1.你的观点或看法；2.如何建立和增强自信。
注意：1.开头已给出； 2.写作词数应为80左右。
Good morning, boys and girls!
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2 . When your best friends are upset, sad, or disappointed, all you want to do is lift their spirits. Here are some easy ways to cheer them up.
Help your friend clean their room.
Being surrounded by a mess doesn’t do much for your mental state.
Encourage them to talk it out.
Talking is effective. Teenagers usually want someone to talk to when they are stressed.
Practice gratitude.
Thinking about and focusing on the good things in your life can do wonders for lifting your spirits. Help your friend turn their attention to those things.
Staying active can help get depression (抑郁) away. Invite the person to join you in a dance class or anything else they may have mentioned before that they wanted to try out but never have. Fun time with friends is surely helpful.
Do an aimless act of kindness together.
| A．Try new things together. |
| B．Plan for your future together. |
| C．Just be there for them and listen to them. |
| D．Together, you can each list all the things you’re grateful for. |
| E．Science has shown just being in nature naturally improves one’s mood. |
| F．Meanwhile, having a tidy space can help you feel more in control and calmer. |
| G．Oftentimes when we do things for other people, we are the ones that benefit. |
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.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
It was as if Pepper had come back to me again.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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.
Paragraph 1:
I placed the bear in her gentle, skinny hands.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2:
From that day on, amazingly, my great-grandmother started to heal.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
| A．He did Gloria a favor. | B．He learned about the rules. | C．He collected the stuff. |
6 . A cousin sent an email saying she had been out cutting her lawn (草坪) for two hours in the hot Nebraska sun and the smell of grass was in her nose. She said it reminded her of her dad working outside.
“Not a breath of cool air out there, unbearable for all the crew but Dad. During their lunch break, Dad would have a couple of sandwiches and skip the iced tea. He’d have creamed coffee. That was my hero—loyal, very, very hard-working, so wonderful. Funny what a smell can remind you.”
Her dad and my dad were brothers. There were five boys in the family. The boys were cut from the same cloth. Every one of them enjoyed hard work.
It wasn’t easy raising a large family during the Depression (大萧条), yet their farm was the first one for miles around to have electricity. Their dad made a small power station using batteries. Resourcefulness (足智多谋) was second nature.
When my parents married, they didn’t have much. When they got a dog, he managed to build a doghouse from wood.
I think of my dad when I see a barbecue. He loved to grill (烧烤). Burgers, hot dogs, steak. For years, he and Mom hosted a huge Fourth of July brunch and grilled pancakes and sausages before the neighborhood parade.
He loved grilling out especially when it was hot — 90℉ (about 32℃) was good, even 100℉ (about 37.8℃) wasn’t too high. That was also his favorite time to mow (割草). He and all his brothers were most comfortable outside. It came from the farm imprint, spring planting, summers in the fields and fall harvest.
At my dad’s retirement party, at a large university where he had worked his way up to purchasing director, he was standing by himself, looking at the crowd, having a good time when he laughed and said, “I never did want a desk job.”
I don’t think I realized until that moment how much our dad loved us. He had enjoyed his career and the people he worked with, but until the day he died, there was nothing as beautiful as a stand of wheat or a field of corn.
Here’s to dads everywhere who work hard and do what needs to be done for the love of family.
1. What made the cousin think of her Dad?| A．The hot sun. | B．The smell of grass. | C．The unbearable crew. | D．The hard work. |
| A．They had similar sizes. | B．They had similar clothes. |
| C．They had similar hobbies. | D．They had similar qualities. |
| A．Humorous. | B．Creative. | C．Devoted. | D．Demanding. |
| A．To show her respect for fathers. | B．To stress the importance of working hard. |
| C．To show that raising a family is never easy. | D．To describe the important role a father plays in a family. |
7 . Life is full of surprises. You never know what’s going to happen from one day to the next.
One way to fight against these negative feelings is through optimism,
When something bad happens, optimists are less likely than pessimists to blame themselves or others for what happened. They don’t consider these negative emotions. They are able to see things from a positive perspective, even when something doesn’t go as planned.
So it’s important to face bad things bravely and keep a positive mind. Of course, it’s important to remember that optimism can’t put a stop to all bad things.
| A．It can be exciting. |
| B．It can be a positive attitude to difficulty. |
| C．Too much optimism can also be harmful. |
| D．Optimism is a positive attitude toward the future in general. |
| E．This kind of thinking can help lower stress and improve mental health. |
| F．When you are optimistic, you’re also more likely to control the situation. |
| G．No matter how positive you are, there’ll be times when bad things happen. |
8 . Walter Benjamin, the German philosopher, once noted that boredom was the “dream bird that hatches the egg of experience”. However, the creative flights of fancy which often arise from having little to do are being killed off by social media, researchers argued. Viewing mindlessly through attention-grabbing posts and videos prevents “profound (深层的) boredom” that can drive people on to new passions or skills. Instead, people find themselves in a state of “superficial boredom”, which does not motivate creative thought.
Dr Timothy Hill, leader of the research team at the University of Bath, said, “The problem we observed was that social media can ease superficial boredom. But that also consumes time and energy, and may prevent people progressing to a state of profound boredom, where they might discover new passions. Profound boredom may sound like a negative concept but, in fact, it can be intensely positive if people are given the chance for undisturbed thinking and development.
Researchers interviewed 15 people during the pandemic (流行病), when boredom was more likely because of restrictions. Many described being trapped in regularly daily walks and watching television, with many turning to social media to pass the time. But although the participants said that social media provided a temporary escape from superficial boredom, it also appeared to exacerbate it, leaving them feeling they had wasted their time.
The pandemic was a painful and consuming experience for thousands of less fortunate people. But there are stories of those in lockdown who found new hobbies, careers or directions in life. Switching off devices could help people reach the state of boredom which pushes them on to new hobbies or achievements.
This research has given us a window to understand how the “always-on”, 24/7 culture and devices that promise an abundance of information and entertainment may be fixing our superficial boredom but are actually preventing us from finding more meaningful things.
1. Why are Walter Benjamin’s words mentioned?| A．To call for attention to the research on boredom. |
| B．To comment on the strategies to face loneliness. |
| C．To offer advice on developing creative thinking. |
| D．To clarify the problem caused by social media. |
| A．Profound boredom is of value. |
| B．Social media can fuel passions. |
| C．The research has some limitations. |
| D．Creative thought is easily disturbed. |
| A．Avoid. | B．Break. |
| C．Inspire. | D．Worsen. |
| A．Why people enjoy boredom |
| B．How boredom helps kill time |
| C．Why being bored may be good for you |
| D．How social media blocks creative ideas |
We’ve all heard that laughter is the
Humor plays
Sharing the pleasure of humor
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.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“How do you know all these things about me?” I asked.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
