Come Back to Me
I’d always wanted a dog. But the answer was always no. Then when I was eight years old, my aunt came back from her daily run with a saved puppy.
After weeks of unsuccessfully looking for the owner and begging to keep him, we finally made “Pepper”, a black-and-tan Beagle mix, a member of my family. And, like many children with a new thing, l became obsessed (着迷). Learning everything about a dog was at the center of my world.
Pepper was there for me as I grew up. When I felt sad, he cheered me up and gave me unconditional love. His tail uncurled (伸直) and recurled with every movement of the tail and made me smile. His welcoming “tippy-tap dance” let me forget all the sadness. The way he cocked his head when I talked to him made me feel as if he understood every word. He’d perform tricks to win a treat or two...or four.
Then, when Pepper was sixteen, I got the call that I’d hoped would never come. I was unhappily married, living hours away, barely making ends meet, and trying to balance (平衡) life with a newborn son. The phone rang with unexpected news that it was time to say goodbye to Pepper. I anxiously tried to save enough money so that I could drive home and see him one last time. But I couldn’t.
The realization that I wasn’t going to be able to say goodbye tore my heart apart. I imagined my Pepper wondering why I was not there for him when he had been there for me for so many years. Within days, he was gone. For years, I didn’t pardon myself. Every time I remembered it, the tears returned as if the wound in my heart was fresh. That old saying, “Time heals all wounds,” was a terrible lie. How could I heal? I didn’t get to say goodbye. The only thing I could do was cry, telling his picture, “I’m so sorry,” and “I love you so much.”
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 my son was eight years old, another dog, Preston, came into our lives.
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It was as if Pepper had come back to me again.
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I began to lose hope. It seemed that there was little chance that my great-grandmother was able to heal (康复). My blind, 94-year-old great-grandmother was sleeping soundly in the hospital bed. As l sat quietly with my family, I listened to the sounds of the machines that kept her alive. Her face was pale and empty. She was no longer the cheerful person I had always known.
It seemed that every day she got worse. She might not make it through Christmas. I tried to think of a present to give to her. Since she was blind, I would have to get her a gift that she didn’t have to see to appreciate, but that she could feel with her hands. I remembered that when she lived with us she always wanted to touch and play with my stuffed animals (填充动物玩具). Her favorites were my unique stuffed bears.
I knew right then what to get. She always wanted one for herself! I would have a teddy bear made especially for her. “Great-grandma’s Bear” is what I named the brown, stuffed animal — “Bear” for short. The bear was quite charming with his tiny black button nose and big chocolate eyes. I looked forward to visiting my great-grandmother on Christmas morning and seeing the look on her face when I gave Bear to her. The clay came more quickly than I thought. I carried Bear in my arms as I walked to Room 208 with my family.
There was my great-grandmother, sitting in her bed. Her eyes were wide open. I think she was sensing that we were coming. A smile grew on her face as we sat on her bed, close to her weak body hidden under the covers. “Merry Christmas!” my dad said. We talked with my great-grandmother for a while until it was time to give her the gifts we had brought. My mother gave her fresh-smelling baby powder because she could never have enough of it. My father brought her favorite candies. Now it was my turn.
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I placed the bear in her gentle, skinny hands.
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From that day on, amazingly, my great-grandmother started to heal.
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I like staying overnight at my Gramma’s house — that is, until Gramma starts telling me how wonderful my cousin Maya is. Then it’s Maya this and Maya that until I don’t ever want to hear another word about her.
That’s why I wasn’t too excited when Gramma called me on the phone to “come on over and bring your pajamas.” When I got there, it was worse than I’d expected. There, in Grandpa’s big leather rocker, sat Maya, all dressed up and formal-looking and wearing fancy shoes as if she’d just been to a party.
“Surprise, Kristen!” Gramma said. “Your cousin Maya and her parents have traveled in from the East Coast on business. Maya gets to stay with us this afternoon.” Gramma chattered away about how excited she’d been for this surprise get-together, and how cousins ought to get to know each other better.
I hung my baseball cap in the closet and set my backpack by the stairway, all the time smiling and nodding as if I’d been waiting forever for this chance to spend an afternoon with Maya. Grandpa’s chair squawked (咯咯叫) as Maya rocked back and forth. It’s the chair I like best in the house, the one I usually sit in. I sat down on the sofa across from her.
Shortly, Gramma went off to the kitchen to “see about some lunch,” she’d said. That left me stuck in the living room with rocking Maya.
She was still small but taller than I’d remembered her from her last visit four years ago. She was good at small talk, though, and was chatting away about how nice it was to see me again. But I could tell that she didn’t really think so. The last time she was here, we’d had hours of fun together building caves out of Gramma’s sofa pillows.
After that, I’d heard about her only through Gramma’s tales. Maya taking piano lessons. Maya learning math. Maya, Maya, Maya. Now Maya was here, looking great with the latest haircut and a fancy dress.
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。
Glancing down at my jeans and my old sneakers, I wished I hadn’t come.
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“How do you know all these things about me?” I asked.
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4 . The Science of Recreational Fear
From peek-a-boo to Halloween haunted houses, research shows that recreational fear can teach us to face scary situations. The “paradox of horror” is that being scared, under the right circumstances, can be fun.
Having fun with fear is an “extremely important tool for learning,” said Mathias Clasen, director of the Recreational Fear Lab at Aarhus University in Denmark. “We learn something about the dangers of the world. We learn something about our own responses: What does it feel like to be afraid? How much fear can I take?”
Horror movies have gotten more popular. And in one survey of more than 1,000 Americans, conducted by Clasen, 55% described themselves as horror fans.
Even babies like being a little spooked (惊的). Peek-a-boo is “an infant jump scare,” Clasen said.
After this rush, many people experience an uplifted mood. One study examined how 262 adults felt before and after they entered an extreme haunted house.
| A．So why do we like it? |
| B．Fifty percent of people said they felt better after the visit. |
| C．And recreational fear, as it is rightly named, could benefit us, too. |
| D．Playing with fear helps us learn what our body does under pressure. |
| E．Horror, though, is not the only genre of what people find scary fun, he said. |
| F．We define recreational fear broadly as a mixed emotional experience of fear and enjoyment. |
| G．Classic childhood games of tag and hide-and-seek are just like the real scenes of predator vs. prey. |
5 . This morning, a former student sent me a message, telling me he is living a happy life. He said he often thinks of me and that he especially misses my
My thoughts went back to that shy, overweight boy who
That spring I decided to give my students more
Messages of this kind always call up sweet memories. Yes, as a (n)
| A．literature | B．exercise | C．language | D．physics |
| A．transferred | B．turned | C．applied | D．belonged |
| A．careless | B．curious | C．friendly | D．withdrawn |
| A．logical | B．expressive | C．athletic | D．calculating |
| A．join | B．make | C．coach | D．inspect |
| A．names | B．numbers | C．teachers | D．helpers |
| A．abandoned | B．promoted | C．caught | D．selected |
| A．modest | B．creative | C．committed | D．respected |
| A．encouragement | B．training | C．concern | D．assistance |
| A．out of breath | B．out of sight | C．out of practice | D．out of shape |
| A．get along with | B．put up with | C．fit in with | D．keep up with |
| A．flexible | B．relaxed | C．enthusiastic | D．intelligent |
| A．mistakes | B．excuses | C．changes | D．comments |
| A．determination | B．potential | C．optimism | D．competence |
| A．ambitious | B．professional | C．confident | D．caring |
My three-year-old son, Charles, has loved watching trucks, cars and all types of vehicles (交通工具) since he could sit up and look around. Charles was a fan of fire trucks, ambulances, garbage (垃圾) trucks and other vehicles which have wheels.
Because of his deep love for anything with wheels, I always made it a point to take him outside to watch garbage trucks drive up and down. Charles loved watching the workers and would get so excited when the drivers beeped the horns (鸣喇叭) at him as they went by. Charles would wave and shyly say, “Thank you.”
There was a particular waste management employee who was extra friendly. Charles was attracted by him, and after we knew his name — Lonnie, Charles talked about him throughout the day. One day, Lonnie rode by and said, “Charles, I promise when this pandemic (流行病) is over, I’m going to let you ride in my truck.” However, we were going to move out of the state about a week later. I had to tell Lonnie the truth.
The next week, we waited for the garbage truck. Finally, late in the afternoon, I heard the loud noise of the truck. I raced to the door, carrying Charles. We did not want to miss seeing Lonnie on our last week in Birmingham. Lonnie stopped the truck and got out. He told me he had some things for Charles — a hat, a yellow safety vest, two toy garbage cans, coloring books and so on. Charles was absolutely excited, especially by the garbage cans, and I was so touched. The next day, Charles and I were playing in the front yard when a man approached me. He said, “I’m Lonnie’s manager, and he has something special planned for Charles. Are you going to be here around 11 am?” I said, “Of course we will.”
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。
At noon, something surprising happened.
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Even though we moved out of the state, Charles still misses Lonnie.
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The Girl Who Never Talked
I never really felt like I fit in. I was a freshman in high school and my only close friend was Bella, whom I had known since kindergarten. Bella is and will always be one of my best friends and we often play together. However, she had other close friends too, but I didn't. I was on the volleyball team, and on the court I knew exactly who I was and where I was supposed to be. I loved all of my teammates, but when we were sitting in the stands before and after games I would just sit there quietly, totally unsure of myself.
At school, no one spoke to me and I didn't know how to get along with them. It seems like the only time anyone talked to me was just to jokingly say, "You are so quiet!... do you ever talk?" I wanted to talk, but I just couldn't find the words. I never felt like I knew what to say in a big group of people. All of these made me upset.
One Saturday after our game, Bella was supposed to come over and spend the night at my house. We always had a lot of fun together. I wished that I could talk to the other girls the way I talked to her. But before we left the gym that day, some of the other volleyball girls invited her to go to the movies with them. Since Bella had already made plans with me, they asked if I would like to go to the movies with them too. I agreed and was happy to have a chance to join them.
One of the moms drove us, and we all piled into the back seat of her Suburban-Rhiannon, Destinee, Christine, Bella, and me. I was kind of nervous at first, but once it was just us five, I came out of my shell (壳). For the first time in my life, I really felt like I was a part of the conversation, instead of just sitting there listening. It turned out that I had a lot to say.
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。
All the way there, an all the way back, we talked and laughed.
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I smiled, knowing I finally had friends and my school life would be much happier.
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