The man was kind of small, but to a five-year-old, he was a giant. Cherry-scented smoke from Grandpa’s pipe kept the hungry mosquitoes at bay. Now and again, he blew a smoke ring and laughed as I tried to target the hole with my finger.
We sat side by side on the old wooden stairs that hot summer evening, watching the traffic, counting cars and trying to guess the color of the next one to turn the corner. We watched the sun go down behind the old Texaco service station across the busy street, which I was never allowed to cross unless accompanied by an adult.
My grandfather was baby-sitting while my mother, father and grandmother went out. While my two baby brothers slept inside the house, my three older siblings (兄弟姐妹) played with friends around the corner, where I was not allowed to go. I stayed with Grandpa, and that was okay with me. “Thirsty?” Grandpa asked, never removing the pipe from his mouth. “Yes,” was my reply. “How would you like to run over to the gas station there and get yourself a bottle of Coke?” I couldn’t believe my ears. On my family’s modest income, Coke was not a part of our budget or diet. “Okay,” I replied shyly, already wondering how I would get across the street.
He stretched his long leg out straight and reached his huge hand deep into the pocket. Opening his fist, he exposed several silver coins. He instructed me to pick out one. After he deposited the rest of the change back into his pocket, he stood up. “Okay,” he said, helping me down the stairs and to the curb (马路沿儿).
“I’m going to stay here and keep an ear out for the babies. I’ll tell you when it’s safe to cross. You go over to the Coke machine, get your Coke out and come back. Wait for me to tell you when it’s safe to cross back.” My heart pounded. Excitement took my breath away.
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。
Grandpa held my hand tightly.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________My heart pounded wildly as I approached the Coke machine.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Learning motivation only accompanied by interest can last long. My grandfather used to be the director of a local museum. So since I was young, I had the opportunity to visit various museums with him. After entering high school, I became interested in history, and I constantly collected information related to museums.
When I was 17, I read a magazine article about a museum called the McNay, once the home of a watercolourist named Marian McNay. She had requested the community to turn it into a museum upon her death.
Do not miss your chance to see Texas’ first modern art museum—the McNay Art Museum. There are more than 20,000 different and significant works. With beautiful Spanish gardens and the amazing architecture of the building, the art within the walls isn’t the only wonder to see.
On a sunny Saturday, Sally and I drove over to the museum. She asked, “Do you have the address?” “No, but I’ll recognize it, there was a picture in the magazine.”
“Oh, stop. There it is!”
The museum was free. We entered, excited. A group of people sitting in the hall stopped talking and stared at us.
“May I help you?” a man asked. “No,” I said. “We’re fine.” Tour guides got on my nerves. What if they talked a long time about a painting you weren’t that interested in? Sally had gone upstairs. The people in the hall seemed very nosy (爱管闲事的), keeping their eyes on me with curiosity. What was their problem? I saw some nice sculptures in one room. Suddenly I sensed a man standing behind me. “Where do you think you are?” he asked. I turned sharply. “The McNay Art Museum!” He smiled, shaking his head. “Sorry, the McNay is on New Braunfels Street.” “What’s this place?” I asked, still confused. “Well, it’s our home.” My heart jolted (震颤). I raced to the staircase.
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 called out, “Sally! Come down immediately!”
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Thirty years later, a woman approached me in a public place.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Amy’s youngest child, 2-year-old Jenna, wouldn’t go to sleep until Amy read her a story while rocking her. Rocking and reading became their favorite nighttime routine.
Jenna awoke one night screaming in pain. Hospital tests later revealed that she had cancer, but luckily she had a successful operation.
During Jenna’s first week in the hospital, Amy stayed with her day and night. The nurses put a rocking chair in her room so they could continue their nighttime routine. After Jenna was asleep, Amy got some rest in the hard armchair by Jenna’s bed. Jenna was doing well, and Amy began sparing time to help her husband Joe take care of their little boys. She would go home in the evening, have dinner with the boys, and then return to the hospital until Jenna was asleep. Then Amy would come home for the remainder of the night.
It was pouring rain one evening as Amy hurried home to make dinner. By the time the meal was done, the roads were dangerous. Joe stood nearby as she looked out of the kitchen window. He firmly stopped Amy from going out in such weather.
“Joe,” Amy cried, “I have to read Jenna a story and rock her. She won’t be able to sleep if I don’t.” “Honey,” he said, “be reasonable. What if you have a bad car accident? The roads will be better tomorrow. Then, you can go.”
Amy finally nodded and called Sally, a middle-aged nurse who worked a twelve-hour shift from 8 am to 8 pm. In tears she told Sally that it was the first time since Jenna was born that she hadn’t rocked her at bedtime.
Sally comforted Amy in a calm voice. She promised that she would go in to see Jenna before she left and tell her that when she woke up her mommy would be with her. “Thank you, Sally,” Amy said.
When it was time to go to bed, Jenna couldn’t find her mom and got panic.
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。
Just when her tears welled up, Sally came in.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The next morning Amy opened the door, finding Jenna was sleeping peacefully in Sally’s arms.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Little free libraries have been dotting communities around the globe since the first one was set up in Hudson, Wisconsin in 2009. During the pandemic (疫情), many people turned these libraries into little free stores to help neighbors in need. The stores were filled with canned food, peanut butter, and toilet paper. In Australia, a mother and her daughter decided to open a free plant stand to share flowers and joy with her community.
Because of the pandemic, people were enclosed and lonely. This was certainly true of Vicky Robinson and her daughter Rachel, who live in Redan, a suburb of Ballarat in Victoria.
The pair watched people walking by who looked sad and decided to come up with a way to cheer them up. “So we thought, ‘what can we create through our home education that can put a smile on people’s faces?’” the mother and daughter said.
Vicky looked at her front grassland and flowering rose bushes and suddenly had a bright idea. Understanding that gardening was a natural treatment that helped her relax, she came up with the idea for a plant exhibition stand that was like a little free plant library.
Her husband is a cupboard maker so he built a two-storied stand on their property line and filled it with young plants and succulents (多肉植物) reproduced from their own plants. In bold letters, there is a sign that reads, “Need a plant? Take a plant. Have a plant? Leave a plant.”
Despite having lived in Redan for 30 years, Vicky said that she never felt connected with her community before. There is little cost involved in setting up the little free plant library. “It’s all worth it just to see their smiles. We have developed trust with the community,” she said. “It leaves a legacy. It creates a bond in a circle, from generation to generation.”
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。
On the first day, all their plants were taken away.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The next day a wonder happened.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________A woman remarried a man from Mexico. She already had a 16-year-old daughter named Bethany, while her husband had a 14-year-old daughter named Maria. Maria and Bethany had been in each other’s lives since they were children. Their relationship as stepsisters was good until recently.
The entire family was busy planning Maria’s Quinceanera (成人礼). The woman’s husband and his ex-wife joined forces to get her a beautiful dress to celebrate the occasion. In total, the dress cost $3,000.
Bethany made it clear that she was jealous (嫉妒的) of the party. Her mom had to make her understand that in Mexican culture, a Quinceanera was a great deal, just like how she had a sweet sixteen party. However, Bethany kept comparing her party to that of Maria’s. It was a massive issue for her, and it reflected in the way she behaved around everyone at home.
Knowing how it made Bethany feel, the mom tried to spend more time with her daughter to assure her that she wasn’t being disregarded. They even got her a lovely dress for the Quinceanera, but much cheaper than Maria’s dress.
Two weeks before the big day, Maria and Bethany got into an argument regarding the TV. Bethany retaliated (报复) against her stepsister by tearing off the back part of her Quinceanera dress. After finding out what Bethany did, everyone was angry. The mom couldn’t believe what her daughter did and quickly gave her husband and his ex-wife money to get a new dress.
The mom told Bethany that she needed to get a job to pay back the total price of the dress. It was her punishment for such an unreasonable act against her stepsister. However, Bethany claimed her mom was unfair by choosing Maria over her. This made the mom question whether she was in the wrong for giving her daughter no choice but to find a job. She wrote about the story online, hoping to get opinions from others on whether what she did was wrong.
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。
To her surprise, she got everybody’s support.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Finally, the mom was determined to teach her 16-year-old a lesson.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________My Amazing Brother
Mark was the most popular boy in his class. He had top grades, was a star athlete and was everyone's friend. He was so perfect. He also happened to be my little brother.
My brother and I had always been close, yet I had long felt inferior(自惭形秽) to him. He just seemed to have everything, I, on the other hand, was shy with relatively few close friends, I was sure 95 percent of the class had no idea I even existed,
High school started. Mark and I were at the same school; he was a freshman, and I was a senior, We got closer than ever that year, I didn't know whether it was the rides to school when we sang along to the songs on the radio, or the fact that we were both on the swim team,
I helped him with his math problems, and he read my papers and made sure that they were A+ quality, We listened to CDs every night and danced on the floor. We joked about our parents. We even hung out with each other at the movies.
One night, my brother and I were discussing the upcoming semi-formal dance, Mark, of course, would attend it, I hadn't even planned on going. I never had a friend for anything and I accepted that nothing was likely to change that. When Mark asked who I wanted to go with, I was shocked.
"What do you mean you're not going? You have to go, It's your senior year!" Mark didn't understand why I wasn't going.
"Well, there's not one person who would want to go with me, " I told him, using the reasoning I'd repeated to myself over and over.
"You're joking, Care.There isn't anyone in the whole school that would turn you down. ""How do you know?" I asked, wondering where my brother got such silly ideas.
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。
"Because you're the coolest girl in the world, " Mark answered.
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The rest of the year went by in excitement.
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The library was typically so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. But on this Wednesday afternoon, there was a roar of laughter that spread through the halls. It was coming from a table in the back. Books were piled so high that one could barely see the source of all the noise. Brian and Josie were hiding behind the mountain of history texts, their faces bright red from laughing.
Mrs Cane, the librarian, followed the laughter and then approached the table. As she cleared her throat and looked over the piles of books, Brian and Josie looked up to meet her gaze. Mrs Cane looked at the books, then at the kids. “And what is it you two are supposed to be working on?”
Brian hesitated a moment, and then answered, “We’re working on a paper for our history class.”
“I see,” Mrs Cane said harshly. “Perhaps one of the private reading rooms would be a better place for you to concentrate and study. Quietly.”
The kids collected their books and their backpacks and followed Mrs Cane down a long hallway until they got to a dark row of doors. Mrs Cane pulled out a ring of keys from her pocket and unlocked a door. She turned on the light, which shone brightly overhead. The kids placed their books on the dusty table and reluctantly (不情愿地) climbed into the chairs. Brian and Josie shrugged (耸肩) and opened their books, finally focusing on the project at hand.
Time was ticking away. After what seemed like hours, Brian and Josie decided to take a break and when Josie opened the door of the room, Brian’s eyes opened wide. The library was completely dark. Looking at his watch, he let out a gasp. “It’s 9:30! The library closed an hour ago!”
Paragraph 1:Brian looked through his backpack for his cellphone.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2:
They heard a noise that sounded like a telephone ringing.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________For as long as I can remember. I have spent every Sunday afternoon until I was a teen, around the table at Grandma’s house. As soon as Grandma and I would return from Sunday Morning Mass at St Joseph’s Parish. Grandma got started on the meatball.
Ever since I was just two years old, Grandma would always allow me, her only granddaughter at the time, to sneak a meatball before dinner was served. There was something about that snuck meatball. For some reason, it tasted so much better than the one she placed beside my macaroni, once we all sat down. My Italian Gamma had a way of keeping an eye on all of her meatballs, to make sure no one snuck a meatball but me, who she gave that special VIP sneak. How did she do it? Well, she would make my “before dinner meatball” slightly bigger than the rest.
The meatball stealing games was all fun until Jeanine came along. Allow me to introduce you to my sister Jeanine, my Gramma’s second granddaughter born five years after me, just three years after I fell in love with Gramma’s yummy meatballs.
My younger sister Jeanine was quite the fussy eater. She did not care that her gramma made the world’s best meatballs, or that our mama made almost as yummy meatballs as her mother did. All Jeanine cared about was being done with dinner as fast as possible so she can go back to playing, and so she can get her evening snack, cocoa and popcorn. Jeanine knew the rules. She knew no snack unless you finish your dinner at least 90 percent. Jeanine was not giving up her favourite snack. She knew she had to develop a plan! She did indeed!
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, one day when she was given a meatball on her plate, she stole that meatball.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
One day my mother noticed that something smelt funny in our closet.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
One day, a boy transferred to my class. He walked to the front of the class and introduced himself. “I am Brady, from California. I like basketball and dance.” “Dance!?” Steven yelled. “That’s for girls.” The whole class laughed. Brady’s face turned bright red. At lunch, Brady walked to an empty seat at my table. He was about to sit down when Steven put his foot on the chair. “This seat is taken,” he said. “Sit with the girls.” The others laughed loudly. Brady lowered his head and walked away.
After school, Brady sat alone on the school bus. I felt sorry for him. I thought about sitting with him, but I didn’t want to be made fun of. I remembered how everyone laughed at me when I, a boy, knitted a scarf for my favourite teacher. I didn’t like being laughed at, so I gave up knitting.
But what would have happened if I’d stood up for myself? An overwhelming sense of regret and guilt was lingering in my mind all night. So, I was determined to stand by Brady.
The next day, we had gym class. The coach announced that we would have a basketball game and Steven and I were the captains of the two sides. When I picked teammates, I looked around and noticed Brady. I had butterflies in my stomach. I didn’t want to get laughed at again. But soon I knew what I should do.
注意：1. 词数应为120个左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
“I choose Brady!” I said firmly.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Steven lowered his head and walked to Brady.
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Monday morning started out like any other school day. Ms. Castle assigned topics for the school science fair. Anxious, Anna silently begged not to receive the bugs topic. Ms. Castle stopped in front of Anna’s desk and placed the piece of paper on it.
Science topic: Beetle (甲虫)
Partner: Tali Perkins
A small sigh escaped Anna’s mouth. Beetles and Tali, known for her know-it-all attitude, are two things Anna feared. Throughout the day, she couldn’t shake off her worry about them.
On Tuesday morning, Tali ran up to Anna before class started and said, “I told Ms. Castle we’d catch a beetle and put it on display. She approved our proposal so we’re good to go.” Hearing this, Anna shouted, “Why didn’t you ask for my opinion? Weren’t we supposed to make decisions together?”
“I didn’t think you’d mind,” Tali said. “I know you’re not good at science.” Before Anna could say anything, Tali turned and walked away. Anna took a while to cool down and wrote an email to Tali.
Tali,
I’m a little upset that you chose our project without my input. I think it was unfair. I know a lot about science. I just don’t like beetles. I’ve had beetles crawl (爬) over my feet, and it was NOT FUN!
Your partner,
Anna
The next morning, Tali brought a collection of beetle photographs, which she thought could help Anna get used to beetles. And then Tali invited Anna to collect beetles in the woods that night. Unwillingly, Anna joined Tali and was amazed to find the beetle interesting. She even built a home for their beetles, realizing Tali had helped her overcome her fear.
Finishing the beetle display, Anna invited Tali to prepare the class talk together. Tali hesitated, but Anna insisted they were a team. Later, Anna received an email from Tali.
Anna,
You’re afraid of beetles, but I am afraid to speak in front of a group. That’s a million times worse. Help!
Your partner,
Tali
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。
Anna decided to help Tali overcome her fear.
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When the presentation day finally came, Tali still seemed nervous.
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