The Trouble With Chores (家庭杂务)
The twins, Jenna and Jeff, were good at most things. Their dad was good at most things, too. But there was one thing the twins and Dad were not good at—that was chores. It wasn’t that Dad and the twins didn’t want to do their chores. It was just that they always seemed to have reasons not to do them. And they had such good excuses.
“You’re right, my dear,” said Mum. “The grass does need cutting. But a spider has spun a wonderful web on the lawn mower and I haven’t the heart to put all her hard work to waste.”
“Mum,” said Jenna, “I know it’s my week to put up my cards. It’s just that I’m waiting for them to dry. They’ll be easier to scoop up that way.”
“Mum,” said Jeff, “may I skip setting the table tonight? There’s a TV show on the Ice Age, and I have to do a report on the Beast of Baluchistan.”
There were also the endless quarrels about who did what and who got the easy job. Mum sighed. If only Dad and the twins were as good at doing their chores as they were at arguing about them, life would be easier. Talking of chores, Mum thought instead of pushing them for chores, it would be a lot easier to do them herself. And that was what she did. She put away all cards and set and cleared the table. She chased the dust bunnies from under the furniture and cleaned up the twins’ messy room.
The twins did pick up and put away things occasionally. Dad did cut the grass once in a while. Not surprisingly, things began to slide. Everybody got a little unhappy, especially Mum, who spent much time doing chores. Something had to be done. But what?
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。
Mum decided to host a family meeting.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Living in all that messy build-up wasn’t much fun.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
One Saturday afternoon, I was watching TV in the living room with my grandpa when a blinding flash of lightning flashed across the sky, followed by a deafening sound, and the pictures on TV disappeared with that sound. Before I realized what had happened, a gray-white shadow rushed in through the open window and flew over my head. Bang! It hit the wall and slid off to the floor. Shaking with fear, I approached it cautiously and saw that it was a pigeon. It looked at me in fear, trying to open its wings and struggling its feet, but apparently powerless.
So I called my grandpa and immediately set out to give it a helping hand. Taking it in my hands, I felt a few drops of warmth on my hands. It was blood! I gently spread its wings and there were a few red feathers inside. “Don’t worry. We’ll get it out alive,” Grandpa said to me. Then he got the first-aid kit. With some cotton, we dried the blood, cleaned the wound and then put it under a hairdryer to dry. All went smoothly, for the pigeon had no strength left to resist. There happened to be an empty birdcage at home, so I put it in gently and added a little water and some grains.
For the next few days, the moment I got home from school, I would run to feed the pigeon. And Grandpa helped a lot, tidying up the cage daily. Little by little, its strength returned. One evening, I fed it with the biscuit I was eating. It enjoyed it! One week later, its wound almost healed (痊愈); its feathers grew and it became brave. Whenever I sat at the table eating biscuits, it looked up at me, cooing (咕咕地叫) constantly. To my joy, I could also reach into the cage to touch it. When I gently fingered its head, it playfully pecked (啄) at me. Finally it completely recovered. But every time I was with it, it seemed restless in the cage. To make it happy and pretty, I tied an orange string (线)around its leg.
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。
One day, however, when I returned home, Grandpa met me at the door, looking embarrassed.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Sure enough, I saw a pigeon flying into the house the next afternoon!
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________It was the night before Christmas and Rob was lying in bed, thinking about the next day. His family was poor, living entirely on the farm they ran, and most of the excitement of Christmas was in the turkey they had raised themselves and pumpkin pies his mother made. He rolled over to look at his old watch—it was two o'clock. Three hours later, his father would call him to get up, even if it was Christmas.
His father never talked about loving him—he had no time for such things. There was always so much to do on the farm. “Or, maybe, he just doesn’t love me,” Rob thought. He had a reason to think so. At 5 o'clock every morning, his father would call him to get up and help with the farm work. He had to go to the barn (畜棚) to hold the milking pails (挤奶桶) steadily when his father was milking the cows. He had to help put the tools in place and do the cleaning after the milking. He hated it that he had to do all these things at so early time.
He was not the only one awake at this night. He heard his parents whispering in the next room. “Mary, I hate to call Rob in the mornings. He’s growing so fast and he needs his sleep. If you could see how he sleeps when I go in to wake him up! I wish I could manage alone.”
“Well, you can’t, Adam.” His mother’s voice was gentle, “Besides, he isn’t a child anymore. It’s time he took his turn.”
“Yes,” his father said slowly. “But I do hate to wake him.”
When he heard these words, something in him spoke: his father loved him! He had never thought of that before, taking for granted the tie of their blood. Now that he knew his father loved him, he had to do something different on this Christmas. He did save and buy them each something every year, but he wished he had a better present for his father instead of the usual tie from the ten-cent store.
注意：
1.所续写短文的词数应为150词左右；
2.应使用5个以上短文中标有下划线的关键词；
3.续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好；续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。
Paragraph1:
A good idea suddenly struck him.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph2:
It being almost five, he rushed back to his room and jumped into bed, waiting to be woken up.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
He woke suddenly and completely. It was 4 a. m. at Christmas, the hour when his father had always called him to get up and help with milking the cow. Strange how the habit of his youth was with him still, even his father had been dead for 40 years. The magic of Christmas for him was a long childhood past, and he was wondering why he felt so awake when his mind went back to his teenage years.
He was 15 years old then and still on his father’s farm. A few days before Christmas, he heard what his father was saying to his mother.
“Mary, I hate to call Rob in the mornings. He’s growing so fast, and he needs his sleep. I could manage alone.”
“Well, you can’t, Adam.” His mother replied. “Besides, he isn’t a child anymore. It’s time to take his turn.”
When he heard these words, something in him woke: his father loved him so much as had never been thought before. Now that he knew so, there would be no more lying in the mornings waiting to be called. He got up and pulled on his clothes.
On the night before Christmas, he lay thinking about the next day. They were poor, and most of the excitement was in the turkey raised themselves and the mince pies made by his mother. His sisters made presents, and he always saved and bought something for parents.
However, he wished, that Christmas he was fifteen, and that he had a better present for his father than before. He looked out of the window and saw Dad working in a stable. Then a thought struck him: why should he not give his father a special gift out there in the stable? He could get up earlier, quietly go into it and get all the milking done. Then when his father went in to start the milking, he’d see it all done.
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。
He had woken up twenty times in the night, looking at his watch for a proper time to start.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
He went back in his bedroom with only one minute to jump into bed before hearing his father get up.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
As I sat by the window of our schoolhouse that afternoon, my heart began to sink further with each passing car. This was a day I had been looking forward to for weeks. Miss Pace had kept a running countdown on the blackboard, and our class had almost gone crazy by the time the much-anticipated “party Friday” had arrived.
I had happily volunteered my mother when Miss Pace requested cookie volunteers. Mom’s chocolate chips were the best on our block, and I knew they would be a hit with my classmates. But two o'clock passed, and there was no sign of her. Most of the other mothers had already come and gone, dropping off their offerings of dessert. My mother was missing in action.
“Don’t worry, Robbie. She’ll be along soon,” Miss Pace said as I looked sadly at the street. I looked at the wall clock just in time to see its black minute hand shift to half past two.
Around me, the noisy party went on, but I wouldn’t leave my window watch post. Miss Pace did her best to comfort me, but I just stayed there, holding out hope that the familiar family car would appear, carrying my embarrassed mother with a tin of her famous cookies under her arm.
The three o'clock bell soon awoke me from my thoughts and I sadly grabbed my schoolbag and headed home.
On the four-block walk, I plotted my revenge (报复). I would slam the front door upon entering, refuse to return her hug when she rushed over to me, and never speak to her again.
The house was empty when I arrived and I looked for a note on the refrigerator that might explain my mother’s absence, but found none. Heartbroken and angry, I was lying face-down on my bed upstairs when I heard her come through the front door and mount the steps.
When she entered my room and sat beside me on my bed, I didn’t move but instead stared blankly into my pillow, refusing to acknowledge her presence.
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’m so sorry, honey,” she said. “I just got busy and forgot.”
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I desperately tried to recall the words she had used to comfort me from times past when I cried.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1. 人物简介；
2. 你爱戴他（她）的原因。
注意：
1. 词数100左右；
2. 开头已给出，不计入总词数；
3. 适当增加细节以使行文连贯。
A Disabled Person I Respect Most
There are many respectable disabled people in the world.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Little Girl Who Dared To Wish
As Amy Hagadorn rounded the corner across the hall from her classroom, she knocked into a tall boy from the fifth grade running in the opposite direction.
"Watch it , squirt(矮子)." The boy yelled as he passed by the little third-grader. Then, with a bad smile on his face, the boy took hold of his right leg and copied the way Amy limped(跛行)when she walked.
Amy closed her eyes. Ignore him, she told herself as she headed for her classroom.
But at the end of the day, Amy was still thinking about the tall boy's mean teasing. It wasn't as if he were the only one. It seemed that ever since Amy started the third grade, someone teased her every single day. Kids teased her about her speech or her limping. Amy was tired of it.
Back home at the dinner table that evening, Amy was quiet. Her mother knew that things were not going well at school. That's why Patti Hagadorn was happy to have some exciting news to share with her daughter.
"There's a Christmas wish contest on the radio station," Amy's mom announced. "Write a letter to Santa, and you might win a prize."
Amy giggled. The contest sounded like fun. She started thinking about what she wanted most for Christmas.
A smile took hold of Amy when the idea first came to her. Out came pencil and paper, and Amy went to work on her letter.
Dear Santa Claus,
My name is Amy. I am nine years old. I have a problem at school. Can you help me Santa? Kids laugh at me because of the way I walk and run and talk. I have a serious disease. I just want one day where no one laughs at me or makes fun of me.Love, Amy.
注意：
1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
When Amy's letter arrived at the radio station, manager Lee Tobin read it carefully.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Suddenly the postman in the community was a regular at the Hagadorn house.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Kevin had been eagerly waiting for the holidays to arrive. His mother had kept on hinting that there would be a big surprise for him during the vacation.
Kevin took out his scrapbook (剪贴簿). The exams had just finished, and the summer vacation had just started. Now he was free as a bird — free to draw, paint, play basketball, and watch television ... anything he wanted to do.
Suddenly, the doorbell rang, startling (使惊吓) him.
It was his pain of a cousin, Max. “Hi!” screamed Max as he jumped on Kevin’s bed. “I have come to stay here for the holidays.”
Kevin had never expected his mother’s surprise to be this bad. If this was the start of his vacation, then the next few weeks were going to be the worst experience of his life.
The next few days were horrible for Kevin.
After breakfast, Kevin decided to make a painting. Luckily, Max was not around. Kevin spread out all his art supplies and started painting some beautiful scenery. When he was doing the finishing touches, Max entered the room with a cola bottle. He slipped on some water, spilling cola all over the painting and totally ruining it.
The next day was even worse.
Everything was peaceful until the evening. It all started when Max put the dirty clothes in the washing machine. After some time, Kevin heard some strange sounds from the washing machine. He went to check and found that Max had put his best pair of shoes into the machine, along with the clothes.
One day, Kevin was looking through the newspaper when some interesting news caught his attention. He read it aloud: “The world-famous philatelist (集邮家) Dick Brown’s stamps were stolen last week from his house. Several other stamp robberies also have taken place, and police suspect that all the robberies are linked.”
This piece of news concluded by warning all stamp collectors to keep their stamps safe.
注意：
(1) 续写词数应为150左右；
(2) 请按如下格式作答。
Kevin had a nice stamp collection, and it was with his friend Alan. He decided to get his stamp album back.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
On the first blank page of the album, Kevin found there were two small words: Dick Brown.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Many years ago, my father, who was 80 at that time, arrived for his regular two-week visit at my home in Karachi. He lived with my elder brother in Lahore most of the time and for ten years had stuck to his habit of going for an hour-long morning walk to keep fit. In Lahore, he would walk around a park that is quite close to my brother’s house. Naturally, he was keen to continue his morning walk while with us in Karachi.
Our preferred park is a 2 km walk from my house and it has a l km walking track. I could not drive him there every day as I had to leave for the office at the same time he wanted to set out. Since there are hardly any footpaths in Karachi, my father said he was delighted to walk on the road as he was certain there wouldn’t be much traffic in the morning.
I was less confident so I suggested it would be safer if he changed his walk time to the evening. That way I could take him to the park after work. However, my father-a determined person-said that he could not change his routine for just a few days and insisted that he would be leaving the house every day at 7 am and returning by 8 am. He started doing this and stuck firmly to his schedule. So one day when he had not returned by 8:30 am, my wife, Qaisa, phoned me in a panic. Worried, I immediately drove home, taking the same route that my father would have taken for his walk.
Not spotting him anywhere, I went to the police station to report my father’s disappearance. The station house officer advised me to wait until midnight before filling the report. Since it was only 10 am, I drove back to the park, in the hope of discovering some trace, but in vain. Totally at a loss for what to do next, I returned home and waited impatiently, walking back and forth in the house.
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：
At 10:35 am the doorbell rang and my father stood outside the door smiling, accompanied by a young man.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2：
After knowing what had happened, I showed my appreciation of his kindness.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
At the end of the class, Mr. Smith announced our assignment for the next Monday was to talk about someone we were grateful to instead of a book report. Upon hearing it, I couldn’t help complaining to Mareya that I was so nervous about having to talk in front of the whole class.
“ Arizona ,you’ve been in at least three plays ,” Mareya pointed out.“ If you don’ t get stage fright in front of those big audiences, why are you bothered by a few kids in our class ?”
It was true, but in a play you were part of a group. I shook my head. Plus, there were so many people I was grateful to. There was no way I could possibly pick just one. Plus, even if I picked one I’ d have no idea what to say. Plus, even if I figured out what to say, I was a million- percent positive I’ d mess up if I tried to say it out loud! I’ d be standing there with everyone staring at me, waiting for words to come out of my mouth.“ Oh , my goodness !” I pulled my sweatshirt hood ( 兜 帽 ) over my face, put my hands over my ears and said,“ I don’t want to talk about it !”
But one thing about really good friends who knew you really well was that they didn’ t always do exactly what you asked them to. Mareya could be pretty pushy talking of being helpful. She scribbled(潦草地写) something on a piece of paper , lifted my hood, and smiled. She’ d drawn a funny elephant (named Franky) with the word BREATHE coming out of its trunk .
“ This is Franky, the ‘everything is going to be all right’ elephant ” Mareya giggled. She held the picture up to her ear and asked, “What’ s that you say, Franky? You think my friend Arizona should come over to my house this weekend so we can work on our talks together?”
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. And that was exactly what happened.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2 .On Monday morning, however, I decided to talk about Mareya.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
