frowned (皱眉) at his response to her, brokenhearted.
“I know what your problem is,” a voice said from the stall door. Sarai threw a look over her shoulder, “Who are you?”
“I’m Cody,” the boy said, smiling. “And I know what your problem is. It’s your face,”
“Excuse me?” Sarai’s eyebrows hit the roof, and her fists clenched in instant anger. “How dare you!” She turned on her heel to walk out of the stall, but Cody called out to her.
“No, no. I didn’t mean anything bad. You’re not ugly or anything. It’s your frown.”
Sarai frowned at him.
“Yes, like that,” Cody said, recovering some of his cheer. “You’re frowning at Amadore when you’re approaching him.”
Sarai half rolled her eyes. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“How about we do a little experiment?” Cody suggested. “Here’s the camera. Can you take two photos for me? In one, I’ll flash a big, toothy smile, and in the other, I’ll show an angry face with my teeth out.”
A minute later Cody and Sarai ran off to print the pictures.
“Now,” said Cody, once they were back at the stall. “I’ll show him the pictures.”
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。
Cody stepped in, holding the “happy” photo in front of his face like a mask.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“Are you ready to try putting the halter on Amadore now?” Cody asked.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I was eight years old and wasn’t aware of all the arrangements being made for our journey as a family to London in 1950. My mother was in great pain and wished to visit specialists in London. My father reluctantly had to sell our property in Queensland. The day before we boarded the ship, Father unwillingly said goodbye to his five-year-old cattle dog, Spider, who was loved by us all. Father’s friend Sandy was to be his guardian while we were overseas, as he had been getting to know Spider for many weeks.
Six weeks later, an airletter arrived from Sandy, giving my father the news that Spider had run away just two weeks after we had sailed. Sandy had advertised constantly on ABC and other regional newspapers. Despite many “sightings”, the dog was never found. It seems Spider just kept running and searching for us. As he was cattle dog, my father thought he would shoe or dingo-trapped, because of his appearance. But our family thought that Father held a secrets hope that Spider was still alive.
We sailed back to Australia two years later and re-established our home. My father immediately began his own search for Spider. One cold winter’s Saturday morning eight months after our return, my father had a call from an elderly lady living on her own on the outskirts of the town. As she told my father on the telephone, it was “just glimpses of a dingo-type dog in the shadows” of her disused tennis court. That was enough for my father to interrupt my homework.
We set off in his blue and black Jensen car which he had brought back from England. It was hardly the right vehicle for the rough roads we travelled that day. Five and a half hours later, we found the run-down old property. Sadly, she told my father that the “dingo dog” hadn’t been around for a few days. My father had a strange look in his eye. He put two fingers to his lips and did his special whistle for Spider.
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。
Suddenly there was a sound in the bush.
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Once home we had the task of getting all the prickles (刺) off him.
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Are we greening our cities, or just greenwashing them?
Architecture and urban design is chasing a green fever dream. Everywhere you look, there are plans for “sustainable” buildings, futuristic eco-cities and aquaponic farms on the roof, each promising to add a green touch to the modern city.
All of these are surely good ideas at some level. They are trying to repair some of the damage our lifestyle has done to the planet. But, despite the rhetoric of reuniting the city with nature, today’s green urban dream is too often about bringing a technologically controlled version of nature into the city and declaring the problem solved, rather than looking at the deeper causes of our environmental and urban problems.
One of the most striking examples is Apple’s “spaceship” campus now under construction in Silicon Valley. Though it seems to be sustainable and energy efficient—80 percent of its 175-acre site is preserved for landscaping, it is by any measure a huge, expensive and massively resource-intensive project. As a suburban white-collar workplace, it must include vast garages for 13,000 Apple employees. Thus, it will leave no smaller environmental footprint than a traditional office park.
Designing a perfect green building or eco-city isn’t enough to save the world. Although our buildings, like our cars, have been inefficient environmentally, architecture isn’t directly responsible for humanity’s disastrous environmental impacts. An economic system based on the destruction of nature is the real problem. No green building can help us repair the ecological damage we have caused, nor can any number of aquaponic farms bring us back to the real nature.
Instead of adding “nature” to the urban lifestyle, architects may work to design better relationships between our cities and nature, and to promote just relationships between the people in them.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________1.水污染的原因
2.水污染的后果
3.如何控制水污染
注意：写作词数不少于80。开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
Water pollution
There are various causes of water pollution.
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As The Jungle Book song Bear Necessities goes, “forget about your worries and your conflict” can be a little bit difficult when you find yourself face to face with a real bear.
Bears are common in the Northern Hemisphere. As human habitats stretch toward the wilderness, more and more animals cross their paths with those of humans. This can lead to dangerous encounters especially when precautions are not in place. In these situations, keeping your distance is still the best advice.
According to the National Park Service, one should also remain calm as bears, more often than not, are not really willing to attack you. Once in a standoff (对峙), avoid making sudden moves or loud noises as these can trigger aggression. 7-year-old Huxley did exactly what he was told when he encountered a massive bear.
It was a Sunny morning. Huxley was wandering on his way home when a big hulking (笨重的) figure emerges from behind him. A hurried glance backward, he knew it was a black bear. The bear approached cautiously at first, probably sizing up the figure in front of him. A second later, perhaps judging that Huxley was no match for it, the bear burst into a full sprint (冲刺) and ran its way toward the boy.
At first, Huxley was really frightened. However, he knew it was impossible to run or fight with the big beast. In the moment of crisis, he remembered his mother reminds him regularly about these possible encounters. She tells him that if Huxley finds himself face to face with a bear and there are no adults around, he should remain calm.
Huxley calmed down at thinking of this. He stared at the bear down without any movement. This might have been the reason why the young bear stopped dead in its tracks. They faced each other motionless, and there was only a foot distance between them.
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。
From around the corner, a neighbor hurriedly walked to the scene.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The neighbor continued to pressure the bear while the animal tried its best to find an escape route.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________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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In a misty morning, Robert was hiking high in the mountains with Lucky, his tiny but energetic dog. Every weekend, the two would go together on a hiking to climb nearby mountains. As they got near to the top, the path was rocky and less-traveled. After an hour, they reached the top, touched by the beautiful view there. Lost in the breathtaking scenery, Robert felt refreshed. When he looked at the loyal friend beside him, the memory of meeting Lucky for the first time flooded into his mind.
It had been about two years since Robert got Lucky. She was small and a ball of energy. “The day when my mother let me choose a dog from the doghouse, she was playfully jumping around and licking (舔) me, barking (犬吠) loudly to show how much she wanted to be my family,” thought Robert. “She looked quite small, but from the moment I threw my eyes on her, I knew she was the perfect dog for me. And, for some reasons, that active energy was something that I needed in my life,” Robert kept thinking.
Time flew, dark night drawing near. Having got enough rest, Robert decided it was time to go home. Suddenly, Robert lost his balance, rolled down a rocky hill, hit his head really hard, and finally stopped upside down.
One of his leg was in between two rocks, so he couldn’t move. But that was the least of his worries. What Robert was really scared of was that he was going to sleep with a serious head injury. He tried to cry for help, but he was so weak that he was going to become unconscious (昏迷的). “If only there had been someone else,” Robert thought, sad and hopeless. As darkness fell further, the weather turned cold and windy and he was about to lose consciousness. What’s worse, Robert noticed something like a snake approaching him before he finally fell unconscious.
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:
Fortunately, Lucky was there all the time and never stopped barking for help.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2:
After seeing unconscious Robert, the two strangers managed to wake him up.
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