December 16, 2009 was the worst day of my mother’s life. It was the day I told her that her thirty-six-year-old daughter had stage Ⅲ breast cancer. I will never forget the look of despair in her tear-filled eyes as I told her. Seeing my mother sob uncontrollably broke my heart. It was one of the few times in my life that I saw my mother weak and vulnerable (脆弱的).
Since I had been diagnosed with advanced breast cancer, the doctors had a heavy-duty plan of attack to beat it, which would mean a double mastectomy, five months of chemotherapy, ovary obliteration, and five weeks of radiation. It also meant that a fiercely independent single girl who lived alone was in serious need of some help taking care of herself.
Thankfully. I was blessed with my own personal army of family, friends, and co-workers who had offered to help me out with whatever I might need, including meals and rides to doctors’ appointments. But.as grateful as I was, there really was only one person who I wanted by my side - my mom. My mother lived more than 300 miles away, but didn’t even give it a second thought. She was going to be my primary caregiver, chauffeur, personal chef, nursemaid, communications liaison, counselor, and shoulder to cry on. No one else in the world could fill her shoes. It was a job that only she could do.
The night after my first chemotherapy treatment is forever imprinted in my memory. I was never so sick in my entire life. I couldn’t even keep down a glass of water. And after-hours spent in the bathroom, I weakly lifted myself into bed, weeping, “Please, take this away from me. Please make me feel better.” At that moment, my mother crawled into bed with me, wrapped her entire body around me, and cried with me. Just like when I was a little girl, her arms enveloping me made it better.
注意：l. 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。
Over the next six months, my mom traveled back and forth between two homes and two lives.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I think about what my mother sacrificed while I was going through such a tough time in my life.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________During winter, Leo noticed that of all the houses on the block, there was one with a messy, dirty yard that looked unattended. One day, after all the snow had melted and the trees were starting to bloom (开花) just in time for spring, Leo couldn’t help but stare at his neighbor’s messy yard a little longer. The melted snow showed all the buried leaves and other trash.
He went back home and brought the tools he needed. It took Leo the entire afternoon to clear the yard. He moved the melting snow out of the pathway and swept the leaves from the ground. He also trimmed (修剪) the bushes and left them as neat as he could.
The following morning, the old woman, Abigail, opened her door with joy. She had quietly watched the young man clean up the yard the day before, much to her relief.
Abigail had not left her house in months. She relied totally on her caregiver for her basic needs and was eager to get fresh air. After sitting in her wheelchair in her front yard for a couple of minutes, her neighbors started to notice her. They walked toward her to say hi, and soon, the crowd grew.
“It’s so lovely to see you outdoors, Abigail! How have you been?” one of them asked.
“I’m so happy to be breathing some fresh air for a change. I couldn’t leave the house for months because of the snow. It was too deep, and I couldn’t afford to hi re someone to help me with it,” Abigail admitted.
“But yesterday, I saw a kind young man cleaning my yard the entire afternoon. I wanted to thank him, but I had no food to offer him because my caregiver had not arrived yet,” she shared. “He is such a blessing. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw him!”
When Abigail praised the “kind young man” who helped her, they immediately knew it was Leo. The neighbors looked at each other, with guilty all over their faces. They realized they had been so blind to Abigail’s problems that no one thought to help her by cleaning her yard.
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。
They decided to thank Leo by visiting his house.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When he opened his front door, Leo was surprised to see his neighbors bearing gifts.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________On rainy days, Juanita liked to climb the attic (阁楼) stairs and play with her stuffed animals (毛绒玩具) under the roof. Here she could hear the drumming sound of the rain. The attic was dark on stormy days, but Juanita thought it was comfortable to have only one light bulb (灯泡) on.
Today, Juanita was pretending that her stuffed animals were Olympic athletes. The event was the high jump, so Juanita threw them into the air to see how high they could fly. Tom, her stuffed monkey, flew so high that he hit the ceiling and went over into a dark corner.
When Juanita went to find Tom, she saw a box on the floor in the corner. It was dusty (布满灰尘的), with gold corners and a metal lock that held it shut. Its key was lying just beside it. She had never noticed this box before. What could be inside?
Juanita brought the box and the key over to the middle of the attic, under the light bulb where she could see better. She opened it carefully and looked inside. Inside the box were a lot of black and white photos. Most of them were of a small girl with her hair braided (编辫子).
The girl looked just like Juanita! This was confusing. “I’ve never been to that house,” she thought as she looked through the photos. There was a gray farmhouse in the background of each picture. How could Juanita be in pictures of a place she had never been to?
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。
Juanita ran downstairs with the photos to show her mom.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Juanita asked her mom to take some photos for her and hang them up with Grandma’s.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When I was a young father, every weekend and festival, my wife and I would take our kids to her family gathering. It always took place at a picnic area on the side of a mountain. On the top of the mountain was her family’s house. The road to the top of it wasn’t quite smooth. Even when the weather was fine, it was a difficult ride with a dirt road full of potholes, sharp turns, and sticking rocks that could break the bottom of your car if you hit them wrong.
If it had recently rained, you had to go quick, or you ran the risk of getting your car stuck in the mud. Cars would roar up the road fast, and then look for parking spots along the side of the hill in the grassy areas. You always had to keep your eyes on the road even when you were stepping out of your car.
On one of these gatherings, I remember seeing a small tortoise (乌龟) enjoying sunlight on the top of a rock near the end of the road near a small wood, which belonged to my wife’s family. I watched as one car sped by and almost hit him on the right. Then another car ran past even faster and nearly knocked him off the stone on the left.
The small tortoise pulled his head into his shell (壳) both times, thinking that would protect him, but I knew if one car ran over the little tortoise, he would be dead. I quickly walked over and picked him up before the next car came speeding up the hill. Then I walked him deep into the nearby woods. Finally, I found another stone where he might enjoy the sun in safety and left him there in peace.
Unfortunately, on this road, I often found dead or injured small animals.
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。
Once I found an injured little rabbit lying on the roadside.
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I decided to take measures to protect the small animals in the wood.
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Every Sunday, June, a six-year-old girl, tied her sports shoes and walked to Grandpa’s house. Grandpa lived around the block(街区), and June was allowed to walk there by herself. Grandpa often told her stories. They also ate ice cream together while they talked. Sunday was June’s favorite day.
This Sunday, June got dressed. She put on one sports shoe, but she could not find the other shoe. “Mommy, where’s my shoe?”
“I’m sure it’s in your room. Look carefully until you find it. You can’t go until you have both shoes on,” June’s mother said.
June sat on her bed and looked around. Her room was quite messy. There were clothes on the floor and papers on the desk. She wasn’t sure where to start.
Then June remembered a story Grandpa told her. When he was little, he lost a coin that he planned to use to buy his mother a candy. He walked back over every place he had been to that day until he found it. He had to go in order so he wouldn’t miss anything.
June stood up. “I’ll start in the corner and go around the room in order,” she thought. “That way I won’t miss anything.”
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。
June began in the corner where her desk was.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________June quickly put on her shoe and ran out of the door to Grandpa’s house.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Denia Escutia, born in Pajaro, dreamed of moving to Southern California to learn how to care for sick kids in University of California at Los Angeles(UCLA). But when a river swallowed her town and destroyed her home, she delayed those dreams to take care of her family instead.
Escutia, who is 18, is a recent high school graduate. In the predawn hours of March 11, Escutia woke up to find flood water in her room, which was ankle-deep in just a few minutes.
Ecutia’s family, scared and panicked, unplugged appliances and threw anything they could onto tables, counters and beds. But Escutia’s family didn’t feel like they needed to leave.
Her mom was shocked by electrical currents in the water. That’s when her family decided to flee, escaping in waist-deep water to an apartment building across the street. A few hours later, they caught a ride out of the town in military rescue vehicles. On the way to her grandmother’s, Escutia wondered if she would ever call Pajaro home again.
When she returned to Pajaro in late March, she found her house was filled with mud. A photo of her in a blue and black dress still hung on the living room wall. But the house was not fit to live in.
Leaving the house she grew up in, Escutia locked the door. Officials hung a yellow and black sign from the house that read: “Lawful only to enter for permitted cleanup purposes. ”
Escutia had just been admitted to UCLA. She had not yet shared the good news with her family. After the flood, her happy secret quickly transformed into a burden. She couldn’t decide between pursuing her dream in Southern California and staying to help her family.
“I haven’t told my parents yet, but I was planning on telling them,” she said to her teacher. “All I can think about is how I’ m going to be able to help my parents through this, especially financially.”
Escutia’s mother searched all over the area to find a new home to rent but she didn’t find any in her price range. The family were in a seemingly endless search for affordable housing.
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作答。
At last, one of Escutia’s teachers invited her family to live in her house.
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Escutia finally told her parents that she had been admitted to UCLA.
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One pleasant New-year morning, Edward rose, and washed and dressed himself in a hurry. He wanted to be first to wish a happy New Year to his family. He turned up at every door of the house, and shouted the words of “Happy New Year” in an excited voice. After a quick breakfast, he hopped along the street like a happy bird, greeted and repeated the words to those he met.
When he came back, his father gave him 50 dollars, saying he could buy whatever he had been wishing for. His face lighted up as he took them. He had wished for a long time to buy some interesting books that he had seen at the bookstore. He thanked his father and danced out of the house again with a light heart, wanting to buy those books.
As he ran down the street, he noticed a poor German family, the father, mother, and three children trembling with cold. “I wish you a happy New Year,” said Edward, as he was happily passing on. The man took a look at the happy boy and shook his head sadly.
Edward stopped and said, “It seems that you do not belong to this country” The man again shook his head, a confused expression appeared over his face, for he could not understand or speak English.
But the poor man pointed to his mouth, and to the children with hungry looks, as if to say, “These little ones have had nothing to eat for a long time.”
Edward quickly understood that these poor people were in difficult situation.
注意:1.续写词数应为150左右;
2.请按如下格式在相应位置作答。
Paragraph 1:
He took out his dollars, and gave them all to the man.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2:
When Edward went home, his father asked what book he had bought.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________1.你的经历；
2.你的感想。
注意：
1.写作词数应为80个左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
A First Aid Experience
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Once upon a time, there lived a young man who wished he could support himself. While exploring what business he would take on, he met a very well-traveled man. The man told the young man great tales of his travel, and then he talked about a country that had no onions.
Without any further thoughts, he bought onions, filled his cart and set his journey towards this wildly fantastic land without onions. Finally, after several days he arrived in the onion-less country. “I bring you a great gift from my country,” the young man proudly announced. “The plant is native to my place but new to yours. It has the unique ability to improve the flavor (滋味) of any food. It would be great if I could offer you this magic plant which you, in turn, introduce to your people.” The emperor was a little cautious about letting the strange plant in at first, but he later allowed the young man to prepare some foods using the onions.
The young man used all his skills to prepare the feast using the onions. All the empire’s ministers, the nobility and senior officials were invited to the dinner that night. After the young man did the initial tasting, the feast began. Then, everyone in the room started eating the food. It didn’t take long for the hall to get into a great noise of excitement. All praised the smell and the taste of the food. The emperor thanked the young man a lot, demanded all of the onions, and paid him its weight in gold.
On his journey back home, the young man met a trader. For hours that night, the young man told what he had seen in that faraway land, where gold was worth less than onions. He also told the trader that he learned that the country did not have garlic (大蒜). The trader was excited.
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。
The trader carried huge bags of garlic and took on the journey to the country without garlic.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The trader was very excited and made several tasty dishes using garlic.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________It’s still light out, and Dad isn’t home yet. He works all day cleaning pools. In South Port. Florida, that means a lot of pools. Mom tells us we need to wait for dinner so all of us can eat together. Even when Dad doesn’t get home until after eight or eight thirty, usually on days when he has to clean the urban pool. I don’t mind. If Dad’s late, it means I can spend more time outside playing basketball with my brother.
A few years ago. when there was more money to spend and life was normal, before some of Dad’s customers who had lost their jobs told him they couldn’t afford to pay Dad to clean their pools anymore, Dad bought us a backboard and hoop (篮筐) and paid someone to install a tall metal pole on the side of the driveway so we could have our own basketball court.
My brother and I would shoot baskets from morning to night if Mom let us. but she says homework always comes first. Still, during the summer months, between part-time jobs delivering newspapers, cutting lawns. and helping Dad clean pools, we come pretty close to spending as much of the day as we can on the court. We practice all sorts of shots. When I was in the court, all the problems of the world seem to fade away. Each time the ball leaves my hands. I feels like I’ve just discovered the secret of flight.
Yesterday Dad came home and told us he’d lost more customers. His shoulders slumped (耷拉) forward with tiredness. and he couldn’t hide the worry in his eyes. He stood a moment by the side of the pickup to stretch his arms and caught his breath, and for a moment he closed his eyes. In that moment the sunlight revealed a lot more wrinkles (皱纹) in his face than I remember.
“We must do something to make Dad courageous again,” I whispered to my brother.
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After the basketball match, father was relaxed and refreshed.
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