Near the end of August, I got a piece of terrible news from the doctor. “Linda, you have a brain tumor (肿瘤) on the underside of your brain. This is the worst place you could have possibly gotten a tumor. It’s growing very quickly. I’m sorry. It’s inoperable.”
I walked out of her office and went through the large medical building, not daring to glance at anyone. By the time I met my husband in the parking lot, my chest hurt. “It’s inoperable!” As I repeated the doctor’s words, I began to cry. My dream of becoming a licensed psychotherapist (心理治疗师) and helping others dissolved into my tears.
I had waited until my children were grown, with families of their own, before starting my own work on a college degree. By then I was 51. Through the years I dreamed of going back to school and becoming a psychotherapist. It had been a dream of mine for almost as long as I could remember. But so many things had gotten in my way.
Several days went by as I realized that I shouldn’t give up without a fight. So I began to do online research to see if someone else could help me. I was afraid to hope, but within a week I received a call from a doctor in Los Angeles. “I can help you,” he began. Those were the words I needed to hear.
I underwent a very risky brain surgery on a sunny fall day in October 2006. Dr. Shahinian told my husband, “It’s much larger than I thought. If I take it all, there is a possibility that she will not be able to walk or smile. She may not hear and perhaps she will be blind. If I leave half of it, she’ll be back here in five years to do this all again.”
My husband and my daughter made the hard decision to allow Dr. Shahinian to attempt to remove the entire tumor in this operation.
The recovery was horrible. My optic (视觉的) nerve was damaged. I completely lost the hearing in my left ear. I heard what sounded like the roaring (呼啸) of a waterfall in my head. My balance was terrible, and it seemed as if the floor wanted to come up. But I didn’t want to live just for the sake of remaining alive. I still wanted to help other people.
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So after six months of lying in bed, I decided to take action.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Finally, my dream came true.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________2 . On a freezing morning of December, two police officers were patrolling（巡逻） the streets. Suddenly, the walkie-talkie (对讲机) on Alan, one of the officers, rang. “The cake shop near the City Museum has reported a burglary (窃案). Please rush to the scene immediately”, said the electronic voice.
The two policemen quickly arrived at the shop, only to find that the scene showed no sign of crimes at all. Curiously, they checked the monitor (监控器) and found that a thin woman broke open the window and climbed into the store at 5:20 a.m. Instead of searching around, she walked straight into the storage room, stole cheese, chocolate, butter and other ingredients for a cake, and then ran away down the road.
Both policemen felt quite confused about her behavior. One of the shop assistants identified the thief as Clara, a single mother who lived nearby. She had an eight-year-old boy to take care of and lived in poverty.
Moments later, the two officers arrived at Clara’s house. Bob, the other officer, pulled out a gun and was about to break in. But Alan told him to put the gun away and knocked gently.
The door opened and out came a very thin woman. From the outline of her figure, Alan recognized that she was exactly the thief. The woman, Clara, immediately understood the situation when she saw the two policemen. She buried her face in her hands and sat down on the floor.
At that very moment, a child’s voice broke the silence, “Mom, is anyone coming for my birthday? Invite them in, please.”
After hearing the boy’s words, Clara stood up and begged in a low voice, “Officer, I did steal those things, but there’s nothing else I could do. It’s my baby’s birthday, and I’ve got neither job nor money. Please don’t take those things away. I’ve just used them to make him a cake.”
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。
Para1:
Looking into the woman’s teary eyes, Alan understood and walked into the house.
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Bob nodded thoughtfully and asked, “What about the things she stole?”
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When I was in middle school, my family moved to Seattle, where my parents started their new business — a small grocery store downstairs my house. As a girl of shy and reserved nature, I had to take a fresh start to fit into the sophisticated city life.
One sunny day, my school announced an exciting event, a talent show for the local food bank. Students were encouraged to showcase their unique talents in front of the public in the city hall on National Day. A buzz of excitement fed the school as everyone began preparing for the big day. Deep down, I felt a spark of curiosity and a desire to participate. However, my self-doubt held me back, “I don’t have any special skills to share.”
Days turned into weeks, and the talent show drew closer. I couldn’t shake the upsetting feeling until one day, Emma, one of the most popular girls in my class, came to me while I was helping in the grocery store after class. “How about singing together in the talent show?” She grinned, “I heard you singing a tune, along the way back home. I can’t help following you here.” Gosh, I couldn’t believe my ears. Emma, with personality and popularity, acknowledged my little talent. Since Emma had the world’s prettiest voice, I felt like being favoured by fortune.
“You two? The talent show for the food bank?” My mum bent towards us and her face lit up. “A big occasion.” Then a light bulb seemed to go in her head. “Why not practise right now upstairs? I bet you’ll be a perfect match.” Winking at us, she seemed to know we were thinking alike.
Emma and I embarked on rehearsing almost every single day after school. We brainstormed, exchanged ideas and rehearsed the scene. As the days rolled by, I was feeling pretty good about our act. But the day before the performance, Emma called that she had an acute stomachache and was not in any shape to perform.
注意：1.所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Paragraph 1:
I was completely knocked out by the news.
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Finally came the big moment.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________A Little Boy
A little boy selling magazines for school walked up to a house that people rarely visited. The house was very old and shabby and the owner hardly ever came out. When he did come out, he would not say hello to his neighbors or passers-by but simply just glared at them.
The boy knocked on the door and waited, sweating from fear of the old man. The boy’s parents told him to stay away from the house, and a lot of other neighborhood children were told the same thing from their parents.
Dusk found the boy lingering on and hesitating what to do. As he was ready to walk away, the door slowly opened. “What do you want?” the old man said impatiently. The little boy was very afraid but he had a quota (定额) to meet for school with selling the magazines. So he got up the courage and said, “Uh, Sir, I am selling these magazines and, uh, I was wondering if you would like to buy one from me.”
The old man just stared at the boy without a word. The boy could see inside the old man’s house and saw that he had dog figurines (小雕像) on the fireplace mantle. “Do you collect dogs?” The little boy asked. “Yes, I have many collections in my house. They are my family here and they are all I have.” The boy then felt sorry for the man, as it seemed that he was a very lonely soul.
“Well, I do have a magazine here for collectors. It is perfect for you. I also have one about dogs since you like dogs so much.” The old man was ready to close the door on the boy and said, “No, boy. I don’t need any magazines of any kind, now goodbye.”
The little boy was sad that he was not going to make his quota with the sale. He was also sad for the old man being so alone in the house that he owned. The boy went home and then had an idea. He had a little dog figurine that he got some years ago from an aunt. The figurine did not mean nearly as much to him since he had a real live dog and a large family.
注意:1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式作答。
The little boy headed back down to the old man’s house.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________From that day on something changed inside the old man.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________1. What did the speaker want to do as a teenager?
| A．Study whatever he wanted. | B．Take a part-time job. | C．Drop out of school. |
| A．He took his son to the factory. |
| B．He called his son’s teacher. |
| C．He bought his son many books. |
| A．It was terrible. | B．It was fun. | C．It was quiet. |
| A．He teaches language. | B．He works at the United Nations. | C．He studies at a famous college. |
I am a proud mother of three children, my last little one delivered in the middle of this pandemic (疫情). She was born in August and her name is Aida.
Shortly after having Aida, my mother-in-law Ann showed me something she learned from her friend’s mother in an art class she attended weekly. She had a loom (织布机) and showed me how to knit a scarf. She showed me one stitch and gave me a small loom with her half-done project.
I spend a lot of time looking after my sweet little girl, so I have some extra time to do something with my hands throughout the day. I enjoyed making the scarf so I purchased a full loom set and tons of thread and started to make woolen hats since it was winter.
I realized the homeless population in my town in Southern California really needed some more warm weather clothes. I started to give away my hats here and there to the people asking for food outside the food shop down the street where I live.
My oldest son Siddhartha got involved in the project and made a hat as well. I found out that there was a non-profit up the way from me that made masks for farm workers and that they were asking for winter warm weather clothing donations. I made over a dozen woolen hats and gave them to hand out to farm workers.
Then I made woolen hats for everyone in my husband’s family as Christmas gifts, and gave woolen hats to all my neighbors I was close to. There was a new family that moved in down the street and I did not know them very well. Why not break the ice with some handmade gifts? So I made hats for the mom and the one-year-old baby. I knocked on the door and handed the gifts over and my neighbor was so happy to receive 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。
My new neighbor told me she wanted to learn my skill.
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Our story spread and more and more people wanted to join us.
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7 . The Mona Lisa is the famous Leonardo da Vinci painting of a woman with a mysterious smile. This week, the painting gave up a secret.
Scientists using X-rays to examine the chemical structure of a small part of the painting discovered a technique Leonardo used in the work. An oil paint used for it was a special, new chemical mixture, which suggests that the Italian artist was in an experimental mood when he worked on the painting in the 16th century.
“He loved to experiment, and each of his paintings is completely different technically,”said Victor Gonzalez, a chemist who has studied the chemical element (成分) of several works by Leonardo and other artists. The researchers found a rare lead compound (铅化合物) — plumbonacrite, in Leonardo’s first layer of paint. The discovery proved that da Vinci most likely used lead oxide to thicken and help dry his paint. The paint in the study is about the thickness of a human hair, lying in the top right area of the painting.
The scientists looked into its atomic structure using X-rays, moving particles at the speed of light, permitting researchers to look deeper into the paint structure. “ Plumbonacrite is really a fingerprint of his recipe, as it’s the first time we can chemically confirm it,” Gonzalez said.
Dutch artist Rembrandt may have used a similar mixture when he was painting in the 17th century. Gonzalez and other researchers have found plumbonacrite in his work, too. Leonardo is thought to have put lead oxide powder, which has an orange color, in the oil to make it thicker and dry faster. “What you will get is an oil that has a very nice golden color,” Gonzalez said. “It flows more like honey.”
But the Mona Lisa — said by the Louvre to be a portrait (肖像) of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine silk businessman — and additional works by Leonardo still have other secrets to tell. “What we are saying is just a little brick in the knowledge,” Gonzalez said.
1. What’s the new discovery about the Mona Lisa?| A．A new explanation of the secret smile. |
| B．A new chemical element used in the painting. |
| C．The secret of the woman in the painting. |
| D．The structure of the paint da Vinci used. |
| A．Open secret. | B．Widespread use. | C．Hidden element. | D．Long-term dream. |
| A．It helps to make many things into paints. |
| B．It helps to make paints easy to deal with. |
| C．It helps to keep the paintings last long. |
| D．It helps to make paintings rich in color. |
| A．It has more secrets to tell the world. |
| B．It’s the portrait of a silk businessman. |
| C．It’s well kept in bricks in the Louvre. |
| D．It has a mixture of different art styles. |
Anyone who has an interest in Dunhuang will have heard of Fan Jinshi. The Chinese archaeologist
Fan has been studying the historical site since the early 1960s, first as an archaeology undergraduate from Peking University, then as a conservationist when she
“It is over a thousand years old. It is an old person, an
Today, thanks
As a sixth grader, I began noticing how other kids were separating into groups. I wasn’t sure where I belonged. I found it hard to fit in.
Our teacher had assigned “secret friends” for the coming week. She wrote each kid’s name on a piece of paper and threw them into a glass; then we each closed our eyes and catch one piece of paper from the glass on which was the name of a classmate who we were to secretly befriend and support each other over the next five school days. By the middle of the week, everyone, including me, had turned this assignment into a competition to see whose secret friend could leave the best gift. We left cards, pens and even money. It seemed that everyone was getting cool presents from their friend except me.
On the last morning of our assignment, I walked into my classroom and noticed there was a package. I opened the wrapping paper and inside was a box of powder (胭脂). The girls sitting near me laughed at the gift I had received. To make matters worse, the powder had already been opened.
I tried to forget about the embarrassing gift, but when I was in the bathroom during the break, the girls who had seen me open the powder started speaking ill of my secret friend. I quickly joined in: “How terrible”. I heard myself saying “What could my friend be thinking by giving me such a stupid gift? My grandmother wouldn’t even want it.” The girls laughed at my remarks and rushed out of the bathroom. I stayed to wash my hands and let the water run through my fingers as I thought about what I had just said. It wasn’t normal like me to say mean things like that about someone.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式作答。
Then I saw my classmate Janet come out of a bathroom booth (厕所隔间), tears streaming down her face.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Along with my apologies, I explained the reason.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________1. 参加人员；
2. 比赛过程；
3. 师生感受。
注意：
1. 写作词数应为80左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
A Friendly Badminton Match
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