Since Benjamin lost his sight during his service in the army, he had seldom gone out, but his friends always encouraged him and bought him a guide dog named Cooper. Benjamin had to admit the dog made all the difference. He regained some independence such as walking through the park.

Benjamin’s friend, Natalie, was singing in a performance at the local concert hall. Benjamin hadn’t expected to go and hear her sing, but Natalie wanted him to be there and told him some of their friends would be present too. So he put on his nice suit, grabbed Cooper, and set out.

Benjamin reached the hall a bit late. He decided to go to his friends later and sat with his dog in the closest row he could sense. He knew at least two people were sitting in the same row. “Oh! Who brings a dog to the nice concert hall?” Benjamin heard a woman complain. Maybe she didn’t notice his really black glasses and didn’t understand why he needed a dog. “Ada, he’s blind. It’s his service dog,” her husband replied.

Natalie took the stage. Although Benjamin couldn’t see her, he knew she looked beautiful. Meanwhile, the woman named Ada continued complaining about Cooper. Benjamin was about to be angry. She had known he was blind. Worst of all, she was interrupting his friend’s concert. Benjamin decided he would leave as soon as Natalie finished this song. However, as the song ended, Natalie began to address the audience.

“Thank you, everyone. The next song is for one special friend in particular, Benjamin,” Natalie said, looking in Benjamin’s direction and Benjamin could hear the emotions in her voice. “You sacrificed (牺牲) so much for our country, and I do hope the next song brings you happiness and shows you the wonderful world.” Benjamin felt tears falling from his eyes. Cooper rested its head on his knee, comforting him as Natalie sang out a beautiful song.

To Benjamin’s shock, the woman kept quiet the entire time.

Ada, with her husband, approached when Benjamin and his friends chatted.

It was a happy Tuesday afternoon. After a long day of classes, the students were now hurrying back home. Maaz put an arm around Hamza’s neck. “It’s the first time I scored full marks in the math exam you helped me prepare for,” Maaz added a little giggle. “My mum will be happy, Thank you!”

Hamza and Maaz were close friends ever since they were kids, but they were opposites. While Hamza was very confident, a born genius and a part of all social activities at school, Maaz was more of an introvert. He preferred to stay in his comfort zone and wasn’t very strong academically but was very hardworking.

The next day, Hamza had been sleeping through all classes. Maaz came over and thumped his back, “what’s wrong bro?”

Hamza opened one drowsy eyelid, “I played video games all night, I’m exhausted.” Maaz tugged at his shirt, “You have done the history assignment, right?”

Hamza suddenly sat up and held his head. It had completely escaped his mind. “Maaz, can you let me go through your work? I just have to check how long it will take me,” Hamza frowned in worry.

“Sure buddy,” Maaz added as he handed over his assignment and dissolved into the crowd of students rushing for recess.

In history class the next day, Ms Afsheen looked furious. In a voice that wasn’t loud, but echoed through the silent classroom, she said: “Maaz Ali, stand up.”

Ms. Afsheen pursed her lips and glared at him. “Maaz thinks that he is so smart that he will copy Hamza’s entire assignment and the teacher won’t even know, Hamza’s face turned pale.

“Class, today I will tell you the consequences of a student who tries to cheat. Maaz gets a zero on his assignment,” Ms. Afsheen announced.

Maaz stood with his head bowed, glistening tears silently dropping to the floor. Hamza was looking everywhere, but at him. He couldn’t face his friend.

Hamza was going through a battle inside him because it was he who had copied Maaz’s work.

With new courage filling his heart, Hamza walked to the staffroom in search of Ms. Afsheen.

My dad got a new job. We had to pack up and move away from everything we were familiar with. There were so many changes. We came from the north, and now we were almost as far south as possible. We landed in South Florida, and we were total strangers. We moved over during the summer vacation, so I didn’t have to deal with school right away. Summer passed by while we unpacked, arranged furniture, found stores we liked, and adapted to the Sunshine State.

School was coming, and I was afraid of it. I was not an adventurous person. Being shy and quiet, I read a lot and did not make friends easily. My head was filled with fears and worries. Would I make friends? Would If it in? Would I survive in this strange new world? Anyway, there I was, attending a new school full of people I didn’t know.

I had a difficult time adapting to the new school. However, I still loved learning and reading. I even loved homework, and I was good at doing my homework. Loving books and reading helped me to get good grades. Teachers loved that about me. Other kids, though, did not. Although I always answered questions in class, I seldom talked with my classmates. I was unpopular. I felt like a total failure and nobody would like me.

The none day, at all boy walked over to me after an English class. He introduced himself and told me he was in the school basketball team. I knew him—he was the star player! “Hey,” he said. “You do really well in English class. And you know, my teammates and I spend much time competing and practicing. The subjects, especially English, really bother us. Do you think you could help us?” “Yes. Oh, definitely yes. I could, and I would,” I replied with surprise. We made the deal with an exchange of smiles.

Something gradually changed after that.

Meanwhile, the basketball players taught me how to play basketball.

“The cleaners said I could pick up our things today,”Jet’s mom said on the drive to school. “Do you think they were able to clean Big Dog?”Jet asked, trying not to sound too worried.

But he was worried. Big Dog was his favorite stuffed ( 填充) animal. Grandpa had won it for him at the fair when he was five years old. Jet was eight now, and he didn’t need to sleep with it or anything. But he did need it. He needed it to sit on the shelf (架子) above his bed — the shelf that had been burned by the house fire.

“I’m not sure what they were able to save,”Mom said.“They said they weren’t able to save our photo albums (相册). I sure will miss those pictures.”

Jet could tell she was really sad.“I’ll pick you up after school, and we’ll go through the boxes together,”Mom said before she drove off.

Jet tried to focus on his schoolwork all day, but he couldn’t keep his mind off Big Dog.

He held his backpack through the halls as if he were carrying his old stuffed friend. During library time, he checked out a book about dogs.

RRRRRINNNGGG! Time for art class. Mr. Light said it was“artist’s choice”day, so they could work on whatever they wished.

Jet stared at an empty page. He thought of his mom picking up the boxes of things that had been damaged by the fire.

Then he remembered how sad his mom was about the photo albums. Most things could be replaced (替换) at the store. But the pictures were gone forever. He knew what to draw.

Jet drew a picture of himself opening presents in front of a Christmas tree. Then one of him and his mom camping. There was one of him playing baseball and one of their visit to see Grandpa. By the time class was over, Jet had made a small album.

When Jet’s mom picked him up from school, Big Dog was in the back seat.

As they looked at the pictures, Jet’s mom laughed and cried, and she noticed a blank (空白的) page at the end of the book.

7 . 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。

The alarm sounded sharply. Seven-thirty. Too early for a Saturday! And much earlier for her birthday! Rosa thought about her birthdays in hometown, when her grandmother, Abuelita, would make a cake for her, humming (哼) old songs in the kitchen.

“Rosa! Hrry!”

“Yes, Mama,” Rosa called. She wanted to stay in bed, but ever since she had turned fourteen, Saturdays here meant helping Mama at hair salon (发廊). “Where is papa?” Rosa asked. “He left an hour ago. We must go, too,” said Mama.

Rosa and Mama hurried to the bus stop. Sharing the umbrella made them hit into each other. Mama laughed. Rosa didn’t think it was funny. “I don’t like here,” she said. “I miss everything about hometown, especially Abuelita!” “I miss her too,” Mama said. “But there is more work here. We are able to send money to Abuelita.” Rosa nodded. Still, it was hard.

As Rosa arrived, the salon was already full of people. “Hello,” said Morena, Rosa’s cousin.

Rosa took the towels from a basket and started to fold (叠) them. She took a deep breath of their clean fresh smell, and was reminded again of the flowers of Abuelita. “I kept thinking about Abuelita. I miss her so much, especially today!” Rosa said. “Me, too,” Morena smiled. “But that won’t get this work done.”

Rosa carried the towels to the sinks (水池). All the chairs were filled with waiting customers. Rosa hurried over. Mama was shampooing (给…用洗发水) an old lady with a towel across her face. “Here we are. Rosa has brought you another towel.” Mama gently lifted the lady’s head and placed the towel at the base of her neck. “Better?” The woman’s face was still covered, and she didn’t speak, but she waved her hand as if to say yes.

As Mama continued, the lady hummed an old song softly.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Abuelita reached her hand into a basket and took out a homemade cake.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sometime in 1957, Annie, my grandma, had both her kids. My mom was her firstborn followed by my uncle soon after. Grandma decided to look for a brave business journey in coffee industry where no women held any position. She didn’t like the fact that Grandpa had to work for some other company to make a living. So she moved 100km away from where Grandpa used to live and bought a piece of land with 2 kids to support to start her own coffee farm.

As my mom and uncle grew and were school going in the nearby village, this brave woman, Annie, worked endlessly in the land planting one coffee plant after another. By the time my mom and uncle were in Grade 2, she had planted about 12 acres of coffee plants all alone.

This journey was not easy; Grandpa was home only on Saturdays and Sundays, when he had leave from work. Grandma barely slept through the nights from 1957 until 1963, guarding her land, her resources and children. At last, Grandpa gave up his job and came to support Grandma both emotionally and physically.

She realized she had created a large farm now and couldn’t just use herself and her kids to work to maintain and grow the land. So, by the time my mom and uncle were in Grade 5, Grandma decided the education in village school wasn’t good enough to her kids and sent them off to Mangalore to study and enjoy a town life with their cousins.

Sometime in 1965, Grandma decided to go shopping for labour. She picked up the workers’ families to work for the farm, often driving the tractor on her own every morning to bring labour to her farm before 7:30 am. As age caught on, it was difficult to pick up and drop workers every morning and every evening.

My grandmother decided to let the workers’ families live around the farm.        

Workers’ children needed to be educated.                    

About twenty minutes he waited, and then a tall man in a long overcoat, with collar turned up to his ears, hurried across from the opposite side of the street. He went directly to the waiting man.

“Is that you, Bob?” he asked, doubtfully.

“Is that you, Jimmy Wells?” cried the man in the door.

“Bless my heart!” exclaimed the new arrival, grasping both the other’s hands with his own. “It’s Bob! I was certain I’d find you here if you were still alive. Well, well, well! —twenty years is a long time. How has the West treated you, old man?”

“It has given me everything I asked it for. You’ve changed lots, Jimmy. I never thought you were so tall by two or three inches (英寸).”

“Oh, I grew a bit after I was twenty.”

“Doing well in New York, Jimmy?”

“Moderately. I have a position in one of the city departments. Come on, Bob; we’ll go around to a place I know of, and have a good long talk about old times.”

The two men started up the street, arm in arm. The man from the West, his egotism (自我) enlarged by success, was beginning to outline the history of his career. The other, submerged (埋) in his overcoat, listened with interest.

At the corner stood a drug store, brilliant with electric lights. When they came into this glare each of them turned simultaneously (同时地) to gaze upon the other’s face.

The man from the West stopped suddenly and released his arm

“You’re not Jimmy Wells,” he snapped. “Twenty years is a long time, but not long enough to change a man’s nose from a Roman (鹰钩鼻) to a pug (狮子鼻).”

“It sometimes changes a good man into a bad one,” said the tall man. “You’ve been under arrest (被捕) for ten minutes, ‘Silky’ Bob. Chicago thinks you may have dropped over our way and wants to have a chat with you. Going quietly, are you? That’s sensible. Now, before we go on to the police station here’s a note I was asked to hand you. You may read it here at the the window. It’s from Patrolman (巡警) Wells.”

The man from the West unfolded the little piece of paper handed him. His hand was steady when he began to read, but it trembled a little by the time he had finished. The note was rather short.

“Bob: I was at the appointed place on time. When you struck the match to light your cigar I saw it was the face of the man wanted (被通缉的) in Chicago. Somehow I couldn’t do it myself, so I went around and got a plain clothes man to do the job. ——JIMMY.”

How time flew! Bob was released from jail. Stepping out of jail into the cold wind,

He turned around and surprised to find a familiar-looking man.