Emily White was born seventeen years ago with so many birth problems in her body. Some of her organs, bones and muscles were out of shape. No one expected her to survive. She did make it but with her strange body figure, everyone could recognize her, even from a distance.
In Emily White’s hometown, there was a yearly outdoor performance in the school auditorium (大礼堂). It had been performed for so many years and actually had become one of the most important events of the Christmas season for many of the town’s people.
Many people tried out each year for it, but so many were turned away. It can only include the most excellent people in the field.
Emily had a beautiful singing voice. Last year she went to Mrs. Owens — her music teacher to ask to join in the performance. Without letting her sing, Mrs. Owens took a look at Amy’s body and said, “Child, you just don’t fit. Everyone would stare at you and that would make you uncomfortable. It would make them uncomfortable, too.”
Without singing a single note, Emily was sent back through the door of the choral room. Hurt and upset, she decided never to try out again. But Mrs. Owens then retired.
This year, there came a new music teacher, Mr. Buttler. He heard about Emily and suggested that she have a try.
Emily didn’t want to be rejected again, so she hesitated a little about it. As Emily struggled, the door was pushed open and Mr. Buttler called, “Emily, you’re next.” Although kind of nervous, Emily did as Mr. Buttler told her to do. Mr. Buttler sat by the piano to keep Emily company. When Emily finished her testing performance, she thanked Mr. Buttler and knew the result would be posted on the door of the choral room the next day.
Emily couldn’t sleep that night. She was suffering from the feelings that she didn’t fit and the great need to be accepted. By the next morning, her stomach was even in pain because of stress.
注意：续写词数应为150左右Paragraph 1: The next day, Emily nervously glanced at the list on the door of the choral room.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2: Finally, the day of performance came.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________In the first grade in senior high school, I was extremely shy, I had friends, but it just wasn’t in my personality to be very outgoing, even when I knew someone. I was afraid I would do or say something wrong, so usually I just smiled and listened to other people’s conversations.
I did well in school and I loved to write. However, I would escape into my writing, where I could be myself and never had to worry about what other people thought of me. In my stories, I was never shy, I often imagined that I was the main character in the story. My teacher, Mrs. Sather, always encouraged me to write more and be myself. She told our class to go after our dreams and dig in with great efforts. I thoughts he was one of the first people to see my inner strength.
One day, she showed us a play she had written and announccd that our class was going to perform it. “I’ll begin to choose all the performers tomorrow” she said, “I need someone who is not afraid to be onstage in front of a lot of people to play the lead part of Dorothy. Anybody wants to try?” A few excited hands shot up -mine, of course, was not one of them and Mrs. Sather smiled. “We’ll talk more about it later,” she said. Then the bell rang and my classmates slowly left the classroom.
“I will never do that,” I thought. But after rereading the play, I was deeply attracted by the story and couldn’t help imagining myself to be the main character Dorothy. There seemed to be a new person inside me, a much more daring, outgoing person who had been hidden all along, just waiting for the opportunity to appear. However, I still felt shy and could never picture myself acting in a play in front of two hundred people. Having struggled for a few minutes, I still did not know how to make the decision.
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。
When I was packing my schoolbag, Mrs Sather asked me to go to her.
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One week later, it was time for me to perform on the stage.
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A cactus (仙人掌) stood all alone in the desert, wondering why it was stuck in the middle of the desert. “I do nothing but stand here all day,” it sighed. “What use do I have? I am the ugliest plant in the desert. My spines (刺) are thick, my leaves are tough, and my skin is uneven. I can’t offer shade or juice to the passing travellers. I don’t see that I am of any use at all.” All it did was stand in the sun day after day, growing taller and fatter. Its spines grew longer and its leaves grew tougher. It truly was strange-looking.
“I wish I could do something useful,” it signed. By day, hawks (鹰) circled high overhead, and the cactus called, “What can I do with my life?” Whether they heard or not, the hawks flew away. At night the moon floated into the sky and cast its pale light on the desert floor. “What can I do with my life?” the cactus called. The moon only stared coldly as it continued its course.
A lizard (蜥蜴) passed by, leaving a little trail in the sand with its tail. “What worthy deed can I do?” the cactus called. “You?” the lizard smiled, pausing a moment. “You can do something. Just wait for the right moment. The hawks circle their ways overhead, making beautiful patterns for us all to admire. The moon hangs high like a lantern at night, so we can see our ways home to our loved ones. Even I, the lowly lizard, have something to do. I decorate the sands with these beautiful trails as I pull my tail along. And you, you will show us your beauty some day.”
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It went on year after year, and the cactus grew old.
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The desert hadn’t known such a flower of it.
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About a mile behind our house lay a pond. In summer, my brother Harry and I would run through a stand of trees to throw stones over the water there. The pond wore a collar of black mud. It was not a place for swimming. When winter came, the pond was once again an inviting place.
One day when ice covered it, Harry said to me, “Try walking across.”
The ice looked thick. No water showed through it, but I felt uncertain about it.
“Go ahead,” Harry said. “Try it. You’re lighter than I am. You go first. If the ice holds, we can run and slide on it. It’ll be fun.”
I wanted to please Harry, and I thought about the fun of a long slide on the ice. I began to take steps across the pond. In the middle of the pond,the ice cracked. I threw out my arms. The next thing I knew was hanging on to the edge of a hole in the ice. From my shoulders down I hung in icy water. I thought of the bottom of the pond. I knew it would be black and awful down there. I tried to climb out of the hole, but when I got a knee on the ice, it broke like window glass. Again and again I tried to get out. Again and again the ice broke. The hole widened. As my coat became wet, it pulled me down. I grew tired of trying to get out and rested my arms on the ice.
I looked at Harry on the shore. He just stood there. “I can’t get out! Help me!” I screamed when I caught some breath.
注意:续写词数应为150左右。Harry turned and ran from the pond.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Hand over hand,I pulled myself from the hole.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________My family has always loved going to Disneyland. So in 2001, when Disney announced that they were opening California Adventure, it was a big deal. I remember I was only six years old when I went there for the first time. I’ve been told that as a child I was very naughty and energetic, but always well-meaning. I got a lot of enjoyment from making people angry. This relates to going to California Adventure for the first time ever with my grandmother and it is my oldest memory with her.
On this fine day of fun and all things Disney, we reached the park’s Ferris wheel, called the Sun Wheel(now Mickey’s Fun Wheel). If you do not know what the Sun Wheel is, I can briefly explain: It is the most terrifying Ferris wheel. Why? Well, the seat that you sit in, while 160 feet in the air, slides inwards and outwards as the wheel rotates (转动). If you rock it hard enough, it can almost do a complete 360-degree spin (旋转). This creates a terrifying experience because it is like a 160-fool-lall swing.
So I stood in line with my grandmother, and neither of us had any idea that this was not an ordinary Ferris wheel. After a long wait it was finally our turn to ride it. We sat inside and began to rise up and that’s when I discovered the ride’s special feature. I started with slow, easy rocking and my grandmother began to fear for her life. Worrying we would fall out, she asked me to stop.
注意: 续写词数应为150左右。Since I was a very naughty boy, I rocked it harder.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________But to my surprise, my grandma actually enjoyed the terrifying experience with me.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________注意:1.词数80左右；
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
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I was invited to a cookout on an old friend’s farm in western Washington. I parked my car outside the farm and walked past a milking house which had apparently not been used in many years. A noise at a window caught my attention, so I entered it. It was a hummingbird (蜂鸟), desperately trying to escape. She was covered in spider-webs (蛛网) and was barely able to move her wings. She ceased her struggle the instant I picked her up.
With the bird in my cupped hand, I looked around to see how she had gotten in. The broken window glass was the likely answer. I stuffed a piece of cloth into the hole and took her outside, closing the door securely behind me.
When I opened my hand, the bird did not fly away; she sat looking at me with her bright eyes. I removed the sticky spider-webs that covered her head and wings. Still, she made no attempt to fly. Perhaps she had been struggling against the window too long and was too tired? Or too thirsty?
As I carried her up the blackberry-lined path toward my car where I kept a water bottle, she began to move. I stopped, and she soon took wing but did not immediately fly away.
Hovering (悬停), she approached within six inches of my face. For a very long moment, this tiny creature looked into my eyes, turning her head from side to side. Then she flew quickly out of sight.
During the cookout, I told my hosts about the hummingbird incident. They promised to fix the window. As I was departing, my friends walked me to my car. I was standing by the car when a hummingbird flew to the center of our group and began hovering. She turned from person to person until she came to me. She again looked directly into my eyes, then let out a squeaking call and was gone. For a moment, all were speechless. Then someone said, “She must have come to say goodbye.”
注意：1. 续写词数应为 150 左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题纸的相应位置作答。
A few weeks later, I went to the farm again.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I was just about to leave when the hummingbird appeared.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Rebecca stretched her tired back. “That’s the last seedling (树苗), Pa. Have we planted enough?”
Pa walked to the end of the row of cottonwood seedlings. “No,” he said. “We have to plant trees all the way to that rock over there. We’ll need about twenty more seedlings.”
“I’ll get the seedlings,” offered Rebecca. She longed to cool her feet in the shallow river running through the cotton field.
“You’d better let me go, Miss Petticoats,” teased her twin brother, William. “There are dangers all over this prairie (草原).”
“You may both go,” said Pa. “But hurry back. I’d like to finish before sundown.”
They went across the shallow river to a sandbar where small cottonwood seedlings grew.
Gently, they pulled the seedlings from the sand.
“There! That’s twenty, with a few to spare,” said Rebecca.
“OK,” said William. He led the way to the riverbank, and then stopped. “Look! That’s the dugout (防空洞) we had lived in before we moved here last year,” he said, pointing to a hole on the grassy riverbank.
“Come on, let’s go inside.”
“No,” Rebecca said, “Pa is waiting. Besides, it’s hard to tell what’s in it.”
“Then you go back,” said William, handing the seedlings to Rebecca. I’ll catch up.” He ran to the dugout and stepped inside.
Rebecca wrapped the seedlings in her long apron (围裙) and began to walk. Suddenly she froze in her tracks.
A huge rattlesnake (响尾蛇) moved along the riverbank.
It stopped right in front of the dugout and lay still, coiling up on the warm sunny bank.
“William!” Rebecca shouted. “Don’t come out!”
“Huh?” William’s face appeared at a tiny window beside the door of the dugout.
Rebecca pointed at the rattler. William’s face paled when he saw the snake blocking the doorway. He turned desperate eyes toward Rebecca, and then he glanced behind himself. Rebecca knew what he was thinking: “Were there more snakes waiting in the shadowy corners of the dugout?”
Rebecca’s mind raced, trying to think of a way to get William out of there. An idea popped into her head. It was their only hope. It was risky, but it was the only hope.
“Don’t move,” she said to William in a soft voice. “When I say NOW, you run out of there as fast as you can.”
Rebecca removed the skirt-like petticoat (衬裙) from beneath her dress, and then dipped it into the river. She squeezed out some of the water, and then climbed to the top of the bank, directly above the dugout’s opening.
Paragraph 1:
“Get ready to run, William,” she said, keeping an eye on the motionless snake.
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Paragraph 2:
“Are you OK?” he asked, breathing heavily. Rebecca nodded.
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A Turning-point Party
The cold snow was falling as Kelly struggled home from school in December. How much she hated the snow---and everything else about Pinetree, Wyoming, America. How much she missed Thailand! “I hate it here! I want to go home!” Kelly thought.
She reached for a small white envelope in her pocket. In it was an invitation to Jennifer’s party: Kelly didn’t want to go. She felt awkward at the thought of being at a party with a bunch of kids she barely knew. She closed her eyes and remembered this time of year people would hold a festival to thank the Mother of Water in Thailand, They used banana leaves to make a little boat with a candle lit in it, made a wish for the coming year and set the boat floating on the river.
Kelly sighed and pushed open the door to her parents’ restaurant. They were busy working. “Maybe I should go just this once for Mama and Papa. They are so worried that I’m not making any friends.” Kelly went over and tied an apron around her waist. As she was washing dishes, she told her mother that she had been invited to a party on Friday night. Mama smiled saying now she might be happy in their new home. Kelly nodded, thinking Pinetree could never be her home.
On Friday evening, Papa drove Kelly to the party. Jennifer met her at the door and led her into the dining room. Six kids from her classes were seated around the table, on which were sitting small brown cookie houses. They were selecting colorful candies and gluing them to their own houses, Wow, she loved making things. For this part of the party, she could be herself. She decided to decorate her cottage like one of the golden temples of Thailand. As she was making it, Jennifer wondered how she did it. The others joined staring at Kelly with admiration, Kelly felt a warm glow. Maybe I could fit in here-----a little, she thought.
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。
After dinner, the party went on and the talk turned to the coming holidays.
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Suddenly, Kelly came up with an idea.
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I remember my first Christmas adventure with Grandma. I was just a kid.
I went to town on my bike to visit her on the day when my big sister told me, “There is no Santa Claus, and even dummies know that!”
My grandma always told the truth, always. I fled to her that day because I knew she would stand on my side.
Hearing my story, Grandma was ready for me.“No Santa Claus?” she snorted. “Ridiculous! Don’t believe it. Such rumors have been going around for years, and it makes me mad, plain mad！Now, put on your coat, and let’s go.”
“Go? Go where, Grandma?” I asked.We drove to Kerby’s General Store. As we walked through its doors, Grandma handed me ten dollars. That was a bundle in those days. “Take the money”, she said, “and buy something for someone who needs it.” Then she went away and waited in the car.
I was only eight years old. I’d often gone shopping with my mother, but never had I shopped for anything all by myself. The store seemed big and crowded, full of people scrambling(抢夺) to finish their Christmas shopping.
For a few moments I just stood there, confused, holding that ten dollar bill, wondering what to buy and who on earth to buy it for. Then I suddenly thought of Bobby Decker. He was a kid with bad breath and messy hair. Bobby Decker didn’t have a coat. I knew that because he never went out to play during the winter. His mother always wrote a note, telling the teacher that he had a cough, but all we kids knew that Bobby Decker didn’t have a cough; he didn’t have a good coat. Yes, I would buy Bobby Decker a coat!
My eyes were fixed on a red coat which looked real warm and he would like that.
“Is this a Christmas present for someone?” the lady behind the counter asked kindly, as I laid my ten dollars down.“Yes, Ma’am,” I replied shyly. “It’s for Bobby.”
注意：
1．所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2．至少使用5个短文中标有下划线的关键词语；
3．续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好；
4．续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。
Paragraph 1: That evening, Grandma helped me wrap the coat in Christmas paper and ribbons.
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Paragraph 2: Fifty years hasn’t reduced the excitement of those moments.
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