In a small town located in the mountains, there was a young boy named Owen. He was crazy about basketball more than anything else in the world. He would spend hours every day practicing his dribbling (运球), shooting and passing. He dreamed of one day winning games on a team.
Owen’s town had a small basketball court that was often empty. Owen would go there every day after school to practice. One day, as he was shooting hoops (投篮), he heard a voice behind him, “Hey, kid! You’re pretty good!”
Owen turned around to see a tall man with a friendly smile. The man introduced himself as Coach Johnson and asked Owen if he wanted to join his basketball team. The team was made up of kids from all over the town, and they practiced every day after school.
Owen was overjoyed because he had never played on a team before. He wanted to start and win games. Owen quickly became the star player of the team.
However, the team never won a game. “I had trained so hard and performed excellently, but we were always losing! Jack should have run much faster towards me and Kris should have passed the ball to me!” Owen kept complaining to the coach.
The complaint seemed understandable! Owen was admired by his teammates because he was fast and had incredible shots. However, Johnson knew Owen lacked something important. He told Owen to learn to play with his teammates as a team instead of just focusing on himself. Owen didn’t quite understand that at first and insisted he just needed to practice harder to win games.
However, disaster struck. Owen injured his ankle one day and had to sit out for several weeks, which let him fall into anxiety. He felt his dream was slipping away.
During his recovery at home, Owen refused to see anyone on the team, except his coach. Johnson handed Owen a phone downloaded with some videos about the best basketball teams and some cards from Owen’s teammates.
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。
Owen couldn’t wait to watch those videos.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________After recovering, Owen returned to his team as a changed player.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________In 2019, an unattractive package arrived at my front door. Inside was a 2-by-4-foot scrapbook (剪贴簿) filled with candy wrappers over 70 years old. It was sent by Jeffrey S. Green, who was a famous candy company’s vice president. After the company closed down, the scrapbook traveled 2,950 miles to La Verne, California, to the farm my family and I call home.
I’m the founder of the online website “Roadside Attraction: Candy Wrapper Museum”, where I share my 50-year collection of little slips of paper, designed to be tom and thrown away. Why? Because these small objects serve as time machines, opening an emotional door to the past.
I was 15 years old when I started collecting candy wrappers, inspired by friends with cool collections like beer bottles from around the world. Some of their collections are classified either by size and color as well as sports or people. Inspired by these novel collections, I wanted to start one of my own, but of what? I usually spent my few coins on candy at the candy shop. The candy shelves were a wonderland of tasty treats with colorful wrappers in different themes, all shouting: Pick me! Big Bears, Milk Duds, Jujyfruits, Choco’Lite, Lemonhead… How could a girl decide?
Then inspiration struck. Instead of throwing away those wrappers, I would save them. I would create a Candy Wrapper Museum. I hoped that the wrappers would one day be enjoyed as art, nostalgia (怀旧) and humor. It was 1977 when I was a teenager. An idea struck me: I would collect these wrappers throughout my lifetime, then open up the museum as a roadside attraction in my old age. I chose my first pieces, Nice Mice and Cinnamon Teddy Bears, and so began this journey.
My family were the first to leave the candy wrappers to me. Then the relatives. My friends caught the spirit of fun and donated pieces. Collecting became an affordable, novel way to explore the world around me, one that could turn even an ordinary shopping trip into a treasure hunt.
In 2002, inspiration struck again. Why wait until retirement? Why not open the museum right now on the internet, the ultimate “superhighway”?
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。
Building the online museum was a massive six-month, one-person project.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When the museum was launched, I doubted whether anyone would be interested.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Crane climbed into the last remaining lifeboat. Three men got into the boat with him. They were the ship’s captain, the cook and a sailor named Billie. For three days, the men steered the small boat through high waves along the coast of Florida. At last, they saw land.
A long stretch of coast lay before the eyes of the men. Slowly, the land rose up out of the mountainous sea. The men could see a small house against the sky. To the south, they could see a lighthouse. Tide, wind and waves were pushing the lifeboat northward. The men thought someone on land would have seen the boat by now.
The men waited and waited but nothing happened.
The waves grew stronger. They seemed always just about to break and roll over the little boat. The coast was still far away. The sailor said: “Boys, the boat won’t live three minutes more, and we’re too far out to swim. Shall I take her to sea again, captain?”
“Yes! Go ahead!” said the captain. The sailor turned the boat and took her safely out to sea again.
“It’s funny those life-saving people haven’t seen us,” one of the men said.
“Maybe they think we’re out here for sport! Maybe they think we’re fishing. Maybe they think we’re fools.”
The coast was still far away. The sun began to go down. It got dark and cold. Billie rowed, and then Crane took his turn. They rowed and rowed through the long night. The land had disappeared but they could hear the low sound of the waves hitting the shore. This was surely a quiet night.
A night on the sea in an open boat is a long night. The sailor continued to row until his head fell forward and sleep overpowered him. Then he asked Crane to row for a while. They exchanged places so the sailor could sleep in the bottom of the boat with the cook and the captain.
Crane thought that he was the one man afloat on all the oceans in the world. The wind had a sad voice as it came over the waves.
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。
Para.1:
Suddenly, there was a long, loud swishing(嗖嗖声) sound behind the boat and a shining trail of silvery blue.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Para.2:
When day came, the four men saw land again.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Ridoy, a 12-year-old boy, lived a carefree life under good care of his mom and dad. Just like any other boy of his age, he often lost his temper with his parents. Sometimes he obeyed what they said, but sometimes he would completely ignore them. For example, one day, Ridoy’s mom needed to go shopping for some ingredients for cooking and she asked Ridoy to help look after his one-year-old sister. But Ridoy just blurted “no way”, slapped the door and locked himself into his bedroom. There was another time when Ridoy’s dad urgently needed Ridoy to fetch a pair of fliers for him when he was fixing his bike. Ridoy just refused without thinking. But Ridoy’s parents did not worry a lot since this was very common in kids.
It was an unexpected holiday announced by the school of Ridoy and he had a five-day holiday. For the first two days, he spent a good time with his mother. She took him for outings. They went to the beach and amusement parks, and had delicious dining. She cooked his favorite foods and played with him. Three days were left and Ridoy’s mother wanted to clean the house, which she intended to involve Ridoy in. To her surprise, he accepted without hesitation. With the help of Ridoy, the house instantly became very tidy and the floor shone like a mirror. Everything she asked him to do during the three days was done to perfection. Although she was astonished by his behavior, a delicious sweetness well up in Ridoy’s mom’s heart.
While she was cooking the dinner meal on the fifth day, Ridoy gave her a piece of paper written by him. Since his mom was busy cooking, she asked him to place the paper on the dining table. After cooking the meals, she took the paper left by his son. The piece of paper contained the following list:
Cutting grass in the garden -$2
Cleaning the house -$3;
Taking care of my sister -$3;
Removing the garbage -$ 2;
…
In total, you owe me $20
She was literally shocked,
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The boy was in tears when reading the paper.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Everything went according to plan, until it didn’t. The night before my first marathon, I ate the classic runner’ s dinner. That morning, I woke up before my alarm, tiptoed downstairs to toast three waffles and slathered them in peanut butter. I had slept eight hours, my unreliable left knee wasn’t bothering me, my stomach was full. I was ready.
Then my girlfriend, Louisa, knocked on the door asking: “Have you checked your email?” The Twin Cities Marathon in Minneapolis and St. Paul had been canceled. Race officials sent an email at 5: 16 a. m. announcing the race had been called off due to “black flag conditions”-- record-breaking heat.
While I understood why the race organizers didn’t want to put runners at risk, I also knew that I had trained in the baking and humid Washington, D. C. all summer. If I started early and finished around noon, I’d miss the worst heat of the day. Louisa offered to bike alongside me, with water, snacks and salt pills in tow.
I quickly called my friends to figure out what to do. About 40minutes later, we were heading for starting line in downtown Minneapolis, drinking a gallon of water, ready to run our own marathon. There is a psychological difference between running 42. 2 kilometers and running an organized marathon. The distance becomes a shared challenge when you’re running with thousands of others. That gives a runner confidence they can finish the race as well.
“When you’re in that marathon setting, having people on the sidelines, having people running alongside you, maybe running in a new location, there are so many other external things to help keep you focused, “my friend Samson said. The sights and sounds “give you a little of a break from the internal reflection that can happen when you start to struggle.” Indeed, it is a mental race.
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。
On our way to the starting line, we were wondering if anybody else would show up despite the cancellation.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The last 8 kilometers of the Twin Cities Marathon route are largely uphill.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Today was February 5th, a cold rainy morning, the sort of start that made me wish that I could skip school and head back to my warm home, and bed. Though it was my senior year, most days seemed to re-main the same boredom.
Being late for 5 minutes, I dashed up the stairs, swung open the door to my British Literature class, like a sopping wet dog, and plopped down (砰然坐下) in my seat. The eyes around the room glared at me, as my teacher cleared her throat, “Mathew maybe go and see the lost-and-found for a change of clothes.” I felt my face turn red and stormed out quickly.
The lost-and-found bin did not look promising, until I came across an oversized navy coat at the bot-tom. I put it on and zipped up, this would do for the next couple of hours. Freezing up, I dug my hands deeper down into the pockets to keep warm. Then I hit something, and pulled out a somewhat crinkled (皱巴巴的) piece of notebook paper with some words. “To you, yes you.” I read aloud, realizing that this must be a letter from someone. “Dear Person, I don’t know exactly who you are, but I believe that this letter found you for a reason. I am the least likely of people to write something of this sort, but it’s my senior year, and I thought that I would make true friends. If you would like to participate in this experiment, please leave your response in locker 115, second floor.” My eyes brightened.
I finished my letter by the bell, as I made my way through the crowd, Charlie jammed his shoulder into mine from the opposite direction. “Hey! Out of my way!” I shouted. He just ignored me, not looking back. Charlie is popular in our school and people like him (but not me). I know Charlie never likes me, ever since primary school. I finally made it to the second floor, slipped the letter into the locker, and left secretly.
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。
Paragraph 1: Soon my unseen pen pal and I wrote letters every day. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2: I waited for my pen pal in the stadium after school that day.
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Twenty years ago, I drove a taxi for a living. One night I took a fare at 2：30 a.m. When I arrived, the building was dark except for a single light in a ground floor window. I walked to the door and knocked.” Just a minute,” answered a weak, elderly voice. I could hear something being dragged across the floor.
After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her 80s stood before me. She was wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat, like somebody out of a 1940s movie. “Would you carry my bag out to the car？” she said. I took the suitcase to the car, and then returned to assist the woman. She held my arm and we walked slowly toward my car.
She kept thanking me for my kindness. “It’s nothing,” I told her.” I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother treated.”
“Oh, you’re such a good man,” she said. When we got in the car, she gave me an address, and then asked, “Could you drive through downtown?”
I looked in the rear－view mirror(后视镜). Her eyes were shining. “I don’t have any family left,” she continued.” The doctor says I don’t live very long.” I quietly reached over and shut off the meter. “What route would you like me to take?” I asked.
For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked as an operator. We drove through the neighborhood where she and her husband had lived. Sometimes she’d ask me to slow in front of a particular building or corner and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.
As the first ray of the sun appeared, she suddenly said,” I’m tired. Let’s go now.”We drove in silence to the address she had given me. It was a small hospice (临终关怀医院), with a driveway that passed under an entrance hall. Two nurses came out to the car as soon as we pulled up.
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。
I opened the trunk and took the small suitcase to the door.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________On a sunny day with no clouds, Sally sat on a chair in the garden, hemming (缝边) a handkerchief. All of a sudden, there came a little ant. It was in such a hurry. Finally it ran across the small stone table and stopped by her side. The sewing was not done, for Sally easily got a little bit distracted by this little ant. Suddenly, she dropped her thimble (顶针) over the little ant by accident while she was looking at it.“Can it mind? But it is only such a little tiny thing,”said Sally in doubt.
Then Sally ran away, for her mother called her to have lunch, and she forgot all about the ant under the thimble and the handkerchief outside. There the little ant was, running round and round in the dark place, with little horns on its head quivering, little perfect legs bending as beautifully as those of a racehorse, and it was very scared.
If Sally had remembered the ant, she would have heard this little ant say, “I can’t get out! I can’t get out! Is there anyone out there? Can someone help me out?” But unfortunately, till the bedtime, Sally failed to hear the little ant's silent calling and just went to sleep. In the midnight, there was thunder, lightning and heavy rain. The next day, when Sally woke up, she came to the garden, only to find the handkerchief was soaked (湿透的) as if somebody had been crying very much. When she was about to fetch it as soon as the sun shone, it suddenly came to her who was under the thimble. “Oh, how could I forget that little ant? I hope the little ant is doing fine,”said Sally, running with her worried face.
But when she lifted up the thimble, what came to her sight was the little tiny an t lay stiff and still. It seemed like this little poor thing was away from this world. “Oh, did it die of being under the thimble?”Sally said aloud with her trembling voice. “Why did you do that, Sally?”said her father, who was close by and looked unsatisfied.
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。
“Dad, I didn’t mean to,” said Sally.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Where is the ant in such a hurry to go, Sally?” said her father.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
One day my mom and I read a story on a magazine called Humane Society News. A wild dog named Solo died for lack of medical care after he was ill. I knew how sad the story was because my own dog, Kela, had recently died. My world had ended when I lost Kela. She had been my best friend since I could remember. The article continued to tell about wildlife rehabilitators. They nursed the sick animals back to health, but as more and more animals were rescued, the medical expense became a big burden for them. I immediately determined to do something for them. I may be a kid, but why can’t I do a fund-raiser to help save more dogs?
My mom thought it was hard for an eleven-year-old girl to raise, but she told me to go ahead and try it anyway. I realized that I needed a name for the fund-raiser and thought since I was trying to protect dogs’ life, I would call my program Help Dogs. I decided that pet stores would be really good places to go with donation boxes and Help Dogs flyers (传单). I used little green Chinese take-out boxes, decorated with a picture of Tiko, one of the dogs I chose to help, and me. I wrote on each box “Help protect the life of dogs by donating a dollar”. I thought my actions might not raise much money for the dogs, but they can at least increase people’s awareness of wild animals protection.
One afternoon, after all the boxes had been distributed throughout our community, I got a call from a local newspaper reporter who had seen one of my flyers. The reporter decided to do an article about Help Dogs. After the article came out, I waited for a few days before checking to see if there were any donations.
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 was really nervous when I finally went to collect the money.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I realized many people feel the same way as I did but didn’t know how to help.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Jackson Merle was exhausted. He was in need of money because his wife was in hospital. He had been knocking on door after door, looking for work, but no one would even listen to what he had to say. No one wanted to talk to an old man. He stood in front of the biggest house on the block. This was his last chance for the day. Every homeowner on the street had run Jackson off, without even listening to his proposal, and maybe this one would be different? Jackson rang the doorbell. Within minutes a pretty young woman opened the door.
“Good morning,” she said cheerfully, “What can I do for you?” Jackson was heartened by her sunny smile and friendly attitude. “Good morning, miss,” he said, “I’m a handyman, and I’m here to offer you and your family my services.” “What kind of work do you do?” she asked.
“I do anything you might need, miss,” Jackson said, “I do some woodwork, painting, cabinet making; I fix small appliances, some gardening, anything you need and my rates are very reasonable.” “Come on in,” the woman smiled, “I have a table with a wobbly (摇摆的) leg that needs fixing, and maybe you can paint my guest room?” Jackson couldn’t believe his ears. He walked into the woman’s beautiful house, toolbox in hand.
First, he fixed the table, while the woman—who introduced herself as Ruth—sat watching him work and chatting to him. Then he looked at the guest room. Ruth gave him money to buy paint so he could fix it up the next day. She also paid him twice what he’d asked for the table. “But, miss,” Jackson protested, “You’ve given me too much money!” “No, I haven’t, Jackson.” Ruth told him firmly, “My daddy always told me to pay a fair price for a job well done, and that’s what I’m doing!”
Over the next few weeks, Ruth’s neighbor Jolene was surprised to see the elderly man coming in and out of Ruth’s house with his toolbox in hand. Everything in Ruth’s home looking perfect, Jolene didn’t see why she needed a handyman five days a week.
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。
Ruth smiled and explained she was actually helping Jackson.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Jolene was moved by Ruth’s kindness and thoughtfulness and spread her deeds.
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