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DJ: Hello. A lot of you have probably just got your A-levels and you’re looking forward to going to university. But more and more young people are deciding to take a gap year before they start their degrees. Today I’m talking to a group of young people who’ve all decided to take a year out before they go to university. What are they going to do? Rosie? What are your plans?
Rosie: I’m going to work in a department store.
DJ: Why do you want to do that?
Rosie: Two reasons really. I’m going to study Management at university and this will give me the chance to find out what it’s like to work in a big organization. And I’ll also be able to earn some money.
DJ: What about you, Christopher?
Christopher: I’m going to do community work with a conservation group. I think it’ll be good to do something really useful. And I’ll meet a lot of interesting people, I’m sure.
DJ: Will you get paid for it?
Christopher: Well, we won’t get rich doing it, but we’ll be all right. We’ll get about £20 a week plus food and accommodation.
DJ: Helen, what are you going to do?
Helen: I’m going to travel around Europe.
DJ: Are you going to work there?
Helen: I hope so, or I’ll have to come home again. I might try and get a job—you know—in a hotel or something like that.
DJ: Why do you want to do it?
Helen: Well, mainly because it’ll be a change. After all, I’ve been at school for 13 years. I just want to do something different. It’ll give me new experiences and I’ll need to be more independent.
Note: A-levels英国普通中等教育证书考试高级水平课程, 也是英国学生的大学入学考试。
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Sacrificing Hair for a Friend
My seven-year-old daughter Sue looked frightened with tears in her eyes. In front of her was a bowl of medicine, which tasted so bitter. “Sue, why don’t you take the medicine? Just for Dad’s sake, dear.” Sue softened a bit. “Dad, if I take the medicine, will you give me whatever I ask for?” “Oh sure, darling.” I replied. “Promise?” “Promise.”
Slowly and painfully, she finished taking the medicine and then looked at me with her eyes wide with expectation. “Dad, I want to have my head shaved off, this Sunday!”
“A girl child having her head shaved off? Why don’t you ask for something else? We will be sad seeing you with a clean-shaven head,” I said. “I do not want anything else,” Sue said with finality. “Dad, you promised to give me whatever I ask for. Was it not you who told me a story yesterday, and its moral that we should honor our promises no matter what?”
I had to give in.
On Monday morning, I dropped her at her school. It was a sight to watch my daughter walking towards her classroom with her head clean-shaven. She turned around and waved. I waved back with a smile. Just then, a boy got out of a car, and shouted, “Sue, please wait for me!”
What struck me was the hairless head of that boy. Then a lady got out of the car, and said to me, “Sir, that boy is my son Mike, and your daughter visited him last week. Mike is suffering from leukemia. He lost all his hair due to the side effects of the chemotherapy. He refused to come back to school for fear that he would be made fun of by the schoolmates.”
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。
“Your daughter is great indeed!” the lady continued.
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Sue’s story spread quickly and soon many other children showed their care for Mike in various ways.
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Please write a passage to tell your experiences and views on sharing learning skills with your classmates.
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Outside the Box
The Harvestfest contest was falling on Friday and everyone in school was talking about it. All the students would show up in their self-made costumes and a winner would be chosen by the principal.
“Do you have your costume for the Harvestfest contest?” Alice asked. “I’m going as a chocolate bar. My mom and I have been working on it all week.”
“Yeah, I have a costume,” said Jordan Eastman, popping up the two front wheels of his wheelchair as he waited for his dad to pick him up. “But it’s boring.”
“Why? What is it?” Alice asked.
“MaxMag the superhero, but Danny, Tom and Izzy are all going as MaxMag too.” Jordan shook his head. “That’s too many to stand a chance at winning the contest.” He waved to his dad, who had just pulled up in front of the school.
Jordan rolled his wheelchair toward his dad, and Alice walked with him to the minivan.
“Maybe you should go as something else.”
“The contest is Friday night.” Jordan sighed. “It’s too late to change costumes.”
“Jordan, you have to think outside the box. Look around your house and see what you have. There’s hidden potential in everyday items.” She took a sip of her drink, and told Jordan that her chocolate-bar costume was made from old fabric her mom had lying around and recycled plastics.
On his way home, Jordan was quiet. He kept thinking about Alice’s words: Think outside the box. There’s hidden potential in everyday items. When he got home, he found his mum handling with some wooden pieces. She was putting a new desk together. On top of the desk was the huge empty cardboard box the pieces had come in. Mom smiled at Jordan, pointing at the desk, “What do you think?”
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。
Jordan’s eyes fell on the box and he smiled, “It’s perfect . … with my wheelchair.”
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Soon it was Friday night, and Jordan couldn’t wait to show his costume.
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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.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________1. 参加人员；
2. 跑步路线：从校门口到南山脚下；
3. 活动反响。
注意:
1. 写作词数应为80左右:
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
（可用材料：attend/witness/ draw one’s attention/ manage to do sth./ measure/ speak highly of/ provide sth. for sb.）
A Cross-Country Running Race
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It was Christmas Day. Pappy was working alone fixing an old lantern in the backroom when he heard the ringing of his bell on the shop door. The bell, which produced a uniquely pleasant sound, had been in Pappy’s family for over a hundred years. He valued it dearly and enjoyed sharing its song with all who came to his shop. Although the bell hung on the inside of the main door, Pappy had tied a wire to the screen door so that it would ring whether the inner door was open or not. Hearing the bell, he left the backroom to greet his customer.
“And how can I help you, little lady?” Pappy’s voice was joyful.
“Hello, sir.” The little girl spoke almost in a whisper. She looked at Pappy with her big brown eyes, and then slowly scanned the room in search of something special. Shyly she told him, “I’d like to buy a present, sir.”
“Well, let’s see,” Pappy said, “who is this present for?”
“My grandpa. It’s for my grandpa. But I don’t know what to get.”
Pappy began to make suggestions. “How about a pocket watch? It’s in good condition.” The little girl didn’t answer. She had walked to the doorway and put her small hand on the door. She shook the door gently to ring the bell. Pappy’s face seemed to glow as he saw her smiling with excitement.
“This is just right,” the little girl said. “Momma says grandpa loves music.”
Just then, Pappy’s expression changed. Fearful of breaking the little girl’s heart, he told her, “I’m sorry, Missy. That’s not for sale. Maybe your grandpa would like this little radio.”
The girl looked at the radio, bowed her head, and sadly sighed, “No, I don’t think so.”
In an effort to help her understand, Pappy told her that the bell had been his only companion, for the rest of his family were all gone now, except for his estranged daughter whom he had not seen for nearly a decade.
注意：
所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
续写部分分为两段，每段开头语已为你写好；
Paragraph 1:
With a giant tear in her eye, the little girl looked up at him.
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Paragraph 2:
Later that evening when Pappy was closing up the shop, he heard a familiar ringing.
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Jessica Eaves from Guthrie, Oklahoma, who works as a volunteer helping to provide daily meals for those who have difficulty purchasing enough food to avoid hunger, recently had her wallet stolen by a man while she was grocery shopping. Most people in that situation would immediately get the authorities involved, but Jessica found another way to solve her problem, which made the man, the father of three who had lost his job, deeply moved.
“I saw this gentleman down the aisle(通道)from me,” Jessica tells us. “He was walking behind me, looking a little nervous, and when I got a couple of aisles over, I realized that my wallet was gone.”
“I spotted the man in a crowded aisle and approached him,” she continues.” I said to him, 'I think you have something of mine. I'm going to give you a choice. You can either give my wallet back to me and I'll forgive you right now, and I even promise to take you to the front and pay for your groceries.”
The alternative? Jessica would report him to the police.
“He reached into his pocket, took out my wallet and gave it back to me,” she recalls, adding that the money in the wallet had not been touched.
Paragraph 1:
Jessica kept her promise.
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Paragraph 2:
Jessica's story has spread quickly and people have different opinions about it.
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