As a young boy, I was carefree. Every vacation I looked forward to two things—seeing my grandpa and hearing his wonderful stories. My grandpa was a very good storyteller. He had worked various odd jobs when he was young and wove his adventures and misadventures into fantastic tales. These wonderful tales colored my childhood.
As I grew up, I had to admit that Grandpa’s stories went on a little long, even a little boring and gradually lost their magic. However, not wanting to upset him, my brother and I would sometimes take turns sitting in the living room, listening to grandpa tell his stories.
When my grandpa was approaching 91, he suffered from serious memory-loss. It was kind of what doctors called dementia (痴呆), probably the earliest stage of Alzheimer’s disease. Following the doctor’s directions, we moved him into a Sunrise Assisted Living Community, where he could get a better care. After that, grandpa hardly came to our house.
One weekend before my grandpa’s birthday, I came to visit him. Seeing grandpa sitting in his armchair, dull-looking, I was consumed with mixed feelings. I wheeled grandpa to the sunshine in the courtyard, talking to him. He couldn’t express himself clearly and spoke in short bursts, but I listened to him patiently and carefully just as I used to be a little boy.
It was then that I noticed a shadow box with some old and yellowish photos in it. I picked one up, in which my brother, several boys in our neighborhood, and I were playing basketball with grandpa cheering us on twenty years before. My mind flashed back to those beautiful memories. Back then, Grandpa was in good physical condition and we were all wearing basketball jerseys, playing and laughing with abandon. I presented the photo to my grandpa, pointing at each member and reminding him of their names. Incredibly, grandpa could speak out the name of every player. I even caught a soft light in grandpa’s eyes and a smile on his lips.
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。
A bright idea for grandpa’s birthday came to my mind.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Seeing “the same players” playing there, grandpa seemed to have thought of something.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________It was my twelfth birthday, and what I really wanted most was a new bicycle. But I knew that my family couldn’t afford one, so I settled for a bedside table with lockable drawers, a safe place to keep my private stuff.
We went to the charity shop where we found an old dark one. It didn’t look too cool, but I thought that I would paint it to make it look better.
After we took it home, I was getting ready to paint it. When I pulled the drawers out. I felt something stuck to the back. I reached in all the way, and guess what? A sealed bag with some papers in it.
When I opened the bag, I realized that the papers were official documents. And, wrapped in them were a bunch of ten and twenty dollar bills! Talk about finding a treasure! And on my birthday!
“Is this some kind of joke?” I said aloud. I went ahead and read the papers, and it turned out to be a will. Some old lady was leaving her savings for her son and grandchildren.
My mind was going crazy. Was I the luckiest twelve-year-old ever? With this money I could buy the coolest bicycle. Who knows?
I began counting. When I reached a thousand dollars, my mother was knocking on my bedroom door. I quickly closed the drawer with the money in it.
“Do you want some help? Is everything all right?” she asked.
No, everything was not right. Actually, my stomach was growling (低吼).
“I’m okay,” I lied.
When my mother left my room, I lay on my bed, starting thinking. What a dilemma (窘境)! I wished there were some one I could talk with. Could I keep it and get all kinds of stuff for me and my family? It wouldn’t be too bad for me to keep it, if I shared it...right? Thoughts ran through my mind. But I really didn’t need someone else to give me the answer.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
I finally made a decision and called my parents into my bedroom.
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Though surprised, the shop owner helped find the family’s telephone number.
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When something that’s important to you disappears, don’t be hopeless. It may miraculously (奇迹般地) come back sooner or later. I learned it on one winter day.
It was one of those busy days. Especially, I had lots of clothes to wash. and Karen, my four-year-old kid, kept following me, pulling my shirt and crying for attention. I was annoyed. To stop her troubling me and make her quiet, I searched the drawers in the bedroom and found-a bag of forgotten balloons. “Yellow,” she said with joy.
The balloons were the gifts for her that her uncle had bought abroad. These balloons were of good quality and very unique, unable to be found at least in our small town. Among the balloons, the yellow one was Karen’s favorite. And there was only one yellow balloon. She viewed it as her best friend and even signed her name on its surface.
After I blew the balloon up, she cheerfully took it with tiny fingers, touching it and telling it her secrets. Immediately. her attention was attracted.
After lunch. we prepared to go to the local public clothes-washing shop. Before long. I was ready. Carrying her yellow balloon. Karen followed me into oat car. On the way, she was singing and had fun with the balloon. She kept beating the balloon against the back of the car seat. As I turned the corner, trying to keep my attention on my driving, I felt a sudden, big wind blow across my feet. I called out at once, “Karen! Close the window. It’s cold out!”
And then I heard her frightened scream. In a hurry, I looked over my shoulder, expecting to see some terrible insects that led to her being frightened. But there wasn’t one. Karen was looking out of the window. both arms reaching out, as if to get something. And she cried, “Balloon, balloon. Come back! Come back!” Then. she turned to me, calling out, “Mom, please stop the car! My balloon has escaped.”
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。
“Alright, “I said and slowly pulled over.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________While walking in the park, we suddenly found a yellow balloon flying over a tree.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________It is a hot sunny Saturday morning on the farm. Maya, Duksie and Doobie are helping Mama K in her vegetable garden. The children work all morning.
Mama K always gives the children a treat for helping her. Sometimes it’s cake or chocolate; sometimes it’s apples, pears or oranges. Mama K has only one rule. “Share it fair!” The children know they must share the treats equally, so they all get the same amount.
Today Mama K has baked a round strawberry cake with pink icing (糖霜) and berries from her garden. The children wait on the grass for their treat. “Here you go!” smiles Mama K. “But remember the rule. Share it fair!”
Maya has the first turn to share the cake. She uses the knife to draw lines in the icing. The others watch her. She does not cut the cake yet. The others must first agree if her way is fair. “I think I will make two cuts down like this. Now we have three slices, all the same!” Maya shows them. There is one line on the left and the other on the right.
“No way!” says Duksie. “The one in the middle is much too big!” Doobie also shakes his head. Maya laughs and tells Duksie to try.
“Pass me the knife.I’ll do it,” says Duksie First she rubs out Maya’s pattern in the icing, and then she makes one cut across and one down. “Look, I have made my three slices!” “That’s not fair!” shout Maya and Doobie together,.
“Why don’t you try, Doobie?” says Duksie. “I bet you can’t do it!”
“I wish the cake was a square, and then it would be easy!” says Doobie thoughtfully. And then! A picture comes into Doobie’s head. He sees the silver badge (标识) at the front of his father’s big red Benz truck. “I’ve got it! I’ve got it! I know how to do it,” shouts Doobie.
“How did you work it out?” Maya asks. Doobie smiles to himself. For now it’s his secret. Later, he will tell his dad.
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。
First Doobie uses a knife to smooth Duksie’s lines in the icing.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________With Mama K’s encouragement, Maya takes charge, expertly cutting along Doobie’s lines to make three equal slices.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________All I wanted was to sit with them at "the popular table". Jill had the best clothes. She looked like she walked straight out of a store window. Brett had the coolest haircut, plus she was already on the field hockey team and we were only in the sixth grade! Aimee was a cheerleader and Shannon could boss people around and they'd do whatever she said. I sure didn't have that kind of power, but then again, I wasn't popular.
Everyone else called them the "popular girls" and at lunch I’d watch them from across the middle school cafeteria and wonder how on earth I could get a seat at their table. I imagined how much fun they had sitting there, the envy of the lunchroom, while I ate sandwiches at the table near the dustbins. This wasn’t how I thought middle school was going to be at all.
One day, I had the nerve to walk past their table and Shannon and Jill started making fun of me, saying I smelled.
"I hate them," I sighed, sitting down beside my three friends and opening my lunch bag. "The popular girls are so mean."
"Well, we aren't mean!" said one friend, and she was right.
I looked towards the popular table. Aimee appeared to be in a fight with Jill, while the others were laughing at a red-headed boy, who was the smartest kid in our grade and maybe even our whole school. He was in tears when they got done with him. He took his tray to an empty table in the far corner of the room to eat alone.
That was when it hit me. Why would I even want to be friends with people who were so mean? My friends were far nicer and from the looks of it, we had a lot more fun. None of us fought or made fun of people. We laughed, sang, and joked to entertain one another.
"Maybe I should ask him to come eat with us," I said, gesturing towards the lonely, red-haired boy.
"Sure," said my friends.
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。
From then on, we invited everyone the popular girls made fun of to eat at our lunch table
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Later, I looked up the word "popular" in the dictionary.
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I could hear one of my classmates expressing her impatience with my slow crawl up the ladder (梯子),“If she’s afraid of heights, why would she sign up for a Bungee Jumping (蹦极) class?” My friend was at the top of the ladder, trying to cheer me up. How did I wind up on a ladder hanging above the Hudson River?
It was my friend who invited me to the Bungee Jumping class. At first, I was doubtful, but her enthusiasm and guarantees of strict safety procedures won me over.
I had been fearful of heights since primary school. Avoiding my fear of heights became second nature. I tried not to look down at balconies or staircases. I avoided traveling by plane as much as possible. I declined invitations from friends to join them on roller coasters (过山车).
But here I was, at age twenty-six, facing my fear of heights in a rather extreme way. I had come around to the idea of trying Bungee Jumping. I figured it wasn’t much different from swinging on the monkey bars as a kid. The one obstacle I didn’t expect was the ladder. In order to reach the Bungee Jumping, I had to climb up a twenty-two-foot ladder.
My friend’s distraction techniques helped to take my mind off my dangerous task. I found a rhythm and kept going. With a slow and steady (稳定的) pace, I made it to the top.
An instructor tied me to a safety belt and told me to step to the edge of the platform. I held the Bungee Jumping bar with sweaty hands, surprised that it was too thick to fix my hand around. Instead of a firm grasp, my hands were in a weak, bear-claw position.
The cheers from my classmates rang out below. An instructor reminded me of the safety rules, including the net below that would catch me at the bottom. He reminded me to listen to the directions while in the air, so I could perform well.
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 stood face to face with my fear of heights.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________My second round of Bungee Jumping went a bit more smoothly.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Emily came from a musical family. Her father was a famous pianist in his early years and later was a music instructor. Her mother, however, was a performer and composer. Emily’s older brother was a Cello and part of the church’s choir. However, Emily wasn’t like her brother. She was unable to play any instrument.
“You have to be an instrument that you’re playing. Why aren’t you able to do it?” Emily’s father said to her, advising her to learn to play the piano. From time to time, her mother would show the wish that Emily could develop her ability to perform on the stage. It seemed that the whole family was pushing her to play music. Every time this happened, it was a massive pain for her. Emily felt that she wasn’t part of her family. It was her dream to become just like the rest of them. However, no matter how hard she tried, she was unable to.
“Being different doesn’t mean that you aren’t blessed with any potential or talent,” said Sarah, a teacher of Emily. “Maybe there is something interesting that I can do,” Emily thought. Every evening, Emily spent time sketching or drawing and painting in her bedroom. Her paintings showed her father on the piano and her brother on the Cello as well as her mother performing on the stage. Her paintings were vivid and the emotions were real. The paintings revealed how much her family was devoted to music. The paintings also revealed the things Emily was skilled at.
But her family did not even know. The only thing they knew was that Emily was unable to sing and play one musical instrument. And they weren’t happy with her at all. Emily was a lover of her loved ones, and she loved them dearly. She wanted to be the pride of the family someday. How could this happen when she wasn’t able to do what they asked her to accomplish?
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。
The answer was found when Sarah saw her gift for arts.
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When her parents saw her artwork, they were moved deeply.
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One day, Dad took Tim and Lily to the supermarket. “Now where has Tim gone? ” asked Dad. Lily shrugged. Keeping track of Tim was not on her agenda today. She’d been trying to decide on the perfect gift for Dad’s upcoming birthday. This year, she was determined to prepare a present that couldn’t be bought at a store or ordered online.
“Daddy!” Tim appeared out of nowhere, disturbing Lily’s thoughts. He yelled, holding a cereal (麦片) box in the air, “Let’s get it! It’s nutritious and delicious! And it has a dragon inside! ” Tim remembered Dad saying that when he was a kid, almost every box of cereal came with a toy. Ever since, Tim was certain that he, too, would find a toy in the next box.
When they got home, Dad and Lily began putting away the groceries. Tim couldn’t wait to take the box of cereal upstairs to his room. By the time they finished, Lily could hear Tim shouting. “No! No!” Tim’s voice kept getting louder and louder. Lily imagined each word as the sound of a hammer striking metal. Then she raced towards her brother’s room. The moment she stepped inside, she felt a crunch (嘎吱声) beneath her feet. It was obvious that Tim dumped all that cereal looking for a toy dragon. “They lied! No dragon. Just a picture on the box.” Tim sounded close to tears. Annoyed as Lily was, she said quietly, “Let’s see what the box says.” “I don’t know how to read.” her brother said in a low voice.
It reminded Lily that last school year, Tim’s teacher who sent home easy-to-read books and worksheets insisted that he was ready to learn to read and just needed some extra help, but Tim complained about books “for babies” and “boring” homework assignments. It was really a headache for Dad to teach Tim to read! At the thought of these, it seemed that Tim’s dragon issue had swept away her concern for a present for Dad.
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。
Paragraph 1：
Lily decided to cooperate with Tim, making up a dragon story and having Tim read for Dad.
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Paragraph 2：
After what seemed to be a century, Dad’s birthday finally came.
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An old and fragile woman approached a very busy road intersection. She stepped slowly forwards. She paused at the sidewalk’s edge, grasping a heavy bucket filled with fresh red apples. She aimed to cross the street.
The way to the intersection before her seemed like a tough journey. The traffic lights changed regularly, and the flow of cars seemed to be non-stop for the old woman. She knew she had to cross the street to reach her destination, a small grocery store on the other side, where she sold her apples to make ends meet.
As she slowly made her way to the crosswalk, she held the handle of the bucket. A kind-hearted driver in the first car, recognizing her struggle, stopped well before the sidewalk, allowing her to cross safely. Grateful for this act of kindness, the old woman nodded and offered the driver a slight smile as she inched forward.
A second car, in the next road, also came to a stop. Its driver also witnessed the old woman’s slow progress. The kindness of strangers warmed her heart, and with their help, she moved another step closer to her destination.
However, the third road was a different story. As the old woman moved carefully further into the road, a speeding car approached, its engine making loud sound like a beast. Panic flowed through the old lady as she realized the approaching danger. The driver of the third car had not noticed her until the very last moment.
With a jolt (颠簸) of terror, the old woman’s holding on the bucket weakened, and the bucket slipped from her weak grasp. The bucket fell to the ground, releasing its goods of apples, which scattered (散开) in all directions. The sound of the crashing bucket and rolling apples echoed through the busy city traffic.
In the emergent time, the driver of the speeding car stepped on the brake to a stop just inches from the old woman. The drivers’ heart pounded in their chest as they realized how close it had come to a tragedy.
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。
Shaken but unharmed, the old woman stood frozen, her eyes wide open with fear.
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Eventually, with all the apples collected, the three drivers helped the old lady cross the road.
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My dad always told me that when I was two years old, I told everyone I met that I was going to be the next Michael Jordan. One day when I was six, he looked me straight in the eye, asking, “Are you willing to do any amount of work to become Michael Jordan?” I hesitated for a moment, feeling the weight of his words, but then smiled brightly and nodded.
“All right. ” He produced a sheet of paper and handed it to me, warning, “This will be one serious commitment. ” He gave me a pen and gestured for me to sign my signature at the bottom of the page.
The next morning I had completely forgotten about the paper until, at the crack of dawn, my father shook me awake.
“Get up. ” he ordered. “Basketball practice starts today. ”
I complained, unwillingly getting out of my warm bed and following my dad. We headed out to the driveway and he showed me an orange basketball. He threw it to me, and I clumsily grasped it with both bands. That morning, I practiced for three hours, the most tired I had been in those years. Already, I was beginning to regret my decision to be the female version of Michael Jordan.
The next morning my dad dragged me out in the driveway at the crack of dawn, once again. It was the same the next day, and the next day. I screamed that I would never touch a basketball again, but he took out my signed contract （合同） and waved it in my face, explaining that I couldn’t take back my words now.
Years passed and I began to accept basketball practice as just a fact of life. One day, at the age of 15, I finally reached my goal — my 10, 000 hours. That morning we practiced our usual three hours, and for once, I felt like I may have learned everything there was to know about basketball. At the end of our session （训练时期）, my dad hugged and congratulated me before handing me that orange basketball and saying. “It’s yours now.”
注意:
1. 续写词数应为150左右;
2. 请按如下格式作答。
Paragraph 1:
That evening we had a party, with a huge basketball-shaped cake.
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Paragraph 2:
Dad and I held the paper to the candle’s flame and watched it slowly burn.
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