4 . How to Make Friends at a New School

Starting with a new school can be difficult. Everything seems to be different, and you don’t even know where to go for your own classes.     1     However, if you use these skills, you can quickly turn some of those strangers into friends.

    2     If some people don’t accept you, they’re not the kind of friends you need. People often stay together because they have similar interests. For example, someone who does a lot of sports may make friends with those who also run or swim a lot.

Remember to be nice to the people you meet at your new school. If you think that you will say something that may make them feel sad, do not say anything and just nod your head if they talk to you. Also, remember to be as helpful as possible!

A smile goes a long way. When you walk in the halls, don’t keep your eyes on the floor. Raise your head and make eye contact with other people.     4     Introduce yourself. Tell them your name and where you’re from.

You like it when people use your name, and so do other people.     5     Besides, ask them in a kind way if they have a nickname. You’d be surprised how often this may come in handy.

5 . The first time I realized that I had a love for sports competitions was during the Field Day in elementary school. Small for my age, and more of a bookworm than a sports enthusiast, I had suffered that special humiliation of being picked last for various gym teams. The Field Day, which focused on individual skills, was different. In the Softball Throw event, I got my first taste of sporting victory. Credit goes to the example of my first coach, my father. He lifted weights every morning at home. He bought us all baseball gloves and hats, and in the warm months, we spent hours playing catch. Come fall, our backyard football games began with passing practice.

Once I got to sixth grade and switched to private school, our entire student body was assigned to either the Red or the White team. Throughout the year, we competed against each other in various games and exercises for points. I eventually became president of The Committee of Games, accelerating (加速) my competitive fever. However, in girls’ sports games at my school, I was no star. I also played on the field hockey team and the basketball team. School sports did not bleed into the weekends, as they do today, but at home, playing tennis, skating, skiing and biking were simply normal things we did. During break time, magazines were also quite popular for us teens. These regularly featured articles on physical exercise. Somehow, my college roommate and I took up the habit of completing Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) exercises every day, a practice that continued into my marriage, when we had no spare funds to use to join a gym.

So, though it shocks some of our friends, that early foundation evolved in adulthood into a sports and fitness focus, considered essential even on vacation. I still love reading and the arts, too. As far as I’m concerned, life is the richest with my feet in both worlds.

8 . As a teenager, I was pretty lazy when it came to doing things for my family. I found myself refusing to _________ out at home with even the simplest things.

Every Wednesday afternoon, for example, my mother _________ me to another town for a piano lesson. During my two-hour lesson, she’d rush to the nearby store and buy a week’s worth of _________. Given the fact that my mom had driven me twelve miles there, twelve miles back, and _________ for my lesson, you’d think I’d be very _________ to help her bring the groceries into the house. But I wasn’t. I generally just brought in an armload and left the rest for Mom as I ran to my room and shut the door.

Don’t get me wrong. Back in my room, I felt _________ about not helping my mother more. Deep inside, I wanted to change my _________ . But I also realized that once I took on more responsibility, my parents would start _________ more from me. At age fifteen, I sensed that this one small change would mark something much bigger: my personal change from a spoiled(宠坏的) child to a more _________ young man.

I’ll never forget the Wednesday when I made a(n) __________ to try and see what would happen. Returning home from the lesson I disappeared into my room, as usual. But once inside, I felt that deep and burning __________. Throwing my school books on the bed, I suddenly opened my door and __________ back to the garage to help my mother. How happy I felt that day! Surely, over time, I continued to help out with more housework. The more I helped out, the __________ I felt about myself. As Mom and Dad realized they could __________ on me more, our trips became far less stressful, too.

Sometimes the little things we put off dong for the longest time __________ out to be simplest things to complete. Feeling happy beats feeling guilty any day.

9 . 阅读下面材料, 根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段, 使之构成一篇完整的短文。

I grew up in a small town where the primary school was a ten-minute walk from my house and children could go home for lunch and find their mothers waiting.

At the time, I did not consider this a luxury, although today it certainly would be. I took it for granted that mothers were the sandwich-makers, the finger-painting appreciations and the homework monitors. I never questioned that this ambitious, intelligent woman, who had had a career before I was born and would eventually return to a career, would spend almost every lunch hour throughout my primary school years just with me .

I only knew that when the noon bell rang, I would race breathlessly home. My mother would be standing at the top of the stairs, smiling down at me with a look that suggested I was the only important thing she had on her mind. For this I am forever grateful.

Some sounds bring it back: the high and long sound of my mother’s boiling teapot, the low and continuous noises of the washing machine in the basement, the ringing of my dog’s license tags as she bounded down the stairs to greet me. Some memories are still in my mind: the delicious peanut-butter sandwiches and the chocolate-chip cookies, and the dandelion that once gave me courage at the night of my performance.

A few months ago, my mother came to visit. I took off a day from work and treated her to lunch. The restaurant busy with noontime activity as business people made deals and glanced at their watches. In the middle of all this sat my mother, now retired, and I. From her face I could see that she actually enjoyed the pace of the world

注意：

1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右；

2. 续写部分分为两段, 每段开头语已为你写好。

Paragraph 1:

“Mom, you must have been terribly bored staying at home when I was a child,” I said.

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Paragraph 2:

Just then, looking at her, I could picture us sitting at her kitchen table once again.

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Yours,

Li Hua