Sam Watts was a 37-year-old fisherman living and working in Canada. One day, Sam planned to head out into the Pacific at 9 am and work straight through until 5 pm the next day. Joining Sam would be his crewman (船员), 24 yearold Tom Buck.
Although Sam had been warned that a storm was coming, there was little that would keep him from going. As he sailed through the waves about 120 kilometers from land, Sam let out his threekilometerlong fishing line. The storm was gaining strength on land but had yet to reach the men far offshore (离岸的). That changed around 1 am. Waves rocked the small boat, which began to turn sideways like an amusement park ride. “Get us out of here!” Tom screamed to Sam. “Let’s go back!”
With the winds and waves kicking up, the boat began to fill with water. Sam and Tom tried to pull in the fishing line together, but the high waves filled the boat with water, forcing Sam to make a hard decision. He cut the line, losing thousands of dollars worth of equipment and fish in the sea. He then pointed the boat toward a port five hours away. Sam then called his boss, William Fox, to report his position.
With dawn coming, Sam spotted the rise of the mountains on the horizon (地平线). He was figuring out a route through the dangerous waters when suddenly the motor stopped. “I couldn’t believe it,” Sam said. “We were 24 kilometers off the coast, and the motor died.” High waves raised and dropped the boat, sending the men crashing into the sides. “William, William!” Sam yelled into the radio. “If you’re coming to get me, come now!”
“We’re coming!” William shouted back.
Paragraph 1：
Shortly after, the radio died and the wind continued to blow straight offshore, driving the men farther out to sea.
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Paragraph 2：
The next morning, Sam spotted a fishing boat in the distance.
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It was a small town with nice landscapes that attracted a lot of rich people to live in. Ming was also attracted by the scenic spots of the town. But he had little money, so he rented a cheap house after he arrived. But what drew his attention most here was those wealthy people. So he took up a job to sell cell phones. But his cell phones were not good in quality.
One day, Ming’s pocket was empty again and wanted to earn money. Luckily, there was still a phone in his pocket to sell. Soon enough, he spotted a target—a seemingly wealthy middle-aged man in an old jacket. Ming came up to him and smiled politely, saying, “Hey, friend...” But the man was very cautious and asked, “What’s up?”
Ming said to him immediately, “Friend, I have a phone. I bought it at 5,000 yuan. But now I could sell it to you at only 3,000 yuan.” The man seemed uninterested in his phone and wanted to go away. Ming stopped him and said, “What about 2,000 yuan?” the man shouted at him, “What do you want to do with me?”
Ming immediately put up a poor face and hugged the man’s legs, crying to him, “Oh, my dear friend! Only 1,000 yuan, is it OK?” Ming began pouring out his “sad story” as he was crying.The man，after seeing this，felt a little bit moved and put his hands into his pocket. Then he took out 1,000 yuan to Ming and took the phone away.
After earning 1,000 yuan, Ming felt happy. As he felt hungry, he went to a small restaurant to have lunch. Ming ordered several dishes and handed over a note of 100 yuan to the cashier. The cashier stared at the banknote (钞票) for quite a while, as if checking if it was a fake note (假币), and then said to Ming, “Sorry, I could not find the change for you for the moment. Please wait a minute.” Then he went away. Staying in the restaurant without anything to do, Ming sat at a table and started to watch TV. After all, his cheap-rented house had no TV.
Paragraph 1：The TV was broadcasting a piece of news
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The police car stopped before the small restaurant and
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1.词数100左右；
2.可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
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The influence of America is increasing in Spain. Spanish people drink CocaCola, wear blue jeans, watch Hollywood movies, listen to American music, and eat fast food, and they do all these things daily.
I think that American movies are a good way to spread American culture because people are often influenced by what they see in the movies. Most of the entertainment programs and documentaries we watch on TV are from America, and most of the movies we go to are made in Hollywood.
In the last few years, the government has tried to protect the Spanish movies. Now, in our cinemas, at least twenty percent of the movies which are shown must be from Spain or from a country of the European Union.
American culture is very much a part of Spanish life. It’s certain that many things from America are as much a part of their lives as Spanish things. For example, CocaCola is as familiar to everybody as any typical Spanish product. I’ve known CocaCola my whole life.
However, it’s different with Western fast food. For example, I don’t think McDonald’s is as successful in Spain as it is in other countries. In my opinion, one of the reasons may be the lifestyle of the Spanish people. The Spanish people normally eat at home.
It may be that McDonald’s hamburgers will eventually replace the famous Spanish tapas because in every city in Spain you can find a McDonald’s, and they are more popular among the Spanish children than among the adults. In any case, it’s obvious that American culture is more and more a part of our everyday life.
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In 2002, an Australian man went to his friend’s 21st birthday party. He got drunk, fell off some steps and cut his lip. He took a picture of his injuries and shared it with his friends online. “And sorry about the focus,” he wrote, “it was a selfie(自拍).” That was the first recorded use of the word “selfie”, according to some experts at Oxford Dictionaries.
Oxford Dictionaries declared “selfie” Word of the Year for 2013, in honor of the term having taken over the world thanks to millions of smart phone selfportraits and the resulting shares on social media. In recent years, the act of taking a picture of oneself with a mobile phone, placing the subject centerstage, has won great popularity with everyone from Britain’s Queen Elizabeth Ⅱ to US with former President Barack Obama joining in.
But the rise of selfie photography in some of the world’s most beautiful, dangerous places has also inspired a lot of risktaking behavior, such as hanging from a tall building, standing in front of a rushing train and crossing a busy street. People who get addicted will never stop taking selfies, completely ignoring where they are. In fact, there have been several reports about people losing their lives while taking selfies. Several governments have now begun treating selfie as a serious threat to safety, warning visitors to pay attention to the dangers when taking selfies.
“Walt Disney World is also banning selfiesticks from its theme parks because selfiesticks have become a growing safety concern for our guests,” Disney World spokeswoman Kim Prunty said. Under the new policy, guests will be checked for the equipment during the routine bag check that happens near the parks’ entrances.
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时下，各类电视节目广泛使用短信参与方式，对此人们评价不一。请你对此现象谈谈个人看法：
| 态度一 | 态度二 | 你的观点 |
| 给观众提供了更多的参与机会 | 控制不当，节目品位无法保证 | ？ |
| 给媒体带来更多收益 | 短信费用过高，观众易生反感 | |
| 迎合年轻人对新事物的追求 | 沉溺于此，浪费精力 |
1. 词数：120词左右。
2. 可根据内容要点适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
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社会生的不断变化，催生了从多的流行词汇，其中有些，如因特网、大款和博客等，由于广大泛使用，长期存在，遂逐步转变为普通、口语词汇；有些则昙花一现，不久即消失得无影无踪。请结合你自己对语言的观察，写一篇短文，说说语言与社会生活的关系。
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Colleges are attaching too much importance to tests. Students who receive higher scores on the SAT and the ACT are considered to be more intelligent and as a result they are usually admitted to better schools.
However, these tests don’t necessarily ensure one’s future success in life. To become better test-takers than others, some students would like to make more preparations. Several SAT and ACT classes are offered by various companies and individual tutors, giving rich students a better chance to improve their scores. Some students even take medicine before tests. Although it is not proved that taking these drugs will increase a student’s score, the nature of the drug is to increase alertness, concentration, and mental processing speed.
In addition, these tests can’t show the skills and characters that are a key part to success. According to Bob Schaeffer of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, creativity, perseverance and self-discipline(自律) are a few basic qualities that are useful in the world that aren’t measured by these tests. A high test score tells you nothing about how a student will handle the future life or how well they will adapt to their surroundings.
What colleges can do is to weigh the students’ academic track, such as what classes they took and how difficult they were, or what extra curricular activities the students were involved in. These things don’t necessarily predict what the students will do in college, but if the admissions would pay more attention to four years of hard work, they might get a more successful and well-rounded group of graduates.
注意：
1. 概要词数应为60左右；
2. 请按如下格式在相应的位置作答。
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Cashless Society, Good or Evil？
Can we do without cash? Since 2015, digital payments in the UK have outnumbered those in cash, and we are invited by the great and the good to cheer this on. The fully cashless era will be magnificently convenient, they say, with goods delivered to the door; no fumbling for change just tap and go. Some London branches of several chains don't accept cash any more. Businesses and banks want to abolish cash because they have fears of the black market and tax avoidance
Yet we should worry about the death of cash, because physical money possesses worth far above its face value.
Actual physical money, in the hand, teaches us its true value. With cash, what you see is what you have. Exchanging it demands personal engagement and oils the wheels of a community.
In a shop, the exchange of cash takes time: it involves eye meeting eye. By contrast, a cashless society is a joyless one. A digital touch payment is done in a flash: no human interaction necessary. Digital self-service is cold when you are staring silently at your electronic device.
Besides, cash is a great leveler (使人人平等的事). Every penny, pound and banknote sits the same in every hand, identical in value and appearance. Moreover, a pocketful of change is like a gallery or a museum. The roses, ostrich feathers and lions on the coins reveal the history that shaped the United Kingdom. It is really crazy to give up on cash.
We are told digital payment is a welcome liberation from the shackles (束缚) of cash, but digital payments actually restrict the reach of money. It requires a combination of factors like Wi-Fi, battery power and phones. Worse still, the lack of cash means even the most fundamental aspects of etiquette (礼仪) are under pressure. Tipping in restaurants is changing beyond recognition. In simpler times, any amount of cash, warmly generous or pointedly small could be left as a reward. In the digital age, any extra money transferred to the restaurant account may never reach the staff pocket.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Human beings are smart. However, it seems that people are gradually losing their smartness as smartphones become more and more important assistants in their lives, reported news website Record Japan on Oct. 22. As we rely too much on technology instead of our brains, many people have lost three basic abilities, said the website.
The first skill many people have lost is remembering phone numbers. Because phone numbers are stored in smart phone contacts, there's no need to dial a number or look at it again.
And some people may also have lost their sense of direction because navigation apps can guide people anywhere they want to go. These apps can even find shortest routes for you and avoid traffic jams. But the worst lost skills may be social ones, meaning that some people are becoming socially inept(无能的）. People often bury themselves in their smart phones. As we're too addicted to what's happening in the virtual world, some of us have lost conversational skills and sometimes can't even tell whether a person is happy or not.
In August, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, studied 51 students aged 11 and 12 who had over five hours' screen time every day. Their task was to tell the emotions of 48 pictures of faces that were happy, sad, angry or scared. The children made an average of 14.02 mistakes at the beginning. But after a five-day camp without electronic (电子的) products, they made only 9.41 mistakes on average. “If you’re not practicing face-to-face communication, you could be losing important social skills,” concluded professor Yalda Uhls from the research.
Luckily, people still have a chance to get these abilities back. You should try to keep your parents' numbers in mind for emergencies. You should also pay more attention to street signs and stores, which will help you to draw a mind map and stop you from getting lost. And the easiest solution to social skill loss is to take a break from electronic devices because we are social creatures. We need device-free time.
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