Jack, a 10-year-old boy, was apparently below his peers athletically and intellectually since he suffered a high fever five years ago and didn’t get timely treatment. Because of his serious flaws,

Jack was not allowed to go to school like a normal child. Fortunately, his family never gave up on him. Instead, they taught him to take care of himself, and even came up with an idea for Jack to earn a living—to sell daily necessities such as water, towels and tissues (纸巾) on the street.

Jack readily accepted his family’s advice. However, his mother was not as calm as she appeared. She was indeed worried a lot. She was always thinking to herself, “What if someone laughs at him for his strange way of walking? What if someone mimics his mumbled speech?” So when Jack walked down the street with a basket full of tissues, his mother sneaked behind him.

At first, everything seemed to be going well. Passers-by did not look at him in a different way just because of his “different” way of saying and walking. Soon after, Jack sold a few packets of tissues without a hitch and every time he made a sale, he would politely thanked the buyers, which earned him approving looks and smiles. However, something alarming, eventually, happened—several packets of tissues accidentally fell off because Jack was walking unsteadily. He bent down to pick them up, but because of his poor balance, more tissues fell out of the basket. What’s worse, Jack fell to the ground heavily. At that moment, his mom couldn’t bear it anymore and attempted to offer a hand to Jack. Just at that time, what worried her most happened when a group of children from school saw Jack and caught sight of his “awkward” and “different” way of movements.

Just as she expected, those children rushed towards Jack.

The children didn’t leave but stayed nearby, whispering something.

Finally, the car pulled into my grandparents Gran and Mimi’s driveway, which stretched in a thin line through the maple (枫树) forest. Sky-blue tubes stretched from the trunks of the maples, sending sap (树液) into a huge tank. I liked visiting the farm on spring breaks... before I knew how badly I could mess things up.

During lunch Mimi asked, “Why so depressed, Jude?” They were really acting as if nothing bad happened during my last visit. For a second, my eyes caught Mimi’s. Could I ask her how much money their neighbor lost? Was Mr. Jackson still upset? “I’m fine,” I answered. “Just missing computer camp this week. That’s…something I’m good at.” Mimi nodded. “Ahh, that sounds disappointing.”

After lunch, I was on my own while Gran and Mimi worked in the sugarhouse. No way was I going there. The sugarhouse was next to Mr. Jackson’s rose beds, which was destroyed by the goats I carelessly let loose last year. Suddenly Mimi opened the sugarhouse door. “Jude! Come quick, please. We need you to drop defoamer (消泡剂) into the sap, or it will boil over.”

“They need me?” I guessed I would just go for a minute. When I walked through the doorway, a burst of sweet maple hugged me. Mimi passed me a small plastic bottle. Quickly, I added drops to each pan before any sap boiled over. The sap was coming in good! I had to make sure the sap kept flowing in while I got the fire burning.

Then, out of nowhere, there was Mr. Jackson! Opening the sugarhouse door. “I need help,” he yelled. “Maise is birthing, and the lamb needs a strong pull.” That was when he saw me. “He’s probably been waiting for this moment since last summer.” I got frightened. But instead, Mr. Jackson said, “Great! Jude is here. Both of you come. Jude can stay here and watch the boil.” Before they left, Mimi reminded me, “Jude, you could make it. Just boil the sap to syrup (糖浆) for us to draw it off!”

Could I?

A few weeks ago, my sister was going through her old coats and vests（背心）, seeing what was no longer needed. Although she was still in junior high school. she found ways here and there to make some extra money for her holiday shopping.

She found two vests in like-new condition and asked if I would list them in our local Facebook yard sale group. She set the price at $7 each and it wasn’t long before someone replied, wanting to buy them.

The buyer replied in a short message with broken English; it was obvious that Spanish was her native language. After a few messages back and forth, she revealed that she couldn’t drive to my house to pick up the vests because she lived on the other side of town, but asked if I would be willing to ship the vests to her instead.

I hesitated. The last week of school was so crazy busy. I barely had enough time to get from place to place, much less figure out how to wrap up these heavy vests and ship them out. I was feeling overwhelmed trying to get everything accomplished and this one extra task seemed like that straw that would break the camel’s back.

She must have sensed. my hesitation as she sent another message offering to send me a money order（汇票）to pay for the vests and the shipping costs.

A money order.

I literally froze when I read her message. It was obvious this woman wanted these items, probably for a Christmas gift for a child or grandchild. I knew if she took the time to get a money order, then mailed it to me and if I waited to get the money order then shipped the vests to her, there was a really good chance they would not arrive in time for Christmas morning.

That’s when I heard the whisper on my heart: “Give her the vests for free.”

Knowing the vests were for her disabled daughter, I decided to ship more Christmas gifts.

There was a student named Lily who studied at high school. She had excellent grades and was considered as one of the top students in her school. However, Lily had a rather irritable (易怒的) personality. Because her parents gave her high pressure that she must keep her top place in her school. her mind was only focused on her grades, leaving little room for anything else.

One day, after receiving a lower grade than she expected on an important test. Lily was falling apart. Sad and overwhelmed, she even started considering her failure was due to her parents. She quarreled with her parents and kept them out of her room.

Lily’s parents turned to the school teacher Mr. Thompson for help. They poured out all the bad present situations to him. Mr. Thompson was a professional teacher with a deep understanding of the importance of a balanced lifestyle. He recognized that it was Lily’s too much worry about grades that was having a bad effect on her and the parent-child relationships.

Mr. Thompson advised Lily’s parents to calm down first. And after school, he approached Lily and gently suggested they go for a run together. At first, Lily refused, saying that it would take her too much time. Besides, she couldn’t understand how running could be beneficial to her academic success.

“Believe me, Lily,” Mr. Thompson said, and finally Lily agreed to give it a try.

Seeing Lily’s change. Mr. Thompson recommended her to give a speech to her classmates.

Two days before Christmas, I got a call from my old and sometimes forgetful mom, “I sold my towels and made $ 200, two 100-dollar bills!” “That’s amazing,” I said, glad that people bought the decorative towels she had made day and night.

For months, Mom had been making towels to sell at the local yearly holiday craft fair. “They bought every single one,” she said. “Now I have money to buy Christmas presents for the girls on the fifth floor of my apartment building.”

After having dinner on that happy snowy evening, Mom went to the grocery store to buy a bag of food for breakfast, Later, she safely drove back home. At 9:30 that night, I received a second call from her. She cried, “I lost all $ 200 I had earned. My Christmas is ruined.” “Don’t worry, Mom,” I said, completely unaware that she had gone out in the snow.

I told her I would drive to her place in the morning and that we would find it. “No. It’s gone. It was in my pocket when I went to the store. But when I checked it tonight, it wasn’t there,” she said. “I searched my car. Then, I drove back to the store to see if I left it there. But it wasn’t there. Then, I walked through the parking lot, looking for it but it wasn’t anywhere.”

My heart broke at the thought of her going out on the snowy and windy night, “It’ll be OK, Mom,” I comforted her. “I’ll give you two 100-dollar bills...” However, I knew that wasn’t what Mom wanted.

It took me several hours to drive to Mom’s apartment the following morning. But before I got there, she had already driven back to the grocery store again even without having breakfast. She called me to tell me to wait for her in her apartment and she said she would be back soon.

With tears in her eyes, she shared her story about the money she had earned with the store manager and asked if he could check any other places for her two 100-dollar bills.

Alan had loved poetry since fourth grade. In his spare time, he would sit alone, absorbed in creating a poem, carefully designing its content and sound. More often than not, he would read poems with full emotion and a beautiful voice, which brought him spiritual pleasure.

However, when he turned 13, he was going through puberty. Puberty is when kids start to become mature and experience many physical and emotional changes. Alan already hit his growth spurt (成长高峰期). He was very tall. Now, he was just waiting for his voice to deepen. Before the voice deepens, it will crack (破裂) and sound high-pitched (尖锐的).

In Alan’s English class, his teacher would have students do “Popcorn Reading”. Popcorn Reading is when one student reads and then calls on another student to continue reading. Alan was eventually called on. He started to read the sentence. He noticed that his voice came out all high-pitched. It sounded like he had a sore throat. His classmates started laughing at him. “What happened to your voice?” they joked. Alan was so embarrassed. He sunk into his chair and put his jacket hood over his head.

After class, the teacher went to Alan to talk to him. The teacher said Alan should not feel embarrassed. Voice cracking happens to everyone. Alan still felt pretty bad about it. For the next few days, word got around about Alan’s voice. People kept asking him to talk, but Alan wouldn’t. He just stayed quiet. Even when teachers called on him to read or asked him a question, he just wrote it down. Even for his love for poems, Allan just kept creating, but dared not to read them out.

One afternoon, his teacher called him into his office, and said with a smile, “Alan, to celebrate the coming Thanksgiving Day, our school decides to organise an activity presenting shows with dancing and singing. All the students will join in it. Could you write a poem and read it on the event?”

Hearing the teacher’s words, Alan froze on the spot.

On the Thanksgiving Day, the skills worked and Alan gave a perfect performance.

Once upon a time, in a remote village, there lived two friends, Jack and Tom. They were inseparable, sharing every joy and sorrow, and always ready to start up new adventures together.

One day, they heard stories of a hidden treasure buried deep in the forbidden forest. Motivated, they decided to start up a search to find the treasure and make their fortune. Equipped with only a map, a compass, and their courage, Jack and Tom entered into the dense and dangerous forest. The trees towered overhead, blocking out the sun, and the undergrowth was thick and messy. They had to crawl and climb their way through, facing all sorts of barriers and creatures.

As they dug deeper into the forest, they encountered a fierce wolf that bared its teeth at them. They managed to escape by climbing a tall tree, but not before the wolf had torn their bag-pack to pieces, leaving them with only the essentials.

Determined and fearless, they pushed their way onward, following the clues on the map. They crossed swamps (湿地) and scaled cliffs, despite hunger and thirst. Their feet were bleeding and their clothes torn, but their spirits were high and their determination unshakable.

Finally, after days of hardship and danger, they hit on a clearing in the forest. In the center stood an ancient stone altar (祭坛), and beside it, a chest (箱子) that glowed with a mysterious light. They knew they had found the treasure.

But as they approached the chest, they heard a deep sound from the earth beneath their feet.

Finally, the two friends realized that the true treasure of their journey was not the gold and jewels.

It started out as a simple hike in the Utah canyon (峡谷) lands on a warm Saturday afternoon. For Aron Ralston, a twenty-seven-year-old mountaineer and outdoorsman , a walk into the remote Blue John Canyon was a chance to get a break from a winter of solo climbing Colorado’s highest and toughest peaks. He’d earned   this weekend vacation， and though he met two other climbers along the way, by early afternoon he had finally found himself in his element: alone, with just the beauty of the natural world all around him.

It was 2:41 pm. Eight miles from his truck , in a deep and narrow slot (狭缝) canyon , Aron was climbing down a wedged boulder (巨石) when the rock suddenly came loose. Before he could get out of the way, the falling stone pinned his right hand and wrist against the canyon wall.

And so began 4 days of suffering for Aron Ralston. With little water and food, no jacket for the painfully cold nights, and the terrible knowledge that he’d told no one where he was headed, he found himself facing a lingering death-trapped by an800-pound boulder 100 feet down in the bottom of a canyon. As he eliminated (淘汰) his escape options one by one through the days, Aron faced the full horror of his situation: By the time any possible search and rescue effort would begin, he’d most probably have died of dehydration (脱水),if a flash flood didn’t drown him before that.

What does one do in the face of almost certain death? Using the video camera from his pack, Aron began recording his grateful good-byes to his family and friends, thinking back over a life filled with adventure, and documenting a last will with the hope that someone would find it.

2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

Aron was growing weaker with each passing day.

Luckily, the rescue team found Aron.

Kiss marks on the mirror

Jessica, a clever cleaner, worked in an all-girls university.

One day, she was quietly doing one of her jobs—cleaning the bathroom—when she noticed a bunch of kiss marks on the mirror.

She got angry at the sight of it. But she decided not to dwell on her negative emotion and do something actionable instead. She was hopeful for the girls seemed smart and reasonable.She wiped away the kiss marks with cleaning cloth and a sponge and left instructions on a piece of paper: Please don’t leave kiss marks on the mirror. Lipstick stains(口红印) are difficult to clean.

The next day, Jessica went inside the bathroom to clean. But much to her disappointment,she saw a bunch of kiss marks on the mirror again. She got angry and went running to the principal’s office to report the incident. Upon learning of the incident, the principal got angry at the students. He gave them a strong warning to not leave kiss marks on the bathroom’s mirror. Jessica overheard the principal when he scolded the students. She felt relieved. She figured the girls wouldn’t leave kiss marks on the mirror again. She was wrong.

The next day, it was as if nothing had happened. When she went inside the bathroom,she found kiss marks on the mirror. Worse, there were more of them compared to the ones she found during the previous days. Angrily, she stormed out of the bathroom and went straight to the principal’s office. She was mad at the girls for their stubbornness and also at the principal for not punishing the girls’actions.“The girls are hard-headed. Based on experience, they don’t easily follow my orders. Wait it out. They’ll grow out of this,” said the principal.

Rather than say things out of anger and things that would probably get her fired, Jessica walked out to get some fresh air, and then back to the bathroom, staring at the cleaning tools. She was sick and tired of the situation.