It was two days before Christmas and young Maggie was told again that Paxton would not be returning.
Maggie’s father had found the weak deer a year ago and they had taken care of him. Maggie’s father, a vet, tended to the deer’s injuries and bandaged his foot. Maggie noticed that he had markings above his eyes that resembled the sun with rays of light. She named him Paxton and promised to take care of him.
Maggie couldn’t sleep that night and kept checking on Paxton from her window. The next morning, she rushed to the house to see Paxton. Paxton was still timid around her, but with time, he started eating carrots from her hand. Every morning before school, Maggie would feed Paxton.
Maggie wanted to keep Paxton, but her father explained that he was a wild animal and needed to be released after his foot was healed. Mr. Dotson could see his daughter’s affection for the little deer. That scared him, because he knew Maggie would never be able to say goodbye. So when Paxton’s foot had been healed, Mr. Dotson came home early one afternoon to set Paxton free. Maggie was overcome with sadness and called out to Paxton every day, hoping he would hear her.
In time, though, Maggie did come to understand that wild animals, even little deer, need to be in their natural habitat. But that didn’t change how much Maggie cared for and missed Paxton.
One day, as it started snowing, Maggie stood by a pond behind their house, feeling upset. The pond hadn’t frozen that winter, as the weather was warmer than usual. Mr. Dotson felt guilty about having not been more supportive of his daughter’s belief that she would see Paxton again. Although he didn’t want to give her false hope, he realized that no longer mattered, since Maggie was hurting and he wanted to help.
As Mr. Dotson walked outside to greet his daughter, he carried a pair of binoculars (双筒望远镜) with him. He and Maggie would spend the next couple of hours in the woods, where they searched for deer tracks in the newly fallen snow. As Mr. Dotson had expected, their search came up empty.
“I’m sorry we didn’t have better luck, Maggie.”
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.
As they hiked through the snow towards home, Maggie’s heart felt heavy.
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“Daddy, look! It’s Paxton!” Maggie shouted, her voice filled with excitement.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________My name is Wen Yu, but you can call me “Fish”. I want to talk about the time I went to the US to meet my American pen pal Drew, but first I need to go back a little bit to explain things.
I was a second-year junior high schooler when my English teacher, Ms. Gao, had us experiment with a pen pal program set up through our school. This was an amazing opportunity at the time since it meant we could use our English skills to communicate with other teenagers the same age as us around the world through email! Still, I was a bit shy and nervous since I knew my English was pretty poor; but at the same time, I was excited to make a new friend and was determined to improve with this new opportunity presented to me.
Ms. Gao assigned me to write emails with a boy named Drew in the US. He was from a city called Cincinnati in Ohio. I knew a little about the biggest cities in the US— New York, Boston, San Francisco, Chicago— But Cincinnati? I had no idea where it was. Maybe it was somewhere near one of those cities?
As we continued to talk through email, I was surprised to find my English was slowly improving. I found my English going from stiff and formulaic (刻板的) to more natural and casual to match the way he wrote. I even picked up some slang (俚语) words along the way! We got to know each other’s hobbies and interests as well as our dreams and hopes for the future. Drew seemed so nice, and I found myself wanting to visit him someday and see what Cincinnati had to offer. He, too, wanted to visit Beijing and try out the local food I had told him so much about.
We continued our email conversations even after the program ended. Drew told me how long his summer break was going to be and said he’d show me around if I were to ever visit. To my surprise, that opportunity would come sooner than I thought.
注意：1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右；2. 续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已写好；
As it turned out, my parents were planning a surprise vacation to the US.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Entering the baggage claim area (行李领取处), I finally came face-to-face with Drew.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Be Like Dad
Be the reason someone feels loved and believes in the goodness in people.
I was in my study on a cold Sunday in May 2020 when I glanced out the window and saw my dad’s car parked in our driveway. He was walking from my front door to his car, about to leave. Why would he drive all the way to my house, only to turn around and leave? Had the doorbell stopped working? I raced downstairs, opened the door and yelled “Dad! What are you doing?” I shouted.
My dad lives forty minutes away, and I hadn’t seen him since COVID-19 because we were following the health-department guidelines to self-isolate and not leave the house, so it’s strange that he would show up.
He smiled and pointed beside the door, where I could see a bright yellow begonia (秋海棠) plant.
“I know it is Mother’s Day, but... I’m not a mother,” I was puzzled.
My dad smiled. “But I think you should get flowers, too, my dear son.” With that, he winked and drove off.
That evening, I called to thank him and told him how touched I was that he had driven such a long round trip just to leave begonias on my doorstep.
That’s when he let me in on his little secret. It turns out I wasn’t the only receiver of an act of kindness from him. To keep away from the loneliness during epidemic he decided to do acts of kindness to remove the social isolation (隔离，孤立), and it made him so happy to see the smiles on people’s faces.
“But why?” I continued.
It just had started a couple of weeks before, when a friend of his was having a tough day and called him to talk about it. He knew she loved ice cream, so after ringing off, he went straight to the grocery store, bought a huge ice cream, drove to her house and left it on her doorstep. Then he called from the driveway to tell her to look outside.
“She just beamed when she saw it. I don’t think leaving her a million dollars would have made her happier.”
注意：1. 所续写短文的词数为100左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡上的相应位置作答。
After listening to story after story like this, I was inspired.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Alan Robinson and Walter Macfarlane have been friends for 60 years. Born in Hawaii 15 months apart, they met in the sixth grade and played football together at a Honolulu prep school.
Macfarlane never knew his father, and Robinson was adopted. Separately, they sought answers about their ancestry (n.祖先，血统). Macfarlane turned to family history and DNA-matching websites to learn more about it after unsuccessful searches on the internet and social media. “So then we started digging into all the matches (n.匹配) he started getting,” said his daughter, Cindy Macfarlane-Flores.
A top match - someone with identical X chromosomes (n.X染色体)- had the username Robi737.Robison’s nickname was Robi and he flew 737s for Aloha Airlines, Macfarlane-Flores said.
It tuned out Robinson used the same website to find answers about his family. They later learned they have the same birth mother.
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。
“It was a shock,” Macfarlane said.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Then came the big evening.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________My grandpa lived at the top of a mountain all by himself. This was my first time to stay with him. I was curious about everything around. Sometimes I went into the woods and pretended that I was Alex the Adventurer. I must stay near and I couldn’t go past the big rock alone. This way, Grandpa could always see me from the yard.
One morning, I raced up the path back to Grandpa’s yard as fast as I could. “Grandpa, I hear something strange in your woods!” I told him. He saw the excitement and fear in my eyes. “Let’s go to find out what it is.” He took my hand with his big and warm one. As we hiked toward the big rock, I held Grandpa’s hand tighter. I could feel my palms becoming sweaty.
Cack-cack-cack (呱呱呱)! There was that sound! I grabbed Grandpa’s leg. “What is that, Grandpa?” I whispered. “It’s the first sign of spring,” he said. “How about you going past the big rock a bit. See if you can find out what it is.” “By myself?” I hesitated, unsure of what to do next. “I promise it’s safe,” he gently encouraged me. “And I’ll stay here by the big rock where you can see me.”
“No.” I looked at Grandpa. His whole face seemed to be smiling, even his eyes. I wondered what an adventurer would do. I stood up straighter and made a brave face. “Grandpa,” I said, “I think I can do it.”
Crunch! Crunch! My feet stepped on the dead leaves as I got closer. Suddenly there was silence. I stopped and looked back. My face must not look so brave, because Grandpa said, “It’s all right, Alex. Just a little further.”
注意：1.所续写短文的词数应为 100左右；
2.续写部分为一段，请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
I stood up straighter and took a big step forward.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________By the time 18-year-old Amy Waldroop returned to her grandmother’s tiny house, it was nearly midnight and she was exhausted. After a full day’s work at a flower shop, she had put in another six hours waiting tables before heading home. This was her typical weekends.
Pushing the key into the lock, she quietly opened the door so as not to wake her younger siblings. She stepped into the front room, and froze. The house was a mess: plates of half-eaten food were scattered in front of the TV; clothes, shoes and exercise books were everyone.
Amy’s eyes welled with tears. “This is just too much for me.” she thought. Terrible memories began to race through her mind. Two years before, her parents lost their lives in an accident, leaving Amy and her siblings for their grandma, Helen, who had spent half of her life in a wheelchair. The life burden fell on Amy’s shoulders, which was too much for a girl.
Life moved on. One day, walking across the school grounds, Amy found a table littered with university brochures. She browsed through pictures of spacious campuses and happy peers, all of it looking unachievable for her, given the current situation and financial conditions. But her teacher gave her unexpected hope, saying“ You could attend university for free. It would take a scholarship, though, and for that you’d need much better grades.”
During her final year of high school, Amy diligently attended classes, then went to work after school, returned to her grandmother’s house, cared for her sisters and brothers and went through homework till the early hours of the morning, struggling for her dream university.
One afternoon, she walked home from school, holding a sheet of paper tightly. It was a letter from the University of California, informing her that she would be offered a scholarship and was admitted to the university. It was what she’d been longing for, a place where she could study to become someone special-a nurse, perhaps, or maybe even a lawyer.
注意：1．续写词数应为150左右；
2．请按如下格式作答。
Yet the letter only made Amy struggle inside.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The next afternoon, Amy spotted the wrinkled letter she threw into the dustbin on the table when arriving home.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________In New England, a few years ago, a party of boys decided to start a grand sleigh (雪橇) ride. The sleigh was a large one, pulled by six gray horses.
The next day, as the teacher entered the schoolroom, he found his students in high spirits, chattering excitedly about their journey. One of the boys recounted their trip and its various incidents. As he reached the end of his story, he exclaimed, “Oh sir, there was one thing I had almost forgotten. As we were coming home, we saw a strange sight on the road. It turned out to be a rust y old sleigh attached to a covered wagon (四轮运货车), moving at a very slow pace and taking up the entire road.”
The boys had grown impatient with the slow-moving vehicle ahead of them and decided to take action. They threw snowballs at the wagon and shouted, making the old horse start to run quickly. The old man in the wagon cried out, asking why they were frightening his horse. A boy replied, “Why don’t you turn out, then?” and gave him three more loud cheers. His horse was frightened again and ran into a loaded wagon, almost making the old man fall over.
The teacher listened carefully to the boy’s story before responding, “Take your seats, boys, and I will tell you a story about a sleigh ride, too.”
Yesterday afternoon, a very elderly man was traveling from Boston to Salem to spend the winter at his son’s house. He had brought his wagon for the journey and his sleigh for the winter. His vision and hearing were not what they used to be due to his age. He was traveling slowly, as his horse was old and weak like himself. Suddenly, he was frightened by loud cheers and rapid snowballs hitting his wagon. In his panic, he dropped the reins and his horse ran wildly. Amidst his troubles, a large group of boys in a sleigh pulled by six horses rushed past him, shouting and demanding that he give them the road.
注意：续写词数应为150左右;请按如下格式作答。Paragraph1
The old man begged them not to frighten his horse.
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Paragraph2
The boys listened quietly, reflecting on their actions.
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Have you ever been so depressed that you can’t sleep? You also can’t eat. You can’t read. You have no friends to call up and nothing is good on TV. So you sigh, press your face down harder into your pillow, and shed a few tears.
This was my life two years ago. I had just turned 14 but already found life a struggle. As I lay in my bed one Saturday, Mom peeked (瞄) into my room to make her regular “Is Emily still alive” check. I knew that if I spent more time like this, she would begin dusting me. After suggesting a few things for me to do that I immediately rejected, Mom made her move, “Emily! Get dressed! I’m taking the dog out for a walk, and you’re coming with me!” “Why?” I protested. “Because it’ll make you feel better.”
The thought of moving was unbearable. I felt as if all of my body parts were weighed down by tons of bricks I couldn’t remember the last time I had gone outside. Somehow I found the strength to slip on a pair of jeans and a black sweatshirt. Mom was waiting at the door, leash (狗绳) in hand and dog at her side.
Then, we stepped outside. It was a warm March day and it had been a long time since the warmth of the sun had touched my cheeks. Mom led the dog and me down some dirt paths, through a big field and reached Halsey Pond. But the signs of spring had yet to appear and the scene was rather colorless throughout the entire journey.
“I’m tired! It’s boring, Mom! When can we go home?” “Not yet,” she’d say. Mom stopped to say hi to every jogger, dog walker, runner, and bicyclist who passed us. Sometimes she would get into a conversation. They would talk about weather, dogs, and all small talk topics. She seemed happy, and was literally glowing (容光焕发). After walking for what seemed an age, Mom finally said it was time to go back.
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: When I got home, a new feeling seemed to be awakened.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2: A new Saturday found me asking Mom if I could take the dog out.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Lek raced down the street, ran around the corner, and at last pushed open the door of his parents’ restaurant. If he hurried, he might have time to make his krathong(水灯) before the celebration started.
Tonight was Loy Krathong, the Festival of the Floating Lanterns. All over Thailand, people would send out lighted candles in tiny boats along rivers so that the past year’s problems could sail away with them and be replaced with wishes for the new year.
As Lek wrapped a pile of banana leaves around a bamboo base to form his boat, Lek thought about his sister, Dao. She was too sick to float a krathong. Perhaps a wish on Loy Krathong would take away her illness. Maybe then she would be able to laugh the way she used to. He put four red flowers inside the banana leaves and in the middle, he placed a tall, white candle.
“The river goddess will be pleased with your krathong,” his grandma looked at Lek’s boat and said. “Tong will help you launch your boat. You are too small to do this by yourself.” She gave him a serious look. “Now we must hurry to get ready for our customers.” Like last year, only his brother Tong was allowed to launch krathongs into the river for their customers. But this week, Lek had practiced launching the way Tong did and he was sure he could make it by himself.
After washing piles of dishes, Lek realized that it was time to launch the krathongs. Lek made his way outside through the crowd standing under the full moon, and spotted Tong standing on the jetty(码头) and lowering a krathong into the water with his pole. Lek took out matches and lit the candle on his tiny boat. He looked over his shoulder to see if his grandma was watching. Then he lay down at the edge of the jetty and made a wish that Dao would get better from that minute on. He lowered his krathong toward the water, stretching to reach its surface.
注意：1.续写短文词数应为150左右；2.请按如下格式在答题卡相应位置作答。
Suddenly, somehow, his krathong fell out of his hands into the dark water.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“Let’s make another one for Dao.” Tong said gently.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I stared at myself in the mirror: blue tights, yellow vest, a fish tail trailing behind me, and large eyes sitting at op my head. I raised my eyebrows and sighed.
“Mom, I don’t think this costume is right,” I said. “Maybe the makeup will add something,” Mom replied hopefully.
Somehow Mom had convinced me to play the Fish Footman in Alice in Wonderland. I can’t say it’s been the time of my life.
“What if I forget my lines?” I hesitated.
“Oh Riley, is that what you’re afraid of? I know you’ve been rehearsing for two months, you were the first off-book in your scene, and I couldn’t be prouder of you.” Mom said, kneeling down and hugging me.
The next day we pulled into the parking lot, and I stepped out of the car, wearing the questionable costume. I shrank inside myself, but Mom pulled me toward the makeup room. When the makeup was done, I looked at myself in the mirror. My jaw dropped.
“Mom! I can’t go onstage like this!” I cried.
“Why not?”
“I’d be a laughing stock (笑柄)! ”
“Riley, look around you! You’re not the only one in an odd costume.”
“What if we just sneak out? No one will miss me.” I whispered.
Mom’s lips disappeared into a thin line, and I knew I had gone too far. “Riley, I’m going to watch you go out on that stage tonight. And that’s the end of it.” Then mom disappeared into the audience. I sat there, alone and bored, as the play began and the curtain rose on.
The two boys dressed as Two of Clubs (梅花2) near me chatted casually about this and that. Suddenly, they asked, “You’re awfully quiet. Is this your first show?” I tried to respond, but my voice caught in my throat and refused to escape. I coughed and nearly yelled, “YES!”
The Ace of Diamonds (方块A) sitting nearby laughed. “The audience will certainly hear you if you talk that loud. But you might have to clear your throat first, she chuckled. I gave them a weak smile.
“Don’t worry about us,” the Ace said. “We’re only teasing.”
“Yeah,” the Two said. “When you’ve done as many shows as we have, projecting will be second nature to you.”
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:
When my name was called, I stepped onto the stage uneasily.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2:
Suddenly I was determined to make a lasting impression.
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