Frey grabbed his bat and glove, and raced out of the door towards the Jack’s. Summer vacation just began. The boys planned to play baseball every day, so they could make the team in the following semester.

Jack was waiting outside for Frey.   “What are you doing? Where's your stuff?” Frey asked, lifting his bat onto his shoulder. Jack shook his head, “I have to clean Mr. Willow's garage before I can go. With his broken arm, he can't do it himself. My mom always volunteers me to help the Willow’s. She thinks they’re kind of old and can’t afford to hire a cleaner.”

To get the work done earlier, Frey offered to help. The boys went down the block to the Willow’s and got started. They found a couple of brooms. Before they swept, they put boxes scattered around the garage floor on shelves. As Jack put a big box on a shelf, it fell off and with it fell an envelope. He picked it up. It wasn't sealed, so he opened it. Out of his surprise, there were several one hundred dollar bills inside.

“You’ve got to see this.” He pulled out the bills and showed Frey, “It just fell down when the box fell. There’s got to be several hundred dollars here.” Jack looked past Frey to the garage door and continued, “Nobody’s here. If we take some, I bet no one will ever know.” Before his voice died away, Jack had already drawn out one bill and stuffed it into his pocket.

Frey frowned and shook his head. “Are you crazy? That’s stealing.” Jack ignored him and protested,   “Well, I do a lot of chores for them and don’t get paid. It’s not really stealing. It's kind of payment for my hard work. And one hundred will do for a bat and glove in Igo’s Sports Store”. With this, Jack put the rest money back.

Frey was about to grab the money from Jack’s pocket when they heard a voice, “Hello, boys. Come in for a chocolate cake! Mrs. Willow made one for you.” Mr. Willow walked into the garage.

At the sight of Mr. Willow, Jack and Frey froze in shock.

When they were about to leave, Mr. Willow handed Jack a brand new bat and glove.

It was our tun to open our presents this particular Christmas morning. The living room was already covered with tom wrapping paper. Obviously, the children could hardly wait to discover the hidden treasures, which they had expected for nearly a month. Now we adults sat around the room with our presents at our feet, slowly removing the paper, tying o maintain our dignity in front of the children.

My wife Brenda, and her family have a tradition of getting each other gag(恶作剧) gifts. This day makes me a bit uneasy at Christmas or my birthday, never knowing what form of embarrassment lies waiting for me under the thin borders of the wrapping paper.

Recently, my six-year-old daughter Christy seemed to busy herself with something while I was playing computer video flight games. Now she was standing directly in front of me. The excitement of the moment just beamed across her face. It was everything she could do to keep herself from helping me rip the paper from each present. Finally, I came to the last gift and with my natural Sherlock Holmes ability, I concluded that this had to be the gag gift. With everyone looking on, I decided to go ahead and got it over with—just let them have their laugh—and I tore the paper and there it was…a toy airplane about two inches long. Our holiday guests started giggling to themselves as I looked up to my wife with an unpleasant smile on my face and blurted out, “A toy airplane? Are you kidding me?”

Brenda gave me the look—that look that always tells me I have just said something wrong and should have given it a second thought. I had failed to look at the name tag(标签) before I opened the present to see who it was from. As I picked up the paper from the floor and read the name tag, my heart sank.

On the tog were the letters that read, “To Dad, Love Christy”.

Storing at the gift, I suddenly thought of a way to lift her up.

In the far away land, there was a beautiful kingdom with its unique rule. The rule said, everyone may become the king, with all of his rights to govern the country for five years. After that he must be caught, his body will be tied and he will be thrown away to a remote island where the jungle is thick and there are plenty of wild animals and no human.

Then, one by one, people became the king. The first man said, ‘‘Ok, I'm ready to be the king." And he became a king for five years. What he did in his five years was enjoying his position. He threw big parties, went to many beautiful places, married many women, collected many luxurious things and did other things that pleased himself Those were all he did and he never prepared anything for his future. Until one day the time came. One morning when the king woke up, suddenly strong soldiers came to his palace and said, " We came here under the order of constitution. Now it's time for you to be thrown away to the remote island." The king wasn't surprised but he felt that time passed by too fast. He had enjoyed himself in the past five years but now he had to accept his destiny with tears in his eyes. The soldiers sent him to the dangerous island and left. All they heard was the voices of the wild animals and the long scream of the former king; and then silent again.

Every other king was the same until a young man came and declare his wish. By the constitution he was granted his wish. He would be a hug for five years before being thrown away to the island. But if other kings would follow their passion for having fun, he didn't. The king was always seen to be thinking.

When she looked around her house, Betty Margaret saw lots of electronics. Along with the usual things like her laptop and smart phone, there were all of her kids’ electronic devices: cell phones, video game devices and more! There seemed to be more than enough ways for her and her three children to be online all day, every day.

Ms. Margaret worried that her kids were becoming too dependent on the Internet and electronics. Then she began to reread one of her favorite books, Henry Thoreau’s Walden, which gave Ms. Margaret an idea. Thoreau spent 2 years in a simple cabin without running water, and having to grow his own food. Maybe she and her family could live without such luxuries as computers and electronic devices for a while.

Ms. Margaret talked with her kids and explained that she wanted the family to try living for 6 months without the Internet, cell phones, TV, and video games. Ms. Margaret writes articles for a newspaper in Australia, and had written several books as well. She told her children that if they agreed, she would write a book about their experience and they could go on a trip abroad with the money from sales of the book. Her three children agreed, and “the experiment,” as Ms. Margaret called, began.

Over the course of the experiment, the Margaret children had different reactions to life without electronics. Before the experiment began, Anni, the eldest of the children, read books more than her younger brother and sister. She therefore had a relatively easy adjustment to the family’s new lifestyle. Anni could also use the library’s computer for her homework. Bill, who loved to play video games before the experiment began, had to find a way to spend all of his new free time. He started to spend more time practicing his saxophone (萨克斯管). Susan, the youngest child in the family, had the hardest time adjusting to life without electronics. She felt restless for the first weeks and later, influenced by her elder sister, gradually began to find interest in the novel experiences brought by various books.

The family carried on with the experiment for the 6 months without technology controlling their lives.

Ms. Margaret wrote the book she had planned.

It was a rainy November morning. Overcome with anger I knew if I didn’t leave the house soon I would lose my temper with my husband, Joe. As rain came down in sheets, Joe offered to take me to work. I struggled into my jacket, seized my bag and teaching plans and ignored him.

He insisted and reached for his boots. I looked at the piles of newspapers and the dirty dishes still on the table. “Don’t you have enough to do？I can take care of myself.” I stormed out, not even kissing him good-bye. Joe shouted after me not to take the shortcut.

Joe and I had been eagerly looking forward to our retirement when heart a attack that past spring forced him to leave his job earlier than we had planned. As the medical bills mounted we realized I would have to continue working full-time while Joe stayed home and took over the housework.

The new arrangement was a disaster. Exhausted after a day of full work, all I wanted was hot homecooked meal and a good night’s sleep. However, what greeted me at the table was a microwave package. Sometimes he would serve oatmeal for several nights in a row. One night when I dragged myself to bed, I was terrified to discover Joe had turned our white sheets blue: He told me he had found out how to save on water, soap and electricity. He patted his blue trousers and announced proudly washing everything together was just the secret.

Ten minutes later, ignoring Joe’s warning I turned off the main route. I thought it hadn’t rained enough to flood the road, but as I rounded the corner water rushed across my path. After a few feet, the car got stuck. I opened the door and water poured in. I hurriedly closed the door. I couldn’t risk walking in this. Almost 20 minutes passed. The car began to shake. I got frightened to death when I heard three long honks.

Looking over my shoulder, I stared into the flashing lights of a truck.

I screamed that I couldn’t make it.

After the long， boring winter， kites everywhere couldn’t wait for the chance to go dance in the air， to tumble(翻跟斗) freely and to run after the sun. Every kite was excited but one.

The kite sat in the back of a closet, looking depressed and thin. His lines were so classic with a rag tail. But he didn't like flying. Actually, it was the belief that the higher the flight, the further the fall that scared the kite most of all.

The kite thought it wouldn't be long before his boy would burst into the closet to cart him away for another embarrassing public display. At that very moment, the closet door opened. The kite shrunk in defeat.

"Come on, "said the boy excitedly. "It's the perfect kite day. "He headed outside to play with the kite. As they came to the park there were kids everywhere flying kites that sailed gracefully high in the air. The boy pointed up, "Look, flying is easy! With fear the kite looked, it made him feel uneasy, although the spring breezes were heartily blowing.

The boy started running to get the kite going. He ran all through the park while other kids stared at his kite that dragged. . . and tumbled. . and scraped. He heard a boy laugh and another one joke， ＂That kite must either be stupid or broken. ” The boy hung his head and went back to his kite. Kneeling， he thoughtfully asked， ” You alright? Why don’t you fly?＂The boy’s tone was calm. ” Don’t you know how?＂he asked. “Are you afraid? With all of his pride， the kite tried to contest(反驳)it， but the look in his eyes told the boy he had guessed it.

They sat in silence for a moment. Then with a kind smile， the boy said，” It’s alright. Everyone gets frightened. Dad says that’s okay. And by facing fears boldly we can scare some away. ” The glimmer(微光) of hope that shone in the boy’s eyes made the kite decide to give flying another try.

The boy started running again to give the kite lift. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The kite felt peaceful and delighted and new. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Rescue

Dawn came slowly. A shaft of sunlight reached into the 4-meter-deep crater (弹坑), making the metal of the bomb shine. The boys were numb and tight, and hungry. They tried not to look at the huge shape of the bomb that appeared over them.

Harry suddenly opened his eyes and seized Jack’s arm “Listen!” he whispered. Jack’s eye widened instantly, and both boys strained their ears. They could hear a man talking softly. The voice seemed a long way off. Jack went to shout, but Harry clamped his hand over Jack’s mouth. “Don’t shout,” he hissed (发出嘘声), “We’ll be blown into pieces.”

The soft voice came nearer and nearer. Suddenly, an army captain appeared at the top of crater. He was talking to a mouthpiece (话筒) around his neck. He stopped talking when he saw the boys. “What the...” he said, “Who are you?” Harry found his voice, “Jack and Harry Brown.” “Is that dog dead?” asked the captain. “No, he’s sleeping,” said Harry.

The captain spoke into the mouthpiece again, “Sergeant (中士),” he said, stopped and took a breath before he went on. “There are two kids and a dog down here.” Then the captain crouched down and stared closely at the bomb. “Don’t move and don’t speak,” he said, “or we’ll all go up.” He began talking quietly to his sergeant.

Jack and Harry were too stiff to move. They held Raf, the dog, tightly and waited. Another man appeared at the top of the crater. “I thought so,” he said, “It’s them all right.”

“It’s Old Tin Hat!” whispered Jack. Old Tin Hat was carrying a ladder. He and the captain lowered the ladder into the loose earth next to the two boys. “Keep still,” the captain warned them. As the captain held on at the top, Old Tin Hat started to come down the ladder very slowly, very gently, step by step. At last, he reached the bottom, and with one movement, he lifted Jack on his back. Harry watched as Jack was carried up. It seemed to take an age.

2. 应使用5个以上短文中标有下划线的关键词语；

3. 续写部分分为两段，每段开头语已为你写好；

4. 续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。

With a sudden fall of earth, Old Tin Hat froze halfway up. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Old Tin Hat pulled Harry onto his back, carrying Raf under his arm. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________