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.
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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.
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On Christmas morning, we were excited for Almie to open the package with the clay bike.
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Eggs,bacon,bagels,and croissants(羊角面包），her favourite meal of the day sat right in front of her telling her to have more, probably just this one day. Her hand reached out for the last croissant;"STOP"said her mind,"PLEASE"begged the nineteen-year-old heart. Annie could feel the tyres around her waist, weighing her down, emotionally and physically. She pulled her hand back,eyeing the inviting croissant, which would have been hers, if only she had not decided to follow her dream, a dream which seemed beyond her reach.
But there she was, she wanted it, and wanted it badly,a fantasy of a teenager to fit into the beautiful peacock green bikini(比基尼）.A trip had been planned,to the sunny beaches,by a group of friends,and the trip included her. She used to sit depressed listening to her slim friends discuss about the kind of clothes they purchased, and how short each of their skirts were,and how beautiful they looked. She wanted to see their expression change from surprise to admiration,so she decided go on diet and take fitness courses.
Weeks passed,and her patience started to die away. The fat was stubborn and refused to melt fast,but the time went fast. No matter how less she ate,she still looked awfully plump(胖的）， which annoyed her and she was ready to call it quits. She sat on her bed and wept an entire evening: ignoring her dinner.Her tears dried up,and she lay down on her bed staring at the ceiling,letting random thoughts pass through her mind. Then she heard two women talking outside her window. She heard one woman saying:"My child is special,and every child is god's gift. It doesn't matter what's on the outside, inner self is what matters."
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。
Curious,Annie got up and looked out of her window.
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Annie turned her eyes away from the scene and saw her own figure in the mirror.
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Carter enjoyed riding the school bus home. The ride home gave him some time to relax after a busy day of fifth grade. He usually sat alone, and he enjoyed that too. With four siblings（兄弟姐妹）he didn't get much alone time.
The bus stopped and the tallest boy in his class, Dexter Fisher, stepped off followed by his younger brother, Billy. Their house was the last stop before Carter's house. As the bus pulled away, Carter looked back over his shoulder to watch the boys. Dexter was yelling and waving his hands at his little brother. Billy said something Carter could not hear. Dexter yelled something and gave his younger brother a hard shove （猛推）and knocked him to the ground.
Carter leaned toward the window to get a better view. Billy was still on the ground and Dexter was walking away. Carter watched as Billy wiped at his eyes. The poor kid was crying.
Carter turned in his seat. He felt nauseous （恶心的）.He hated seeing little kids get picked on. It just wasn't right. The sight of Billy on the ground crying was burned into his memory. He tried to think of something else.
He thought of the model car he was working on at home, a 1967 Corvette. He started building it over a week ago and just finished putting it together last night. Tonight, as soon as he finished his homework, he could start painting the car. That was his favorite part. He already had the perfect color of blue picked out.
He hurried off the bus, ran through his yard, and breezed through the kitchen with a quick hello to his mom. She was making spaghetti. His favorite. It smelled delicious.
He ran up the stairs two at a time and rushed into his room.
“Surprise!” his brother Jackson said, throwing his arms into the air.
Carter looked down at his desk in horror. His Corvette! Jackson had painted it red. An awful dull shade of red that didn't look good on a car at all. Like the color of Dad's tractor!
注意：
1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好；
Carter's heart started to beat faster while his breath was coming faster too.
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After hearing what Jackson explained, Carter felt really guilty.
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Pumpkin (南瓜) carving at Halloween is a family tradition. We visit a local farm every October. In the pumpkin field, I compete with my three brothers and sister to seek out the biggest pumpkin. My dad has a rule that we have to carry our pumpkins back home, and as the eldest child I have an advantage-I carried an 85-pounder back last year.
This year, it was hard to tell whether my prize or the one chosen by my 14-year-old brother, Jason, was the winner. Unfortunately we forgot to weigh them before taking out their insides, but I was determined to prove my point. All of us were hard at work at the kitchen table, with my mom filming the annual event. I’m unsure now why I thought forcing my head inside the pumpkin would settle the matter, but it seemed to make perfect sense at the time.
With the pumpkin resting on the table, hole uppermost, I bent over and pressed my head against the opening. At first I got jammed just above my eyes and then, as I went on with my task, unwilling to quit, my nose briefly prevented entry. Finally I managed to put my whole head into it, like a cork (软木塞) forced into a bottle. I was able to straighten up with the huge pumpkin resting on my shoulders.
My excitement was short-lived. The pumpkin was heavy. “I’m going to set it down, now,” I said, and with Jason helping to support its weight, I bent back over the table to give it somewhere to rest. It was only when I tried to remove my head that I realized getting out was going to be less straightforward than getting in. When I pulled hard, my nose got in the way. I got into a panic as I pressed firmly against the table and moved my head around trying to find the right angle, but it was no use. “I can’t get it out!” I shouted, my voice sounding unnaturally loud in the enclosed space.
注意：
1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2. 至少使用5个短文中标有下划线的关键词语；
3. 续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好；
4. 续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。
Paragraph 1
It was five or six minutes though it felt much longer.
Paragraph 2
The video was posted the Monday before Halloween.
It was a rainy November morning. Overcome with anger I knew if I didn’t leave the house soon I would lose my temper with my husband, Joe. As rain came down in sheets, Joe offered to take me to work. I struggled into my jacket, seized my bag and teaching plans and ignored him.
He insisted and reached for his boots. I looked at the piles of newspapers and the dirty dishes sill on the table. “Don’t you have enough to do? I can take care of myself. ” I stormed out, not even kissing him good-bye. Joe shouted after me not to take the shortcut.
Joe and I had been eagerly looking forward to our retirement when a heart attack that past spring forced him to leave his job earlier than we had planned. As the medical bills mounted we realized I would have to continue working full-time while Joe stayed home and took over the housework.
The new arrangement was a disaster. Exhausted after a day of full work, all I wanted was a hot home-cooked meal and a good night’s sleep. However, what greeted me at the table was a microwave package. Sometimes he would serve oatmeal（燕麦）for several nights in a row. One night when I dragged myself to bed, I was terrified to discover Joe had turned our white sheets blue. He told me he had found out how to save on water, soap and electricity. He patted his blue trousers and announced proudly washing everything together was just the secret.
Ten minutes later, ignoring Joe s warning, I turned off the main route. I thought it hadn’t rained enough to flood the road, but as I rounded the corner water rushed across my path. After a few feet, the car got stuck. I opened the door and water poured in. I hurriedly closed the door. I couldn’t risk walking in this. Almost 20 minutes passed. The car began to shake. I got frightened to death when I heard three long honks（喇叭声）.
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。
Looking over my shoulder, I stared into the flashing lights of a truck.
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I screamed at Joe that I couldn’t make it.
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7 . It was 1939, and the Great Depression had made all our lives much harder. But we didn’t know how poor we were until our father sat my brother and me down on the couch in our living room to have a talk.
I will always remember the sad look in Father’s eyes as he stared down at his hands, rubbing them back and forth, while he searched for the words to tell us that our family wasn’t going to be celebrating Christmas this year.
A month later, on Christmas Eve, I lay awake in bed late into the night, trying to talk myself out of sneaking into our living room to see if Santa had come. I gathered my courage, then tiptoed down the hallway, hoping I would see the bright sparkling lights of our Christmas tree standing proudly in the corner of our living room, like it did every year.
Instead, I was greeted by my seventeen-year-old brother, Frank, who slept on our living room couch. “Hey, little one, what are you doing up?” he whispered.
I started to cry. “There’s no Christmas tree.”
There would be no presents, no singing, no Christmas dinner. It felt like we were the saddest family in the world. My disappointment overwhelmed me. I looked forward to Christmas each year. It wasn’t only the presents. It was that special feeling I got from seeing my family happy. We hadn’t been happy in such a long time.
On Christmas morning, the sun shone into our chilly bedroom, waking me up. “Maybe Santa came! Maybe he came!” I suddenly insisted. My eyes searched the living room, but there was no Christmas tree. I broke into uncontrollable tears.
I ran to Father in tears and threw my arms around him. “ We aren’t going to have Christmas this year.”
“Now, now, now, calm down. Go on in and see your mother. She will comfort you.” Dad slowly pushed the bedroom door open, leading me into the room.
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。
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed something different in the bedroom.
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With my question answered, everything dawned on me.
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It was 1st January, the first day of the year and a holiday for me. What luck! I started by thinking of getting the bank work out of the way. The bank person, an elderly gentleman with a white beard, paid little attention to my polite “Happy New Year” as usual. He nodded and I sat in front of him.
Minutes passed and nothing happened.
Then very hesitantly I put my form and booklet (小册子) in front of him. He was busy filling up entries in his register. After a few minutes, he took my form and from his cabinet he took out a very thick file from which he started filling in my details. I sat there wondering why we had computerized banking if we were still filling in forms and registers.
After waiting for a few more minutes, in which I showed all signs of being impatient, I asked him if my work was done. The moment I uttered (说) the words, I felt as if a bomb had fallen on him. He shouted, “Nothing is done, it will take time!”
Just then I saw his morning cup of tea which had been lying there for the last ten minutes, untouched. The tea had turned almost cold while he was doing his work. Suddenly I felt how this man must be feeling, when customers like me came always in a hurry to get their work done.
He had been working at this counter for God-knows-how-many years. We do not even feel the need to thank him for being there. He must be feeling so annoyed that “here comes another person who will push me for doing his work first.”
On an instinct (本能) I told him, “Sir, you please have your tea, I am not in a hurry.” This man, who I had been seeing for the last few years, suddenly looked up at me and for the first time we had eye contact—he had never made eye contact earlier. I saw a different person there, another human being who was as hard-pressed for time as I always am.
注意：
1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式作答。
I saw both of us sailing in the same boat.
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He really touched my heart with his wise words.
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Christine closed the door to Anna’s room. Inside, her classmate and friend had fallen asleep. Downstairs, Christine’s mom, Donna, was grasping Anna’s mother Sheila around the shoulders. “We should go,” she said. “Get some rest, huh?” Sheila nodded, blew her nose, and then waved them goodbye.
On the car riding home, Christine worked up the courage to ask the question on her mind, “Mom? Why was Sheila weeping?” She thought she knew the answer, of course: Anna’s cancer. In the past, Anna had been the neighborhood do-gooder, always going door to door for various causes: the local animal shelter, suffering children in Africa, or the families who’d lost their homes to fire. Now Anna could barely feed or dress herself. Christine thought it so unfair when bad things like this happened to good people.
“Well, it’s complex, but I guess you’re old enough to understand.”
“Understand what?”
“Understand that Anna is sick, yes, but Anna actually gets a lot of help. The government helps pay for a lot of her medicine. She gets meals delivered to her by a nonprofit. She even gets massages from local volunteers.”
“Wow!”
“Her life’s still very hard, of course, and no one would trade places with her, but when you have cancer, everyone can see that you need help,” continued Donna. “They don’t always see that the people around you are suffering.”
“People like Sheila?”
“Yes, did you know that Sheila took a break from her job to stay home with Anna?”
“No!” Christine was surprised. She had never thought about who took Anna to her appointments, or fed her when she was too weak to lift a spoon. Of course it was her family.
“Yes. So that means that many of the things they used to do with that extra money are all out the window now. They’re even worried now about keeping the house.”
“Their house? So Anna might have to move, while she’s sick?”
“If she doesn’t get better soon, and the bills keep piling up...” Donna pulled into the driveway, and just in time. Her cheeks were shining with tears.
Paragraph 1:
“There has to be something done for them,” Christine said firmly to their classmates and friends.
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Paragraph 2:
But the best part of the party was when Anna came through the door with her family, attracted with promises of chocolate cake and live music.
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My mother was a supporter of physical punishment, but for all her talking she has never spanked (打屁股) my siblings, and me only once. Instead she found ways of punishment that left a more lasting memory than giving us a spanking. One of the most memorable of these occasions occurred when I was four.
In the early 70’s my mother attended college during the day and I was in day care. One day at day care I watched an extremely tired mother attempt to pick up her daughter. The little girl asked, “Momma, are we going to McDonald’s for dinner?” The mother replied, “Honey, not tonight. Momma has to run a few errands (差事) and then we have to go home and cook dinner for Daddy.” “But I wanna go.” “Susie, I said not tonight. Maybe, if you are a good girl, we can go tomorrow.” Susie immediately dropped to the floor, kicking and screaming, “I want to go to McDonald’s.”
No amount of pleading (恳求) or scolding her mother tried stopped Susie’s tantrum (发脾气). Finally her mother gave in, “Okay, Susie, let’s go to McDonald’s.” Susie stopped yelling. With a smile on her face she grabbed her mother’s hand and they left. To say I was amazed would be inaccurate (不准确的); I was delighted that anything I wanted could be had by throwing a tantrum.
That day my mother picked me up early from day care because we were going to a store to purchase some Christmas items. I was excited by the lights and decorations, and as we walked through the toy section on the way to the counter, I saw a toy I had to have. It was a white and red telephone whose bells rang as it was pulled along on a string. Looking lovingly up at my mother I asked, “Mama, can I have that telephone? ”
She replied, “Baby, not now, but if you are a good girl, maybe Santa will bring it to you.” “But Mama, I want that telephone right now.” Her eyes narrowed and her hand tightened on mine. “Becky, you can’t have that telephone today, but if you misbehave, you can have a spanking.”
注意：
1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2. 应使用5个以上短文中标有下划线的关键词语；
3. 续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好；
4. 续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。
Paragraph l:
By now we were standing in the long holiday line to pay the bill, and I figured it was a good chance.
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Paragraph 2:
“Mama, stop. Mama, get up,” I tearfully pleaded.
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