“Want to go to the pool tomorrow?” Rosa asked Stephanie during recess. The pool at the YMCA was one of their favorite places, where they learnt and practiced swimming.
Rosa and Stephanie did everything together. They rode the school bus together. They sat together during lunch. They took dance lessons together and they even went to the same summer camp. Their classmates called them “twins”. They were best friends. Most of the time.
Sometimes, though, when Stephanie was with other friends, she ignored Rosa or treated her like a little kid, even though they were the same age. Rosa and Stephanie had played together since they were babies, but sometimes Stephanie didn't act like a friend.
Today was one of those times.
“Sorry. I’m already going to the pool,” Stephanie said. “Toni and Vanessa and I are going.” She gave a broad smile, but in Rosa’s eyes, it wasn’t her nice smile. Saying nothing more, she walked straight away to join Toni and Vanessa, and Rosa was left standing alone, with her face burned and an angry tension coming into her limbs.
After school, at dance class, Stephanie talked and giggled with the other dancers as they stretched in front of the mirror. When Rosa came in, Stephanie didn’t say hello to her, but just another smile. Rosa hesitated for a while about whether she should join them, but she still felt too upset.
Then she noticed Kiara, the new girl. Rosa joined her and began stretching, too. Kiara smiled and Rosa smiled back. The two girls began to talk. Rosa discovered that Kiara was not the quiet girl she had thought she was. Kiara talked a lot — about her little brother, about the tree house her uncle had built and even about swimming. “I love swimming,” Kiara said. “I will hold a pool party at the YMCA. Would you like to come?” “Yes. It’s awesome.” Rosa responded. She tried not to check the mirror to see if Stephanie had noticed. She hoped Stephanie felt left out.
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 the dance class, when Rosa boarded the bus, Stephanie was waiting in their usual seat.
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When Rosa saw Stephanie in low spirits, her heart sank.
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When I was 17, I read a magazine article about a museum called the McNay Art Museum, once the home of a watercolorist named Marian McNay. She had requested the community to turn it into a museum upon her death. On a sunny Saturday, Sally and I drove over to the museum.
“Do you have the address?” Sally asked while we were on the way.
“No, but I will recognize it. There was a picture in the magazine” I answered confidently.
“Oh
There it is.” I pulled my car slowly over a house which seemed like a house with heavy smell of life rather than a former residence(故居).
Surprisingly, nobody was at the gate and admission was free. We opened the door and entered, excited. A group of people sitting around a table stopped chatting and started at us.
A sweet girl in her teens locked her eyes on us and welcomed us with a sweet smile, “Hello, but who are you looking for?”
A man stood up and said almost at the same time “May I help you?”
“No,” I said. “We’re fine.”
Tour guides got on my nervous. What if they talked a long time about a painting you were not that interested in? Sally had gone upstairs. The people in the hall seemed very confused, keeping their eyes on me with curiosity. What was their problem? Some nice sculptures were well placed along the staircases(楼梯) and some paintings from Van Gogh or Picasso were hanging on walls and I appreciated them and highly praised the most beautiful house. Suddenly a picture of a man surrounded by a warm family caught my eyes and I also spotted the sweet girl among them.
“This is the most beautiful house I have visited.” said I, turning sharply, almost scaring the girl standing behind me.
“The most beautiful house ? The most beautiful house!”She murmured.
“Am I at the McNay Art Museum?” asked I .
注意：1. 所续写的短文的词数应为150 左右；
2. 续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好；
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She smiled, shaking her head.
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Years later, after a public speech, a woman approached and thanked me, asking whether I once entered a house , thinking it was the McNay Art Museum.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________An old saying goes that a near neighbor is better than a distant cousin. This saying has fully proved that neighbors are so significant in our life.
In the past, neighbors helped one another build houses and clear fields. They could offer timely help when someone was in trouble. Families depended on one another for friendship and entertainment. They shared happiness and sorrow from time to time, which brought a harmonious atmosphere.
However, nowadays, lack of communication and interaction between neighbors is the norm（常态）. The close relationship between neighbors is not common in our cities. A family may not even know the other families that live next door to them. We live in an age of machines and the Internet, and each family has its own car, TV set, and washing machine. People no longer depend on neighbors as much as they once did. Machines and the Internet keep people apart. In our grandparents’ times, women met while they hung the washing out, and men stopped and talked while they mowed （割草）their lawns. Today, they can’t hear anything above the noise of their power lawn mowers. And women stay inside with their electrical dryers. Children are inside watching their favorite TV shows or playing computer games.
Is the idea of being a good neighbor old-fashioned? In 1965, a power cut hit New York City, and many thousands of people were left helpless. Suddenly everyone shared the same problem, and the largest city became a group of eight million neighbors. People with cars offered rides to those walking. Other people helped direct traffic. Trapped in elevators, people played word games and helped keep each other in good spirits. In times of trouble, people still depend on one another. As time goes on, people may once again feel that being a good neighbor is important.
4 . It was 1939, and the Great Depression had made all our lives much harder. But we didn’t know how poor we were until our father sat my brother and me down on the couch in our living room to have a talk.
I will always remember the sad look in Father’s eyes as he stared down at his hands, rubbing them back and forth, while he searched for the words to tell us that our family wasn’t going to be celebrating Christmas this year.
A month later, on Christmas Eve, I lay awake in bed late into the night, trying to talk myself out of sneaking into our living room to see if Santa had come. I gathered my courage, then tiptoed down the hallway, hoping I would see the bright sparkling lights of our Christmas tree standing proudly in the corner of our living room, like it did every year.
Instead, I was greeted by my seventeen-year-old brother, Frank, who slept on our living room couch. “Hey, little one, what are you doing up?” he whispered.
I started to cry. “There’s no Christmas tree.”
There would be no presents, no singing, no Christmas dinner. It felt like we were the saddest family in the world. My disappointment overwhelmed me. I looked forward to Christmas each year. It wasn’t only the presents. It was that special feeling I got from seeing my family happy. We hadn’t been happy in such a long time.
On Christmas morning, the sun shone into our chilly bedroom, waking me up. “Maybe Santa came! Maybe he came!” I suddenly insisted. My eyes searched the living room, but there was no Christmas tree. I broke into uncontrollable tears.
I ran to Father in tears and threw my arms around him. “ We aren’t going to have Christmas this year.”
“Now, now, now, calm down. Go on in and see your mother. She will comfort you.” Dad slowly pushed the bedroom door open, leading me into the room.
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。
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed something different in the bedroom.
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With my question answered, everything dawned on me.
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Having held the interschool storytelling championship for the past two years, I was the shining star of my school. When it came to choosing the right candidate to participate in such competitions, I was always the first choice. Naturally, I was once again selected to represent my school in the approaching contest this year.
Upon hearing the fact that I was chosen again, my classmates and friends acknowledged that I would undoubtedly emerge as the champion again. Consequently, I became conceited. I was so proud that I neglected the importance of practicing for the contest.
A week before the contest, my teacher Ms. Sara asked,“Selena, would you like to stand in front of the class to rehearse for the contest ?” She had tutored me in the past two competitions and knew how important practice was .“Just imagine you are on the stage in the presence of the audience, ”she added .
“ I’m sorry, Ms. Sara, ” I replied .“I have a bit of a sore throat.”
This was usually the lie I would tell whenever my teacher requested me to practice in front of the class. I always found excuses to avoid doing it because I believed that I was the best and therefore the practice was unnecessary. On one occasion, I even told Mrs. Sara not to worry too much as I was well prepared for the contest. In fact, I did everything but practice my scrip. I only managed to glance briefly through the story the day before the contest. As the best storyteller among the students of the local secondary schools, I was too
vain to practice and expected everything to be fine.The contest was being held in the local community hall. On the day of the contest, the hall was packed.
My school teachers and principal were there along with many of my classmates and schoolmates. I was the eighth contestant out of twenty in total. Those who spoke before me did extremely well. On seeing theirfascinating and outstanding performance, I began to lose confidence in myself. My palms sweated heavily and I started to feel nervous.
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。
Paragraph1:
Soon, it was my turn to talk.
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Finally, results were announced after the contest.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I am Sadie. I love oceans, especially the one near my grandma's house with beautiful shells. Why? That's what I am about to tell you.
It all started when my parents divorced a few weeks ago. I had remained silent since then. So my mother decided to send me to Florida to live with my grandma.
On the way to my grandma's house, my mother said, “Sadie, I know we are not the best family you can have and I truly apologize. I just do not know how to be a mother. But remember, Sadie, whatever happened, I do love you.” These words made me sadder.
When we arrived, Grandma told me to go upstairs and unpack my things while she spoke to my mother. When I saw a blue and green painted room with a huge window and a comfortable bed, I thought, “Moving to Florida might not be that bad.” I comforted myself as I walked towards the window. I opened the curtains and saw skyblue waves slowly washing away the sand on the beach and sea birds flying in the clear sky. The ocean was only a few hundred meters away from here.
After my mother left, Grandma softly touched my shoulder, “I want to take you to the place I called ‘the Big Blue’. And I think you might like it.” (I guess you could know where it is.)
Before I stepped on the sand I could smell the ocean. Together we enjoyed the sunset with a whole lot of yellow and orange. Suddenly she picked out the most beautiful shell I had ever seen in my life. It was almost gold, shining in the sunlight. I couldn't move my eyes off it.
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：
“Want to know how I get through my parents' divorce？” Grandma asked.
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Paragraph 2：
“The beautiful shells here gave me the courage to live on，” Grandma said.
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Christine closed the door to Anna’s room. Inside, her classmate and friend had fallen asleep. Downstairs, Christine’s mom, Donna, was grasping Anna’s mother Sheila around the shoulders. “We should go,” she said. “Get some rest, huh?” Sheila nodded, blew her nose, and then waved them goodbye.
On the car riding home, Christine worked up the courage to ask the question on her mind, “Mom? Why was Sheila weeping?” She thought she knew the answer, of course: Anna’s cancer. In the past, Anna had been the neighborhood do-gooder, always going door to door for various causes: the local animal shelter, suffering children in Africa, or the families who’d lost their homes to fire. Now Anna could barely feed or dress herself. Christine thought it so unfair when bad things like this happened to good people.
“Well, it’s complex, but I guess you’re old enough to understand.”
“Understand what?”
“Understand that Anna is sick, yes, but Anna actually gets a lot of help. The government helps pay for a lot of her medicine. She gets meals delivered to her by a nonprofit. She even gets massages from local volunteers.”
“Wow!”
“Her life’s still very hard, of course, and no one would trade places with her, but when you have cancer, everyone can see that you need help,” continued Donna. “They don’t always see that the people around you are suffering.”
“People like Sheila?”
“Yes, did you know that Sheila took a break from her job to stay home with Anna?”
“No!” Christine was surprised. She had never thought about who took Anna to her appointments, or fed her when she was too weak to lift a spoon. Of course it was her family.
“Yes. So that means that many of the things they used to do with that extra money are all out the window now. They’re even worried now about keeping the house.”
“Their house? So Anna might have to move, while she’s sick?”
“If she doesn’t get better soon, and the bills keep piling up...” Donna pulled into the driveway, and just in time. Her cheeks were shining with tears.
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“There has to be something done for them,” Christine said firmly to their classmates and friends.
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But the best part of the party was when Anna came through the door with her family, attracted with promises of chocolate cake and live music.
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When a tornado touched down in a small town nearby，many families were left completely destroyed.Afterward all the local newspapers carried many humaninterest stories featuring some of the families who suffered the hardest.
One Sunday，a particular picture especially touched me.A young woman stood in front of an entirely shattered mobile home，a depressed expression twisting her features.A young boy，seven or eight years old，definitely in low spirits，stood at her side，eyes downcast.Clutching(紧握) at her skirt was a tiny girl who stared into the camera，eyes wide with confusion and fear.
The article that went with the picture gave the clothing sizes of each family member.With growing interest，I noticed that their sizes closely matched ours.This would be a good opportunity to teach my children to help those less fortunate than themselves.I taped the picture of the young family to our refrigerator，explaining their difficulty to my sevenyearold twins，Brad and Brett，and to threeyearold Meghan.
“We have so much.And these poor people now have nothing，” I said.“We'll share what we have with them，thus they will smile again.”
I brought three large boxes down from the room upstairs and placed them on the living room floor.Meghan watched seriously，as the boys and I filled one of the boxes with canned goods and foods.
While I sorted through our clothes，I encouraged the boys to go through their toys and donate some of their less favorite things.Meghan watched quietly as the boys piled up discarded toys and games.
“I'll help you find something for the little girl when I'm done with this，” I said.
The boys placed the toys they had chosen to donate into one of the boxes while I filled the third box with clothes.Meghan walked up with Lucy，her worn，faded，muchloved rag doll hugged tightly to her chest.She paused in front of the box that held the toys，pressed her round little face into Lucy's flat，paintedonface，gave her a final kiss，then laid her gently on the top of other toys.
“Oh，Honey，” I said.“You don't have to give Lucy.You love her so much.”
Meghan nodded seriously，eyes glistening with heldback tears.“Lucy makes me happy，Mommy.Maybe she'll make that other little girl happy，too.”
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The boys，openmouthed，had watched their baby sister placed her favorite doll in the box.
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Taking the cue from my little ones，I removed my old jacket from the box of clothes.
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My mother was a supporter of physical punishment, but for all her talking she has never spanked (打屁股) my siblings, and me only once. Instead she found ways of punishment that left a more lasting memory than giving us a spanking. One of the most memorable of these occasions occurred when I was four.
In the early 70’s my mother attended college during the day and I was in day care. One day at day care I watched an extremely tired mother attempt to pick up her daughter. The little girl asked, “Momma, are we going to McDonald’s for dinner?” The mother replied, “Honey, not tonight. Momma has to run a few errands (差事) and then we have to go home and cook dinner for Daddy.” “But I wanna go.” “Susie, I said not tonight. Maybe, if you are a good girl, we can go tomorrow.” Susie immediately dropped to the floor, kicking and screaming, “I want to go to McDonald’s.”
No amount of pleading (恳求) or scolding her mother tried stopped Susie’s tantrum (发脾气). Finally her mother gave in, “Okay, Susie, let’s go to McDonald’s.” Susie stopped yelling. With a smile on her face she grabbed her mother’s hand and they left. To say I was amazed would be inaccurate (不准确的); I was delighted that anything I wanted could be had by throwing a tantrum.
That day my mother picked me up early from day care because we were going to a store to purchase some Christmas items. I was excited by the lights and decorations, and as we walked through the toy section on the way to the counter, I saw a toy I had to have. It was a white and red telephone whose bells rang as it was pulled along on a string. Looking lovingly up at my mother I asked, “Mama, can I have that telephone? ”
She replied, “Baby, not now, but if you are a good girl, maybe Santa will bring it to you.” “But Mama, I want that telephone right now.” Her eyes narrowed and her hand tightened on mine. “Becky, you can’t have that telephone today, but if you misbehave, you can have a spanking.”
注意：
1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2. 应使用5个以上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 l:
By now we were standing in the long holiday line to pay the bill, and I figured it was a good chance.
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Paragraph 2:
“Mama, stop. Mama, get up,” I tearfully pleaded.
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When I was ten, I was suddenly faced with the suffering of moving from the only home I had ever known. My whole life, brief as it was, had been spent in that big old house, gracefully touched with the laughter and tears of four generations.
When the final day came, I ran to the small backyard and sat alone, with tears welling up from my heart.Suddenly I felt a hand rest on my shoulder.I looked up to see my grandfather. “It isn't easy, is it, Billy？” he said softly, sitting down on the steps beside me.
“Grandpa，” I replied through my tears, “how can I ever say goodbye to you and all my friends？”
For a moment he just stared off into the apple trees. “Goodbye is such a sad word，” he said.“It seems too final, too cold, for friends to use.We seem to have so many ways of saying goodbye and they all have one thing in common: sadness.When you and your friends must part, I want you to reach deep within you and bring back that first hello.Come with me, my friend，” he whispered.
We walked, hand in hand, to his favorite place in the front yard, where a huge red rosebush sat noticeably alone.Kneeling, he pulled me close.“It isn't just the roses that are beautiful, Billy. It's that special place in your heart that makes them so.”
His eyes met mine again.“Billy, I planted these roses a long time ago—before your mother came to the world. I put them into the soil the day my first son was born. It was my way of saying ‘thank you’ to God. That boy's name was Billy, just like yours.I used to watch him pick roses for his mother.” I saw my grandfather's tears.I had never seen him cry before.His voice became hoarse.
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：
One day a terrible war came, and my son, like so many sons, said goodbye to fight a great evil.
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A year and a half later, my grandfather became seriously ill. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
