Emily White was born seventeen years ago with so many birth problems in her body. Some of her organs, bones and muscles were out of shape. No one expected her to survive. She did make it but with her strange body figure, everyone could recognize her, even from a distance.
In Emily White’s hometown, there was a yearly outdoor performance in the school auditorium (大礼堂). It had been performed for so many years and actually had become one of the most important events of the Christmas season for many of the town’s people.
Many people tried out each year for it, but so many were turned away. It can only include the most excellent people in the field.
Emily had a beautiful singing voice. Last year she went to Mrs. Owens — her music teacher to ask to join in the performance. Without letting her sing, Mrs. Owens took a look at Amy’s body and said, “Child, you just don’t fit. Everyone would stare at you and that would make you uncomfortable. It would make them uncomfortable, too.”
Without singing a single note, Emily was sent back through the door of the choral room. Hurt and upset, she decided never to try out again. But Mrs. Owens then retired.
This year, there came a new music teacher, Mr. Buttler. He heard about Emily and suggested that she have a try.
Emily didn’t want to be rejected again, so she hesitated a little about it. As Emily struggled, the door was pushed open and Mr. Buttler called, “Emily, you’re next.” Although kind of nervous, Emily did as Mr. Buttler told her to do. Mr. Buttler sat by the piano to keep Emily company. When Emily finished her testing performance, she thanked Mr. Buttler and knew the result would be posted on the door of the choral room the next day.
Emily couldn’t sleep that night. She was suffering from the feelings that she didn’t fit and the great need to be accepted. By the next morning, her stomach was even in pain because of stress.
注意：续写词数应为150左右Paragraph 1: The next day, Emily nervously glanced at the list on the door of the choral room.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2: Finally, the day of performance came.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________In the first grade in senior high school, I was extremely shy, I had friends, but it just wasn’t in my personality to be very outgoing, even when I knew someone. I was afraid I would do or say something wrong, so usually I just smiled and listened to other people’s conversations.
I did well in school and I loved to write. However, I would escape into my writing, where I could be myself and never had to worry about what other people thought of me. In my stories, I was never shy, I often imagined that I was the main character in the story. My teacher, Mrs. Sather, always encouraged me to write more and be myself. She told our class to go after our dreams and dig in with great efforts. I thoughts he was one of the first people to see my inner strength.
One day, she showed us a play she had written and announccd that our class was going to perform it. “I’ll begin to choose all the performers tomorrow” she said, “I need someone who is not afraid to be onstage in front of a lot of people to play the lead part of Dorothy. Anybody wants to try?” A few excited hands shot up -mine, of course, was not one of them and Mrs. Sather smiled. “We’ll talk more about it later,” she said. Then the bell rang and my classmates slowly left the classroom.
“I will never do that,” I thought. But after rereading the play, I was deeply attracted by the story and couldn’t help imagining myself to be the main character Dorothy. There seemed to be a new person inside me, a much more daring, outgoing person who had been hidden all along, just waiting for the opportunity to appear. However, I still felt shy and could never picture myself acting in a play in front of two hundred people. Having struggled for a few minutes, I still did not know how to make the decision.
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。
When I was packing my schoolbag, Mrs Sather asked me to go to her.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
One week later, it was time for me to perform on the stage.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A little bird landed on the tree branch outside Lisa’s bedroom window. It sang energetically as the first pale yellow rays of sunshine appeared.
“Oh, my god, what is that noise?” Lisa complained to herself, pulling her bed sheets over her head to ignore the sound. It was no use, and she knew it. The loud sound showed the coming of the day. Lisa’s mom knocked twice on her door, and then came in with a smile. “Time to get up, Sleepyhead,” She whispered. “The early bird catches the worm, you know.”
“Ugh,” mumbled (含含糊糊地说) Lisa into her pillow. “What does that even mean?”
“It’s just an expression, Honey”, her mom replied. She gave Lisa a kiss on the cheek and urged her to get out of bed. Lisa rolled over and slept for a few more minutes.
With her mom’s repeated urging, Lisa had no choice but to get herself dressed. She went unwillingly downstairs for breakfast, ate slowly, and missed her bus. When she finally got to school, she failed to get a place in the Chess Club. She also missed the first part of math class, so she didn’t understand the lesson and had to get extra help at lunchtime. Her teacher gave her extra homework to make sure she knew it. As a result, she missed her favourite library time. This day was no fun.
The next morning, Lisa was woken up by the same loud noisy song. Instead of ignoring it, today Lisa walked over to the window and opened the curtains. “Well, hello there, little fellow,” she said when she saw the pretty bird outside, still singing happily. As she watched, the bird stuck its beak (喙) into the wet ground, and pulled out a wiggling (不停摇摆) worm for breakfast.
“Today I am going to be the early bird,” thought Lisa.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________At lunchtime, Lisa finished her lunch early and had time to go to the library.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Harrison’s home was in a small village. He was a 17-year-old high school student who walked to and from school by himsclf every day. He hadn’t had many friends since growing up, so he always felt lonely.
On his way to his school, he needed to pass through a large woods where birds sang and flowers bloomed. Animals kept each other company and played in the woods, which contrasted (形成对比) sharply with Harrison’s loneliness. Whenever he saw these sights, he longed to make new friends with whom he could play.
One day, on his way from his school, Harrison spotted a red object in a tree. When he got closer, it turned out to be a balloon with a string (细绳) tied to it. The balloon’s stringwas wrapped around a branch, making it impossible to fly away. Just as Harrison was getting bored, he reached up to untie the balloon. He thought it was just a balloon, but then herealized there seemed to be something inside the balloon.
Out of curiosity, Harrison slowly untied the balloon and saw a piece of paper in it. It was a letter, but it was a little hard to read. He picked up the letter and put it in the sunlightfalling from the woods and read it aloud:
If you have found this letter, it means my balloon finally reaches the destination. I used the balloon to see how far my letter would travel. I want this balloon to fly to a teenager like me and I hope to be friends with you. I launched it from Wisconsin Academy on May 1. Please write back to me and tell me where and when you found it. Besides, I’m happy to know something about you.
Sincerely,
Joe Smiths
After reading the letter, Harrison felt unusually excited. He couldn’t believe that hecould receive a letter in the woods. He wanted to write back to Joe right away, so he started running home.
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。
As soon as Harrison got home, he ran into his room.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A few weeks later, Harrison received a letter from Joe.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Last Saturday, Jordon was taking a walk in the park near his home when he noticed a woman with a boy of about seven years old. When Jordon passed them, he heard the woman yell, “How stupid you are! You are good at nothing. ”Jordon stopped and looked at the little boy. The boy said nothing. He just stood there, looking upset.
Jordon was reminded of his English teacher Mrs Mary in middle school. He was often told that he was good at nothing. But one day it all changed. One day, in an English writing class, Mrs Mary asked them to read a novel. They were asked to write a new chapter of the novel after they finished reading the book. A few days later, Jordon handed in his story. But the next day to his surprise, the comment (评价) “well done” from Mrs Mary came into view the moment he turned to the page where the story was written. When Jordon read that, he almost burst into tears. That day after he returned home, he wrote a short story and gave it to Mrs Mary the next morning. And again he was praised.
Jordon became very interested in writing. He often wrote short stories and asked Mrs Mary to read them and correct them for him. Mrs Mary always corrected them for him and gave him good advice to improve them. One year later, he was no longer that boy who lacked self-confidence. He gained his confidence and was hopeful about his future. Several years after graduating from college, he had his first book published and became famous as a writer in his country. And he owed his success to Mrs Mary's encouragement. Without her encouragement, his life might be very different now.
注意：续写词数应为80-100词左右；
续写内容为一段；
请按如下格式在相应位置作答。
Encouraged by his own life story, Jordon decided to do something for that boy.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
In the faraway land, there was a beautiful kingdom with its unique rule. The rule said, everyone may become the king, with all of his rights to govern the country for five years. After that he must be caught, his body will be tied and he will be thrown away to a remote island where the jungle is thick and there are plenty of wild animals and no human.
Then, one by one, people became the king. The first man said, “OK, I’m ready to be the king.” And he became a king for five years. What he did in his five years was enjoying his position. He threw big parties, went to many beautiful places, married many women, collected many luxurious things and did other things that pleased himself. Those were all he did, and he never prepared anything for his future.
Every other king was the same until a young man came and declared his wish. By the constitution (宪法) he was granted his wish. He would be the king for five years before being thrown away to the island. But he thought that even if he had a happy and free life in the five years, his life as a king would come to an end at last. He was always thinking.
注意：
1.续写词数应在150左右;
2.请按格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
And not very long after that, he made a surprising decision.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Finally, the time came when the king had to be thrown away to the island.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A couple of years ago, just as I did every winter, I bagged up all the items in my closet that I no longer wore, along with the clothes my sons had outgrown. I made a call to action to all of my family and friends, asking them to do the same. It is always my hope to repurpose those things that do nothing more than take up space in our homes, things others might make better use of.
I found an old, ugly pair of hand-woven socks in one of the bags donated (捐赠) by a friend. They were an unpleasant mixture of coloured yam: orange, purple, yellow and blue. I had to decide—garbage or donation? It wasn’t like they were unusable. I imagined they were a home-made gift gone bad.
I put the ugly socks in the garbage, but ten minutes later, I took them back and put them in the donation pile. Later that afternoon, my mother and I drove down to Madison Avenue in downtown Phoenix. Every winter we load up my Jeep with our own cast-offs and the donations from friends, and we take them downtown, along with food and water, to distribute (分发) them to the men and women living on the street. Sometimes I even got my boys involved.
On this particular afternoon, as Mum and I distributed warm clothes and hot food to a small crowd of people outside a local homeless shelter, I reached into the bag and pulled out the last of the donations, the ugly socks. Just as I was about to drop the socks back into the empty bag, laughing at myself for even bringing them along for the ride, a teenage boy came to me.
“Can I please have those socks?” he asked, his blue eyes sparkling in the sun. My eyebrows lifted. I was ashamed to say it but I was still a little embarrassed by the donation and disappointed that we hadn’t anything left to give him except for those socks.
Paragraph 1:
“Of course,” I replied, handing the boy the thick, ugly, hand-woven socks.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2:
“Thank you so much, Ma’am!” he smiled.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A cactus (仙人掌) stood all alone in the desert, wondering why it was stuck in the middle of the desert. “I do nothing but stand here all day,” it sighed. “What use do I have? I am the ugliest plant in the desert. My spines (刺) are thick, my leaves are tough, and my skin is uneven. I can’t offer shade or juice to the passing travellers. I don’t see that I am of any use at all.” All it did was stand in the sun day after day, growing taller and fatter. Its spines grew longer and its leaves grew tougher. It truly was strange-looking.
“I wish I could do something useful,” it signed. By day, hawks (鹰) circled high overhead, and the cactus called, “What can I do with my life?” Whether they heard or not, the hawks flew away. At night the moon floated into the sky and cast its pale light on the desert floor. “What can I do with my life?” the cactus called. The moon only stared coldly as it continued its course.
A lizard (蜥蜴) passed by, leaving a little trail in the sand with its tail. “What worthy deed can I do?” the cactus called. “You?” the lizard smiled, pausing a moment. “You can do something. Just wait for the right moment. The hawks circle their ways overhead, making beautiful patterns for us all to admire. The moon hangs high like a lantern at night, so we can see our ways home to our loved ones. Even I, the lowly lizard, have something to do. I decorate the sands with these beautiful trails as I pull my tail along. And you, you will show us your beauty some day.”
Paragraph 1:
It went on year after year, and the cactus grew old.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2:
The desert hadn’t known such a flower of it.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
About a mile behind our house lay a pond. In summer, my brother Harry and I would run through a stand of trees to throw stones over the water there. The pond wore a collar of black mud. It was not a place for swimming. When winter came, the pond was once again an inviting place.
One day when ice covered it, Harry said to me, “Try walking across.”
The ice looked thick. No water showed through it, but I felt uncertain about it.
“Go ahead,” Harry said. “Try it. You’re lighter than I am. You go first. If the ice holds, we can run and slide on it. It’ll be fun.”
I wanted to please Harry, and I thought about the fun of a long slide on the ice. I began to take steps across the pond. In the middle of the pond,the ice cracked. I threw out my arms. The next thing I knew was hanging on to the edge of a hole in the ice. From my shoulders down I hung in icy water. I thought of the bottom of the pond. I knew it would be black and awful down there. I tried to climb out of the hole, but when I got a knee on the ice, it broke like window glass. Again and again I tried to get out. Again and again the ice broke. The hole widened. As my coat became wet, it pulled me down. I grew tired of trying to get out and rested my arms on the ice.
I looked at Harry on the shore. He just stood there. “I can’t get out! Help me!” I screamed when I caught some breath.
注意:续写词数应为150左右。Harry turned and ran from the pond.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Hand over hand,I pulled myself from the hole.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I’m a special needs teacher. We don’t usually get storms in May. We were having a fairly unremarkable school day and I’d seen the last of my class of five-year-olds leave when my dad rang to warn me that there was a storm heading straight towards us. At first, I thought he couldn’t be right, but then the storm alarm went off. My own daughter, Kali, was at the school, in the kindergarten class across the hall, and that’s where I headed. Her teacher, Jennifer, was following the standard procedure: moving the 10 children into the hallway,getting them to kneel (跪下) with their elbows on the ground, hands over their heads.
We encouraged the children to sing, to keep up their spirits,but when the sky grew dark dim and the lights went out, it became harder to keep everyone calm. Hail (冰雹) and broken glass showered into the hallway. Instinctively, Jennifer and I took five children each and lay across them. It wasn’t something we had to think about. They were small children; we were adults and we would protect them with our lives. My daughter was among them. I just kept saying over and over, “We’re going to be OK. We’re going to be OK.” But soon I couldn’t hear my own voice above the sound of the school’s metal roof exploding under huge pressure.
Then came a big noise so loud that I’ll never forget it, like a plane but 10 times louder. It was the storm passing directly overhead. Suddenly I realised the roof had gone; the wind had torn it clean off. We were at the mercy of the elements. My mouth was filled with dirt and I wondered if we were going to be buried alive. Beneath me, the children were packed together tightly. I did my best to cover them, but there was water, too, pouring down. Then I felt a blunt thing against my back. By now, I was simply repeating to myself, “Please go away. Please go away.” I just wanted it to stop.
注意:续写词数应为150左右。
By the time it did,
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Fortunately, no children died or hurt in the storm.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
