My name is Fauna, but Mom and Dad sometimes call me Magpie, since I talk a lot. They call me “animal magnet,” too; because animals like me. I don’t mind at all because I like them, too. In fact, what I really, really want is a pet of my own. My dad has a pet fish, and I like it a lot — but I would still like a pet that’s all mine.
“Please? I asked my parents.“Pretty please, with cherries and chocolate and whipped cream on top?”
“We’ll see!”
“I’ll walk it and feed it and brush it.... well, unless it has scales or something. Then I’ll polish them real nice.”
“We’ll see.”
Finally, though, “we’ll see” was upgraded to “soon.”
“Let’s do some research,” said Dad, “and see what kind of pet is best for you.”
“And keep your eyes peeled,” said Mom. “You never know when an opportunity will come along.”
One did come along.
I was on my way home from school when I saw a unicorn (独角兽) standing in back of Baker Trembly’s shop. He was nibbling stale biscuits out of the trash can. I thought he might be a wild unicorn come into town, but he trotted (小跑) right up to me when I held out the apple I had in my backpack, left over from lunch.
“It followed me home!” I told my parents, after I managed to lead the unicorn to our front gate. “Can I keep it?”
“I hope you were careful,” said my dad with a frown. “Unicorns can be dangerous.”
“Not this one! He’s very sweet. And he’s just what I want!. I can keep him. in the garden.”
“He does look sweet,” said my mom. “Let’s check his tags (标牌).”
Tags? I hadn’t even noticed his thin silver collar, I’d been so excited.
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。
There was a little tag on it, with a phone number.
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“I’ve had him since he was little,” Sari said. “We’ve never been apart.”
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Sarah, a high school student, had a great passion for baking. With her parents’ support, Sarah dreamed of opening her own bakery, a place where she could turn her interest into a business. However, she knew the importance of improving her skills and gaining real-world experience.
Therefore, every Saturday, without fail, she would set up a small but charming table at a local park. The park, filled with families and laughter, was the perfect place for Sarah to sell her creations. Her table, neatly laid out with colorful homemade cookies and cakes, attracted passers-by with the desserts’ smell.
On a particularly bright and sunny afternoon, as Sarah was carefully arranging her chocolate cookies and cakes, her attention was drawn to an elderly woman sitting alone on a bench. The woman, with her silver hair and sad eyes, seemed lost in thought. As the hours went by, Sarah noticed that the woman remained where she was, seemingly forgotten by the world. A sense of concern washed over Sarah. So she decided to act. She poured a cup of warm tea carefully and cut a generous slice of her rich chocolate cake, a crowd favorite, and approached the woman.
“I thought you might like some snacks,” Sarah said with a warm, inviting smile. The woman’s face lit up as she accepted the treat. “Thank you, dear. I haven’t had such a delicious treat since my retirement,” she responded, her voice soft yet filled with gratitude. As she enjoyed the cake, tears rolled down her face.
A little shocked, Sarah asked what had happened. The woman introduced herself as Mrs. Wilson, who had been a baker before she retired. Since losing her husband to cancer a week ago, she had been living alone. Her visits to the park were her escape from the loneliness that filled her quiet home. Sarah listened attentively, her heart touched by the woman’s story.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式作答。
Sarah decided to help Mrs. Wilson out.
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____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Tomatoes: The Real Magical Fruit
“Fresh tomato plants! Straight out of the ground! 50 cents each!” I shouted in the school hall. In my hands, I carried a shoebox with little tomato plants. Their homes were plastic bottles, without the top half. Most people ignored my product, but some handed me 50 cents and picked out a 2-week-old baby tomato plant.
About a month before this, I started gardening. I pulled up grass in my little garden for several days in a row. Satisfied with my work, I continued to the second step — begging my dad to take me to the supermarket. He agreed!
When my dad turned off the engine and opened the door, I practically skipped inside the supermarket. We headed straight for the garden center. I picked up planters, seeds and dirt. My dad helped and showed me the best dirt and tomato plant types to get. We got to the register, and my dad, knowing what would happen, helped me pay.
As soon as I got home, I began to plant them in my garden. The following days witnessed my visits to the garden and my parents were amazed by my devotion to my new-found love.
Then was the part where I met my problem — I planted too many tomato seeds. I realized this all too late, about 10 days later when they all started sprouting (发芽) up and I counted 45 tomato plants. A few days went by and then I ended up with 85 tomato plants.
I did what all high schoolers would do when they messed up — I asked people around. I even got a notebook to write down their suggestions. Sadly, I got the same answer from most people, “Just let them die.” WHAT?! Let my beautiful plants die? They had so much potential! They could make 20 — 30 tomatoes per plant! We were talking about the possibility of around 2,550 tomatoes!
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。
So, I decided to solve it in my way.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The result was better than I had thought.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I took up flying more or less on a whim (突发奇想). I had a really difficult time at that time. My mother left me and my favorite cat was lost two weeks later. My life was filled with uncertainties and sadness and I was left feeling terribly down. So when I passed our local airfield and saw an advertisement for trial flying lessons, I decided to book one. It was something I’d always imagined trying, and I hoped it would cheer me up.
I enjoyed my trial lessons and decided to book some more. I found that flying an airplane was attractive, and it took my mind off my personal difficulties. By the end of that summer, I had my private pilot’s license, and I started to do some local flights for fun.
Then I decided to have a go at flying helicopters, and I found that I liked that even more. Despite having promised myself and all my friends that I wasn’t going to take it up, I got my private pilot’s license for helicopters, too. Soon, I was hiring small helicopters and taking friends flying. But helicopter flying is very expensive, and I knew I couldn’t keep doing it as a hobby forever. I knew a lot of people at our local airfield, and many were taking commercial (商业的) flying exams — some with a goal of working as commercial pilots, others wanting to be instructors. I had an idea — I could become a helicopter instructor. That way, I could fly for free, and even get paid for it.
Then I told my friends my thought, but I didn’t expect some of the reactions I got. My friends couldn’t believe that I really meant to do that. “Oh, don’t be silly, Helen. You can’t possibly be a helicopter instructor,” one of my friends said. After all, I was well over forty, which is not the usual time to begin a new career. But I chose to stick to my idea.
注意：
1. 续写的词效应为150左右；
2. 请按照如下格式作答。
Paragraph 1:
Quickly, I went ahead with my plan.
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Soon I found a job at an airfield, not too far from my home.
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When coming to this city for high school, I moved into the new house with my parents. We were very grateful to the owner for renting us this house at a cheap price. The house was really comfortable to live in. It was warm inside and full of life outside.
A tree in the front yard attracted my attention, and all I could confirm was that it was a fruit tree. My father thought it was a fig(无花果) tree, and sure enough, as the months went by, the tree grew huge leaves and finally bore the fruit—figs, the size of my fist. How wonderful they were! I took many pictures of the fig tree. And then we wondered how to deal with the figs. My mother thought for a while and said, “Why not try making fig jam?” I responded quickly, “That’s a good idea!”
Jack, one of our neighbors, just visited us and asked if he could pick some figs from our tree. Certainly, we encouraged him to take as many as he liked. In fact, Jack was extremely polite and friendly to us. He introduced himself at the first sight of us. He always waved to me as he came home or as he left for work.
When I picked the figs with him, he told me about how he had been living in the house next door for close to twenty years. He said, “Bruce, the owner of the house you live in now, used to be my best friend. And we had planted this very fig tree a few years before he went to the nursing home.” I was amazed to know that we actually enjoyed the fruit of his work. He told me that he was so impressed by the quality of the fruit this year. I found a fruit box for him to put the figs in. Both of us enjoyed the pleasure of sharing.
When Jack set out for his home, I turned to my parents and advised doing something in return for Jack and Bruce’s kindness and friendliness.
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.
Finally, we decided to invite Jack and his family to dinner that night.
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The next day, our family and Jack visited Bruce in the nursing home.
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Fourteen Steps
They say a cat has nine lives, and I think that possible since I am now living my third life and I’m not even a cat.
My first life began on a clear, cold day in November, 1904, when I arrived as the sixth of eight children of a poor farming family. Though struggling to make a living, I started my own family. This was when I started to enjoy my first life, happy, in excellent health and I became two lovely girls.
Life was a pleasant dream.
Then the dream ended and became one of those horrible nightmares that cause you to wake in a cold sweat in the middle of the night. I began to suffer from a rare disease of nerves, affecting first my right arm and leg, and then my other side.
Thus began my second life...
Despite my disease, I still drove to and from work each day. And I managed to keep healthy and optimistic, to a degree, because of 14 steps.
Crazy? Not at all.
Our home has 14 steps leading up from the garage to the kitchen door. Here hobbled (跛行) a desperate cripple (瘸子), a man who held on because of 14 miserable steps leading up to the backdoor from his garage.
Then on a dark night, I began my third life. It was raining when I started from home that night and drove on one of the less-traveled roads. Suddenly one of the tires burst with a bang. I fought the car to a stop.
Then I remembered that a short distance up a little side road was a house. I drove slowly along until I came to the house. Lighted windows welcomed me as I pulled into the driveway.
The door opened and a little girl stood there. I told her that I had a flat tire and needed someone to change it for me because I had a crutch (拐杖) and couldn’t do it myself. She went into the house and a moment later came out, followed by a man who called a cheerful greeting.
I sat there comfortable and dry. The rain seemed to be easing a bit now, and I rolled down the window to watch.
注意：1. 续写的词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式作答。
There followed a long interval of noises, but finally it was done.
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He didn’t take the bill and the little girl stepped closer and said quietly, “Grandpa can’t see it.”
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My dad got a new job. We had to pack up and move away from everything we were familiar with. There were so many changes. We came from the north, and now we were almost as far south as possible. We landed in South Florida, and we were total strangers. We moved over during the summer vacation, so I didn’t have to deal with school right away. Summer passed by while we unpacked, arranged furniture, found stores we liked, and adapted to the Sunshine State.
School was coming, and I was afraid of it. I was not an adventurous person. Being shy and quiet, I read a lot and did not make friends easily. My head was filled with fears and worries. Would I make friends? Would If it in? Would I survive in this strange new world? Anyway, there I was, attending a new school full of people I didn’t know.
I had a difficult time adapting to the new school. However, I still loved learning and reading. I even loved homework, and I was good at doing my homework. Loving books and reading helped me to get good grades. Teachers loved that about me. Other kids, though, did not. Although I always answered questions in class, I seldom talked with my classmates. I was unpopular. I felt like a total failure and nobody would like me.
The none day, at all boy walked over to me after an English class. He introduced himself and told me he was in the school basketball team. I knew him—he was the star player! “Hey,” he said. “You do really well in English class. And you know, my teammates and I spend much time competing and practicing. The subjects, especially English, really bother us. Do you think you could help us?” “Yes. Oh, definitely yes. I could, and I would,” I replied with surprise. We made the deal with an exchange of smiles.
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。
Something gradually changed after that.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Meanwhile, the basketball players taught me how to play basketball.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When I found out that my new friend Karina did not share my opinions about some stuff, I was very upset. It was hard to imagine disagreeing with her about anything because when we first met, we got along so well. It was as if we’d known each other forever.
“No way!” I said, as I sat next to her on the first day of karate (空手道) camp. “Are those banana chips in your lunchbox?”
“You like banana chips?” she said in a surprised voice. “They’re my favorite snack.”
“My aunt brought some the last time she visited, and I’ve been craving (渴望) them ever since,” I said.
“I guess today’s your lucky day,” she said, handing me the bag. “We have a big box that’s kind of taking up space in the cupboard. So, you’d actually be helping me out!”
Right then is when I knew that Karina and I were meant to be friends forever. Whenever we got to pick a partner at camp, we picked each other. Whenever we had a break, we hung out together. The more time we spent together, the more we realized how amazingly alike we were. We both had two adorable cats, we both had an awesome younger sister, and we both had the same favorite song.
But then something happened. Karate camp was next to a piece of beautiful land that had a bunch of large old trees on it. Whenever it was nice out, we’d get to eat our lunch at picnic tables that were right by some of those trees.
After we finished lunch, our coach, Miguel, reminded us to keep the forest as clean and perfect as it was when we got here.
And that’s when things got complicated.
Sam, one of our teammates, asked us, “Have you guys heard that shopping mall rumor? They want to cut down a bunch of those trees to make room for a shopping center.” To my surprise, Karina said, “My parents told me the shopping center would make new jobs for people who really needed work and people’s jobs were more important than trees.”
Paragraph 1:
I completely disagreed with Karina about cutting down trees.
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Paragraph 2:
Later, I suddenly realized Karina had her reasons for believing what she did.
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Aunt Evie had a dollhouse. It had many toys there. Every Friday afternoon, I went to Aunt Evie’s home with my parents. The adults would sit around a table in the dining room, eating pie and talking, while I played in the dollhouse for hours.
Sometimes I would pick up these lovely toys and place them in different positions. It was really fun. One time I asked Aunt Evie where she got the toys so that I could buy some, too. To my disappointment, Aunt Evie said that most of them were specially handmade gifts from her friends and couldn’t be bought anywhere. One such toy was a little bear, which was my favorite. It was so beautiful that I wanted to own it badly. “If I take it, Aunt Evie may not notice it. ” I said to myself.
Therefore, on a Friday afternoon, I attempted to take the little bear away from Aunt Evie’s dollhouse. I had to wait until nobody was watching me, ‘and it took me hours to get the courage to put the little bear in my pocket. Once I got the little bear, I couldn’t wait to go home. I had to hide it somewhere at home, so that no one would know I took it. That night after I went home with my parents, I couldn’t go to sleep. “What a bad person I am! I stole something from my loved Aunt Evie.” I thought. When I woke up the next morning, I felt awful, but I couldn’t tell my parents, let alone return the little bear to Aunt Evie. I was embarrassed about my behavior. At some point, I started to hate the little bear and myself. And I knew if I didn’t do something, I wouldn’t get away from those bad feelings.
注意：
1. 续写的词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式作答。
So I decided to tell my mom what I had done.
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My hand was shaking when I rang the doorbell of Aunt Evie’s house.
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Mark Mancuso’s phone rang. He looked at it. It was a calendar alert, telling him it was his mother’s birthday. His mother Amelia lived 200 miles away, a bit of a drive, but Mark had driven further for a lunch with a friend. He just couldn’t stand his mother’s complaints. Then he found a florist(花店). He smiled and got an idea.
Entering the florist, Mark smiled broadly, “Can you arrange to have flowers delivered in Syracuse, N.Y.? It’s my mother’s 65th birthday and I wanted to send her some flowers.” Mark explained.
The florist said, “Of course, I just need your mother’s name and address, and I guess you want to send a note, a birthday message?”
“Yes,” said Mark, and he quickly recited his mother’s name and address and then added, “Please write: Happy birthday to the best mom in the world, love you and miss you. Your son, Mark.”
Mark was walking out with a feeling of accomplishment when he saw a girl sitting on the corner with tears running down her face. Mark squatted down(蹲下来)next to her and asked, “Hey dear, are you OK?”
“I’m Mandy and I wanted a rose for my mom,” the girl wept.
“But I don’t have enough money! The flower lady said I could only buy a daisy, but my mom loves red roses.”
“You just wait here,” Mark said, and then he walked back into the florist and bought a lovely red rose for Mandy. “Here you go,”he said, placing the rose in her hands. Mandy took the rose in her hands, smiled up at Mark and said,“Thank you! But could you take me to my mom? It’s not far but I’m not supposed to go on my own.”
Mark nodded. Mandy took his hand and walked with him down the street. After a while, Mandy turned right and Mark was surprised to see they were standing by the gates of a cemetery(墓地).
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
The girl gently placed the rose on a grave(墓碑).
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Mark felt tears well up in his eyes.
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