1 . It was a clear night. Finally came the big game and the boys were
Our team had a perfect start, and the scoring moment was repeatedly shown on a huge screen. However, looking out Andy’s way, I was shocked to see Andy looking straight up at the
“Come on, Andy.
Thank goodness, the big kid in the other team made a mistake. Our team had been
Andy ran up to me at the
Andy’s eyes were glowing (发光) with
“Yes, ” I said. “Well, one inning (局) to go. Hit a home run (全垒打)!”
“Okay!” said Andy, and he ran back to his
I suddenly realized it was nice that my son would take time out to appreciate the
Andy hit a triple (三垒打) in that last inning. But I still wish I had
| A．nervous | B．scared | C．curious | D．ashamed |
| A．undoubtedly | B．unexpectedly | C．unavoidably | D．unacceptably |
| A．electric | B．friendly | C．casual | D．relaxing |
| A．flee | B．hide | C．feed | D．strike |
| A．audience | B．screen | C．sky | D．ball |
| A．relying | B．focusing | C．commenting | D．reflecting |
| A．Fall down | B．Calm down | C．Wake up | D．Stand up |
| A．replaced | B．punished | C．warned | D．spared |
| A．meeting | B．break | C．corner | D．entrance |
| A．blame | B．comfort | C．entertain | D．tease |
| A．anger | B．relief | C．delight | D．regret |
| A．teammates | B．fans | C．parents | D．stars |
| A．truth | B．kindness | C．routine | D．wonder |
| A．difficult | B．likely | C．precious | D．important |
| A．recorded | B．filmed | C．seen | D．followed |
2 . I was the only kid in college with a reason to go to the mail box, because my mother never believed in email, or cell phones in general. I was literally waiting to get a letter to see how the weekend had gone, which was usually the warmest comfort for me.
So when I moved to New York and got sucker-punched in the face by depression, I did the only thing I could think of — writing letters like my mother for strangers. I blogged about those letters and crazily promised I would write a hand-written letter to whoever asked me to.
Overnight, my inbox became this harbor of heartbreak-a single mother in Sacramento, a girl being bullied (恐吓) in rural Kansas. . , all asking me to write them a letter and give them a reason to wait by the mailbox. And this is how the act The World Needs More Love Letters was born, fueled by those trips to the mailbox. But the thing about these letters is that most of them have been written by people, who have grown up into a paperless world where some best conversations happen swiftly on a screen.
I’ve been carrying this mail crate (大木箱) with me these days, which is a magical icebreaker. So I get to tell total strangers about a woman whose husband was traumatized (受精神创伤) from war in Afghanistan, and how she left love letters throughout the house as a way to say, “Come back to me. ” And the man, who had decided to take his life, tonight slept safely with letters just beneath his pillow, handwritten by strangers who were there for him.
These are the kinds of stories that convince me that letter-writing will always be needed, even in these days, because it is an art now, all of it: the signing, the scripting, and the mailing.
1. What can we learn from the first paragraph?| A．The author didn’t believe in e-mail. |
| B．Mom had been cheated by letters from strangers. |
| C．Communicating by writing letters was Mom’s favorite. |
| D．The author was attached to receiving letters from Mom. |
| A．The letters’ comforting effect on people. | B．Her intention of providing professional aid. |
| C．The positive influence of modern technology. | D．Her mother’s fear of modern communication. |
| A．It melts ice easily on a cold day. | B．It serves as a tool for magic tricks. |
| C．It encourages people to recover from traumas. | D．It helps to start a conversation with passers-by. |
| A．Passion for Writing. | B．Priceless Family Letters. |
| C．Love Letters to Strangers. | D．The Art of Writing Letters. |
One bright Saturday morning, Mali and her mom walked around the neighbourhood. That is, her mom walked, but Mali ran, skipped, jumped over puddles and visited the neighbours’ dogs. Mali paused to look at the budding (发芽) trees on her block. “I can’t wait until summer,” she said, “especially for Mrs. Fair’s great tomatoes at her market stand.” She pointed.
Mali’s mom stood looking at the empty lot where the market was set up every summer weekend. She looked at Mali, “Honey, Mrs. Fair told me last week that she had to close her stand. She’s really getting too old to run it anymore.”
Mali turned, stared, and put her hands on her waist. “But Mrs. Fair’s stand can’t close!” she said. “It’s the only place in the neighbourhood we can buy fresh, delicious tomatoes.” Then she added, to show she wasn’t being selfish, “Everyone needs fruits and vegetables for a healthy diet.”
After they got home, Mali headed out to her backyard swing to think. “If only I could plant a garden,” she thought. “but our yard is way too small.” Just then, she noticed her neighbour, Mr. Taylor, looking at his daffodils. Mali knew he was thinking about how he had planted those flowers with his wife. This was the first spring since his wife had died, and Mali saw the sadness on his face. Then she had an idea.
Mali cleared her throat, and Mr. Taylor looked up. Mali decided to walk over to the fence. “Hi, Mr. Taylor,” she said. He waved, and turned away. “Wait!” Mali cried. Taking a risk while she still felt brave, she rushed to gather her thoughts. “Mr. Taylor, Mrs. Fair isn’t doing her tomato stand anymore because she’s getting old. So I’d like to grow tomatoes. I don’t want to get in the way of your flowers, but I really want tomatoes.”
Suddenly, Mr. Taylor smiled. “Mali, I’m not sure what you’re talking about, but you’ve made me smile. Reasons to smile have been scarce lately. What do you want to do?” Mali repeated, “I wanted to plant tomatoes, but I have no big land.” She sounded a little awkward.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150个左右；2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Just then, an idea came to Mr. Taylor.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When the fruit ripened, there were more juicy, red tomatoes than even Mali could have imagined.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Michael saw the trouble coming. There standing in the hallway was Frank, the boy who enjoyed making fun of anyone at any given moment. Frank was tall and strong, so few of his victims stood up to him. Michael hated the idea that Frank always got away with his wrongdoing. Yet like most kids who were picked on, he just took it quietly and waited for the unpleasant to pass.
Frank walked up, his eyes locked on the books in Michael’s arms. When they met, Frank stopped unexpectedly, “Hey, let me see those books!” Some students watched as Michael held out the books he was carrying, trying not to give away his nervousness.
Frank took a book, looked inside for a second, and then threw the book at Michael, who dropped all the other books. “Hey, those are school property,” Frank barked, “Be careful!” Then he walked away, laughing loudly.
Michael, his cheeks turning red, half kicked the fallen books. Suddenly a hand picked up one book. “You look like you could use a p ally (盟友),” a friendly voice said. It was Ramon, the most athletic boy in the high school. Michael couldn’t believe Ramon was stopping to help him as they barely spoke.
“Thanks,” Michael sighed with relief. “It’s confusing. I don’t know what his problems is.”
“Well, as I see it,” Ramon said, “you need to find a way to end this.” Michael nodded, stuck for what to say. Ramon continued, “You know my grandmother used to tell me whenever I had a problem with someone. She’d say, ‘You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar (醋).’”
Looking puzzled, Michael asked, “What does that mean?”
“It means kindness may be more effective than anger,” Ramon explained.
“Can you just tell Frank to stop picking on me?” Michael suggested.
“That’s vinegar,” Ramon laughed as he walked away. “Try honey instead.”
Ramon’s words left Michael thinking.
The next school day brought Michael’s usual pain. There stood Frank, and Michael knew it would be just seconds before he had to face him in the middle of the hall. Frank came nearer.
注意：（1）续写词数应为150个左右；
（2）请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Then, suddenly, the unexpected happened.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Michael bent down and quickly picked up Frank’s books on the floor.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________5 . I was ten when my mother was diagnosed with cancer. Prior to that, she had been a(n)
She could do anything, I
Now, she faced her illness with the same
Every accomplishment was a
Because my mother accepted her condition with such optimism, I rarely felt sad or resentful about it. Instead, I viewed her drive to look forward to things I
| A．gentle | B．energetic | C．talented | D．decent |
| A．changed | B．failed | C．improved | D．paused |
| A．imagined | B．admitted | C．doubted | D．believed |
| A．applied | B．spoke | C．wrote | D．studied |
| A．success | B．sincerity | C．enthusiasm | D．wisdom |
| A．familiar | B．strange | C．exciting | D．changeable |
| A．Gradually | B．Particularly | C．Alternatively | D．Finally |
| A．drag | B．pull | C．guide | D．wheel |
| A．art | B．significance | C．safety | D．plan |
| A．solution | B．milestone | C．dream | D．warning |
| A．hospital | B．court | C．work | D．college |
| A．saying | B．hiding | C．pretending | D．showing |
| A．gifts | B．disabilities | C．weaknesses | D．privileges |
| A．strong | B．hopeless | C．helpful | D．fortunate |
| A．took into account | B．bore in mind | C．took for granted | D．kept in check |
When Marco was a boy, he tried everything to get his father’s love and attention. He worked hard to earn exceptional marks and always tried to behave well. But he was so sensitive and shy that he always hid behind his hair, which he wore long around his face. To make it worse, Marco was naturally shorter than the other kids. This added to his already low self-confidence.
At 14, he and his younger sister Sandra moved in with their dad and his new wife. His father was busy and their communication was nonexistent. The only time his dad ever spoke to him was to be demanding or critical. He began to fear coming home from school every day, feeling desperately alone and isolated.
One day his father, tripped over Marco’s bike in the garage. The angry reaction left Marco in despair, thus crying out, “That’s it! I’m going to kill myself.”
“You don’t even have the guts!” replied his father.
For two days, all Marco could think of was wanting to die, but he didn’t want to prove his father was right. Angry and sad, Marco was stuck.
Two days later, his aunt called him. This seemed like a miracle. Aunt Ginette usually only called on his birthday. She said she had just seen some young teenagers participate in a public speaking contest and she thought about him. She told him she firmly believed he could perform on stage like those kids, since she had seen him do skits (幽默短剧) for the family at Christmas.
Marco was shocked. Him? In a public speaking contest, which was contrary to his shy personality? But Aunt Ginette was sure it was something he could do. Feeling her strong belief, Marco agreed.
All that winter, twice a week after dinner, he took three different buses in each direction for the three-hour round-trip to practice in the place where the competition would take place. Marco was taken by a feeling he never felt before. The hours and the obstacles no longer counted. The criticism from his father around his absence for after-dinner chores didn’t matter.
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。
Four months later, the big night arrived.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________With the championship, Marco’s new life started.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________7 . Mary Dickins had been a member of the audience at poetry nights before and knew “the poetry clap”. She made a polite tapping of fingers. But when she made her debut (首次演出) as a performer at the age of 62 at the legendary Bang Said the Gun night in south London, she said, “It was so wild — like nothing I had ever seen before.” The audience stamped their feet and shook shakers. “It felt transformative. I thought, ‘I’ve got to have more of this,’ ” Dickins said. Becoming a performance poet has given her a place on a stage of her own making.
All her life she has written, mostly without being seen or heard. Her mother died when she was nine, and, after she went into a care home at 13, Dickins’ writing stayed in notebooks. Really, she says, a lot of her adult life has been about getting over childhood shyness. At university — she studied education — she met her husband of 40 years, but in three years of seminars she did not say a word. Some of this results from her years at the children’s home. She says, “It gave me a sense of what it’s like to be excluded. I never fitted in anywhere.”
After she graduated, she discovered that she loved working with people with learning disabilities. She became an expert in inclusive education. “That was my niche (称心的职业),” she says. She published books and returned to the University of North London as a senior lecturer in early childhood studies.
Dickins now sees that in adulthood she has been giving herself permission to be silly. “The sillier I allow myself to be, the better the writing is,” she says. Her observations are humorous.
“Putting things into words and giving shape to your emotions is an important part of coming to terms with the things that happen in life,” she says.
Does she still feel like an outsider?
“I think I’ve made it into a virtue. I celebrate the fact that I don’t fit into a box. Finally! You have to wait till you’re 62 to feel confident!” she says. “But I have a sense of who I am and I'm proud of it. I wouldn’t be anyone else now — and it took me a long time to say that.”
1. How did Dickins feel about her debut?| A．Calm. | B．Awkward. | C．Stressed. | D．Encouraged. |
| A．Her immature writing style. | B．Her experience at the care home. |
| C．Her struggle with her university studies. | D．Her difficult relationship with her husband. |
| A．It makes her land a good job. | B．It sharpens her sense of humor. |
| C．It enables her to get on well with her life. | D．It helps her overcome her learning disabilities. |
| A．Mary Dickins’ New Start after 60 | B．Mary Dickins’ First Performance |
| C．Mary Dickins’ Troubled Writing Career | D．Mary Dickins’ Impact on Performance Poets |
8 . One day, much to my astonishment, my son befriended a nun (修女)! Through the glass
Beyond that fence lived the woman, later identified as Sandy in her 40s. I had
Over the next few weeks, then months, their murmuring (低声) voices
During the COVID-19 in 2020, Sandy’s presence and the gifts left in the hole became a comforting
Sadly, one year later, Sandy’s
| A．bedroom | B．kitchen | C．garage | D．garden |
| A．count | B．call | C．check | D．rely |
| A．trapped | B．hidden | C．struck | D．absorbed |
| A．imagined | B．supported | C．offered | D．explained |
| A．ordinary | B．approachable | C．initial | D．patient |
| A．randomly | B．consistently | C．occasionally | D．rarely |
| A．spread | B．continued | C．abandoned | D．concluded |
| A．mark | B．window | C．tunnel | D．hole |
| A．pushed | B．pressed | C．guided | D．directed |
| A．whisper | B．conversation | C．silence | D．noise |
| A．flame | B．escape | C．wisdom | D．reminder |
| A．reunion | B．injury | C．departure | D．encounter |
| A．ran into | B．picked up | C．cared about | D．looked for |
| A．challenge | B．exploration | C．bond | D．reward |
| A．unexpected | B．unfair | C．anxious | D．cautious |
Grandma tried to straighten out her fingers. “Jessica, I think I am done knitting (编织),” she said. “My fingers just won’t do what I tell them any more.” I looked at Grandma’s hands, remembering that she had taught me how to knit gloves for my dolls since I was little and that her hands had been sure and strong whatever she had knitted. Grandma had always said that I was very good with her knitting needles and balls of yarn (纱线).
But this winter she could hardly bend her fingers. The doctor said Grandma had arthritis (关节炎), suggesting she should keep her hands warm. I made her cups of tea to hold and moved her chair closer to the fire. However, her fingers were still difficult to move.
I wasn’t used to seeing Grandma’s hands so still. In the morning, her hands were still in her lap. In the evening, her quiet hands even made her voice stay still. I tried to help her find her voice. “Grandma, tell me about when you were a little girl like before,” I begged, knowing she loved to tell interesting stories of her nine brothers and sisters and herself during their childhood. “That was so long ago, Jessica,” whispered Grandma. “I can barely remember.”
This winter there were no hats with matching gloves or soft sweaters knitted by Grandma. But I missed her voice more than those. What about her sister Olga giving their snowman a bath in hot water? What about her brother Peti cutting off her doll’s beautiful hair and then hiding it? Were those words still moving silently in her head?
After dinner, Grandma fell asleep in her rocking chair. Mom sorted through our knitting items, among which an old pair of gloves caught my attention. The gloves were Grandma’s favorite ones with the names of Grandma and her nine brothers and sisters on the fingertips. Each time she wore them, all her happy childhood memories would become very interesting stories in her mouth.
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。
The gloves gave me an idea.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“Grandma, shall we knit a new pair of gloves?” I asked hopefully.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________10 . If the plant could thrive (茁壮成长), maybe I could too, even with cancer.
After my cancer diagnosis (诊断), my friend gifted me a lucky bamboo plant in a deep-green pottery bowl. Despite my physical limitations,
As a family physician used to
Through surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy (化疗), I
But then,
As my anxiety eased, I
Now, the lucky bamboo was not just a
| A．looking for | B．picking up | C．digging up | D．caring for |
| A．useless | B．painless | C．selfless | D．desireless |
| A．respecting | B．persuading | C．showing | D．providing |
| A．gradual | B．positive | C．enormous | D．complex |
| A．connected | B．recommended | C．added | D．sent |
| A．focused on | B．brought up | C．picked up | D．depended on |
| A．delayed | B．continued | C．avoided | D．considered |
| A．optimism | B．career | C．opportunity | D．lesson |
| A．originally | B．possibly | C．mysteriously | D．approximately |
| A．attitudes | B．signs | C．meanings | D．outcomes |
| A．affected | B．mirrored | C．tested | D．prevented |
| A．exchanged | B．shared | C．appreciated | D．sought |
| A．instructions | B．commands | C．schedules | D．trends |
| A．flexible | B．sustainable | C．decorative | D．sensitive |
| A．company | B．hope | C．aid | D．creativity |
