In a small town located in the mountains, there was a young boy named Owen. He was crazy about basketball more than anything else in the world. He would spend hours every day practicing his dribbling (运球), shooting and passing. He dreamed of one day winning games on a team.
Owen’s town had a small basketball court that was often empty. Owen would go there every day after school to practice. One day, as he was shooting hoops (投篮), he heard a voice behind him, “Hey, kid! You’re pretty good!”
Owen turned around to see a tall man with a friendly smile. The man introduced himself as Coach Johnson and asked Owen if he wanted to join his basketball team. The team was made up of kids from all over the town, and they practiced every day after school.
Owen was overjoyed because he had never played on a team before. He wanted to start and win games. Owen quickly became the star player of the team.
However, the team never won a game. “I had trained so hard and performed excellently, but we were always losing! Jack should have run much faster towards me and Kris should have passed the ball to me!” Owen kept complaining to the coach.
The complaint seemed understandable! Owen was admired by his teammates because he was fast and had incredible shots. However, Johnson knew Owen lacked something important. He told Owen to learn to play with his teammates as a team instead of just focusing on himself. Owen didn’t quite understand that at first and insisted he just needed to practice harder to win games.
However, disaster struck. Owen injured his ankle one day and had to sit out for several weeks, which let him fall into anxiety. He felt his dream was slipping away.
During his recovery at home, Owen refused to see anyone on the team, except his coach. Johnson handed Owen a phone downloaded with some videos about the best basketball teams and some cards from Owen’s teammates.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150个左右；2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Owen couldn’t wait to watch those videos.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________After recovering, Owen returned to his team as a changed player.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________In 2019, an unattractive package arrived at my front door. Inside was a 2-by-4-foot scrapbook (剪贴簿) filled with candy wrappers over 70 years old. It was sent by Jeffrey S. Green, who was a famous candy company’s vice president. After the company closed down, the scrapbook traveled 2,950 miles to La Verne, California, to the farm my family and I call home.
I’m the founder of the online website “Roadside Attraction: Candy Wrapper Museum”, where I share my 50-year collection of little slips of paper, designed to be tom and thrown away. Why? Because these small objects serve as time machines, opening an emotional door to the past.
I was 15 years old when I started collecting candy wrappers, inspired by friends with cool collections like beer bottles from around the world. Some of their collections are classified either by size and color as well as sports or people. Inspired by these novel collections, I wanted to start one of my own, but of what? I usually spent my few coins on candy at the candy shop. The candy shelves were a wonderland of tasty treats with colorful wrappers in different themes, all shouting: Pick me! Big Bears, Milk Duds, Jujyfruits, Choco’Lite, Lemonhead… How could a girl decide?
Then inspiration struck. Instead of throwing away those wrappers, I would save them. I would create a Candy Wrapper Museum. I hoped that the wrappers would one day be enjoyed as art, nostalgia (怀旧) and humor. It was 1977 when I was a teenager. An idea struck me: I would collect these wrappers throughout my lifetime, then open up the museum as a roadside attraction in my old age. I chose my first pieces, Nice Mice and Cinnamon Teddy Bears, and so began this journey.
My family were the first to leave the candy wrappers to me. Then the relatives. My friends caught the spirit of fun and donated pieces. Collecting became an affordable, novel way to explore the world around me, one that could turn even an ordinary shopping trip into a treasure hunt.
In 2002, inspiration struck again. Why wait until retirement? Why not open the museum right now on the internet, the ultimate “superhighway”?
注意1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Building the online museum was a massive six-month, one-person project.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When the museum was launched, I doubted whether anyone would be interested.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Twenty years ago, I drove a taxi for a living. One night I took a fare at 2：30 a.m. When I arrived, the building was dark except for a single light in a ground floor window. I walked to the door and knocked.” Just a minute,” answered a weak, elderly voice. I could hear something being dragged across the floor.
After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her 80s stood before me. She was wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat, like somebody out of a 1940s movie. “Would you carry my bag out to the car？” she said. I took the suitcase to the car, and then returned to assist the woman. She held my arm and we walked slowly toward my car.
She kept thanking me for my kindness. “It’s nothing,” I told her.” I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother treated.”
“Oh, you’re such a good man,” she said. When we got in the car, she gave me an address, and then asked, “Could you drive through downtown?”
I looked in the rear－view mirror(后视镜). Her eyes were shining. “I don’t have any family left,” she continued.” The doctor says I don’t live very long.” I quietly reached over and shut off the meter. “What route would you like me to take?” I asked.
For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked as an operator. We drove through the neighborhood where she and her husband had lived. Sometimes she’d ask me to slow in front of a particular building or corner and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.
As the first ray of the sun appeared, she suddenly said,” I’m tired. Let’s go now.”We drove in silence to the address she had given me. It was a small hospice (临终关怀医院), with a driveway that passed under an entrance hall. Two nurses came out to the car as soon as we pulled up.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在相应位置作答。
I opened the trunk and took the small suitcase to the door.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________On a sunny day with no clouds, Sally sat on a chair in the garden, hemming (缝边) a handkerchief. All of a sudden, there came a little ant. It was in such a hurry. Finally it ran across the small stone table and stopped by her side. The sewing was not done, for Sally easily got a little bit distracted by this little ant. Suddenly, she dropped her thimble (顶针) over the little ant by accident while she was looking at it.“Can it mind? But it is only such a little tiny thing,”said Sally in doubt.
Then Sally ran away, for her mother called her to have lunch, and she forgot all about the ant under the thimble and the handkerchief outside. There the little ant was, running round and round in the dark place, with little horns on its head quivering, little perfect legs bending as beautifully as those of a racehorse, and it was very scared.
If Sally had remembered the ant, she would have heard this little ant say, “I can’t get out! I can’t get out! Is there anyone out there? Can someone help me out?” But unfortunately, till the bedtime, Sally failed to hear the little ant's silent calling and just went to sleep. In the midnight, there was thunder, lightning and heavy rain. The next day, when Sally woke up, she came to the garden, only to find the handkerchief was soaked (湿透的) as if somebody had been crying very much. When she was about to fetch it as soon as the sun shone, it suddenly came to her who was under the thimble. “Oh, how could I forget that little ant? I hope the little ant is doing fine,”said Sally, running with her worried face.
But when she lifted up the thimble, what came to her sight was the little tiny an t lay stiff and still. It seemed like this little poor thing was away from this world. “Oh, did it die of being under the thimble?”Sally said aloud with her trembling voice. “Why did you do that, Sally?”said her father, who was close by and looked unsatisfied.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
“Dad, I didn’t mean to,” said Sally.
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“Where is the ant in such a hurry to go, Sally?” said her father.
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One day my mom and I read a story on a magazine called Humane Society News. A wild dog named Solo died for lack of medical care after he was ill. I knew how sad the story was because my own dog, Kela, had recently died. My world had ended when I lost Kela. She had been my best friend since I could remember. The article continued to tell about wildlife rehabilitators. They nursed the sick animals back to health, but as more and more animals were rescued, the medical expense became a big burden for them. I immediately determined to do something for them. I may be a kid, but why can’t I do a fund-raiser to help save more dogs?
My mom thought it was hard for an eleven-year-old girl to raise, but she told me to go ahead and try it anyway. I realized that I needed a name for the fund-raiser and thought since I was trying to protect dogs’ life, I would call my program Help Dogs. I decided that pet stores would be really good places to go with donation boxes and Help Dogs flyers (传单). I used little green Chinese take-out boxes, decorated with a picture of Tiko, one of the dogs I chose to help, and me. I wrote on each box “Help protect the life of dogs by donating a dollar”. I thought my actions might not raise much money for the dogs, but they can at least increase people’s awareness of wild animals protection.
One afternoon, after all the boxes had been distributed throughout our community, I got a call from a local newspaper reporter who had seen one of my flyers. The reporter decided to do an article about Help Dogs. After the article came out, I waited for a few days before checking to see if there were any donations.
注意：(1) 续写词数应为150左右；
(2) 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
I was really nervous when I finally went to collect the money.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I realized many people feel the same way as I did but didn’t know how to help.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________正方 | 反方 |
| 安慰、陪伴孤寡老人 | 造成环境污染 |
| 人与动物和谐相处，增添生活乐趣 | 吵闹声，甚至伤人 |
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I love to watch my father paint and I love to hear him talk while he paints. The words always come out soft. As a mason (泥瓦匠) , he doesn’t have a studio, and I’ve always felt a little sorry for him, having to paint in our backyard, which is not exactly picturesque. Dad doesn’t seem to see the backyard when he’s painting, though. It’s not just the canvas he sees either. It’s something much bigger. He gets this look in his eye like he’s gone beyond the yard, the neighborhood, the world.
“A painting is more than the sum of its parts,” he would tell me, and then go on to explain how the cow by itself is just a cow, and the meadow by itself is just grass and flowers, and the sun is just a beam of light, but put them all together and you’ve got magic.
I understood what he was saying, but I never felt what he was saying until one day when I was up in the sycamore tree (梧桐树) . I’d never seen a view like that! I got the feeling that I was flying above the earth. The view from the sycamore was more than rooftops and clouds and wind and colors combined. It was magic. It wasn’t long before I found the spot that became my spot. I could sit there for hours, just looking out at the world. Sunsets were amazing. Some days they’d be purple and pink, some days they’d be a blazing orange, setting fire to clouds across the horizon.
Then came the day. When I was sitting in the branches of my tree, I found two trucks parked right beneath me. Four men came out of the trucks, and started unloading tools, gloves, ropes and saws (锯子) .
Pretty soon they spotted me. One of the men called, “Hey! You’d better come down from there. We gotta take this thing down.”
I managed to choke out, “The tree?”
“Yeah, now come on down.”
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: My heart was crazy with panic.
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Paragraph 2: When I was locked up in my room mourning for the loss of the tree, my father came in with a painting.
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I stared at myself in the mirror: blue tights, yellow vest, a fish tail trailing behind me, and large eyes sitting at op my head. I raised my eyebrows and sighed.
“Mom, I don’t think this costume is right,” I said. “Maybe the makeup will add something,” Mom replied hopefully.
Somehow Mom had convinced me to play the Fish Footman in Alice in Wonderland. I can’t say it’s been the time of my life.
“What if I forget my lines?” I hesitated.
“Oh Riley, is that what you’re afraid of? I know you’ve been rehearsing for two months, you were the first off-book in your scene, and I couldn’t be prouder of you.” Mom said, kneeling down and hugging me.
The next day we pulled into the parking lot, and I stepped out of the car, wearing the questionable costume. I shrank inside myself, but Mom pulled me toward the makeup room. When the makeup was done, I looked at myself in the mirror. My jaw dropped.
“Mom! I can’t go onstage like this!” I cried.
“Why not?”
“I’d be a laughing stock (笑柄)! ”
“Riley, look around you! You’re not the only one in an odd costume.”
“What if we just sneak out? No one will miss me.” I whispered.
Mom’s lips disappeared into a thin line, and I knew I had gone too far. “Riley, I’m going to watch you go out on that stage tonight. And that’s the end of it.” Then mom disappeared into the audience. I sat there, alone and bored, as the play began and the curtain rose on.
The two boys dressed as Two of Clubs (梅花2) near me chatted casually about this and that. Suddenly, they asked, “You’re awfully quiet. Is this your first show?” I tried to respond, but my voice caught in my throat and refused to escape. I coughed and nearly yelled, “YES!”
The Ace of Diamonds (方块A) sitting nearby laughed. “The audience will certainly hear you if you talk that loud. But you might have to clear your throat first, she chuckled. I gave them a weak smile.
“Don’t worry about us,” the Ace said. “We’re only teasing.”
“Yeah,” the Two said. “When you’ve done as many shows as we have, projecting will be second nature to you.”
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:
When my name was called, I stepped onto the stage uneasily.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2:
Suddenly I was determined to make a lasting impression.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Magic was a four-year-old German Shepherd about to be adopted at the animal shelter along with hundreds of other dogs. The reporter announced that the dogs and cats would be put down if no one came by the end of the day. My friend Rosie felt worried about the animals and asked me to accompany her there. So after school we rushed to the shelter to save whoever we could. Finally, she got a cat and I was touched by the poor animals, asking the shelter worker for the biggest dog they had. His name was Magic.
Actually, I lived alone in an apartment. I had to stay in college during the day. So I always stayed out and taking care of a dog at home seemed a challenge for me. Rosie felt uneasy about the dog and advised me to abandon the thought of keeping the dog and send it to a warm home.
But I liked Magic so much, so I didn’t accept her advice and brought Magic home. After learning I adopted a dog, my neighbor below showed worry for I hadn’t kept an animal before.
As it turned out, there wasn’t a lot of trust. Magic would take the food out of his bowl, bring it in front of me and eat it one bit e at a time. My friend Rosie was pretty sure I was crazy and that keeping it would be a huge mistake. But slowly Magic and I got to know each other. We became best friends. For the first time, my apartment felt like a home. We walked together through Central Park every morning and night. Even when my friends invited me to parties, I just wanted to be home with Magic. Our lives were happy. For the first time, I was content.
Unfortunately, a problem appeared. When I was in, he kept calm, but he barked a lot when I was not in, which disturbed my neighbor below.
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。
One day, my neighbor below knocked on my door.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________After listening to the problem, Rosie figured Magic barked just because he felt lonely.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________One morning after a storm, a boy named Lucas took a walk along the beach. He noticed many small fish were trapped in the puddles (小水坑) on the sand, unable to return to the sea. Without help, these fish would surely die. As Lucas continued walking, he spotted a man near the puddles. The man was tirelessly bending down, picking up the fish and gently throwing them back into the ocean. Lucas watched in puzzlement as the man saved the lives of the helpless fish.
Then Lucas couldn’t resist approaching the man and said, “There are hundreds, even thousands of fish in these puddles. You can’t save them all.” “I know,” the man replied without looking back, “but this fish cares.” As he spoke, he picked up another fish and returned it to the sea. He added, “This one cares, and this one, and this one…”
As Lucas stood there, watching the man save the fish, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of admiration mixed with a lot of guilt. Here was a man, who was making a difference in the lives of these creatures, while Lucas had never taken such simple yet meaningful actions.
Minutes later, Lucas had another talk with the man. He learned that the man usually came to the beach before going to work to help the stuck fish. The man explained that he had witnessed the result of a storm a few years back, in which countless fish died on the shore. Since then, he had made it his mission to do whatever he could to prevent such a tragedy from happening again.
Lucas was still puzzled by what the man was doing, so he asked the man, “Does it make sense for you to do that? Even if you could save these fish, could you make any great impact?” The man smiled and said, “I know my own efforts are insignificant, but if I don’t even try a little bit, I will feel guilty inside.”
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。
Moved by the man’s determination, Lucas decided to lend a hand.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Finally, Lucas couldn’t help but reflect on his own life.
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