It was a normal Friday. I got home from work. The routine of talking to my grandmother on the phone after a long workday was comforting. We always shared our thoughts and stories.
I dialed her number and waited but she did not answer. That was extremely unusual because she always answered—her phone was always by her side. I called again. “Pick up! Pick up!” I said to myself.
I knew rationally (理智地) she could be out or was away from the phone but as I dialed again and again, only getting her answering machine each time for over two hours, I began to panic. She lived alone. She only took short walks around the neighborhood.
Throwing all the reasons out of my mind, I called my sister and my father and told them that I thought something was wrong and that we needed to drive to my grandmother’s house to check on her. I was out the door before either of them could start much of an argument.
I picked them up and we headed toward 1-95. “She’s probably at neighbor’s house,” my father kept saying. “Maybe she’s sleeping,” my sister interrupted, but I just stepped on the gas and a half hour later we pulled into my grandmother’s driveway.
Her red brick apartment was completely closed off, the gate was shut, and the blinds were pulled down. Not a ray of light could be seen inside. Sensing that I was right and that something was clearly wrong, my father began pounding on the locked front door while I checked the back door.
Both were locked. My sister leaned on the doorbell and although she could hear the bell ringing, there was no other noise inside. I raced around the side of the house to look inside one of her windows, but the heavy blinds were shut tight.
My sister rushed over to the neighbor’s house to see if they had seen our grandmother, but they were out. The other house connected to my grandmother’s apartment sat empty. Not a person was around.
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。
Frustration and anxiety came upon us.
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Just then, my grandmother showed up with a dirty kitten.
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Mom always has the purse with her. The purse contains a receipt for everything she has purchased since around 1980. At first, the purse was relatively normal in size, but over the years it has expanded to what seems like two feet in width. It is hopelessly, permanently open and overflowing. I always hated the purse.
Last Friday afternoon, I called Mom to tell her I had some lab work that needed to be done at school. So, I would be home late. Instead, my friend Heather and I went directly to the movies after school. When we came out, to my complete horror, Mom was standing there with the purse. She’d taken my sister to the movies as well.
Surprisingly, Mom smiled at me, and then at Heather, and invited us to dinner. It seems she had a coupon(优惠券) for McDonald’s. A coupon? What were we, homeless? I couldn’t believe she suggested a coupon in front of Heather.
And just when I thought things couldn’t get worse, she started looking for the coupon. Oh no! Not the purse! She put the purse onto a resting chair outside the theater and began shuffling through(胡乱翻动) the papers. Then, all of a sudden, it dropped to the ground. Each one of those million receipts ended up on the ground, too. Crowds of people were stepping on all those papers.
That’s when I lost it. The words just came out. “I can’t believe you!” I shouted. “You are totally embarrassing
Mom didn’t speak to me for the rest of the weekend. I came home from school on Monday and walked in as usual. I went up to my room to do some homework. It was silent. I felt bad. And I wanted to go down there and talk to her.
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。
Paragraph1:
I finally got up the courage to go down there.
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Paragraph 2:
“I’m really sorry,” I said, helping to put things into the new purse.
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There lived two brothers, John McNeil and James, in a village in Kentucky in the north of America, who had lost their parents in a terrible earthquake ten years before. Worse still, ten-year-old John McNeil suffered from serious autism. He often stayed at a corner without saying anything with others and frequently ran everywhere, so his brother James was concerned about his safety.
On a windy, cold day, John McNeil forgot to put on his shoes and ran out the door. He headed straight for the 125-foot electrical tower behind the McNeiI home and didn’t realize the dangers of the structure. That day his thoughts were set on climbing to the top of that tower, touching the sky. Maybe he thought he could meet his parents in the sky. What a poor boy!
His seventeen-year-old brother, James, was always close by. James always made sure that no danger came to his little brother. But today was different. Today, John ran out the door unnoticed. He was making his way to the sky step by step by the time James saw him. John, like most autistic children, had no idea about fear or danger. James, on the other hand, realized that he had to face his greatest fear of all — the fear of heights.
However, James understood the danger of the electrical tower but chose to follow his younger brother secretly, trying not to look down, all the way to the top. He finally reached his brother and held him with his right hand. With his left hand, he held a metal bar to help stabilize them both. What a thrilling scene!
注意：
1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.请在相应位置作答。
James was shaking. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hundreds of people came together at the base of the tower. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Niesha could not forget the way she froze in front of the class today. Mr. Roberts had divided the class into groups to do presentations. Today was Niesha’s turn. However, her hands shook so violently that she couldn’t read her notes. Her voice became softer even to silence. Mr. Roberts kindly ended Niesha’s part of the presentation even though she did clearly not finish. He also asked Niesha to stay after class for a moment.
“Niesha, I know you’re shy, but you worked hard on this project. I’d hate to see you give up on yourself.” Then Mr. Roberts hesitated, “If I give you another chance until tomorrow, do you think you can find your courage?” Niesha nodded, grateful for the chance. She went as quickly as she could to her next class. She kept her head down and hoped the school day would end soon.
When she reached her back steps that afternoon, she could see an inviting light coming from the kitchen windows. Momma was baking. Momma studied Niesha’s face as she came into the kitchen. “What’s wrong, Niesha?”
Tears shone in Niesha’s brown eyes. She told her the whole story. Momma was silent for a moment, her hands still busy with the cake. “Why is it that you can talk to me about anything and everything, but you can’t talk to your class?” Momma asked. She set the timer (计时器) and then said, “Let me show you something.”
Niesha followed Momma to her bedroom. There Momma showed her a book filled with newspaper clippings (剪报) and pictures. In it there was a blue ribbon (丝带) that said “First Place” and a picture of herself when she was very young, standing with her parents.
“I won it for public speaking. I started the school year as the shyest girl on the speech team, but I ended the year as the blue ribbon winner. It wasn’t easy at first-- I was not sure of myself at all. I worked hard, and mostly I faced my fears. You just need to find your courage.”
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，每段的开头语已为你写好。
Paragraph 1:
Hearing Momma’s words, Niesha stared at the precious blue ribbon, lost in thought.
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The next day Niesha again walked to the front of the classroom to give her presentation.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________5 . 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。
Catherine was the coolest kid in her class. Whenever she went, she was in the spotlight, with a bunch of kids following her and doing everything she did.
Her deskmate, Landy, however, was not in the cool kids’ group. Being the tallest kid in her class, she was teased by her classmates, who were always chanting “Landy, Landy, long as spaghetti (意大利面 )”. Every time Landy heard those silly chants, she could feel her face burst into flames. God knew how she wished the ground to crack and swallow her!
Catherine didn’t really like it when the kids chanted “Landy, Landy, long as spaghetti”. But she never told them to stop either, and nor did she ever talk to her. She liked being popular.
One weekend, Catherine went over to her grandfather for Thanksgiving. Her grandfather lives on a farm at the opposite end of town, where he keeps chickens. While helping to feed the chickens, Catherine noticed a peculiar one. Curling in the corner, it looked smaller than the others and was almost half-bare!
“What’s the matter with it?” She asked her grandfather, with a puzzled frown on her face. Her grandfather told her how chickens could act. “They have a pecking (啄) order,” he explained, wrinkles of concern spreading around his forehead. “If one chicken is different, the others will push it away and keep pecking it. Sometimes they peck it so much that it dies.”
“Oh, what a poor little thing!” Catherine let out a sigh as she scooped the frightened chicken up in her arms, whose heart was beating fast in the bony little body. Suddenly, she thought of Landy, the girl being “pecked” by her classmates. “I’m going to take it home and take good care of it,” she said with a determined look.
Back in school, Catherine told the cool kids about the chicken. “It’s looking healthy,” she said proudly. “It’s fatter and its feathers are growing. Even the cat likes it. She carries it around the garden, and...” Everyone was entertained by Catherine’s story of her lovely chicken, laughter lingering around the classroom.
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. Then Catherine spotted Landy sitting by herself in a corner.
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Paragraph 2. But Catherine walked directly toward Landy, regardless of what they said.
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A boy named Ali had a large and harmonious family, happily living with his sisters, parents and grandmother. His grandmother loved everyone a lot and was respected by all family members. She was very old, but sometimes she would recall things from her past and share with them. Sometimes they would believe her but at other times they would think that Granny might be mixing up the facts due to her old age.
One day, when Ali was in school, suddenly while knitting (编织), Granny remembered something and she couldn’t contain her emotions so she got up to tell her son — Ali’s father. She walked as fast as she could to his room and said, “You always asked about my birth date, but do you know today is the day when I was born?”
She looked at her son with an excited expression, expecting an immediate response. However, her son wondered how she could remember her date of birth in this old age when she forgot so many other things, so he didn’t pay much attention to this. Disappointed at her son’s reaction, Granny then went to Ali’s mother and Ali’s sister, but like Ali’s father, nobody believed her.
Sadly, she went and sat in the terrace (庭院). When Ali returned from his school, he found his grandmother sitting alone with a sad expression. Ali asked his granny about the matter, but she said there was nothing to worry about. After a lot of persuasion she finally told him what was troubling her — nobody seemed to care that it was her birthday today!
After hearing what Granny said, Ali thought of a plan. Purely by chance, some of Ali’s friends were playing nearby so he shared his plan with them.
His friends were all willing to help Ali achieve what he planned.
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Ali was so happy to see his granny with tears of joy shining in her eyes.
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“I want a friend!” my five-year-old’s clear blue eyes showed the pain of rejection. Noah is deaf, and the past couple of years have begun to show what the future holds for my little guy.
The first few years of his life, Noah had many friends in our neighborhood. Small children don’t talk a lot and are content to simply play. As time passed and Noah got to the age where speech and hearing were a noticeable part of “hanging out”, his friends started realizing he was different. Soon, no one came to play with my tiny son, and he too began to understand he was different. My heart has ached, and I have spent endless hours in tears, begging God to send him a friend. But the children at school come from everywhere, and none live near enough to “hang out” .
Noah recently began the heartbreaking hobby of writing and leaving mail on the porch (门廊) for his “friends” . He sticks his own toys to the notes, thinking that he can somehow make friends this way. I often have to retrieve (取回) his notes so that he thinks someone is getting his messages of friendship. His excited trips to the front porch the next morning would sometimes net him a feeling of having an unseen pen pal. It breaks my heart.
But today was different. I got a miracle—in fact, three of them.
My phone rang, and I was distracted with a long-distance friend, catching up with each other’s lives without noticing Noah slipping out the front door. It wasn’t until Nick, my sixteen-year-old son came home for lunch that Noah’s absence was known. Panic-stricken, Nick and I searched the house, yard, and garage ... no Noah.
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。
As I searched the house again, a million frightened thoughts came through my brain.
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I let them play until lunchtime, at last walking down the street to retrieve my child.
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Her pale face stood out against the blackness of her hair. She looked much younger than her fifteen years, a worn coat hanging loose above her. We weren’t supposed to take a child, but an emergency call came through that morning. A home was needed for a young girl immediately.
I, together with four children, hurried to get her room ready. The kids were great. Joanne, our second-eldest daughter, did the cleaning and Margaret, Rob and Jeff helped make the bed. I felt my heart pounding in my chest. I was excited, but scared at the same time because I was told an adopted child might give us a lot of trouble.
That afternoon, Trudy arrived with the social worker Mrs. Kline. She stepped into the front hall and stood against the wall. I will never forget the look in her eyes. The first thing that came to my mind was that she looked like a hunted animal. The children moved towards her, and Jeff grabbed her hand and said proudly, “Come and see your room. I helped make your bed.” Trudy pulled back, speechless.
At this point, I stepped towards her and said, "Welcome to our home, Trudy. “She looked at me with such blank eyes. But with her head bowed, she simply said, eyes moving back and forth like a creature looking for a way out, “No, thank you.”
For the first two weeks, Trudy was very quiet. She would come into the kitchen while I was working, and we would discuss school and what she would like to do in the future. Mrs. Kline had given us all the information about her history, but I never mentioned the terrible things that had happened to her.
As the days went by, Trudy became a delight to have around. Very quickly, it seemed like she had always been with us. The girls would sit in each other’s rooms and giggle(咯咯笑) like typical teenagers. It was a sound that warmed my soul. However, when they talked about new clothes, Trudy fell silent again.
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 took Joanne shopping for a winter coat, and Trudy came too.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Back home, I presented the jacket Trudy had tried on.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Chris and I laughed as we got off the Tilt ‘n’ Spin ride and wandered into the crowd at the fair. We felt like we were still spinning (旋转).We inched along with the crowd, one small step at a time. In front of me, all I could see was the back of someone’s T-shirt.
“Three tickets each, please," said a man right in front of us. Bodies pushed against us. “Wait,” Chris said. “We’re in a line? What for?”
“Ferris wheel (摩天轮),” said the man. “Step right up and sit right down.”
Before I knew it, I was sitting on a small seat that was hung in what seemed like outer space. As we reached the top, Chris was excited. He was totally attracted by the amazing view, but I was rather nervous with my hands holding a bar for dear life.
“There’s a place that sells chocolate-covered bananas,” Chris said. “Keep talking,” I thought. “So you don’t notice that I’m totally terrified (极度惊恐的).” Every time Chris moved,our seat rocked. I tried to pretend I was playing on the swings in my backyard, and hoped I wouldn’t cry. “How many turns will this make before it’s over?” I managed to say. Luckily, my voice sounded normal. “Five or six, probably, Chris replied. “ We have tons of time. Look, a hot-air balloon!” He pointed and the seat shook. I cried. Chris looked at me. It seemed he’d realized something.
On our fifth time around, the wheel suddenly stopped, and we were hung in midair at the highest point possible. I cried, again. I couldn’t help myself. “Hey, Jared,” said Chris, “are you OK?” I nodded and tried to smile like I was having fun. Chris patted (轻拍) my shoulder and said we would be back on the ground soon.
“Attention!” called a voice over the loudspeaker. “Due to mechanical difficulties, the Ferris wheel is stuck. We’ll get it turning again as soon as possible.”
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 was so terrified that I couldn’t hold back my tears.
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We finally started heading back down.
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Our church charity in Toronto has a way of assisting those who have financial difficulties without making the receiver feel ashamed or guilty. They often dropped money into an offering box with only the name of the receiver on the envelope.The envelopes are then distributed to those members without them knowing the name of the giver.
There came a time when my husband and I were among those in need. We did not talk about our financial difficulty with anyone.The only reason our children knew was that we had to cut back on many things. Still, we hoped they were not aware of the extent of our need, nor of how much their father and I were suffering because of it.We did not want to burden them with a problem they could do nothing to solve.
Unfortunately, our situation wasn’t improving, and my husband and I knew that we would have to look for outside help. Just as we reached the point of desperation, our church gave us a gift envelope that had been left in the offering box.We were overjoyed to receive a very large amount of money, enough to bring us through that desperate time.We couldn’t help but wonder who had given such a generous gift. We were extremely relieved and grateful.
A year later, our seventeen-year-old son was applying for a student loan so he could attend university. It was then that we discovered his savings account was almost empty.His father and I were very disturbed by this.We had trusted him to put part of his wages from his part-time job into the bank towards his education.Actually,from the time he was nine years old he had been a paper carrier for The Toronto Star, and he had worked very hard for his small earnings to achieve his university dream.
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 asked him repeatedly where the money had gone.
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Several busy days later, there appeared an envelope in the box.
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