Grandparents often have interesting names. My sister-in-law was known as Mimi. Her husband goes by Peeka. Why? Their firstborn grandchild decided on those names.
My firstborn grandchild named me as well. I will never forget the day Joshua hugged me and, in front of a roomful of people, called me “Doll. My Doll Baby!” From that point on, I was known as Doll or Doll Baby. Even my sons-in-law call me Doll. Friends of my children and grandchildren call me Doll. It’s a given.
For the most part, it’s fine, even endearing, to hear my grandchildren call me Doll. But there was one time… My daughter and her husband were going out of town, so the plan was for me to pick up five-year-old Spencer from kindergarten, take him to their house to wait for Joshua’s school bus, and bring both boys home to spend the night with us. Spencer and I arrived long before the school bus. While we waited for Joshua, Spencer wanted to show me a new trick he learned on his skateboard.
Spencer was pretty good. He had learned how to step on the back of the skateboard so that the front tipped up (一边翘起), and then put his front foot down on the board and take off. Cool!
Then it was my turn. I had played around with skateboards in my day. Of course, they weren’t the high-tech kind of toys my grandchildren enjoyed. Ours were made by mounting the wheels of our old sidewalk roller skates to the bottom of a plank of wood. Still, I had this. I put my right foot on the back of the board and tipped up the front. So far, so good. I brought my left foot down with every intention of rolling forward.
Good intentions. Bad form. I fell hard on my elbow as the skateboard flew across the concrete driveway. My injury was minor, but Spencer raced into the house and got Boo-Boo Bunny from the freezer to bring me comfort. It helped my arm, but not my pride.
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。
When I made my way home safely with the boys, my husband blamed me.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
My husband helped Spencer practice calling 911 emergency call, pretending I hurt my head seriously. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Every previous year on Thanksgiving Day I’d woken up early, filled with excitement, unable to wait for the turkey, pumpkin pie with pecans, and my grandma’s famous cheesecake. But I would never forget the lesson that my mother taught me when I was 14 years old. That Thanksgiving, I couldn’t find the magic anymore. For some reason the holiday seemed fake (假的). I suddenly felt like Thanksgiving was a big lie. I saw no reason to celebrate.
As my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandma started to arrive carrying plates of food, baskets of bread, and pitchers of egg nog, I grew more and more angry and frustrated. None of them were really thankful, I realized. The whole thing was a lie!
When my mom called for everyone to take their seats for dinner, I left. I ran into the guest room where no one would look, crying. I was defiant (反抗的) because I wanted to be an honest person but 1 was realizing that Thanksgiving was fake. It didn’t feel right to join in the tradition---say something beautiful one by one around the table.
My mom, worried that 1 was absent from the table, came to see what was wrong, “No one is really thankful!” I sobbed, “They just pretend for one day because that’s what you’re supposed to do!"
My mom sat down next to me and listened wisely. Then she nodded. “You’re right,” she told me, “it’s fake until you find the truth for yourself.” She said Thanksgiving was a time to reflect because we don’t always get a chance to see loved ones and eat a good meal. Then she left. I didn’t listen to her. I was convinced that I could never find joy celebrating 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。
But I was also starving and I had to eat something.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________At her words, I realized they wanted me to be a part of the tradition.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________注意：
1.写作词数应为80左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡上的相应位置作答。
Dear Beth,
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
A little boy and his grandmother came to see Santa at Mayfair Mall in Wisconsin. The child climbed up on Santa Claus's lap holding a picture of a little girl.
"Who is this?" asked Santa, smiling. "Your friend? Your sister?"
"Yes, Santa," he replied.
"My sister, Sarah, who is very sick," the boy said sadly.
Santa glanced over at the grandmother who was waiting nearby and saw her wiping her eyes with a tissue.
"She wanted to come with me to see you very much, Santa!" the child shouted.
"She misses you," he added softly.
Santa tried to cheer the boy up, asking him what he wanted Santa to bring him for Christmas.
When they finished their talk, the grandmother came over to help the child get off his lap， and started to say something to Santa, but halted （停顿）.
"What is it?" Santa asked warmly.
"Well, I know it's really too much to ask you, Santa, but..." The girl in the photograph is my granddaughter. You see... she has leukemia（白血病）and isn't expected to make it even through the holidays," she said through tear-filled eyes.
"Is there any way, Santa, any possible way that you could come to see Sarah?
All she's asked for. for Christmas. is to see Santa.
Santa blinked. swallowed hard and told to the woman to leave information with his elves（小精灵）as to where Sarah was，saying he would see what he could do. Santa thought of nothing else for the rest of that afternoon. "What if it were MY child lying in that hospital bed, dying?" he thought with a sinking heart.
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。
Santa knew what he had to do.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
One year later at Mayfair Mall, a little girl came up to sit on Santa’s lap and said, “Hi, Santa! Remember me?”
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
注意：1.词数80左右；
2．可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3．开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
Dear Peter,
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
After 21 years of marriage, my wife wanted me to take another woman out to dinner and a movie. It’s hard to imagine that the other woman was my mother, who has been living alone for 19 years, but I am too busy to visit her often. That night I called to invite her to go out for dinner and a movie.
“What’s wrong? Are you well?” she asked. My mother always doubts that a late night call is a sign of bad news.
“It would be pleasant to spend some time with you,” I responded.
As I drove over to pick her up, I noticed that she seemed to be nervous about our date. But she smiled from a face that was as beautiful as an angel’s. “I told my friends that I was going to go out with my son, and they were impressed,” she said.
We went to a restaurant that was very nice and comfortable. My mother took my arm as if she were the First Lady. After we sat down, I had to read the menu. Her eyes could only read large print. I saw mom sitting there looking at me with a smile on her lips.
“I used to have to read the menu when you were small,” she said. “Then it’s time to let me return the favour,” I responded.
During the dinner, we had an agreeable conversation-nothing special but catching up on recent events. We talked so much that we missed the movie. As we arrived at her house later, she said, “I’ll go out with you again, but only if you let me invite you.” I agreed.
注意：续写词数应为150左右。
When I got home, my wife shared her story about her mom who passed away years ago.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Several days later, I received my mother’s invitation.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Family problems are a universal phenomenon, and they can always cause people pain, especially around family-centered times, like holidays. However, there are ways to solve the problems. Life is too short to waste. How a person approaches the family members and what he says can make a big difference.
If the family members are arguing, waiting until everyone calms down can help deal with the argument. A person shouldn’t discuss the family problem when he is still feeling upset or emotional. If he waits even a single night, the intensity (强度) of the emotion is likely to calm down somewhat, even if he is still unhappy. So it is advised that he should wait rather than react emotionally. If he takes a step back and gives himself some time to think before dealing with the problem, he will deal with it wisely.
There are lots of people who want to send off a text or an email and wish they could take things back. Actually, the tone (语气) can be easily misunderstood by electronic communication. The man who sends off a text message or email might not think he sounds angry to the person receiving it. Instead of sending off a text, pick up the telephone, or better yet, arrange in-person communication. Electronic communication means people lose the true meaning of body language, which can convey feelings and reduce the sting (刺痛) of a painful conversation.
As the saying goes, “Blood is thicker than water.” People can choose their friends, but not their family. You might be able to cut family members out, but it could cause you more pain down the road. Understanding that family members have faults, but they can still love their families, is the first step towards dealing with problems. Accept your own faults, too.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
My Grandmother is 87 years old. She loves gardening, and she has got a habit of not sitting still as she loves to do some work all the time. In June, while working in the garden outside our home, she slipped (滑倒) and one of her bones was broken.
My father and I took her to the hospital. After examining her, the doctor said that the bone was broken from the joint and that there was no chance that she would ever walk, even after an operation. That was very sad for all of us. I looked into my grandmother’s face. She was looking at me as if I could do something to treat her. We asked the doctor if she could sit, and the doctor said “Yes but only after an operation”.
She got operated on the next day. The operation was successful. The doctor didn’t believe that she would be able to walk on her own. For the next month, she did everything in bed only. All of us tried our best to take care of her. I remember those nights when she used to cry in great pain and we could only give her comfort. Once she said while crying, “I don’t want to live anymore, nothing is left now.” I got so sad listening to that but I told her one thing. I said, “Ma, maybe you have got a broken bone, but all the other parts of your body are working properly. It is OK if you can’t walk, but if you can sit, that would be excellent for us.”
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 don’t know exactly what happened to her after she listened to my words.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2:
After two and a half months, we went to the doctor who had operated my grandmother.
_________________________________________________________________________________
When a tornado(龙卷风) touched down in a small town nearby,many families were left completed ruined. Afterward all the local newspapers carried many human-interest stories featuring some of the families who suffered the hardest.
One Sunday, a particular picture especially touched me. A young woman stood in front of an entirely shattered(破碎的) mobile home, a depressed expression on her face. A young boy, seven or eight years old, stood at her side, eyes downward. Clutching(紧握) at her skirt was a tiny girl who stared into the camera, eyes wide with confusion and fear.
The article that went with the picture gave the clothing sizes of each family member. With growing interest, I noticed that their sizes closely matched ours. This would be a good opportunity to teach my children to help those less fortunate than themselves. I stuck the picture of the young family on our refrigerator, explaining their difficulty to my seven-year-old twins, Brad and Brett, and to three-year-old Meghan.
“These poor people now have nothing,” I said. “We’ll share what we have with them. I brought three large boxes down from the room upstairs and placed them on the living room floor. Meghan watched seriously, as the boys and I filled one of the boxes with canned goods and foods.
While I sorted through our clothes, I encouraged the boys to go through their toys and donate some of their less favorite things. Meghan watched quietly as the boys piled up old toys and games.
Meghan walked up with Lucy, her worn, much-loved rag doll hugged tightly to her chest. She came to the box that held the toys, pressed her round little face into Lucy's flat, painted-on-face, gave her a final kiss, then laid her gently on top of the other toys.
“Oh, Honey,” I said.” You don’t have to give Lucy. You love her so much.”
Meghan nodded seriously, eyes filled with held-back tears. "Lucy makes me happy, Mommy. Maybe she’ll make that other little girl happy,too.”
Paragraph. 1:The boys had watched,open-mouthed,as their baby sister placed her favorite doll in the box.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph. 2:
I looked my children for a long moment.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________It was at least two months before Christmas when nine-year-old Almie Rose told her father and me that she wanted a new bicycle. Her old Barbie bicycle was just too babyish, and besides, it needed a new tire.
As Christmas drew nearer, her desire for a bicycle seemed to fade, —or so we thought, as she didn’t mention it again. Merrily, we started purchasing the latest fashion—Baby Sitter’s Club dolls—and beautiful story books, a doll house, a holiday dress and toys. Then, much to our surprise, on December 23rd, she proudly announced that she “really wanted a bike more than anything else.”
Now we didn’t know what to do. It was just too late, with all the details of preparing Christmas dinner and buying last-minute gifts. So here we were—Christmas Eve around 9:00 p.m., having just returned from a wonderful party, looking forward to our evening ahead—hours of wrapping children’s presents, parents’ presents, a brother’s presents and friends’ presents. With Almie Rose and her six-year-old brother, Dylan, lay comfortably in their beds. Now we could only think of the bicycle, the guilt and the idea that we were parents who would disappoint their child.
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。
“What if I make a little bicycle out of clay (黏土) and she can trade it for a real one later?” my husband Ron thought.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
On Christmas morning, we were excited for Almie to open the package with the clay bike.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
