1 . When my teenaged son became seriously ill, terrible times for my family began. Our once-happy home became tense and depressed. My husband and I were exhausted under the great stress of caring for my son. It was as if we forgot how to communicate-we couldn’t have a simple conversation without a fighting. Our marriage was on the point of breaking up.
One evening, my son and I were talking about gifts. I recalled my first Valentine’s present from my husband, a kazoo. I was awkward when I received it because I couldn’t get it to make a sound although I am a professional saxophone player. However hard I tried, it just never worked. The kazoo eventually got packed away and forgotten. But my son was interested and insisted on seeing it. After some trouble, I found it.
“You couldn’t get a sound? What’s so hard about it?” my husband asked, amazed. He took the kazoo and blew. Nothing happened. Surprised, he tried again. Still there was no sound. Frustrated, he tried again, only to produce a funny sound like an angry bumblebee trapped in the mouth of a bear. We burst into laughter. My son took a turn to play the kazoo. He did no better than us, causing more laughing.
Seeing his face light up, we felt as if the darkness had lifted and a ray of sunshine was let in. It was the best ten minutes of the past couple of years. The mood stayed light for the rest of the evening. It didn’t solve anything. But this experience with the kazoo brought some change in our hearts that always reminds us that there are still things to laugh at and enjoy, and that we can still connect as a family.
1. What affected the relationship of the couple?| A．Quarrels between the couple over marriage. |
| B．Different values they shared towards everything. |
| C．Stress and chaos arising from their son’s serious illness. |
| D．Lack of money needed for their son’s medical treatment. |
| A．He had a love for playing the kazoo. | B．He meant to make his son delighted. |
| C．He wanted to ease a feeling of depression. | D．He didn’t think it that hard to play the kazoo. |
| A．My failure to get the kazoo to make a sound. |
| B．The involvement of my husband in playing the kazoo. |
| C．My memory about the Valentine’s present from my husband. |
| D．The failed but funny playing of the kazoo by my husband and son. |
| A．Every cloud has a silver lining. | B．Parents are the best teachers. |
| C．Music can cure the hurt souls. | D．Misfortunes test the true love. |
2 . He came from somewhere south of Rome. I didn't know when or how he got to America,
＂My name Tony Trivionno and I mow （割） your lawn. "he said. It was hard to comprehend his
I managed to
＂I want to be an apprentice （学徒），”he said one day.
Many years later, I found him in our
Tony came to America seeking the American Dream. But he did not find it-he
| A．swam | B．cycled | C．skied | D．sprang |
| A．damaged | B．broken | C．strange | D．appealing |
| A．particular | B．boring | C．plain | D．difficult |
| A．give away | B．turn away | C．pick up | D．pull through |
| A．swept | B．decorated | C．blocked | D．marked |
| A．Hopefully | B．Fortunately | C．Obviously | D．Secretly |
| A．hired | B．warned | C．obliged | D．promoted |
| A．impression | B．experience | C．doubt | D．anxiety |
| A．trouble | B．award | C．reward | D．disaster |
| A．wandered | B．thought | C．worried | D．forgot |
| A．bring in | B．leave out | C．work out | D．take in |
| A．tasks | B．kids | C．animals | D．arguments |
| A．Now that | B．In case | C．Even if | D．Ever since |
| A．read | B．record | C．copy | D．draw |
| A．rise | B．cut | C．step | D．break |
| A．casual | B．memorable | C．formal | D．familiar |
| A．happier | B．luckier | C．heavier | D．paler |
| A．astonishment | B．confidence | C．amusement | D．confusion |
| A．discovered | B．acknowledged | C．deserved | D．created |
| A．office | B．school | C．hotel | D．basement |
3 . I was 12 years old, and my mum had just died from cancer. My dad had a drinking problem that mum had been managing all these years - suddenly he had a good reason to drink, and no one to stop him any more. He hit the bottle hard.
I went from being quite a high achieving student to being in the bottom quarter for English. But among all this, there was my English teacher. Miss Ward, who was so supportive. She changed my world. She listened to me and engaged with me. She had me talking in front of the English class, and was always reminding me to write something for the school magazine. She’d always find the good in the stuff I wrote.
I started the #FindMissWard action after going to a class reunion. Nobody knew what had happened to her. I’d just written a book about my journey on foot around the edge of the UK to highlight the stigmas (伤痕) surrounding mental health - and I thought it would be fantastic if she came to the launch (发布会). I think about 1.3 million people saw the post asking for help finding her, and tens of thousands of people
The lovely thing was that so many people came out and said they had a “Miss Ward” too. One person on Twitter sent a message about their own Miss Ward and about five tweets later this woman said,“Here I am!” They were reunited almost instantly - it was amazing. I’m certain there’ll be lots of people who have never got round to looking for the teacher who made a lasting impact on their lives, but maybe wish they had. Luckily, we're going to be meeting up in a couple of weeks. I just want to say thank you. I feel very lucky to have had her in my life.
1. What does the underline sentence in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．Drank heavily. | B．Put the bottle away. |
| C．Struck bottles strongly. | D．Hurt himself on purpose. |
| A．Honest and helpful. |
| B．Caring and humorous. |
| C．Responsible and encouraging. |
| D．Strong-willed and out-going. |
| A．Because he wanted to know what happened to Miss Ward. |
| B．Because he and his classmates missed Miss Ward so much. |
| C．Because he hoped Miss Ward could come to his book launch. |
| D．Because he suffered mental problems and Miss Ward could help him. |
| A．The author has found his Miss Ward. |
| B．Few people took part in #FindMissWard action. |
| C．Miss Ward had a lasting impact on many people. |
| D．The author's Miss Ward commented on his message. |
4 . Around this time of year when the weather gets cooler in Arkansas, there are a lot of homeless people, as well as people with different situations who just need help.
Oftentimes Our family serves at a soup kitchen where they give out bags of food to needy families in our area. And we’ll help put those bags of food together and hand them out, among other things.
There are a lot of reasons why serving the community is important to me, but one of them has to do with my father. My grandfather died when my father was 4 years old and my grandmother had four kids all under the age of 5, all born pretty close together. That was a time when things were so bad in the country. There wasn’t work and often the family hardly made ends meet, so my grandmother put the kids in a childrenˈs home so that they could at least have food to survive.
My dad said he never forgot the local charity would bring the kids a gift for Christmas. The kids worked hard in the children’s home and the only present they got was from the local charity. He never forgot this kindness and always appreciated the local charity for what it did when he Was a little boy.
My dad was such a hardworking worker- family meant the world to him. I was the seventh baby in my family and my mother had me just after she turned 40. She was one of those high-risk pregnancy moms, and Iˈm so grateful she had me. My mom and dad made a happy home for us, and I’m so grateful for that. I hope my children are catching those lessons, not just from Mom and Dad, but from grandparents and everyone else in their lives.
1. Why does the author consider serving the community important?| A．His father led a hard life in his childhood. |
| B．He was inspired by his fatherˈs life experiences. |
| C．He was grateful for what his father had done for him. |
| D．His father worked hard and took good care of the family. |
| A．The family had too many children. |
| B．The kids were born too close together. |
| C．It provided food for the kids to survive. |
| D．The kids could lead a very comfortable life there. |
| A．Kind and creative. | B．Strict and helpful. |
| C．Devoted and patient. | D．Grateful and hardworking. |
| A．Father meant the world to the family. |
| B．The author hopes his kids learn to be grateful. |
| C．The kids received Christmas gifts from their parents. |
| D．The author’s family opens a soup kitchen to offer help. |
5 . On Aug. 17, the National Parks Service posted the tale of the adorable note on their Facebook page, where it has since been liked over 5,200 times, and shared more than 700.
“Dear Park Ranger, Deep Creek Conversation Park was great! I especially liked the Tom Branch Falls,” the youngster, named Karina, began her letter. “I love it so much; I wanted to have a souvenir to come home with me, so I took a rock. I’m sorry, and now I want to return it. Also, here’s a donation!”
The heartfelt letter concluded with a postscript to “also look on the back”, where the girl drew a picture of the Tom Branch Falls, a waterfall in the grand park near Swain County, N.C. Lucky for Karina, the park rangers were touched by her sincere apologies for the small “theft”, and even wrote back.
“Dear Karina, thank you so much for returning the rock. It has made its way back to the Tom Branch Falls. We are so glad you enjoyed your visit,” the park officials wrote in their Facebook post. “Already, you are becoming an amazing keeper for the park. Thank you for recognizing that what is in the park should stay in the park. If every visitor took a rock home, that would mean 11 million rocks would be gone from the park every year. Now that you know to leave nature the way you find it, we hope you will help share this message with others. It is always a good thing to give another the chance to discover!” the officials concluded.
The cute letter evidently hit all the right notes with Facebook commenters, who agreed that Karina had the quality to be a “future park ranger”, and praised her parents for the valuable lesson the exercise taught the girl.
1. Why did the girl write the letter?| A．To make an apology for her stealing a rock. |
| B．To appreciate the beauty of the park. |
| C．To share her wonderful experience of visiting the park. |
| D．To thank the park rangers for doing a good job. |
| A．Delighted | B．Moved. | C．Confused. | D．Curious. |
| A．Easier said than done. |
| B．Always prepare for a rainy day. |
| C．It’s never too late to apologize. |
| D．Nothing is impossible to a willing heart. |
Sapphire Fish lived with her mom, dad, sister Mariana, and baby brother Matthew in a blue house across the street from the Elizabeth River. Sapphire loved the water. Maybe it was because her last name was Fish.
Sapphire liked to make sailboats out of paper. Taking a plain square, Sapphire folded and folded until two wide sails appeared. Then she tested the boats in the bathtub. No matter how hard she tried, though, Sapphire couldn’t keep the boats from slowly sinking into the water.
So Sapphire folded more and more paper and made bigger or smaller sails. But still the boats tipped over and disappeared underneath the surface of the water. Sometimes, the boats sank very slowly. Other times, an entire boat got pulled quickly underneath the water, almost like an invisible hand was grabbing it.
One day, the sky grew dark and the wind whistled against the house. Rain fell all day. And all night. In the afternoon, the rain finally stopped. Sapphire looked outside the living room window. There was water everywhere! The river ran right into the street and was filling up Sapphire’s front porch (前门廊).
The next day, Sapphire put on her blue boots that squeaked when she walked. She ran outside to the muddy front yard, where the river had been the day before.
Sapphire looked down at her feet and noticed something shiny and silvery. The most beautiful silver fish was wiggling in the wet mud. It was trying to get back to its home in the river.
Sapphire was scared. She knew that fish couldn’t breathe out of water. Either she had to return the fish to his family in the river or bring the fish inside her house and give him water. But how? Her mother had forbidden her to walk past the tree in the front yard. Waves of water still covered the street. It was too dangerous.
She couldn’t put him in a bowl of water from her house. The water from her sink (水槽) was very different from the river water the fish was used to. He might get sick living in the bowl.
注意：1.所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2.至少使用5个短文中标有下划线的关键词语；
3.续写部分分为两段，每段的开头已为你写好；
4.续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。
Paragraph 1:
Suddenly, Sapphire had an idea.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2:
The wind pushed the boat along, past the street, and the boat was about to enter the Elizabeth River.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________7 . My dad was a farmer in the Midwest and he spent his winters selling insurance. Dad could really talk up anyone and his favorite thing to do was find out their income. Once we were at Chicago's O'Hare airport. Dad was sitting with me as I waited for my flight to Fort Lauderdale. A Russian guy who sat down next to my dad could not speak a word of English but this did not stop my dad. He found out his business, how many children he had and of course how much he made.
I used to be a little embarrassed by this, but I changed later. It was in the last year of dad's life. As I was home visiting with my husband and twins and I was in the car with my mom, she told me a story about how she was in the doctor's office with dad and how he was his usual self-talking away to the others in the waiting room. She said he started talking to this young man in a wheel chair who could not talk, could not move his arms or head, really couldn't do anything. But dad was asking questions and got the young man to smile in response. And he carried on like that with the disabled man till he was called back to the doctor's office. When the young man and his father got up to see the doctor, the father of the young man came over and shook my dad's hands and said, "Thank you for speaking to my son. Most people just turn away when they see him.''
My father ended up dying later that month, a sudden heart attack. Fortunately, all the 9 children of his had been home that summer to visit. I told this story at his funeral（葬礼）. Truly, my dad was one who never knew a stranger.
1. What was the author's dad most interested in when talking with strangers?| A．What fields they worked in. |
| B．What insurance they bought. |
| C．How much they made yearly. |
| D．How many children they had. |
| A．calling in the doctor in time |
| B．chatting with his disabled son |
| C．comforting the other patients |
| D．teaching his disabled son to smile |
| A．To well remember her dad. |
| B．To entertain the whole family. |
| C．To introduce her dad's business. |
| D．To change strangers, opinion of her dad. |
8 . Annie Oakley was born in 1860 in Darke County, Ohio. Her family was very poor. She decided to help family even when she was young, so she learned to use a gun, and began hunting animals for food. She could shoot them without losing the important parts of the meat.
Soon her shooting ability became well known. When she was sixteen, she was invited to a competition with a famous marksman(神枪手) , Frank Butler. Annie surprised everyone by winning the competition. Later that year she and Frank married.
In 1882 Annie Oakley and Frank Butler started putting on shows together. Frank Butler was the star of the show and she was his assistant. The famous native American leader, Sitting Bull, thought so highly of her shooting ability that he called her "Little Sure Shot". Later Annie Oakley became the star of the show and Frank Butler was her assistant. Posters （海报）for the show called her the "Champion Markswoman".
During World War I, Annie Oakley wanted to train a group of women volunteers for the army, but the United States did not accept it. She gave American soldiers shooting lessons, and traveled across the country visiting many training camps. She gave shooting performance and raised money to support the American soldiers.
Annie Oakley died on November 3, 1926. Eighteen days later, Frank Butler died too.
1. According to the passage, Annie Oakley____ .| A．trained women soldiers during the war |
| B．often went hunting with her family |
| C．joined the army during World War I |
| D．lived a hard life as a child |
| A．Annie Oakley. | B．Little Sure Shot. |
| C．Frank Butler . | D．Champion Markswoman. |
a. She took part in a shooting competition.
b. She gave shooting demonstrations and raised money.
c. She hunted animals for food.
d. She put on shows with Frank Butler.
e. She was called the "Champion Markswoman".
f. She married Frank Butler.
| A．a, c, d, f, b, e | B．a, c, b, e, f, d | C．c, a, d, f, e, b | D．c, a, f, d, e, b |
I walked to the door and knocked. “Just a minute,” answered a weak, elderly voice.
After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her eighties stood before me. By her side was a small suitcase.
I took the suitcase to the car, and then returned to help the woman. She took my arm and we walked slowly toward the car.
She kept thanking me for my kindness. “It’s nothing,” I told her. “I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother treated.”
“Oh, you’re such a good man,” she said. When we got into the taxi, she gave me an address, and then asked, “Could you drive through downtown?”
“It’s not the shortest way,” I answered quickly.
“Oh, I’m in no hurry,” she said. “I’m on my way to a hospice (临终医院). I don’t have any family left. The doctor says I don’t have very long.”
I quietly reached over and shut off the meter (计价器).
For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked, the neighborhood where she had lived, and the furniture shop that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl.
Sometimes she’d ask me to slow down in front of a particular building and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.
At dawn, she suddenly said, “I’m tired. Let’s go now.”
We drove in silence to the address she had given me.
“How much do I owe you?” she asked.
“Nothing,” I said.
“You have to make a living,” she answered. “Oh, there are other passengers,” I answered.
Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug. She held onto me tightly. Our hug ended with her remark, “You gave an old woman a little moment of joy.”
1. The old woman chose to ride through the city in order to ________.
| A．show she was familiar with the city |
| B．see some places for the last time |
| C．let the driver earn more money |
| D．reach the destination on time |
| A．wanted to do her a favor |
| B．shut off the meter by mistake |
| C．had received her payment in advance |
| D．was in a hurry to take other passengers |
| A．Giving is always a pleasure. |
| B．People should respect each other. |
| C．An act of kindness can bring people great joy. |
| D．People should learn to appreciate others’ concern. |
