7 . The vaccine (疫苗) news continues to seem very encouraging. Britain started its mass vaccination effort and the U.S. isn’t far behind.

But there is still one dark cloud hanging over the vaccines that many people don’t yet understand.

The vaccines will be much less effective at preventing death and illness in 2021 if they are introduced into a population where the coronavirus is still severe—as is now the case in the U.S.

A vaccine is like a fire hose (消防龙头). A vaccine that’s 95 percent effective, as Moderna’s and Pfizer’s versions appear to be, is a powerful fire hose. But the size of a fire is still a bigger determinant of how much destruction occurs.

At the current level of infection in the U.S. (about 200,000 confirmed new infections per day), a vaccine that is 95 percent effective—distributed at the expected pace—would still leave a terrible toll (伤亡人数) in the six months after it was introduced. Almost 10 million or so Americans would catch the virus, and more than 160,000 would die.

This is far worse than the toll in a different situation where the vaccine was only 50 percent effective but the U.S. had reduced the infection rate to its level in early September (about 35,000 new daily cases). In that case, the death toll in the next six months would be kept to about 60,000.

It’s worth pausing for a moment on this comparison. If the U.S. had maintained its infection rate from September and Moderna and Pfizer had announced this fall that their vaccines were only 50 percent effective, a lot of people would have panicked.

But the reality we have is actually worse.

How could this be? No vaccine can get rid of a pandemic immediately, just as .no fire hose can put out a forest fire. While the vaccine is being distributed, the virus continues to do damage.

There is one positive way to look at this: Measures that reduce the virus’s spread—like mask-wearing, social distancing and rapid-result testing—can still have great consequences. They can save more than 100,000 lives in coming months.

I am a photographer running a studio in the inner city. We are well known for our children's portraits (肖像)，and we range from high-end portraits for modelling jobs to fun sibling photos and birth announcements. We do a bit of everything； as such, we are extremely busy, and it states on our website that we do not accept walk-ins. We are usually booked up six months in advance. One day, ten minutes before closing, a mum walked in with a young girl around six or seven behind her. I internally sighed.

The mother said："Hello. I know you're closing soon, but I have a special favour to ask.”

At that point the little girl peeked around her mother's legs and I was lost for words. Under her thick winter coat and hat, she was skinny with huge dark circles under her eyes. From what I could tell, she had no hair, and a tube taped to her cheek that fed into her nose. It was immediately clear this kid was very, very sick.

The mother said again, nearly teary. " My daughter saw one of your photos taped to the wall at the hospital. She really loves unicorns (独角兽)and the photo had a girl photoshopped onto a horse. I know you're booked up, and it's months before the next appointment, but…”

At that point she actually started crying. I realised that our next available appointment was probably way too far away for this particular kid. The little girl squeezed her mother's hand. I am a very big guy with a beard, but I'm not ashamed to say I needed a minute before I spoke.

I smiled and said with the softest voice I had ever had ： ” Ahh, that's just for regular customers I I've been waiting all day to take a photo of someone as beautiful as you! What's your name, sweetheart?"

I locked the front door and invited them to the changing room,

The mother thanked me over and over and came up front, holding out her credit card.             .

9 . 阅读下面短文，根据所给情节进行续写，使之构成一个完整的故事。

It was Christmas Day. Pappy was working alone fixing an old lantern in the backroom when he heard the ringing of his bell on the shop door. The bell, which produced a uniquely pleasant sound, had been in Pappy’s family for over a hundred years. He valued it dearly and enjoyed sharing its song with all who came to his shop. Although the bell hung on the inside of the main door, Pappy had tied a wire to the screen door so that it would ring whether the inner door was open or not. Hearing the bell, he left the backroom to greet his customer.

“And how can I help you, little lady?” Pappy’s voice was joyful.

“Hello, sir.” The little girl spoke almost in a whisper. She looked at Pappy with her big brown eyes, and then slowly scanned the room in search of something special. Shyly she told him, “I’d like to buy a present, sir.”

“Well, let’s see,” Pappy said, “who is this present for?”

“My grandpa. It’s for my grandpa. But I don’t know what to get.”

Pappy began to make suggestions. “How about a pocket watch? It’s in good condition.” The little girl didn’t answer. She had walked to the doorway and put her small hand on the door. She shook the door gently to ring the bell. Pappy’s face seemed to glow as he saw her smiling with excitement.

“This is just right,” the little girl said. “Momma says grandpa loves music.”

Just then, Pappy’s expression changed. Fearful of breaking the little girl’s heart, he told her, “I’m sorry, Missy. That’s not for sale. Maybe your grandpa would like this little radio.”

The girl looked at the radio, bowed her head, and sadly sighed, “No, I don’t think so.”

In an effort to help her understand, Pappy told her that the bell had been his only companion, for the rest of his family were all gone now, except for his estranged (疏远的) daughter whom he had not seen for nearly a decade.

注意：

所续写短文的词数应为150左右；

应使用5个以上短文中标有下划线的关键词语；

续写部分分为两段，每段开头语已为你写好；

续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。

Paragraph 1:

With a giant tear in her eye, the little girl looked up at him.

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Paragraph 2:

Later that evening when Pappy was closing up the shop, he heard a familiar ringing.

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10 . Not too many decades ago it seemed “obvious” both to the general public and to sociologists that modern society has changed people’s natural relations, loosened their responsibilities to kin (亲戚) and neighbors, and substituted in their place superficial relationships with passing acquaintances. However, in recent years a growing body of research   has revealed that the “obvious” is not true. It seems that if you are a city resident, you typically know a smaller proportion of your neighbors than you do if you are a resident of a smaller community. But, for the most part, this fact has few significant consequences. It does not necessarily follow that if you know few of your neighbors you will know no one else.

Even in very large cities, people maintain close social ties within small, private social worlds. Indeed, the number and   quality of   meaningful   relationships   do   not   differ   between more and less urban people. Small-town residents are more involved with kin than are big-city residents. Yet city dwellers compensate by developing friendships with people who share similar interests and activities. Urbanism many produce a different style of life, but the quality of life   does not differ between town and city. Nor are residents of large communities any likelier to display psychological symptoms of stress or alienation, a feeling of not belonging, than are residents of smaller communities. However, city dwellers do worry more about crime, and this leads them to a distrust of strangers.

These findings do not imply that urbanism makes little or no difference. If neighbors are strangers to one another, they are less likely to sweep the sidewalk of an elderly couple living   next door or keep an eye out for young trouble makers. Moreover, as Wirth suggested, there may be a link between a community’s population size and its social heterogeneity (多样性). For instance, sociologists have found much evidence that the size of a community is associated with bad behavior including gambling, drugs, etc. Large-city urbanities are also more likely than their small-town counterparts to have a cosmopolitan(见多识广)outlook, to display less responsibility to traditional kinship roles, to vote for leftist political candidates, and to be tolerant of nontraditional religious groups, unpopular political groups, and so—called undesirables. Everything considered, heterogeneity and unusual behavior seem to be outcomes of large population size.