July 1971, I was taking a summer class in Black-American literature on the campus of SUNY Oneonta in northern New York. Professor James walked into the classroom and announced that he had invited a special guest to class, but his guest was delayed. The class stirred with curiosity and anticipation.
“Who’s coming?” someone asked.
“All I will tell you is that he is the author of one of the books you have read for this class,” he said. “I need a volunteer to meet him in the hall of the administration building and take him here.”
To my amazement, my right hand shot up as though it had a mind of its own. “What am I doing?” I thought. I never volunteered for anything. I was shy and uncomfortable meeting new people. In fact, I was absolutely the wrong person for this job. Realizing my mistake, I pulled my hand down quickly, but it was too late.
“Thank you, David,” Professor James said. “You’d better leave now. He’ll be arriving any minute.”
Seeing no way to back out, I reluctantly got out of my seat and headed for the classroom door. When I reached it, I stopped.
“Umm,” I said. “If I don’t know who this person is, how will I recognize him? I’d hate to bring back the wrong guy.”
Professor James laughed. “Good point,” he said. He pulled me aside and whispered a name in my ear. “Alex Haley,” he said.
“Really?” I said. I gave a thumbs-up to the class and left the room.
As I entered the empty hallway, I criticized myself for volunteering. “Why didn’t you let someone else do this?” Alex Haley was the author of The Autobiography (自传) of Malcolm X. He was also famous for his diligence, perseverance and in-depth thinking.
As I walked across the campus, my anxiety grew. I feared that I was about to embarrass myself in front of this famous gentleman by asking stupid questions, or worse, accompanying him in painful silence. I reached the front steps and climbed them slowly.
注意：1.所续写短文的词数应为150 左右;
2.续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好。
As I pulled open the heavy glass door, I realized why I raised my hand to volunteer for this job.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“I’d like to become a writer, but I don’t know if I have the talent,” I said.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________One weekend, Mum and Dad both had to work, which meant that neither of them had time to look after Joe and Bella. But the two kids didn’t mind. They were going to spend the weekend with Gran, and Gran had promised to take them to the beach! But when they woke up on Saturday morning, and looked out of the window, they found the rain was pouring down!
Bella pressed her nose against the glass and said hopefully, “We can still go, can’t we?” But when Gran arrived to collect them, it was still pouring, and Gran said they would just have to spend the day at her house instead.
They tried taking Gran’s dog, Selby, for a walk, but when they opened the door, Selby took one look and ran back inside again! They did some homework, ready for Monday, and when they stopped — it was still raining Eventually, Gran went off to do some housework. Joe decided to do more homework. He had tests coming up at school and Mum and Dad were always on at him to work harder. Joe asked his sister to keep quiet. After a while, though, he heard noises from the kitchen. What was Bella up to? He got up and looked round the door. Bella was mixing something in a huge mixing bowl.
“What’s that?” Joe asked, a little annoyed.
“It’s a lovely cake,” said Bella happily. “But you can’t have any.”
“That’s a relief,”said Joe. “Because it looks terrible. And it smells worse!”
The cake mixture had all kinds of things in it and the smell was like no cake that Joe had ever smelled before!
“It’s not for humans,” said Bella. “It’s for dogs. I’ve made it specially for Selby, because he couldn’t go for his walk.”
“Well, I hope Selby likes it,” Joe said.
But Selby didn’t like it. When Bella put it down on the floor for him to eat, Selby took one smell and then ran out of the room! Bella burst into tears.
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。
Gran came running into the kitchen. She asked what happened.
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After they made a beautiful cake for humans, the rain stopped.
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