Past and Future Friends
It was the first day of school. When Mike spotted his friend Jack down the hall, he smiled slightly and increased his pace. Before he could catch up, however, one boy sprinted (快速奔跑) down the hall and fell into step with Jack. Lou, the most popular guy in school, was Jack’s new football teammate. Mike stopped walking and watched Jack and Lou laughing heartily as they walked down the hall.
Later that day, Mike saw that Jack was in his P. E. class. Relieved, he approached Jack and was greeted with a “Hey!” Before Mike could answer, though, Lou walked into the gym and Jack hurried to join him on the court. The scene in front of him faded away as Mike remembered another day of school almost two years earlier.
“Got anything good?”
The dark-haired boy looked up from the cafeteria table where he was sitting alone. He waved his hand at the remains of his paper bag lunch. “Not really.”
“I’m Mike Adams,” Mike said. “You’re Jack, right? How do you like Markham Elementary School so far?”
Jack gave a small smile. “Can’t say I like being the new kid. People aren’t very friendly.” “You just have to give them a chance,” Mike said. “Come over to my table. I’ll introduce you.”
The two boys had quickly become best friends. They had done everything together: practicing their skateboarding moves, riding their bikes to get ice cream, and fishing at Miller’s Pond.
Still, Mike had not seen much of Jack over the last summer. Jack’s family had gone on vacation for several weeks, and then Jack had started football practice, which was clearly how he had become such a good friend with Lou.
Mike felt a knot (郁结) in his stomach. Was he going to lose his best friend because he had not tried out for football? As he looked at Jack’s stylish new clothes and haircut, the knot in his stomach grew. After class, he left without trying to talk to Jack, and for the next few days, Mike avoided him altogether.
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。
Mike was walking home from school on Thursday when he heard footsteps behind him.
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Mike was a frozen statue as he watched Jack go away, thinking about the invitation from Jack.
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Mary frowned as she helped her mother and father set out the cooking supplies in the shiny steel kitchen. Her family had just moved here from New York, having bought a small restaurant, which was set to open in the next few days.
“Moving here was a stupid idea. I have lost all my friends in New York. What should I do now?” Mary grumbled (抱怨), mostly to herself.
“What’s that?” Her mother asked, opening a box and lifting out several pots. “Nothing,” Mary mumbled (嘟哝). The girl had been complaining about the move, but her parents had made the decision and were then too busy to listen to her complaints.
The first few days at her new school hadn’t been easy, either. She found it hard to talk to people she didn’t know, and it seemed that the students hadn’t even noticed her. Mary sighed and got back to wash dishes.
On the day of the grand opening, Mary’s parents were busy the whole day, welcoming customers into the restaurant, which was brightly decorated in gold and red. Even Mary was in a good mood as she rushed around, seating guests, handing out menus, and pouring glasses of water. This was a big day for her family.
At one of the tables sat a family with two daughters who were about Mary’s age. As she filled their glasses, Mary realized the twins were in her class. Mary ducked her head down. Her long hair covered her face, and she turned away from the table.
A few minutes later, Mary’s mother found her in the kitchen. “Honey, what are you doing back here? We need you out front with the customers.”
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。
Para. 1
“Mom, I don’t want to be out there!”
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Para. 2
Mary put a handful of cookies into a small plate and left the kitchen.
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“Here you go,” Melanie said, handing Ava a pink envelope.
“Thanks.” Ava said. “But what is it?”
“An invitation to my pool party. It’s Saturday at two. There will be a lot of fun things to do. You are going to love it so much. Do come, please.” Melanie kept talking but Ava wasn’t listening.
The words “pool party” echoed (回响) through her mind. Ava had a secret she didn’t even tell her best friend Melanie — Ava couldn’t swim. Every time she tried to learn, she’d wind up with water up her nose and she’d be out of the pool as quickly as possible.
“You’re coming, right?” Melanie said
“Huh?” Ava jumped.
“Do you think you could come a little early? I could use your help inflating (使充气) the floating basketball hoops (篮筐) and the ball. And I will need you to help me set the tables.”
Ava didn’t know what to say. Melanie was one of her best friends. She couldn’t miss her party. But she didn’t want the whole school to find out she couldn’t swim. That would be too embarrassing. “I think I might be busy this Saturday,” Ava said, lowering her head. She saw the disappointment on Melanie’s face. “Maybe I could stop by for a little while, but I definitely wouldn’t have time to swim.”
Ava spent the rest of the school day trying to avoid Melanie’s questions about what she had to do on Saturday and why she couldn’t stay for the whole party. Ava felt awful. That night she asked her parents to ground her or make other plans so she couldn’t go to Melanie’s party.
“Ava, this is silly,” her mother said. “Melanie is your best friend. She won’t care that you can’t swim.” Ava wasn’t so sure.
“Just be honest with Melanie. She will understand you,” her father said.
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。
When Saturday arrived, Ava’s parents drove her to the party right on time.
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Ava decided to tell the truth.
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Standing outside the cave entrance, Grandfather admired the green-carpeted hills, but Lin hated the cave. He had come here today only because of Grandfather.
Grandfather preferred to use guano, the waste matter of bats, to fertilize (施肥) his crops. But he was too weak to do the whole job. He could gather the guano and bring it out of the cave in the basket, but he needed Lin to carry it home in the wooden cart.
Grandfather took a shovel (铲子) and flashlight from the cart. “Change your mind and come inside with me?” he asked Lin. “It won’t happen again, Lin,” Grandfather promised. “Last time it was my mistake. We shouldn’t have waited until nearly dusk (黄昏) to go inside. I know that the bats fly out of the cave at dusk.” That was exactly what had happened on the Terrible Day of the Bats. As Lin had stood at the cave entrance, a crowd of black bats had erupted from it. Lin had been terrified.
“Bats hurt no one,” Grandfather had said. “Besides, you scared them as much as they did you.”
But nothing could make Lin forget the horror he had felt in that black cloud of bats. “I can’t go in there,” he told Grandfather now.
“OK,” Grandfather said. As he started into the cave, he called over his shoulder, “I’ll be out in no time.” Lin parked the cart and glanced at the shovel and flashlight inside it. His shovel and flashlight. He had used them before. Now they only reminded him of his fear.
Lin turned his back on the cart and walked down to the river. Grandfather would call when he was finished. Until then, Lin would put as much distance as possible between himself and the cave.
Lin watched two little birds splashing about at the edge of the river. He enjoyed the peaceful view over the vast river surface. Then Lin realized that Grandfather’s “no time” had turned into a long time.
Lin hurried up the hill toward the cave. The cart was still there. Grandfather was still inside. Something had gone wrong.
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。
Lin looked around but found no one he could turn to for help.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________In the dark cave, Lin gathered his courage and yelled again, “Grandfather!”
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Willie’s 11th birthday was coming. His aunt sent him a birthday present—a small nice notebook. There was a place in it for a pencil. Willie valued it a lot and always kept it in his pocket. When he found something interesting, he would write it down in the book.
One afternoon, after Willie came back from school, he called his best friend, Caper, a well-trained shepherd dog and said, “Come, Caper! Let’s go out and have fun.” They went to the pasture field (牧场) to catch the butterflies and there they found a shaft (通风井), which seemed to be deserted for a long time. Willie sat down on the edge of the shaft, bending over to see how deep it was. Suddenly, he lost his balance and fell in. “Help! Help!” Willie called desperately. But no response at all. He was so far away from the house. He made several attempts to climb up the shaft but again he failed! Now Willie was exhausted and frustrated. When Caper saw his master falling into the shaft, the little good companion ran round and round, reaching down and trying to pull him out. Unfortunately, a piece of rock gave way under his feet, and he fell in the shaft too!
It was getting dark. When Willie’s mother, Mrs. Lee came back from work and found there was no one at home, she was anxious and worried. Without any clue at home, she decided to look for Willie outside. She went to all the trees under which Willie was in the habit of playing, but he was nowhere to be found. By this time, the sun had gone down. A feeling of panic took hold of Mrs. Lee. She comforted herself that Willie might have come back. She rushed back, hoping to find her son at home.
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。
She found Caper sitting in front of the door, with a notebook in his mouth.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Willie told Mum how he came up with the idea after he was successfully rescued.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________A Special Gift
I always believe that there are certain gifts sticking in our minds for a variety of reasons.
The gift given to me that I treasured most was a doll named Patsy. I met her in a gift shop when I was nine. On holding Patsy I immediately fell in love with her and couldn’t even bear to part from her. At that time, my mother noticed it and at Christmas, as I received the gift from her, I was surprised to find my dream doll in the box. From then on Patsy became my baby and I loved her dearly.
A month later, I was on my way to the cinema when I glimpsed some lovely gifts in pretty boxes through the window of the gift shop. Seeing them reminded me that my mother’s birthday was a few months away. Wouldn’t it be nice, I thought, if I could give her something really special, just like the gift she gave me? I stepped inside and caught sight of a beautiful dress hung on the coat stand, which I was sure my mother would like. So I asked the saleswoman its price.
The lady must have seen my disappointment when she told me how much it would cost. But she had a suggestion which immediately lifted my spirits. She took out a notebook from under the counter and wrote my name as well as the item I wanted to buy on it, and in return I paid her five cents from my six cents pocket money. It meant no candies that day but I didn’t care. At the age of nine, I made my very first installment (分期付款)and felt like a grown-up. From then on, every Saturday on my way to the cinema, I went to the shop and paid a few cents which the lady dutifully recorded on her notebook.
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。
The day before my mother’s birthday, I paid the last two cents.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The special day finally came.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________My parents moved to Vermont when I was still a baby. A soft-spoken man, my father settled quietly into his medical practice. Soon the local people accepted him as one of their own. Around town the neighbors greeted my father as “Doc Eppley”. And I would always be known as “Doctor Eppley’s son”. “If you’re anything like your father, you’ll be a smart boy,” my first-grade teacher said. I couldn’t stop beaming.
Initially, I was never tired of letting others know that my father was one of the town’s most respected people. Somewhere in my teenage years, however, something changed. I was sixteen years old and I grew impatient whenever I heard my neighbors still calling me “Doctor Eppley’s son”. My father’s name now seemed like an ugly shadow that followed me wherever I went. And so when strangers asked me if I was Doctor Eppley’s son, I would reply loudly, “My name is Harold.” As an act of rebellion (叛逆), I began to call my father by his first name, Sam. “Why are you acting so rude lately?” my father questioned me one day. “Well, Sam,” I replied, “I suppose that bothers you. You know it hurts me when you call me Sam,” my father shouted.” Well, it hurts me when everybody expects me to be just like you. I want to be myself. Let me take it out for a drive, “I said, pointing to my father’s new car. My father agreed, but not without his usual warning,” Be careful. Keys are in the kitchen. “I glared at him,” Sam, I’m sick of being treated like a child. I’m in college now. “I jumped into the car and headed down the road, enjoying the beauty of the countryside. My mind was wandering when I hit the car right in front of mine before I knew it. The woman in the car jumped out screaming: “You idiot! What were you looking at?” I surveyed the damage. Both cars had suffered serious dents (凹痕).
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 sat there like a guilty child as the woman continued swearing.
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An hour later, I drove my father’s broken new car back home.
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One night the earth quaked, reducing the villages to ruins and causing hundreds of deaths.
It happened that I was away that night. I had gone to the town to buy my school books. I stayed the night at my uncle’s house. We spent the entire night outside.
I came back to my village. My uncle accompanied me. Every single house, every wall, every roof had been flattened. Our house was a two-storeyed stone building. My father had died of an illness, just fourteen months before. My mother took care of us. I was the oldest. My brother John was ten. Jane, my two-year-old sister, was the baby of the family.
When the soldiers began to clear the debris (废墟), my uncle led me away. “They have taken the bodies to the river bank,” he said gently. “Come, you must perform the last rites (仪式) to the dead before sunset. Tomorrow, we will go back to the town.”
I had last seen my family while leaving for the town. They stood at the doorway and waved. John and Jane. That is the way I will always remember them — smiling and waving at me.
Jane? She was not at the river bank. “They have not found her,” my uncle said. “She is dead…” “But we must find her,” I shouted. I ran back to the village, to the spot where my house had stood, searching, crying, searching on my knees…
“Boy, it is no use!” a voice said. I looked up. The speaker was the Army officer in charge of the relief operation. “Whom are you looking for?” “My sister,” I said, fighting to control my tears.
He looked dirty and exhausted as if he had not slept for days. “My men have been on their feet for days,” he said softly. “They have done all they could here. Tomorrow, at daybreak, we go to another village just like this, then another…”
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。
Ten minutes later, the officer was back.
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Excitedly, the soldiers began to clear the hole.
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From high up in his skinny apartment building, Pieter could see the canal stretching in all directions. Every Saturday, Pieter watched for Grandpa riding toward the building on his bicycle. But today, Pieter knew that his grandfather wouldn’t come. Pieter would not hear the ring-ring of Grandpa’s bicycle bell. And there would be no Saturday afternoon picnic in the park. Last week, Grandpa had a knee operation, Now he needed a walking stick to provide assistance―and Pieter didn’t know if Grandpa would ever ride his bike again. Sighing with worry, Pieter was lost in thought. Would he ever again hear the ring-ring as Grandpa approached?
That’s when Pieter had an idea. He grabbed his birthday money-l0 euros-from the top dresser drawer. Then he hurried to tell Mum his plan. A few minutes later, Pieter ran down the stairs of his building and burst into the afternoon sunshine. His bike was waiting for him. Pieter wore his helmet and pedalled down the bumpy road, Ring-ring sang his bicycle bell to alert walkers that he was coming. He pedalled past the hardware(五金) store in the corner. He pedalled past the window washer who whistled a she worked. And he pedalled two more blocks before arriving at the market. He loved the market’s sights and smells.
Pieter’s euros clinked(叮当响) in his pocket a she walked through the market, examining each table. He stopped at a fruit stand, chose two shiny apples and paid two euros. Then he stopped at the cheese table and asked for half a pound of cheese, handing the waiter three euros. Pieter placed the items in his bicycle basket and pedalled back toward home. Imagining his Grandpa walking toward him joyfully accompanied by the ring-ring sound, Pieter whistled a merry tune.
注意：
1.续写词数应为150左右;
2.开头已给出。
Paragraph 1：
Wearing a bright smile, he stopped halfway in front of the hardware store.
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Paragraph 2：
But instead of heading for home, Pieter pedalled in a different direction.
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I like staying overnight at my Gramma’s house — that is, until Gramma starts telling me how wonderful my cousin Maya is. Then it’s Maya this and Maya that until I don’t ever want to hear another word about her.
That’s why I wasn’t too excited when Gramma called me on the phone to “come on over and bring your pajamas.” When I got there, it was worse than I’d expected. There, in Grandpa’s big leather rocker, sat Maya, all dressed up and formal-looking and wearing fancy shoes as if she’d just been to a party.
“Surprise, Kristen!” Gramma said. “Your cousin Maya and her parents have traveled in from the East Coast on business. Maya gets to stay with us this afternoon.” Gramma chattered away about how excited she’d been for this surprise get-together, and how cousins ought to get to know each other better.
I hung my baseball cap in the closet and set my backpack by the stairway, all the time smiling and nodding as if I’d been waiting forever for this chance to spend an afternoon with Maya. Grandpa’s chair squawked (咯咯叫) as Maya rocked back and forth. It’s the chair I like best in the house, the one I usually sit in. I sat down on the sofa across from her.
Shortly, Gramma went off to the kitchen to “see about some lunch,” she’d said. That left me stuck in the living room with rocking Maya.
She was still small but taller than I’d remembered her from her last visit four years ago. She was good at small talk, though, and was chatting away about how nice it was to see me again. But I could tell that she didn’t really think so. The last time she was here, we’d had hours of fun together building caves out of Gramma’s sofa pillows.
After that, I’d heard about her only through Gramma’s tales. Maya taking piano lessons. Maya learning math. Maya, Maya, Maya. Now Maya was here, looking great with the latest haircut and a fancy dress.
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。
Glancing down at my jeans and my old sneakers, I wished I hadn’t come.
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“How do you know all these things about me?” I asked.
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