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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I met Connie the day she was admitted to the hospice ward, where I worked as a volunteer. Her husband, Bill, stood nervously nearby as she was transferred from the gurney(轮床)to the hospital bed. Although Connie was in the final stages of her fight against cancer, she was cheerful and always smiled. We got her settled in and then asked if she needed anything.
“Oh, yes,” she said, “would you please show me how to use the TV? I enjoy the soaps so much and I don't want to get behind on what's happening.” Connie was a romantic. She loved soap operas, romance novels and movies with a good love story. As we became acquainted, she confided how frustrating it was to be married 32 years to a man who often called her “a silly woman.”
“Oh, I know Bill loves me,” she said, “but he has never been one to say he loves me, or send cards to me.” She sighed and looked out the window at the trees in the courtyard. “I’d give anything if he’d say ‘I love you,’ but it‘s just not in his nature.”
Bill visited Connie every day. In the beginning, he sat next to the bed while she watched the soaps. Later, when she began sleeping more, he paced up and down the hallway outside her room. Soon, when she no longer watched television and had fewer waking moments, I began spending more of my volunteer time with Bill.
He talked about having worked as a carpenter. He and Connie had no children, but they’d been enjoying retirement by traveling, until Connie got sick. Bill could not express his feelings about the fact that his wife was dying.
One day, over coffee in the cafeteria, I got him on the subject of women and how we need romance in our lives; how we love to get sentimental(柔情蜜意) cards and love letters.
“Do you tell Connie you love her?” I asked (knowing his answer), and he looked at me as if I was crazy.
“I don’t have to,” he said. “She knows I do!”
“I’m sure she knows,” I said, reaching over and touching his hands rough, “but she needs to hear it, Bill.”
We walked back to Connie’s room. Later, I saw Bill sitting by the bed. He was holding Connie’s hand as she slept. The date was February 12.
Two days later I walked down the hospice ward at noon. There stood Bill, leaning up against the wall in the hallway, staring at the floor. I already knew from the head nurse that Connie had died at 11 A.M..
注意:
1. 所续写的短文的词数应为150个词左右;
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。
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When Bill saw me,
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I went into the room to say my own goodbye to Connie.
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A rock is as big as a house. That’s how the guide book described Giant Rock. Dad said it was carried here by a glacier millions of years ago.
I was finally going to see it, on-snowshoes, with my three older cousins, my dad, and my uncle Don. I’d been snowshoeing before, and I liked the adventure of hiking through deep snow alongside wild-animal tracks. At the parking area, after putting on our snowshoes, we studied the map in the information kiosk(亭子). “We start here”, Dad said, “on the red path. Then we turn left onto the purple circle. That’s where Giant Rock is.” “Remember to stick together, guys,” Uncle Don said.
The path ran uphill alongside a stone wall. It was easy to follow because red markers were nailed to the trees and the snow had been packed down by other hikers. At the top of the hill, we turned onto the purple path, which wound back and forth, travelling through the hills and gullies. We settled into a rhythm, with Dad and everyone else in front and me in the back, crunch-crunch-crunching through the snow. My cousins were faster than I was, but I managed to keep up.
Finally, we reached a hill and saw the massive rock sitting alone in the forest. “It really is as big as a house” my cousin Josh said, gazing up. My cousins and I high-fived(举手击掌)each other and jogged down the slope until we stood at the base, breathless. Standing in the rock's giant shadow, I noticed the sun had dipped even lower. “Let’s head back,” Dad said after a few minutes.
Soon we were crunch-crunch-crunching our way home. I was a little behind the group when I noticed a set of animal tracks I didn’t recognize. I followed them off the path for a closer look. There were no claw marks, which meant they didn’t belong to a dog or a fox. Instead, they looked like tiny handprints and footprints. Must be a raccoon(小熊), I thought.
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。
Para l:
I looked around when I suddenly realized I was totally alone.
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Reaching a crossroads, I tried to calm myself down, picturing the map again.
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The story began with a young mother who had three sons in a big city. Unfortunately, the youngest son developed slow thinking skills, not having the intelligence of his brothers. With double duty as the mother of the household, she was exhausted, so that the youngest was often the target of anger and annoyance. Bad words, such as "you little fool” and the like, served as a daily meal for the youngest.
The words and curses he got from the mother and ridicule (嘲笑) from friends convinced him that he was distressing (使痛苦) and embarrassing his family. Every morning he woke up with his own face staring from the mirror reflection, he started to say quietly and sadly, “The fool is going to school.”
As adult citizens, there was compulsory military service which should be lived. Thus, the youngest son also signed up and started to follow the various tests: a medical, physical ability test and other tests. On the day of the announcement, he was called into the board of examiners.
In his mind, he convinced himself that he was the fool and couldn’t pass the tests this time as he entered the room with his head down. It was not expected at all. The tests turned out to have the highest praise from the board of examiners.
“Congratulations, young man! Your test results are incredible! You are really a great and talented young man.” Words from the board of examiners became the discovery of a new side of himself that was not known in advance. Voice kept echoing in his mind, such as “I, the great man, am in the shower”, “The great man washes his face”, “The talented young man again brushes his teeth” and so on. Confidence and improved self-image came beyond usual.
注意：
1、所续写短文的词数应为150以上；
2、请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
He decided to join the military and was sent to the front.
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Ten years later, the man went back to his hometown.
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“Ada! Milk!” Mama called.
Milk. It was Ada’s turn to get it. Ada sighed and shut her first-aid book. Her head hurt from reading in the dim morning light, but how else was she going to learn?
Ada tied the cow close to a tree. Somewhere down the mountain, some volunteer doctors were teaching medical skills to village nurses. Ada heard Betty drive off hours ago. “She should have taken me with her. She thinks I’m too young, but she’s wrong. I am already 16!” Ada thought.
Ada carried the milk back to Mama, then wandered up the road. Roy, a village boy, had gotten a donkey, and some kids had gathered around to see it. Roy was always doing something to get attention. Like now: he was trying to stand on the animal’s bare back.
“No wonder they don’t trust kids with anything important”, Ada thought, sighing. She had just turned away when she heard a thud and a few screams. Roy lay on the ground nearby moaning in pain. The donkey stood several meters away. “Roy!” The kids nearby ran towards him. “Get Betty,” one said. Ada shook her head. “Betty’s gone to the city.” The other kids seemed frozen in place.
Ada ran to where Roy was lying. She dropped to her knees on the dusty road. “Roy! Can you hear me?” Roy moaned in agony. Ada saw that one of his legs was crooked, bent a little sideways between the knee and the ankle. A broken leg!
She remembered what the first-aid book had said about broken legs: if there is no ambulance, straighten the bone before moving the victim. There certainly wouldn’t be any ambulance here. Ada looked back up the road. The other kids were still standing there, watching. “Victor!” Ada called to one of the boys. “Go get Roy’s mama, and find someone with a truck.” She turned to the others. “Give me your shirts. We need something to tie his leg with.”
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。
Ada then found a strong stick, which she would use to keep his leg straight.
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________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________One day when I was 12, my mother gave me an order: I was to walk to the public library, and borrow at least one book for the summer. This was one more weapon for her to defeat my strange problem, my inability to read.
In the library, I found my way into the “Children’s Room”. I sat down on the floor and pulled a few books off the shelf at random. The cover of a book caught my eye. It presented a picture of a beagle. I had recently had a beagle, the first and only animal companion I ever had as a child. He was my secret sharer, but one morning, he was gone, given away to someone who had the space and the money to care for him. I never forgot my beagle.
There on the book’s cover was a beagle which looked identical to my dog. I ran my fingers over the picture of the dog on the cover. My eyes ran across the title, Amos, the Beagle with a Plan. Unknowingly, I had read the title. Without opening the book, I borrowed it from the library for the summer.
Under the shade of a bush, I started to read about Amos. I read very, very slowly with difficulty. Though pages were turned slowly, I got the main idea of the story about a dog who, like mine, had been separated from his family and who finally found his way back home. That dog was my dog, and I was the little boy in the book. At the end of the story, my mind continued to the final scene of reunion, on and on, until my own lost dog and I were, in my mind, running together.
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My mother's call returned, me to the real world. I suddenly realized something.
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And years later, she was proud that her son had read thousands of books, and was awarded a PhD in literature.
As the mother of an eleven-year-old girl, I have read several books that tell parents how to bring up a girl to be beautiful, elegant, confident, and rich. However, I have always believed that girls need to be brave above all else, but this is easier said than done.
I still remember I couldn’t see the screen directly when my daughter switched to the animal channel, which was broadcasting a show about snakes. I stood as far away from the TV as possible, too scared to open my eyes. However, my little angel was not scared of the snakes. In fact, she watched the show with a keen interest. I was relieved that my daughter didn’t get too many genetic phobias(遗传恐惧症). Even to this day, she is still obsessed with challenging herself with new things.
This year, I got a chance to study in Singapore for six months. After the novelty of the first few days had gone, I found myself missing my family. With the summer vacation approaching, my husband agreed to make good use of the fact that I was staying in Singapore. He brought our daughter out to visit me and to enjoy the new experience in a new country.
The reunion day finally came. My husband and my daughter arrived in the second week of July. I was so looking forward to seeing them. I had made many preparations for their visit. On the first day, I arranged for us to see Gardens by the Bay. When we walked out of the MRT station, we were amazed by the sight of the Super Trees. When my daughter saw lots of people walking on the Skyway, she couldn’t help shouting excitedly that she wanted to have a try. The Skyway is a 22-meter-high suspension bridge from which you can enjoy a birds eye view. Last time I came here with my friends, I firmly rejected their repeated attempts to challenge me to go up there. It was like the day with the snakes all over again. But could I really reject my little angel?
Paragraph 1:My daughter was waiting for my reply. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2:Halfway across the bridge, I had to stop. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Desiree, a 4-year-old girl, was sobbing quietly over her father, Ken, who had died nine months earlier. She was hugging a photograph of her father with her fingers running around his face. “Daddy”, she said softly, “Why won't you come back?”
Instead of gradually adjusting to her father's death, Desiree refused to accept it “Daddy will be home soon,” she'd tell her mother. “He's at work.” When she played with her toy telephone, she pretended she was chatting with her father “I miss you, Daddy,” she'd say. “When will you come back?” Desiree's situation made her mother worried.
Days later, it was Ken's birthday. “How will I send him a card?” Desiree asked her mother “How about if we tie a litter to a balloon.” her mother said, “and send it up to heaven?” Desiree's eyes immediately lit up.
Her mother took her to a store and Desiree picked out a balloon with HAPPY BIRTHDAY above a drawing of The Little Mermaid (美人鱼). Desire and her father had often watched it.
The child's eyes shone as they were on the way to Ken's grave. Then Desiree dictated (口述) a letter to her Dad. “Daddy, Happy birthday, I love you and miss you,” she rattled off (快速说). “I hope you get this and can write to me on my birthday in January.”
Her mother wrote the message and their address on a small piece of paper, which was then wrapped in plastic and tied to the end of the string on the balloon. Finally, Desiree let fly the balloon. For almost an hour, they watched the shining spot of silver grow smaller and smaller till disappear. “Now Dad's going to write back to me,” Desiree said confidently.
Every day since they'd flew the balloon, Desiree had asked her mother, “Do you think Daddy has my balloon yet?” Several weeks passed, and she stopped asking.
Paragraph 1One day, 3,000 miles away, Wade was on a duck hunt when suddenly something in the bush caught his eyes. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2
Desire's fifth birthday came and later on the afternoon, a package arrived.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________It’s not easy to die when you are only fifteen. Those were the words that began the story I heard from Robert White, a North Carolina factory worker. He and his wife were visiting their daughter Lee in the hospital as they did every evening.
She knew she had an illness that would not spare her. She suffered a lot but never complained. She had already accepted her great journey into the unknown. This particular evening, she suddenly said, "I always dreamed of working in a big ocean park with dolphins. I’ve loved them since I was little. I still dream of swimming with them, free and happy in the open sea."
She’d never asked for anything, but she said with all the strength she had, "Daddy, I want to swim in the open sea among the dolphins just once. Maybe then I wouldn’t be so scared of dying." It seemed like an impossible dream, but she hung on to it.
Robert and his family talked it over and decided to do everything they could. They phoned a research center in the Florida Keys. "Come at once," they said.
When they arrived in Grassy Key, Lee didn’t want to rest for a minute and begged her parents to take her to the dolphins. Robert took her out toward the dolphins, Nat and Tursi, who were playing about thirty feet away from them. At first they seemed distracted and uninterested, but when Lee called them softly by name, they responded without hesitation. Nat came over first, raised his head and gave her a kiss on the end of her nose. Then Tursi came over happily. A second later they picked her up with their mighty fins (鳍) and carried her out to sea with them. "It feels like I’m flying!" cried Lee, laughing with delight.
Lee’s family hadn’t heard her laugh like that since she became ill. The dolphins stayed with Lee for more than an hour, always tender, always attentive, and always responsive to her wishes.
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；
3.续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。
Paragraph 1：
Maybe it’s true that they are more intelligent and sensitive creatures than man.
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Paragraph 2：
The next day she was too weak to get out of bed, but she whispered to her father.
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Hope
Nothing in my life had prepared me for what I had to do. Choosing my words carefully, and fighting to stay calm, I told my 4-year-old daughter that her grandmother had suffered a stroke（中风），that she was unconscious, and that the doctors said she would probably never wake up. As she moved closer to me, Amelia looked at me, eyes bright, and said, “Maybe Grandma will be okay.” “Maybe she will,” I said, keeping back the tears, But I knew better. I was flying up to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, from our Florida home in the morning to say good-bye to my mom.
The rest of that awful week, I joined my brother and father sitting by my mother’s side in the hospital room. I held her hand and talked to her. I told her that we still needed her. I told her that it wasn’t time to leave yet. I told her how much I loved her. And I told her that her little granddaughter, Amelia, believed that she’d get better. The doctors, with all their years of training and experience, offered no hope for recovery. The damage was simply too extensive.
Then, a couple of weeks later, an odd thing happened. Mom woke up. She regained consciousness. Persevered through a long and tough recovery, during which she had to learn to walk, read, and write all over again, and eventually returned home to Dad. The only one who wasn’t shocked was Amerlia. The doctors couldn’t explain it. Amelia didn’t need to. Hope came as naturally to her as breathings.
So why are we so afraid to hope sometimes? Maybe it’s because over the year, life’s disappointments can turn us to disillusionment（理想破灭）. How many times have you heard someone say: “Hope for the best, expect the worst”? That’s not really hope at all.
Hope is being able to look at our world with all of the joy and wonder of a child.
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