When I was about ten years old, my brother and I received a wonderful gift — tennis rackets and balls. We had never had the opportunity to play tennis, so this was exciting. However, there was one problem — the small town we lived in did not have a tennis court.
One Sunday morning my brother said, “Hey, I’ve got an idea. Let’s take our tennis rackets and balls to the school and hit the balls against the school building.”
“Great idea! Let’s go,” I agreed, not realizing what a lesson we would learn before the experience was over.
When we got to the school ground, no one was around, so we began hitting our balls against the side of the two-story brick building.
“I’ll hit it the first time,” my brother suggested, “then you hit it the next time. We’ll hit it back and forth to each other.”
So we began taking turns hitting the ball, getting more confident with each stroke. Actually, we became pretty good at returning the ball and we were hitting the ball higher and faster each time.
Suddenly, the unthinkable happened — the ball got out of control and went crashing through one of the upstairs windows.
We looked around and no one was in sight — except there was an old man stting on a porch halfway down the block.
Quietly, I asked, “Now what should we do? Our ball is inside the school.”
“Well,” my brother responded, “no one will know whose ball it is. And no one saw us, except that old man down there. And he probably can’t see this far.”
“He probably doesn’t know who we are anyway,” I added.
“Let’s go home,” my brother suggested.
“Okay,” I agreed. “Should we tell Mom and Dad?”
“I don’t know,” my brother answered.
Then we picked up the rest of our balls and headed for home, keeping silent all the way with our heads drooping.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；2. 请按如下格式作答。“What happened?” asked my mother, seeing us in low spirits.
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The following morning my brother and I went to the headmaster’s office.
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The Perfect Gift
Colin walked through the mall with his head down. He couldn’t bear to look at another window display of great Christmas gifts he couldn’t afford. There were only a few days left until Christmas, and Colin still didn’t t have a present for his parents. He had only managed to save four dollars and seventeen cents. He counted the money in his pocket and sighed heavily.
“You look upset today, Colin. What is the matter?” Colin’s older sister Whitney asked.
Colin explained his problem to his sister.
“Why don’t you make them something?” Whitney suggested.
“Making presents is for babies,” Colin said. “Mom and Dad won’t like baby stuff.”
“Hey, that is not true. When I was your age, I wrote Mom and Dad a poem for Christmas. They loved it so much that they had it framed (给……做框),” Whitney said.
Colin knew that was true. The poem was hanging in the living room right above the fireplace. Mom and Dad often stood at the fireplace and read the poem to him. But Colin wasn’t good at writing poems, so that didn’t really help him.
“It doesn’t have to be a poem,” Whitney said, “It could be anything that makes them think of you whenever they look at it. That’s why homemade gifts are special — because they make you think of the person who made it.”
“But I don’t know how to make anything Mom and Dad would actually want!” Colin said, kicking a tiny stone across the parking lot.
Whitney opened the car door. “Yes, you do! You’re always drawing those funny little comics. Why don’ t you do a family portrait(全家福) as a comic? Mom and Dad would love it.”
”Maybe," Colin said. He thought about the idea the whole way home. He even pictured how he would draw everyone.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在相应位置作答。
Paragraph 1: For the next two days, Colin drew one picture after another.
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Paragraph 2: After all the other presents were opened, Colin handed his gift to his parents.
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The economic downturn caught us. We sold our ranch and moved to town, Mother had decided to open a day nursery. She had had no training, but that didn’t stand in her way. She sent away for correspondence courses in child care, did the lessons and in six months formally qualified herself for the task. It wasn’t long before she had a full enrollment and a waiting list. I accepted all this as a perfectly normal instance of Mother’s ability. But neither the nursery nor the motel my parents bought later had provided enough income to send my sister and me to college. In two years I would be ready for college. Time was running out, and Mother was anxious for ways to save money. It was clear that Dad could do no more than he was doing already — farming 80 acres in addition to holding a full-time job. A few months after we’d sold the motel, Mother arrived home with a used green typewriter.
“That’s all we can afford,” Mother said. “It’s good enough to learn on.” And from that day on, as soon as the table was cleared and the dishes were done, Mother would disappear into her sewing room to practice. The slow tap, tap, tap went on some nights until midnight. Soon I heard Mother got a job at the radio station. I was not the least bit surprised, or impressed. But she was wild with joy.
Monday, after her first day at work, I could see that the excitement was gone.
Tuesday, Dad made dinner and cleaned the kitchen. Mother stayed in her sewing room, practicing. “Is Mother all right?” I asked Dad. “She’s having a little trouble with her typing,” he said. “She needs to practice. I think she’d appreciate it if we all helped out a bit more. You might just remember that she is working primarily so you can go to college.”
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。
Wednesday, I arrived home earlier and was surprised by what I saw — Mother was crying in the corner of the couch.
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Mother took another job earning half, but the evening practice sessions on the old green typewriter continued.
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4 . My father was the kind of guy who could walk into a room full of strangers and leave with new best friends for life! He was a hard worker and was known as “Mr Fix-It” to everyone. He was also one of the most cheerful, affable (和葛可亲的) and gentle people you would ever meet, which made us, his beloved daughters feel proud.
But when Dad was in his fifties, my family began to notice him struggling. His work and skills began to become worse and worse, and he became depressed and withdrawn. This was not the man I knew. At the age of fifty-eight, Dad was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. As for our family, it was the worst.
Our first step was to attend a meeting hosted by the Alzheimer’s Association to learn more about the disease and programs that might help us. That meeting inspired me to start a Walk to End Alzheimer’s® team. But I still wanted to do more. In 2017, I became a board member of the Alzheimer’s Association Delaware Valley Chapter.
The loss from this disease is gradual. My father’s decline continued for several years. Losing my father more and more each day was leaving a big hole in my heart and my life. I decided to fill that hole with action to honor my father.
That’s why I recently decided to leave a gift to the Alzheimer’s Association by naming it as a beneficiary of my retirement plan. My future gift will provide money to support research because I don’t want another person in my family or someone in other families to have to suffer from Alzheimer’s disease.
I am so proud to be able to honor my father and other family members who lost their fights to Alzheimer’s in this way. My dad was an inspiration to me, and I hope, through my gift, I can inspire others to join in the fight to end Alzheimer’s.
1. What can we infer about the author’s father before having Alzheimer’s?| A．He was an outgoing man. | B．He hiked with strangers. |
| C．He made a living by sales. | D．He was a popular repairer of cars. |
| A．She consulted many experts. | B．She established a research team. |
| C．She gained more relevant information. | D．She funded the Alzheimer’s Association. |
| A．Research funds for the disease. | B．A record of her father’s mental state. |
| C．Her research papers on families like hers. | D．Experts’ suggestions on her father’s disease. |
| A．Her precious gift. | B．Her father’s firm confidence. |
| C．Her future expectation. | D．Her father’s original motivation. |
5 . Do your family have any good traditions to keep? My family keep a “Good Things Jar (罐)” on our
Each year at Christmas time, we
When the COVID-19 pandemic began, it was one of the most terrifying things I could have
“Zarah, Will, and I had a picnic outside and I taught Will how to clap with his feet.”
“Even though Grandma is on chemo, she kicked the sickness!”
“My family
…
My “Good Things Jar” is like a jar of bottled
| A．kitchen | B．study | C．bedroom | D．washroom |
| A．contained | B．handy | C．decorated | D．extra |
| A．pull down | B．break down | C．take down | D．turn down |
| A．mentioned | B．applied | C．stuck | D．happened |
| A．hide | B．empty | C．sign | D．fold |
| A．serious | B．right | C．exact | D．clever |
| A．noticing | B．asking | C．inspiring | D．smelling |
| A．fixed | B．imagined | C．agreed | D．prevented |
| A．committing | B．conducting | C．calling | D．teaching |
| A．filling the bill | B．blowing itself out | C．hitting the face | D．coming to life |
| A．created | B．saw | C．cleaned | D．touched |
| A．honestly | B．secretly | C．eventually | D．instantly |
| A．Meanwhile | B．Therefore | C．Soon | D．However |
| A．quick | B．interested | C．surprised | D．generous |
| A．following | B．previous | C．tough | D．free |
| A．threw | B．organized | C．rushed | D．considered |
| A．hope | B．happiness | C．content | D．excitement |
| A．warn | B．remind | C．retell | D．refer |
| A．grasp | B．prepare | C．expect | D．write |
| A．command | B．urge | C．allow | D．encourage |
Returns
When I saw my mother at her home last month, it was a hot Sunday. I travelled there by train. As the train reduced its speed, I knew I was going to see her.
Leaving the station, I headed to the town center where I bought cakes — the kind she used to tell me to bring home. And I bought a cat, which I think can accompany her for along time. Until I got home, I didn’t think anything besides, I’m going to see her again and she’s waiting for me.
I knocked on the narrow door of the ground-floor apartment. She called out, “Yes. Come in!” “You should lock the door!” “I knew it was you. There’s no one else it could have been.”
When she saw the cat, she was very pleased as if it were my kid. She took the cakes, a little uneasy, but thanked me with a happy tone to her voice. That’s because she had already bought some for us on her way back home.
She was laughing, standing by the table. She put her hand on my shoulder, tilting her face up for me to kiss. At the same time, she was firing off questions about my trip, my children, my husband, my work...
We sat opposite each other at the table that, along with the meal she had already prepared for me, almost filled her apartment. She bought it big — it can seat at least ten people! But in six years, not once...
After meal, she tried to come up with more subjects of conversation, so that I wouldn’t go too soon, leaving her alone with her desire for me, her longing to live with me, her daughter, forever. Meanwhile, the cat approached us, which kept us busy for along time — watching it, taking turns holding it... My mother was the happiest she’d been since I got home. She seemed to have forgotten that I was going to leave.
注意：续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好。
It’s time for me to say goodbye to her.
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A month later, I, along with my husband and kids, came back to visit my mother.
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7 . Geo-tracking apps such as Find My Kids and Google Family Link are fast growing in popularity, handing parents powers to monitor their children. But how are the latter experiencing what previous generations might have la-belled as an invasion of their privacy? Could these devices even hurt youths’ sense of independence?
We set out to answer these questions in our research, which involved a series of one-on-one interviews with parents who geo-tracked their children, and teenagers who were geo-tracked.
Overall, the parents who took part in our survey claimed they were driven to use these apps not by nosiness(多管闲事),but a sense of care in the face of what they perceived as dangerous or uncertain environments. Knowing a child’s geographical position cannot guarantee their safety when faced with an incident in real time, but checking where they are can help ease parental fears. Other parents surveyed admitted to monitoring their children only in the case of unanswered phone calls or unfulfilled requests. Rather than a systematic method of monitoring, geo-tracking acted as a “lastresort” option after parents failed to reach their children.
While some teenagers were sympathetic to their parents’ anxieties, most of them perceived the use of geo-tracking apps as an invasion of their privacy. When seen as a tool to contact, geo-tracking appeared to be quite well accepted by them in our survey. However, most teenagers in our sample were worried about their parents’ use of monitoring apps.
Geo-tracking is not without its ill effect on family relationships. Xavier, for instance, said that discovering he was being tracked has profoundly weakened the trust between him and his father. Furthermore, tensions among parents and children may also arise, thus widening the gap between them. Geographical monitoring also directly challenges young people’s need to go into the world independently, both holding back teenage autonomy and generating tensions in parent-child relationships.
1. Why are the two questions raised for Geo-tracking apps in paragraph 1?| A．To display their function. |
| B．To indicate their intelligence. |
| C．To show the worry about privacy. |
| D．To describe parents’ magic power. |
| A．Their desire to monitor their kids. | B．Their concern for their kids’ safety. |
| C．Their eagerness to reach their kids. | D．Their curiosity about their kids’ life. |
| A．Critical. | B．Confused. | C．Indifferent. | D．Mixed. |
| A．It can make children more dependent. |
| B．It may badly influence family relationship. |
| C．It may relieve the tension within the family. |
| D．It can increase children’s trust in their parents. |
A Christmas Worth Remembering
Hector kicked his boot in the snow, angry that he couldn’t change Mom’s mind. Why did they have to work at the homeless shelter over Christmas?
Christmas was for opening presents, eating delicious food, and playing games. He didn’t want to spend it handing out presents and food to other people. Mom called it community service, but he called it a bummer (令人不开心的事).
“What are you doing?” asked David as he entered Hector’s yard. David was his friend from next door. “Going to build a snow castle?”
“No,” Hector said. “I’m just trying to cool off.”
“Well, it’s definitely cold out here. What’s wrong?” David asked.
“My mom said that we’re going to the homeless shelter on Christmas Day,” Hector said. “We’re going to help provide them with a Christmas lunch and hand out presents to the kids.”
“What’s wrong with that?” David asked.
Hector stared at him, his mouth hanging open. “What’s wrong? We’re going there on Christmas Day, that’s what.”
“It might not be so bad. We did something like that with our local outreach ministry (外联部) on Thanksgiving.” David said. Hector hadn’t known that. Still, he didn’t think it would be much fun.
The next week passed quickly. Soon it was Christmas Day. It was time for Hector to go to the shelter with his parents. As they left, Hector sat in the back seat of the car with his arms crossed and a frown on his face.
At the shelter, a man greeted them with a happy smile. “Thank you for coming to help today,” he said. “I hope you will enjoy your time here.” Hector seriously doubted it.
The man told Dad where he could serve food and he pointed Mom toward several large boxes that were filled with presents.
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。
Hector stood uneasily, not sure what to do.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Afer the meal, Hector helped Mom pass the presents out to the kids.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________My parents moved to Vermont when I was still a baby. A soft-spoken man, my father settled quietly into his medical practice. Soon the local people accepted him as one of their own. Around town the neighbors greeted my father as “Doc Eppley”. And I would always be known as “Doctor Eppley’s son”. “If you’re anything like your father, you’ll be a smart boy,” my first-grade teacher said. I couldn’t stop beaming.
Initially, I was never tired of letting others know that my father was one of the town’s most respected people. Somewhere in my teenage years, however, something changed. I was sixteen years old and I grew impatient whenever I heard my neighbors still calling me “Doctor Eppley’s son”. My father’s name now seemed like an ugly shadow that followed me wherever I went. And so when strangers asked me if I was Doctor Eppley’s son, I would reply loudly, “My name is Harold.” As an act of rebellion (叛逆), I began to call my father by his first name, Sam. “Why are you acting so rude lately?” my father questioned me one day. “Well, Sam,” I replied, “I suppose that bothers you. You know it hurts me when you call me Sam,” my father shouted.” Well, it hurts me when everybody expects me to be just like you. I want to be myself. Let me take it out for a drive, “I said, pointing to my father’s new car. My father agreed, but not without his usual warning,” Be careful. Keys are in the kitchen. “I glared at him,” Sam, I’m sick of being treated like a child. I’m in college now. “I jumped into the car and headed down the road, enjoying the beauty of the countryside. My mind was wandering when I hit the car right in front of mine before I knew it. The woman in the car jumped out screaming: “You idiot! What were you looking at?” I surveyed the damage. Both cars had suffered serious dents (凹痕).
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 sat there like a guilty child as the woman continued swearing.
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An hour later, I drove my father’s broken new car back home.
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I used to be the only child in the family. Everything changed when Tex was born, and I was ten at that time. It seemed to me that Tex got too much attention from Mom and Dad, and I constantly felt a sense of depression. However, my little six-year-old brother had no idea about that, sticking with me all day long, which sometimes really annoyed me.
Last week, I was creating a birthday book for Dad. I worked forever making each picture as perfect as possible. Every time I messed up, I started all over again, so the floor under the kitchen table was covered with half-finished drawings.
“It’s family chore time,” Mom announced. “And you’re on laundry-folding duty,” she told me.
“OK,” I said. “After that, I’ll just put the finishing touches on Dad’s present.”
“I can help, too!” said my little brother, Tex.
I felt a little uncomfortable. But Mom touched his head gently and said, “Of course, baby, you can.” Then she turned to me, “And, Anna, please always remember to move those papers from the floor to the recycling bin in the yard when you’re done with your project.”
I folded the laundry as fast as possible. Just as I was about to get back to the birthday book, my friend showed up. After checking with Mom, we headed to the park. But as soon as we arrived there, the sky filled with giant gray clouds and rain started pouring down. I was upset as I headed back home, dripping wet. That’s when my heart pretty much stopped. Right there, in front of the recycling bin, was a box full of wet-through papers. And not just any papers ... I ran to rescue my birthday book drawings. But it was too late. As I picked up my once-perfect pictures, they were totally ruined!
I cried, “Tex, how did they get out here in the rain?”
Nervously, he came out and said, “Sorry, but I meant to help. I heard what Mom said, and I did it for you. But I had no idea why your birthday book was in those papers.”
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。
Needless to say, I was going to explode.
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We two decided to make one big present for Dad.
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