A little bird landed on the tree branch outside Lisa’s bedroom window. It sang energetically as the first pale yellow rays of sunshine appeared.

“Oh, my god, what is that noise?” Lisa complained to herself, pulling her bed sheets over her head to ignore the sound. It was no use, and she knew it. The loud sound showed the coming of the day. Lisa’s mom knocked twice on her door, and then came in with a smile. “Time to get up, Sleepyhead,” She whispered. “The early bird catches the worm, you know.”

“Ugh,” mumbled (含含糊糊地说) Lisa into her pillow. “What does that even mean?”

“It’s just an expression, Honey”, her mom replied. She gave Lisa a kiss on the cheek and urged her to get out of bed. Lisa rolled over and slept for a few more minutes.

With her mom’s repeated urging, Lisa had no choice but to get herself dressed. She went unwillingly downstairs for breakfast, ate slowly, and missed her bus. When she finally got to school, she failed to get a place in the Chess Club. She also missed the first part of math class, so she didn’t understand the lesson and had to get extra help at lunchtime. Her teacher gave her extra homework to make sure she knew it. As a result, she missed her favourite library time. This day was no fun.

The next morning, Lisa was woken up by the same loud noisy song. Instead of ignoring it, today Lisa walked over to the window and opened the curtains. “Well, hello there, little fellow,” she said when she saw the pretty bird outside, still singing happily. As she watched, the bird stuck its beak (喙) into the wet ground, and pulled out a wiggling (不停摇摆) worm for breakfast.

“Today I am going to be the early bird,” thought Lisa.

At lunchtime, Lisa finished her lunch early and had time to go to the library. 

3 . It was a rainy, December day 30 years ago. The air was so _________ that we could hardly breathe. I even wished the _________ would drop by a few more degrees so that it would snow. My wife and I _________ in line at a volunteer fire department building with our two-year-old daughter, Beth. It was going to be her first time _________ Santa. My wife had brought her camera along to _________ the moment.

When Santa _________ appeared with his bag of _________, most of the other younger children backed away _________ at this strange man with a big white beard (胡须) and red coat. My daughter didn’t, however. She wasn’t afraid of Santa at all. I thought it was because her grandpa had a beard even _________ than Santa’s. Instead, she __________ up and down with joy in a little circle almost coming out of her snow boots (靴子).

Seeing her __________, Santa walked to her first. “Hello, little girl! What do you want for Christmas?” he asked. Beth didn’t __________ anything. She just reached up and gave Santa the biggest hug (拥抱) in the world. My wife and I __________ seeing this beautiful moment of Christmas love. And all of a sudden that cold and wet firehouse seemed warm and bright. Or perhaps it was just all of us being __________ the spirit of Christmas by watching my little girl __________ her love.

6 . Dad’s car pulled into the driveway. I ran to the door. Dad smiled as if he had a secret. “It feels cold to us, but it’s warm and attractive to see a frog. Are you coming?” he asked. I agreed with excitement and then put on my raincoat.

“Hey, look at this one,” Dad shined his light on a green frog the size of his thumb. The frog jumped, its four legs sticking straight out. I found my first frog on a driveway. A bright-green one with shiny skin. I wondered what it would feel like. I could see the frog breathing.

I could imagine a car running over it. I said, “Dad, can you move this one?” “You do it,” Dad said. I looked at the frog. I didn’t want to touch it. But I didn’t want it to get squashed (压扁的). I reached down. It jumped through my fingers. I tried again. Cupping one hand around the frog, I picked it up with the other hand. Its skin felt cold and soft. The frog moved. I walked to the grass and held out my hand. The frog climbed up my wrist. I laughed. Then I gently placed the frog onto the grass.

We walked a couple of blocks. We found lots of frogs-brown ones, green ones and spotted ones. I got better at finding them. If they were on the road, we moved them when traffic was clear. I actually started to like picking them up.

I was ready to go home. Then I saw something moving near a stone wall. Something bigger than a frog. Dad and I shined our lights and crouched. “Is it a lizard (蜥蜴)?” I asked. “No, it’s a salamander,” Dad said. “Hey, I just realized something,” I said. “The animals out tonight—frogs and salamanders—are amphibians (两栖动物). We’d learned about amphibians in school.” “Great observation,” Dad said.

8 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

Catherine was the coolest kid in her class. Whenever she went, she was in the spotlight, with a bunch of kids following her and doing everything she did.

Her deskmate, Landy, however, was not in the cool kids’ group. Being the tallest kid in her class, she was teased by her classmates, who were always chanting “Landy, Landy, long as spaghetti (意大利面 )”. Every time Landy heard those silly chants, she could feel her face burst into flames. God knew how she wished the ground to crack and swallow her!

Catherine didn’t really like it when the kids chanted “Landy, Landy, long as spaghetti”. But she never told them to stop either, and nor did she ever talk to her. She liked being popular.

One weekend, Catherine went over to her grandfather for Thanksgiving. Her grandfather lives on a farm at the opposite end of town, where he keeps chickens. While helping to feed the chickens, Catherine noticed a peculiar one. Curling in the corner, it looked smaller than the others and was almost half-bare!

“What’s the matter with it?” She asked her grandfather, with a puzzled frown on her face. Her grandfather told her how chickens could act. “They have a pecking (啄) order,” he explained, wrinkles of concern spreading around his forehead. “If one chicken is different, the others will push it away and keep pecking it. Sometimes they peck it so much that it dies.”

“Oh, what a poor little thing!” Catherine let out a sigh as she scooped the frightened chicken up in her arms, whose heart was beating fast in the bony little body. Suddenly, she thought of Landy, the girl being “pecked” by her classmates. “I’m going to take it home and take good care of it,” she said with a determined look.

Back in school, Catherine told the cool kids about the chicken. “It’s looking healthy,” she said proudly. “It’s fatter and its feathers are growing. Even the cat likes it. She carries it around the garden, and...” Everyone was entertained by Catherine’s story of her lovely chicken, laughter lingering around the classroom.

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. Then Catherine spotted Landy sitting by herself in a corner.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 2. But Catherine walked directly toward Landy, regardless of what they said.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

10 . Last Thursday, Michael and Linda were distributing (分发) meals to 4,000 homeless people for their wedding reception (婚宴) in the border of town of Kilis. The_________ had decided that instead of playing host to their friends and family with a traditional feast reception, they_________ to feed the homeless people from an earthquake­stricken area.

The idea came from Michael’s Michael’s father, Ted, who_________ for a Turkish relief (救济) organization. For the past few years, the organization has handed out _________ meals to thousands of people who’ve_________ natural disasters. He called Adam, who was controlling the organization, and suggested that the family cover part of the cost of feeding them for the day.

Then he told his son, who was surprised by the_________, but soon agreed. When he told that to Linda, she was really shocked but finally_________ because in southeastern Turkey there is a real culture of sharing with people_________. They love to share their_________, their table and everything they have. And afterwards she was quite __________ in it. So, they arrived at the__________ on Thursday to spend the day serving food and taking photographs with their grateful recipients (接受者).

On Tuesday evening, the __________ married couple were still pleased with their decision to__________ a personal celebration for one with greater good. Michael said, “A small act of__________ could make a big difference. __________, this will give the start for other wedding dinners to be held here with our brothers and sisters in need.”