Mrs Flippen’s class sat listening to a talk being given by a local author. Tucker sat absent-minded in one of the library chairs. Most of the students wanted to hear about the writer’s work. Tucker did not.
“Why bother?” Tucker thought to himself. He always received low marks on his writing assignments, no matter how hard he worked on them. He could never think of anything interesting to write about.
“Does anyone have any questions?” Mrs Flippen asked her class.
Tucker raised his hand, “How do you know what to write about?”
“Well, sometimes I don’t,” the author replied. “It takes a lot of hard work to come up with ideas.” She reached down and pulled a worn-looking book from a cloth bag on the floor. “I find making a scrapbook (剪贴簿) helps.”
Tucker sat up a little straighter in his seat. “What’s in the book?” he asked.
“I fill it with pictures, stories, and notes about things that interest me.” The writer opened the scrapbook on her knee. “When I need an idea, I look through the book instead of staring at a blank page.”
Tucker thought about the author’s scrapbook as he walked home. He thought about staring at a blank page each time he tried to write a story. Digging in his bookcase, Tucker found an old binder (活页夹). He filled the binder with notepaper from his desk. After supper, Tucker cut some pictures out of the newspaper. Then he drew some pictures of his own. He cut and pasted (粘贴) stories from his old magazines. Then he looked up the words he did not know and wrote down their meanings.
In the days and weeks that followed, Tucker collected more ideas. He found that the more he collected, the easier it became to find things to collect. Tucker’s book of ideas grew fatter and fatter.
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。
One morning, Mrs Flippen told the class about a story writing competition.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Then came the day when the headmaster announced the result.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When we were finally dismissed from the last class of the day, the students streamed out of the classrooms. It was another boring day after school. I dragged my feet home as I sighed. Yet another uneventful day, I thought. Little did I know that the day would take a turn for the worse.
The lift lobby (电梯间) of my flat was old and dirty. The walls, which were painted white, had been dirtied over many years. I reached my flat’s lobby, and pressed the lift button and went in. Just then, Mrs Lim, my elderly neighbour, hobbled (蹒跚) in. She looked ancient with tissue paper white hair, wearing a faded old-fashioned dress. I held the lift door open, flashing a friendly smile, and politely greeted her. I asked her how she felt that day and pressed the buttons. She thanked me for being so polite, then we were silent for the rest of the ride.
The lift fell down increasingly fast. There were loud clanking sounds here and there while the lift grew slower and slower. My heart beat hard and fast as my hands turned cold and wet with sweat. Unfortunately, the lift came to an abrupt stop at the fifth floor. I pressed the buttons hard several times, but it was of no help. The lights on the buttons had gone out. It soon dawned on me that we were trapped. An icy fear crept up my spine. Mrs Lim was hysterical (歇斯底里).
“We will never get out!” she cried with her face pale. It had become a colourless mask. I had no time to lose. I pressed the bell in the lift immediately. The sound was surely deafening, but what other choice did I have? Mrs Lim burst into tears. I tried my very best to comfort her, telling her that everything would be all right and that we needed to find out how to get out safely. Mrs Lim began having trouble breathing, and I immediately helped her sit down and loosened her collar.
Paragraph 1: Several minutes passed, but no help came.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2: Bang! My hopes were lifted when I heard the firefighters on the other side of the lift door.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________In the quiet of the earthquake shelter, I found myself calling out to a nameless cat, hoping for the familiar sound of a meow or the sight of a black and white figure running toward me. My worry grew as time passed, realizing that the cat I had been feeding for months, the highlight of my day, was nowhere to be seen.
Our unlikely friendship began on a cold night as I sat on those same cement (水泥) steps, rain soaking through my pants. The only light came from my last cigarette, exposing the pieces of a broken picture frame and a handwritten letter illustrating the consequences of the earthquake on my computer screen. Having experienced the impact of an explosion in the earthquake, I returned home with a severe brain injury and PTSD, facing challenges in adapting at Fort Riley, Kansas. Anxiety seized me, and each day felt like a struggle. That night, as I wrestled with the pain of depression with the last drag of my cigarette, a faint “Meow?” echoed through the darkness.
A small black and white kitten with round green eyes emerged from the bushes, wet and seeking shelter. Fearlessly, he approached me, rubbing against my legs. As I reached down to pet him, he leaned into my touch, purring (猫的呼噜声). In that moment, tears blending with the rain on my face, I found an unexpected companion. The kitten stood there, as if understanding my desperate need for companionship.
Looking into his eyes, I realized he was a wanderer. The plan to end it all was briefly set aside; now, my mission was to find him food. The cigarette was forgotten as I stood up, determined to tackle his problems since I couldn’t face my own.
A routine developed—daily visits to the back steps with a packet of tuna (金枪鱼) and a paper plate. The kitten, a source of comfort and purpose, became more than just a reason to live. Over time, he inspired me to seek help for my depression and find the confidence to enter a serious relationship with Becky, a high school classmate from Pittsburgh.
Despite the fear of losing my new found companion, roll call and the early morning darkness forced me indoors. Worried that I had seen the last of him, I called Becky, expressing my concerns. The hope of his return remained, but he never did.
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。
One day, Becky and I found an animal adoption event near the base, surrounded by various cats.
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In July 2009, Scout moved with me to Pittsburgh.
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I wanted to go to a party. Especially it was a beach party. It had been almost the only thing my friends had been talking about for the last couple of weeks. But My mom had said no. The more desperately I pleaded her case, the more forcefully my mother said no. “I don’t care who’s going,” said coldly my mother, “you are not going.” I was heartbroken. This was my best friend’s party.
Sunday dinner came around and my grandmother joined the family for the meal. Gran noticed my depression but didn’t say a word. It was my turn to wash up and Gran said, “Let me help you.” “What’s up?” asked Gran as I dumped the dishes into the foaming water. Gran wiped a plate with a tea towel. “Mom won’t let me go to my best friend’s party.” I said sadly. “Has mom explained why she doesn’t want you to go?” asked Gran. “No.” I replied. “Then for a moment, put yourself in her position.” said Gran. “If you were mom, what would your objections be?”
I hadn’t stopped to think about my mom’s side. “Well,” I answered, “it’s a beach party. Maybe she doesn’t trust us or thinks we’ll get into trouble.”
“Are there going to be any adults there?” asked Gran. “No,” I said, “who wants their parents hanging around when you’re trying to have fun?” “Might it just be,” said Gran, “your mother doesn’t want anything unfortunate to happen to you.”“Nothing will happen.” I objected. “Maybe you’re right,” said Gran, “but maybe mom’s worried in case it could.”
Gran looked at me gently, seeming to expect my agreement. For a minute or so, I kept silent, pondering for a while about my eagerness for the party. “Maybe, you are right, however, is there no hope?” I inquired. “Not necessarily.” answered Gran, lost in thought.
Paragraph 1: “Then maybe think of a compromise.” suggested Gran.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2: The long-awaited beach party finally came.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When Mary entered the south Pole Penguin Research Lab, she saw her friend Tom gently stroking (轻抚) a penguin in his arms. As children of the lab scientists, Mary and Tom often observed the emperor penguins that were studied to understand how they adapted to extreme temperatures —insights that could aid human survival.
“We’re thirteen, Tom. It’s time to grow up and stop playing with the lab penguins,” said Mary as she started cleaning. “They’re research animals, not pets.”
“But the birds listen to me1” insisted Tom, his breath forming a cloud in the freezing air. “You’re just trying to be a penguin whisperer again,” Mary replied, shaking her head with a gentle smile. The penguins seemed playful as they walked, dove, swam and chased their live fish for sport before eating.
Suddenly , an alarm rang out and red lights flashed , signaling a problem. The kids rushed over to look into it. “It’s colder than before —there’s ice forming on the water,” noted Tom. Though always cold, Mary had never seen ice here before. She checked the habitat monitor and found that the temperature had gone down a lot. “The heater must be broken!”
Mary quickly sent a message to their parents’ research team, who were conducting outdoor studies. With the adults away, the kids would have to deal with the freezing conditions until help arrived.
Time dragged as Mary and Tom anxiously waited. The increasing cold caused them to shake. “I wonder what emperor penguins do in extreme cold, since they stay in the Pole all winter instead of going somewhere warmer,” asked Mary. “They huddle (挤作一团), ” Tom answered. “They huddle together tightly so that the birds in the middle will be warm enough.” “What about the ones on the edge?” Mary asked. “They push their way towards the center, and then move back out to the edge, and struggle back again. Scientists in the early 21st century recorded it.” He replied as he stared at the large crowd of the penguins in the lab.
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。
”I have an idea to stay warm1" Tom shouted excitedly.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Two and a half hours later , the parents returned with help.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Born into a medical family, Amar, a 15-year-old boy, was expected to be a doctor, but deep down in his heart, he was eager to take up writing as his future career. He was in a great dilemma whether to pursue his dream or live up to his parents’ expectation. until one day when his father gifted him a parrot.
The parrot had two hazy lines in her neck: black and red. Amar knew the hazy lines mark the stage of learning. “When there is a good teacher, how can his student be stupid” ,he used to believe. It was absolutely true.
Metto’s cage was yellow with a big door and a shiny silver rod (杆) running through the centre. Metto’s world was fantastic, surrounded by eight-foot white walls with some plum trees. And a lawn, with a palm tree in the middle, was dotted with multiple-color roses.
Back home from school every afternoon, Amar always slid the door of the cage up for Metto to set her free nearby the palm tree. Metto could set herself free because she learned how to slide up the door but she had never tried to do so. It was either love with Amar or, might be, she had never tasted the taste of a bigger world.
Amar always talked with Metto in Pashto (普什图语). Whenever Amar fished out peanuts from his pocket, Metto talked frequently “Toti choori khore” —parrot! Wanna eat choori. She had learned one more sentence after meeting with a friend belonging to jungle outside the white walls. She always said that at the end of meal “Da wakht bam teer she”—this shall to be passed, which Amar had never taught her.
Amar saw her friend coming daily and sitting in the plum tree nearby Metto’s cage. He let them and did nothing. “The new one can never succeed in winning her. After all, I feed her well. She will never leave me”, Amar murmured. But he didn’t know the new teacher had taught her something the old one hadn’t. It was the outer world with untouchable horizon.
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。
One day, on the way to feed her, Amar was shocked at what Metto was doing.
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His head hanging down; Amar came back home after long running.
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From the day Tony was born, Jeff refused to let his son’s disabilities hold him back. Tony has cerebral palsy (脑瘫), making it difficult for him to walk. Determined to show Tony that he could pursue his dream of being an athlete, when he was 15 years old, Jeff signed him up with Team Triumph, an organization that helps kids with disabilities engage in endurance sports.
“It gave me a new perspective on life, Tony said. He even dreamed of walking marathon one day. From then on, Tony became addicted to racing, and Jeff also wanted to be a part of it. Though Jeff had been a minor league baseball player, endurance (耐力) sports were new to him. He made up his mind to achieve Tony’s dream and started doing things he never dreamed about. He began waking up at 4 a. m. So he could run in the silent street while pushing Tony in a special wheelchair called a racing chair. Every morning, he drove himself to run increasingly longer distances. Soon, he and Tony were entering 5K races, then on to Iron-man triathlons.
Finishing the Iron-man competition in under 16 hours would be another dream for Jeff and Tony. The big day came. The race began with a 2.4-mile swim in the river. Jeff helped Tony into a kayak (皮船). With one end of a rope tied to a belt around his back and the other end to the kayak, Jeff eased himself into the water. Swimming while dragging another person is quite tough. The pair completed the swim in 90 minutes, and then it was on to the next leg; a 112-mile bicycle ride. Their custom-built bike had an additional seat in the back for Tony that faced backward.
After completing the demanding bike part in roughly nine hours, they set their sights on the final leg of the race-a 26.2-mile marathon with Jeff pushing Tony in the racing chair. They’d been competing for 10 hours, with only 6 hours left for the race. The first 7 miles went smoothly.
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。
But at mile 19, Jeff began to worry they were going too slow.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Jeff handed Tony his rolling walker (助行器).
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When Rebecca got home, the first thing she had to do was her homework. She had to write a composition this time. While Rebecca was thinking about her teacher’s instruction that it was always the easiest to write about the most familiar things, she watched her cat slowly approach a fly that had flown to the edge of the bed. Just as a surprise attack was about to be carried out, the fly suddenly flew away. The cat fell off the bed, landed on the floor on her back and looked around as if to say “What happened?” Rebecca laughed hard. That was when she decided to write a piece about her cat.
Having finished her homework, Rebecca was staying inside and playing with her cat when her mum called her to dinner.
“What was the best thing that happened to you today?” asked her dad. It was always the first question he asked as they sat down to dinner. Rebecca wasted no time telling her parents about her cat.
After she told hers, Rebecca’s dad asked, “So,what was the worst?”
Rebecca wore a worried expression. “So what shall I do?” she asked. “There was a new girl whose name was Mary Brown in my class. I want to talk to Mary Brown but I don’t want to risk losing my old friends.
Her dad thought for a moment, and asked, “Rebecca, what do you think courage mean?”
“Isn’t that when soldiers go to war to fight?”
“Well, yes. That is one kind of courage,“ replied her dad. ”Mostly, people are afraid because they might get hurt, or they think people won’t like them. It’s a different kind of courage to do something when you are afraid. “That is called moral courage”, explained her dad.
Rebecca’s mum reached over, holding her daughter’s hands, and said,“Your friends will understand you and still be your friends. If they don’t, then they really aren’t your friends anyway. And you might end up with an even better friend with Mary Brown.”
"The next day at school, Rebecca’s classmates and she all had to read their compositions, and everyone liked Rebecca’s, especially Mary.
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。
By lunch time the next day, Rebecca knew exactly what she was going to do.
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Rebecca asked Mary if she would like to play football with them.
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I was eight years old and wasn’t aware of all the arrangements being made for our journey as a family to London in 1950. My mother was in great pain and wished to visit specialists in London. My father reluctantly had to sell our property in Queensland. The day before we boarded the ship, Father unwillingly said goodbye to his five-year-old cattle dog, Spider, who was loved by us all. Father’s friend Sandy was to be his guardian while we were overseas, as he had been getting to know Spider for many weeks.
Six weeks later, an airletter arrived from Sandy, giving my father the news that Spider had run away just two weeks after we had sailed. Sandy had advertised constantly on ABC and other regional newspapers. Despite many “sightings”, the dog was never found. It seems Spider just kept running and searching for us. As he was cattle dog, my father thought he would shoe or dingo-trapped, because of his appearance. But our family thought that Father held a secrets hope that Spider was still alive.
We sailed back to Australia two years later and re-established our home. My father immediately began his own search for Spider. One cold winter’s Saturday morning eight months after our return, my father had a call from an elderly lady living on her own on the outskirts of the town. As she told my father on the telephone, it was “just glimpses of a dingo-type dog in the shadows” of her disused tennis court. That was enough for my father to interrupt my homework.
We set off in his blue and black Jensen car which he had brought back from England. It was hardly the right vehicle for the rough roads we travelled that day. Five and a half hours later, we found the run-down old property. Sadly, she told my father that the “dingo dog” hadn’t been around for a few days. My father had a strange look in his eye. He put two fingers to his lips and did his special whistle for Spider.
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。
Suddenly there was a sound in the bush.
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Once home we had the task of getting all the prickles (刺) off him.
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An Outdoor Trip That Speaks Louder Than A Regular Class
One day, as Jack, a science teacher, stressed the pressing need for protecting Tangerine Darters, a kind of fish, students in his class seemed uninterested and bored. Jack continued, but his students showed little enthusiasm.
He paused for a moment, allowing the silence to settle in the classroom. Then he went on in a different way.
“Imagine,” Jack began, his voice filled with passion, “the feeling of wading (趟水) through the clear shallow waters of Pigeon River, surrounded by the gentle sunlight. Picture the colors of the Tangerine Darters as they gracefully swim through the currents, their orange bellies (肚子) shining like rays of sunshine, or in that moment, a Tangerine Darter in your hands, its orange belly shining in the sunlight.” He painted a vivid picture with his words. Curiosity lit in his students’ eyes as they bent forward, eager to know more.
Jack continued, “The darters are very picky about their habitats. The place where they live should be very clean, and slight pollution could drive them away or even endanger their very existence.”
As Jack spoke, his passion spread quickly among his students, who started to ask questions, wanting to know more about the Tangerine Darters. Inspired by their newfound interest, Jack had an idea. Why not take students to the Pigeon River, where they can witness the beauty of the Tangerine Darters firsthand?
A week later, they were on the trip to the Pigeon River in Canton, North Carolina, where the environment was well preserved in comparison with other industrial areas.
Sunshine bounced off the Pigeon River, and cool water flowed over rocks and boulders (卵石)—the preferred habitat of Tangerine Darters. With Jack, it was the first time that the students had stood in the shallow water, eager to see their target of this fish eco logy class field trip.
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。
Suddenly, Jack bent and quickly caught a fish.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Seeing the students’ interested looks, Jack raised a question.
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