Eleven-year-old James walked hand-in-hand with his parents, Ava and Richard Waters, through the Atlanta Christendom Market. It was only a few days before his favourite holiday, and he thought about what he hoped Santa would bring him. The most important item on his list was a new iPad, as his old one was already too slow for his games.
“Did Santa get my letter, Mum?” he asked innocently. His mum looked down at him and smiled.
“I’m sure he did, honey. Don’t worry. In any case, Christmas is not really about what you receive, it’s about spending time with your family and remembering all the good things that happened to you this year,” his mother answered, hoping that her child wouldn’t grow up to think that presents were an essential part of any holiday.
“I know, Mum. But I was really good this year! I deserve a gift!” James continued.
“Yes, you were good. I’m sure Santa knows that. Let’s get some hot cocoa, OK?” his father suggested and pulled them towards a vendor (自动售货机).
As they continued walking, James suddenly yelled, “Mr. Williams!” He let go of his mum’s hand and ran towards the direction of a man sitting on a bench by a tree.
“James!” his mum called out in a panic. The crowd was too big, and James was just a little boy. He could get lost easily. But James had reached his destination where his former neighbour Mr. Williams sat. “Mr. Williams! Do you remember me? I’m James,” he asked the old man.
“Ah, yes, James. How are you, kid? Are you keeping up with your reading I used to encourage you to do?” Mr. Williams asked.
“Yes, I am. But I miss you, sir. Why are you here alone?” James wondered.
Unfortunately, Mr. Williams got sick around a year ago and had to miss about a year of work. He lost his job and it was hard for him to afford his apartment and find other employment. During the car ride back home, James’mum told him that their neighbour was probably homeless after losing his job.
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。
James had an idea that night and he wrote another letter to Santa , asking him to help his neighbour.
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His mother read what he wrote and cried, unable to believe her son’s kindness and thoughtfulness.
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I had spent the long winter months waking up each morning with the sun and birds. Each day began like the previous one: sneakers (运动鞋), headphones and stretching. The fresh air filled my lungs as I ran out the front door, greeted by the empty streets and sidewalks. The world became my own training ground. As I ran, I found peace in the rising sun. This boring time quickly became my favorite time of the day.
I was born into a “running family”. I lost count of how many marathons my dad had participated in, and I was pretty sure my mom traveled on foot more than she did by vehicle. My brother, Mike, followed in their footsteps by running when he could, and competed in at least 4 races throughout the year. Unlike him, I didn’t naturally fall into the running life.
“Running is the best thing for you. I don’t know how people can dislike it,” my dad questioned during many dinner conversations in grade school.
“You would be a fool not to join the track team, Colleen,” my mom suggested in her serious voice.
“Of course I will,” I replied while rolling my eyes. “What could be funner than running?”
After hundreds of practices and a handful of track meets later, I found myself agreeing with my parents and laughing at the idea that I once disagreed with them. The time had come when my dad finally asked the big question, which I had been nervous about for a while.
“So, the marathon is in November. What are we thinking?”
I felt my heart sink and speed up at the same time. Oh no, was I ready for this? The words suddenly came out before I could even fully process the question.
“Yeah, let’s do it!”
I couldn’t let him down. He had been waiting years for this experience. Finally, we spent hours training and bonding together until the big day came.
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。
It was at mile marker 20 when my legs began to lose feeling.
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The finish line was finally in view.
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Back to the time when I was a clerk working in a 24-hour convenience store on the East Coast, people there were experiencing a heat wave. So the absolute thing you wouldn’t want to do was staying in a hot car! That’s what I thought when I saw a woman doing that. Going past the car, I noticed she was always lying, but not sleeping inside. The car was piled with her belongings, including a variety of paints and brushes, from the passenger side to the back seats.
I’d been aware of this car parked for a few weeks in the same space on this quiet lot just next to the convenience store where I worked. Maybe she was in trouble. Finally, one day I asked my partner to fill in for me. Then I stepped out of the store, went over to the car and got a close enough look to see the woman. I found that she was clear-headed in spite of a little pain in her face. This made me more anxious.
“Excuse me, I’m John. I work in the convenient store over there. I’m here to check out if you need any help,” I said.
“Pretty good. Thank you, gentleman. By the way, I’m Justine,” the woman replied with a sweet smile. Seeing that she was OK, I told her I had to go back to work and that I’d be there if she needed a hand.
The next day, after a little rush following the noon, there were no customers coming to buy groceries. With a bit of time, I invited Justine in to enjoy some cool air from the air conditioner. I gave her a cold drink, and then we sat down. “Thanks for your invitation. And I know you have many questions about me. John, go ahead,” she said calmly. She dressed with artistic taste and behaved gracefully. Naturally, I did have much doubt in my head about her situation. When asked why she kept staying in the car, she stopped for a while and said, “Because my precious works are in it.” She added, “What I did was all for my next art exhibition.”
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。
Then she told me that she was an artist.
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A month later, I received a call from Justine when in the store.
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Tina was a 13-year-old girl. She was playing in the yard one morning when she overheard her parents’ dialogue. Her father, a sheepherder who raised hundreds of sheep, was going to the nearest town to do some urgent things. He suggested that Tina should herd (放牧) the sheep while he was away. But her mother, a disabled woman, doubted whether Tina could do that.
Hearing this, Tina stepped into her parents’ room. “Mom, I can herd the sheep. I have grown up,” said Tina, full of expectation. Her parents smiled and agreed. After putting some bread and water into her bag as lunch, Tina drove the sheep out of sheepfold (羊圈), walking them south to a distant grassland. Her mother repeatedly told her that she didn’t have to herd the sheep until the sunset like her father did. But Tina had made up her mind to prove that she had grown up.
It was the first time that Tina had herded the sheep. That day seemed much longer than any other day before. The sun seemed to have stopped in the middle of the sky. The bread was eaten up soon and so was the water. So after some hesitation, Tina finally decided to drive the sheep back home while the sun was still high in the west.
Tina’s father was waiting outside the sheepfold, as if he had expected all that. He smiled at Tina but Tina just kept her head down. The sheep soon got into the sheepfold. Tina was about to shut the door when her father told her to count the sheep in case that some sheep were lost. Tina followed her father’s orders despite her unwillingness.
The sheep were not cooperative (配合的) at all. They were coming and going. Tina counted the sheep three times but each was a different number. She tried again and again and at last she told her father that she had lost three. Her father was not angry but said, “Three? Are you kidding?” Tina felt so guilty that she turned around immediately and went to look for the missing sheep and the pride as 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。
It was getting dark and Tina walked along the path to the grassland in search of the sheep.
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“No, you didn’t lose them,” her father said calmly, much to her surprise.
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I Am That Change
After 5 years abroad, I came to India, which is my native country. That was the time when private organizations, shopping malls, restaurants were emerging in our area.
One day my sister took me to the nearby shopping mall. We bought some clothes and the bill we made was INR 1,599. There was a huge line at the billing counter and we stood in the line. Then I noticed that a lady made her bill INR 499. So she gave INR 500 but she didn't get her one rupee in return. Surprisingly, she was okay with it. She didn't ask for her money (1 rupee).
Now it was our turn to pay. My sister gave INR 1,600. We weren't different. We did get nothing in return. But unlike the previous lady, I asked for my one rupee. They gave me an annoying look and said, “madam, we don't have any change. Leave it. It's just a rupee. There is nothing you can buy with that.”
I was so annoyed with their answer and said, “Now give me my 1,600 rupees, I will give you exactly how much I should spend on my things.” And I gave exactly INR 1,599. Everyone around that billing counter made a dramatic scene by abusing me that I was selfish，stingy（吝啬的）, etc. I didn’t mind anything and left the mall.
Outside the mall, I saw a random old woman begging in the burning sun. I gave that one rupee to her and also gave a couple of notes to her. And I noticed many people who left their one rupee for the shopping mall, ignoring that old woman who was begging just outside that mall.
I couldn't sleep that night. I was saddened by those acts. How come people don't give their valueless one rupee to the beggars who value that one rupee so much?
Not one man but everyone who visited the malls left one rupee there. If around 1,000 people visit that mall per day, it gets 1,000 rupees per day for free. I wanted to make some changes in the society, at least in our area.
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。
So the next day I bought some white cardboard sheets and wrote some words on them.
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A year later, I came back to India again, and was excited to see my plan still worked.
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Lunch hour. Escaping from my office, I fled down Main Street in pursuit of freedom from the routine of the day. An old bell clanged(叮当作响)against the door of a dusty used bookstore when I pushed it open.
Looking through the horizon of shelves and lots of magazines, my eyes suddenly met his and my heart began to race. They were the blazing(闪烁) orange eyes of an African lion on the cover of a National Geographic magazine. I hadn’t seen those eyes in thirty years, but their impact on me hadn’t faded. As a kid I used to dream about Africa, living with wild animals.
The opportunity of spending a “gap year” volunteering in Africa or joining the Youth Corps had long since passed. Or had it? Yes, it’s true I couldn’t go to Africa for several months, but maybe I could volunteer in Africa for a few weeks.
Over the next several weeks I began to budget and save, determined to make it happen. The big day came. I arrived and met my boss, a young South African ranger(护林员)named Gary. He said, “Let me guess, you’re here because you dreamed of Africa.”
“Yes!” I smiled.
“Well it’s time to wake up. This is a working game reserve. These are wild animals.”
“Okay.”
“You’re going to have to get out of your comfort zone, take some risks, Have the courage of a lion.”
The next morning when we began our patrol(巡逻)in an open-air jeep, giant African elephants appeared in the morning mist. I was no longer dreaming in the pages of a National Geographic magazine. I was living them.
Moments later Gary parked the jeep and handed me a heavy shovel(铲子) and said, “Time to shovel dung(粪).” Elephant dung. Mountains of it. It will be used as fertilizer in the reserves sustainable vegetable garden.
Within fifteen minutes my back was aching, and my new work gloves were stretched out and so slippery with dung and sweat that they refused to stay on my hands. This wasn’t the dream of Africa I had.
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:
I began to question myself.
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Paragraph 2:
But at that moment I remembered Gary’s words “step out of your comfort zone”.
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Dave had loved basketball for as long as he could remember and he had never had a day without playing it. At primary school and junior high school he joined basketball clubs, attended training programs and watched basketball games, from which he learned the moves of the star players, wishing to play in a professional team like them and shine on the court.
Now as a senior high school student, however, his dream of becoming a professional player was dimming (变暗) because he was only of average height. He had to give up the hope of joining the school team. The guys on the school team were all tall boys who played matches and won honors for the school. They were like heroes. Dave watched them play and cheered them but he knew he would never be one of them.
Dave felt it a pity not to be tall enough, but this didn’t stop him from pouring his passion into basketball. He just played for the love of the sport. He played in the school gym with other boys or by himself every day, even during holidays and weekends, when it was open for two hours in the morning. He enjoyed every minute on the court making every effort to play better.
It was one Saturday morning. Dave was playing in the gym by himself, as all the other boys were busy with other weekend affairs. Then he noticed a tall boy approaching. It was Lankas. Everybody knows him as captain of the school basketball team. “Hi, Lankas,” Dave greeted him. “My name is Dave.” “Hi, Dave,” Lankas replied as he got closer. “Nice to see you here. Do you need an opponent to play against?” Dave was shocked, frozen right there, unable to believe his ears but somehow, he answered, “Why not?”
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。
So, a game of two players began.
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The next Saturday, when Dave was playing in the gym, Lankas appeared shouting, “Dave, I have good news for you.”
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At a moment’s notice, quick thinking can save lives. Nothing illustrates this better than the story of 13-year-old hero named Dillon Reeves, who jumped into action when his school bus driver experienced a medical emergency, bringing the bus to a stop and avoiding what could have been a very tragic accident. Reeves’ parents expressed their pride at his actions.
“It’s an honor, said his dad Steve. ”I am a bus driver, too. Because of that, Reeves could probably know how to hold the steering wheel (方向盘) and step on the brakes. "
That day, Reeves came back home from school and was riding a school bus full of students in Michigan. And he sat in the fifth rows as usual.
The school bus driver has ten years of driving experience, and during these years, he has never had a driving accident. He held the steering wheel confidently, and he stepped on the brakes carefully. All the students were chatting as usual. Everything went smoothly.
A few minutes later, Reeves noticed something was off, but others didn’t feel anything wrong at the beginning.
The bus driver felt lightheaded and said on the intercom (对讲机)， “I am going to pullover for a moment. Hearing that, students thought the bus would stopped in a certain parking area.
However, the bus didn’t make it to the pull-off area, and began to drift onto on coming traffic. Security camera footage showed the driver already lost consciousness. Seeing that, all the students shouted loudly and shook all over, feeling like sitting on pins and needles, but Reeves kept his head at that time and told himself he should take some actions quickly.
Noticing the danger of the situation, he knew it was time for him to do something.
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。
Without hesitation, Reeves sprang from five rows back.
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Emergency services arrived at the scene in no time.
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My daughter and I pushed the overloaded cart in the store. She reached up and took another toy, and without asking, threw it in the cart. “Is that for you?” I asked.
“No, it is for my friend,” she answered. I was proud of her. Being an only child and an only grandchild, she could have been spoiled (宠坏), but instead she was caring and very giving, almost more than necessary.
On the drive home, my daughter was unusually quiet. Finally, she said, “Mommy, if Santa brings all the gifts, why are we buying them?” I quickly tried to think of an answer. Before I could say anything, she shouted, “I know why. We’re Santa’s helpers!” Yes, she took the words right out of my mouth. Yes, that’s exactly what we are.
After a few days, she came home from school quite upset, explaining, “Mommy, there’s a girl in my class who’s very mean (吝啬) to me and my friends. She is Lucy. We talk to her anyway, and when we asked her what she was getting for Christmas, she started crying. She said she wasn’t getting anything because her mother is always sick and her father doesn’t have the money to pay for anything, not even food.”
I calmed her down, knowing what she was thinking about.
One evening before Christmas vacation, my daughter began to wrap (包装) the gifts for her friends. I gave her a roll of wrapping paper, but she came back and asked for more. I thought it was strange, but I was busy then, only telling her to get whatever she needed.
On the last day of school, I had to leave for work extra early, so I asked my friend to pick up my daughter since she had quite a few gifts to take for the class Christmas party. I never actually saw what my daughter took to school.
On Christmas Eve, I went to wrap gifts, but all of them were missing. I looked high and low and couldn’t find them.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右;
2. 开头已给出。
Finally, I woke my daughter.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Early Christmas morning, a mother and a daughter came to our house.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Our Garfield became a mostly indoor cat. He used to wander outside but we discovered he had a terrible sense of direction, so now he has to stay inside. He does not enjoy being on the inside looking out, but it’s safer for him so that’s how it has to be.
When Garfield isn’t sleeping, he’s either sitting on a windowsill (窗台) or sitting with his wet nose pressed against our glass door overlooking the deck (木质平台), like a prisoner behind bars. As he ages, he earns back his outside rights an hour per day because he shows us that he will stay close to the back deck.
When we let him out last week, a thunderstorm arose out of nowhere. By the time we heard the crack of lightning and remembered Garfield was outside, we opened the door to see nothing but strong wind and heavy rain. My daughter Janette put on her rubber boots and raincoat to check around the house, but Garfield was nowhere to be found. The thunderstorm obviously had scared him into a run in the wrong direction. Who knew where he would end up?
It took me forever to fall asleep that night. I prayed (祈祷) someone would protect him and help him find his way home. As I continued praying, I realized that in my daily prayers for my family, I rarely included Garfield. Now that he was gone, maybe forever, I realized what an important part of our family he was. I prayed for his safe return.
My husband Peter was the first one up at 6: 00 a. m. He checked the doorstep, but no Garfield was in sight. I saw my neighbor Heidi taking her dog out for a walk, and I asked her to please keep her eyes open for our cat. Janette and her three brothers all walked around the house that day looking like they had lost their best friend. Peter decided to look for Garfield around the neighborhood.
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。
Peter and I drove around to search the neighborhood.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I was saying to myself “Never say never” when I heard something scratching the door at 10: 00 p.m.
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