We sometimes think we can take care of things on our own. However, sometimes we need to use the strength of our groups to get things done.
Ray Drake knew this better than anyone, because he was moved to tears when he understood how good it was to have good neighbors when he needed them.
In 1989, Drake lost the use of his legs. The Iowan man did have family, though. His two older sisters were there to help him get his life back on track and deal with his new situation. The plan worked for years, and their love helped him through hard times.
In August 2020, a strong windstorm stopped everything in Iowa. There was terrible damage, and 40% of the crops in the state were lost. People lost their electricity. Businesses were a mess and homes were all broken. So many people had a hard time.
The storm caused Drake to have a specific trouble. There were broken trees all over his yard, and he couldn’t move them. His sisters were also too small to clean up the trees. The three people really needed help.
After about a week, Drake’s sisters decided to ask for help because the power lines were still down and people were still trying to get their lives back together. They called some of their brother’s old high school friends to see if anyone had a chainsaw (链锯) they could bring over to start cutting up the fallen trees.
Doug Applegate, a friend, looked at the damage and realized that just a chainsaw wouldn’t be enough to clear the fallen trees from Drake’s yard and that the family would need more. He made a call for help in the area to see if anyone there could give a helping hand.
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。
Soon, the call for help was answered.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The collective effort turned a seemingly impossible task into a manageable one.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I watched my dad scowl (绷着脸) as he listened to the voice coming through the telephone receiver. I heard him say, “Yes, Miss Beisner,” and “I understand what you’re saying, Miss Beisner. I appreciate you sharing this information. We’ll see what we can do about the situation. Thank you for calling. Goodbye.”
Miss Beisner was my first-grade teacher, and I loved her. I thought she felt the same about me, but now I was beginning to wonder. The tone of Dad’s voice, the redness in his cheeks, and his repeated clenching. And unclenching of fists made it pretty clear. This was not a warm and fuzzy good news-from-the-teacher call.
As I was deciding whether I should lock myself in my bedroom for the rest of my life or run away from home, Dad hung up the phone. “Jacquie, come here and sit down. We need to talk.”
Uh-oh. When Dad said, “We need to talk,” it meant he needed to talk, and I needed to listen.
I shuffled (拖着脚走) over to the well-worn brown chair in the corner of the living room, plopped down, and waited to hear the nature of my crime.
Dad told me that Miss Beisner thought I was bright but not working up to my ability. She said I had strong verbal skills but weak study habits. Translation: I never closed my mouth, and I seldom opened a book. Apparently, my failure to memorize the addition facts, or even attempt to, was more than she was willing to put up with. Hence, the telephone call.
Dad ended our one-way conversation with a verbal outline for his plan of attack. Bubbles, our Toy Manchester Terrier, was going to teach me math. Silently, I thought, No way is any dumb dog going to teach me how to add, not even our beloved Bubbles. Out loud, I said, “How?”
Dad summoned Bubbles from her bed near the stove and commanded her to sit. “Bubbles,” Dad said, “how much is five plus three?” Bubbles let out eight loud, crisp barks.
I was incredulous (满腹狐疑的). I couldn’t understand how a dog could add, and I was more than a little embarrassed by the fact that the family dog was smarter than me.
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。
Paragraph 1: After that, I threw myself into math with newfound determination.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2: One day, I asked Dad whether Bubbles really knew how to add.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________One day after school, Susan’s eight-year-old daughter Liz went home with disappointment. She cried sadly and told her mother that she failed to be chosen for the school basketball team. And Liz kept saying that she was an unlucky girl. Susan knew that her daughter enjoyed playing basketball and had been practicing hard for the chance, so she must be terribly sad.
After knowing about the situation, Susan decided to cheer her daughter up. She went over to Liz, asking, “ Would you like to come with me to the supermarket and be my helper ?” To Susan’ s surprise, Liz agreed at once. Susan then gave Liz twenty dollars and a shopping list, saying she could use the change to get a treat for herself. Liz was excited and rushed away to get ready.
When they arrived at the supermarket, Susan advised Liz to put the twenty-dollar note in her pocket. Liz helped her mother collect goods and fill the shopping cart (购物车) while keeping an eye out for the things she wanted. She worked out how much change she would have, and then chose an apple pie as her treat.
With all goods collected, Liz went to the checkout counter (收银台) happily. Just then, she found her twenty-dollar note was gone! In tears, she rushed to her mother and told her about that. “What a bad day! I’ve met so many terrible things today!” she cried. “Take it easy. We’ll go to the help counter and see what the workers can do,” Susan comforted her.
The workers at the help counter made an announcement (公告) over the loudspeaker, “We have a little girl here who’ s very sad because she lost the twenty-dollar note her mother had given her for shopping. If anyone finds the money, please kindly bring it to the help counter.”
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式作答。
Moments later, a worker gave Liz a twenty-dollar note, saying a lady just handed it over.
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“Well , actually I didn’t find the note. I gave away my twenty-dollar note,” the lady said.
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I had all the usual child fears. I couldn’t go to sleep unless the light in my bedroom was on. I dreaded that someday when my mother was distracted, Crazy Betty (our local small-town oddball) would grab me in the grocery store. On the hottest summer nights, my feet had to be wrapped tightly in my bed sheets; if one of them hung bare over the side of the bed, who knew what might grab it in its cold, slimy claw.
But all other frights paled in comparison with the Great Fear, the Titanic of my childhood terrors. That fear — and I admit, I feel a tightening in stomach typing the words even today — was that something would happen to Monk-Monk, my beloved toy monkey. That was the deepest fear of my childhood and I learned from it the lesson of cherishing what’s important in my life.
Looking at Monk-Monk today, you wouldn’t see what I see. You’d see a torn, discolored sock monkey, very much past his prime, stuffing leaking from his stumpy tail, holes on his sock-body inexpertly stitched up with thread that doesn’t match. I see my dearest childhood friend, my companion of a thousand nights. When I was only two and very ill, an aunt made him for me and delivered him to the hospital. I bonded with him fiercely and rarely let him out of my sight. When no one else was around, Monk-Monk played endless games with me, soaked up my tears, and listened to my secrets.
And then Uncle Ken came to visit. He lived in Ohio and occasionally he would come and stay with us for a couple of days. I didn’t know Uncle Ken well, and I didn’t like him very much. I had the feeling that he didn’t really like me, either. He clearly thought it was pretty silly that a big first-grader was dragging a sock monkey around, and he teased me by saying he thought he’d take Monk-Monk home to Ohio with him. His words almost scared me to death. I clutched Monk-Monk more tightly.
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 was at school a few days later when Uncle Ken left.
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Finally Monk-Monk was found jammed behind the sofa.
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Several days ago, local News Channel reported a story between a mother and her son. The mother was a single woman who had been feeling a great deal of anger and bitterness due to her financial and psychological problem, causing her emotions to be unpredictable. Occasionally, she may not pay enough attention to her son or couldn’t respond to his requirements timely. Sometimes, she would even pour her negative emotions onto her child, which made him feel helpless. In fact, this child is a very outstanding and caring boy.
That day, the mother directed her anger towards her child again because of some small matter. Although the child did not resist, the mother still drove the child out of the house, slammed the door shut and left the child outside to reflect (反省).
It was when the mother became calm and a little regretful that she opened her door and found her child missing. Anxious and scared, she searched everywhere, but the child was nowhere to be found. Her anxiety was gradually increasing.
The worried mother thought of seeking help from the police. Quickly, she went to the police station and explained the situation to the officer on duty. The police officer explained that, as a general rule, they couldn’t file a case for a missing child within the first 24 hours. However, they could provide assistance in other ways, such as posting the child’s photo on social media platforms to expand the search area.
After expressing gratitude for the police officer’s kindness, the mother continued searching for her child. Despite trying various methods, the mother still couldn’t find the child. Unexpectedly, the child was wandering in the streets, he felt lost and alone, not knowing where to go or what to do. He felt the tears forming in his eyes but refused to let them down. He didn’t want to show weakness in front of anyone, and it made him feel even more alone.
注意：
1. 写作词数应为150词左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Exhausted and hungry, the child kept walking aimlessly until he finally came across a bench along the street.
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Soon after, the mother arrived hurriedly.
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On the day when my mother let me choose a pet dog from the kennel(养狗场),Diana came over and started biting my shoelaces. She was playfully jumping around and licking me. I knew from the moment I set my eyes on her that she was the perfect dog for me. And, for some reason, her great energy was everything that I needed in my life.
We lived in a remote area, and my mother didn’t like me walking Diana too late after school. But I was a teenager and loved going against the rules, so I ignored her warnings and set out later than usual that day.
As the sun set, I couldn’t help but feel nervous. Thoughts flooded my head about losing my way. Or, worse still, some frightening creature came out of the dark unexpectedly. The hairs on the back of my arms stood on end.
I took a deep breath to try to calm my nerves. I looked around and could just make out the open surface of a dried-up lake. I knew that my home wasn’t far away. I had never walked across the lake before, and my mother had warned against it, but I just wanted to get home quickly. So, rather than going all the way around the lake, I decided I’d feel safer taking the shortcut across the lake.
Diana went first. In the dark light, I could see that the mud directly below her paws(爪)was dry. Following her, I stepped out onto the lake, but my foot went in a little deeper than expected. Cautiously, I took a second step. Diana pulled me forward. Suddenly I lost my balance. Below the hard-looking surface was wet-mud soup. I was sinking deeper.
Diana started to bark. She knew something was wrong. She jumped back to the side of the lake and landed on the hard ground. I saw her reach the safety of the shore.
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。
To my amazement, Diana grabbed the leash(牵狗的皮带)in her mouth and started to pull me.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“What on earth has happened?” my mother asked.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I’d made the drive to visit my sister, Mandi, so many times that I could practically do it on autopilot. That gave me plenty of time to think about all she was going through. Mandi was 34, with two young children, and had been diagnosed with breast cancer.
I turned at the edge of town, barely glancing at the landscape around me. There wasn’t much to see at this time of year. The once colorful leaves had all fallen from the trees, leaving them black and bare. It was a troubling reflection of what Mandi was going through, the joyful things in her life dropping away one by one.
“Are we almost there, Grandma?”
I’d nearly forgotten my young granddaughter was in the car with me. She’d been quietly watching the scenery go by. I needed to focus on something more positive, at least for her sake. “Thank you, God, for this beautiful day,” I said, trying to sound cheerful.
“I see a pretty blue sky,” Jocelyn said. “And the chocolate trees!”
“Chocolate trees?” I was confused.
“Yes,” Jocelyn said. “When the trees don’t have their leaves on them, they look like chocolate.”
Well, she was not wrong. They were deep brown, like dark chocolate. More importantly, when I thought about them that way, the trees no longer looked so sad and hopeless.
I was still thinking about those trees when we got to Mandi’s, so I told her about the chocolate tree story as soon as Jocelyn and I walked in the door.
“I love that!”Mandi said. Jocelyn bounced on Mandi’s bed, and Mandi gave her a weak smile. I listened as Mandi and Jocelyn made up a story about a princess who lived in a forest made of chocolate trees. Jocelyn’s laughter warmed my heart, but I could tell Mandi needed to rest. When Jocelyn left the room, Mandi continued looking out of the window.
“Looking at the trees?” I guessed.
“I was,” she admitted. “I was thinking about how some people see something bare and ugly out there, but our Jocelyn sees chocolate trees. We should all be like that. We should learn to look for the chocolate.”
“It would certainly make the world a lot sweeter,” I laughed.
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。
A few months later, I drove Mandi home from her chemotherapy (化疗) treatment.
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I sensed movement beside me.
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Sometimes you can count on (指望) people to do the right thing. When Dave Tally found a backpack with a laptop and an envelope full of cash in 2010, he could have considered it a very lucky day. The homeless man counted $3,300 in the bag, an amount that would make a huge difference in his life. However, as tempting (诱人的) as it was to keep the money, deep down he knew it wasn’t the right thing to do.
Back then, Tally was sleeping in the basements of local churches and trying to save up enough money to fix his only source of transportation: his bike. That money could have bought him, a brand new one. Instead, he turned the bag to his boss at the Tempe Community Action Agency, an organization that helps homeless people in the area find jobs. Tally had been working there part-time.
“Finding the envelope with the cash was just exciting. There were lots of crazy thoughts that went through my head,” Tally told ABC News at the time. “I went into the survival mode for a moment, actually more than a moment, thinking about all the things I could do for myself.”
“I beat myself up pretty hard for even thinking I would spend one cent of that person’s money,” Tally added.
After Tally made up his mind to return the bag, he faced the problem of tracking down its owner. There were no identifiers on the backpack or a way to get into the laptop without a password. But then someone suggested checking the flash drive (闪存盘) that they’d also found inside the bag to see if it held any clues (线索).
It sure did. Arizona State University student Bryan Belanger had uploaded his resume (简历) to the drive, easily providing Tally with his contact information. As it turned out, Bryan Belanger was carrying that cash because he was buying a used car from Craigslist website, and he accidentally left his belongings in a station on the way to work.
Paragraph 1:
Belanger was regretful for his carelessness and thought his backpack was gone forever.
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Paragraph 2:
Tally said the day he found the money’s rightful owner was the day his life changed.
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“Why are we bringing groceries for Mrs. Killinger?” Bobby asked his mother, Anna, as they walked back from the supermarket with a few extra bags for their elderly neighbor. He enjoyed helping his mother with these tasks, but they had never bought anything for any neighbor before.
“Honey, Mrs. Killinger is now having trouble walking around, so I offered to bring some things from the market,” Anna explained as they climbed up the wooden steps to Mrs. Killinger’s house and rang the doorbell.
“Ok, but she could get a wheelchair and move around,” the boy commented as if it was the most straightforward solution in the world.
“You know, Bobby. Mrs. Killinger doesn’t have the money to buy one right now.
They can get expensive.” Anna explained, and Bobby pursed his lips in thought.
Mrs.Killinger answered the door, smiled, and invited them for some coffee and cookies. Bobby noticed how slowly she moved, and an idea formed in his mind. He told the older woman and his mother all about it, and they grinned at him indulgently (宽容地笑).Neither of them thought Bobby would do it.
That’s why Anna was surprised the following day when Bobby had made several ads. “Mom, can you add your phone number here, so people can call me with work?”
“Oh, honey. This is very sweet. But I don’t know if it’ll be enough to raise the money she needs to buy a wheelchair,” Anna explained. She loved that her son had such a big heart, but he didn’t want him to be heartbroken if no one called or he couldn’t raise the money.
“Well，at least，I can say that I tried to help，” Bobby chirped (欢快地说)with his bright smile and eager eyes. Anna nodded and added her phone number to the ads. In his ad, Bobby offered his “services” which included helping with shopping, mowing lawns, keeping company, and walking dogs. He also left the price of his services, which made Anna smile. He honestly just wanted to help.
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。
Anna helped him put up the ads around the neighborhood.
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Two weeks later, Bobby still hadn’t raise the amount of money he wanted.
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10 . In my childhood, my family struggled to make ends meet. With three children to feed,my father worked as a janitor(看门人) and farmed our small field until dark. Despite our
One day, Mrs.Harper, my headteacher, brought a box of toys to school to give to
Upon my arrival at home, I couldn’t wait to
Despite our financial struggles, my mother taught me to see myself
| A．various | B．severe | C．financial | D．social |
| A．work | B．look | C．pay | D．provide |
| A．poor | B．lonely | C．sick | D．hungry |
| A．brought up | B．called on | C．cheered up | D．sent out |
| A．mouth | B．heart | C．eyes | D．hands |
| A．confirmed | B．noticed | C．imagined | D．respected |
| A．grateful | B．hopeful | C．proud | D．surprised |
| A．give | B．describe | C．explain | D．show |
| A．keep | B．receive | C．hide | D．fetch |
| A．capable | B．fortunate | C．positive | D．successful |
| A．worried | B．angry | C．confused | D．disappointed |
| A．donate | B．return | C．present | D．bring |
| A．patiently | B．completely | C．differently | D．honestly |
| A．faith | B．imagination | C．creativity | D．love |
| A．expectation | B．experience | C．lesson | D．gift |
