Alexis Langlois, who manages a large farm, heard her neighbor crazily knocking on her front door on a Monday afternoon.
“There’s an emergency”, Amber Countryman yelled. “The horses are stuck in the water.” Langlois was struck with “absolute panic”. She threw on her winter boots — without socks — and rushed toward the small pond on the 80-acre property. She was surprised by what she saw: four horses were in the water up to their necks in 10 feet of ice water.
She immediately called 911.While waiting for help to arrive, “people just started showing up,” she said. “Neighbors were pouring in. People came with ropes, chainsaws, shovels and pick axes.”
“I grabbed a bunch of supplies,” said Countryman, whose two teenagers and their friend also as sited with the effort.
“It was-8℃that day,” she said, adding that she brought out handwarmers and water for the helpers.
Everyone was determined to get the horses out of the pond — which is about 15feetwide.
Beneath a six-inch layer of ice, the water was “just barely above freezing”, said Chris Yerkes, the South Kalispell Fire Department chief who rushed to the pond with about a dozen volunteer personnel.
When the firefighters arrived, neighbors had already attempted to pave a path through the ice toward the edge of the pond using pick axes, sledgehammers and shovels, and “we continued with that effort.” Yerkes said. Unfortunately, “as we got closer to the edge, we realized there was about three to four inches of mud.”
The thick layer of mud — which the rescuers couldn’t cut through — blocked the horses from climbing out. Firefighters enlisted additional support from Flathead County Animal Control, as well as staff from local equestrian organization Rebecca Farm.
“There had to have been at least 60 people here,” Langlois said. “It was very swift action on everybody’s part.”
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
It took nearly two hours to find a workable solution that could bring all four horses to safety.
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Paragraph 2
To get the horses out, they used a powerful tractor (拖拉机) to get the animals out of the mud and ropes to pull them over the edge.
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2 . In 1990, during a performance of my stage play, I became preoccupied with one particular member of the audience. While everybody else laughed, there she sat, staring at the floor, with her fingers in her ears. I’ll never forget her look of complete discomfort.
That woman was my mother. Despite the fact I’d established myself as a humorist, my mother never found me or my work particularly funny. She was my hardest critic. “Is Drew really that funny?” she’d ask family members.
To make matters worse, the feeling was mutual (相互的): though our social circle swore that she was humorous, I never saw it. My mother was supposedly very funny in her first language, Anishinaabemowin—an Indigenous (原住民的) language, but alas, I didn’t speak it. At family gatherings, when somebody would say something “funny” in Anishinaabemowin, she’d explain it to me. Sometimes the humour translated. Sometimes it didn’t.
For a while I was convinced I would never make her laugh. Then, in 2005, I succeeded. I had published a book called Me Funny. In it were dozens of essays deconstructing Indigenous humour, along with 50 so-called “Indian jokes” to break up the various chapters. (For instance, “Why do Native people hate snow? Because it’s white and all over our land.”) She laughed hard and declared, “Wow, that was funny!”
In 2009, my mother passed away at the age of 77. During the funeral, in the tears, family member after family member got up and recounted things she had done and said over the years. To my surprise, I found myself laughing. Suddenly I remembered a moment from the early ‘90s, when my mother asked me, completely serious, what “owie” meant in French. I struggled to come up with an answer until I spelled it out in my mind: oui (“yes” in English).
More and more stories about her surfaced. We laughed as we remembered her. I couldn’t see my mother’s forest for my own trees. I wish I could have shared those laughs with her while she was alive, but I’m glad I finally made the connection.
1. What prevented the author and his mother from understanding each other’s humour?| A．Language barriers. |
| B．The author’s unique job. |
| C．Mom’s critical personality. |
| D．Views of Indigenous people. |
| A．He tried to fit in his Indigenous family. |
| B．He recalled amusing moments about mom. |
| C．He wanted to hide his sadness over mother’s death. |
| D．He intended his laugh to make mother rest in peace. |
| A．The author learned from mother a very important life lesson. |
| B．The author failed to relate to his mother from her perspective. |
| C．The author finally understood mother’s sense of humour better. |
| D．The author didn’t write enough humorous books to make mother laugh. |
| A．Am I funny? | B．Why isn’t Mom laughing? |
| C．What’s so funny? | D．Does laughter have an accent? |
3 . After the publication of my first two books, I sent my publisher Summer of the Wolves. I'd written it with great passion, filled with
I thought this novel must be really bad and cried for three days. I
One day, a
It had been written in two voices in third person. Therefore, that was a(n)
I am not a great talent, but I am a
| A．strength | B．confidence | C．imagination | D．gratitude |
| A．admired | B．delayed | C．accepted | D．rejected |
| A．normal | B．desired | C．same | D．satisfying |
| A．cut out | B．burnt up | C．tore apart | D．put away |
| A．thinking | B．crying | C．writing | D．complaining |
| A．translated | B．released | C．edited | D．revised |
| A．publisher | B．follower | C．reporter | D．reader |
| A．excused | B．allowed | C．suggested | D．appreciated |
| A．proper | B．exact | C．small | D．fair |
| A．challenge | B．reality | C．risk | D．credit |
| A．comforted | B．congratulated | C．instructed | D．bothered |
| A．success | B．wealth | C．fame | D．courage |
| A．clever | B．hard | C．fast | D．strict |
| A．feel | B．reflect | C．see | D．absorb |
| A．marathon | B．lesson | C．competition | D．transformation |
4 . When Failure Is a Good Thing
Failure is an important process you can learn from.
Most people view failure as something that should be avoided at all costs.
Award-winning psychologist and author, Ron Friedman, tells the story of how Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx, revolutionized the women's clothing industry and became a billionaire in his book, The Best Place To Work: The Art and Science of Creating an Extraordinary Workplace.
When interviewed by CNN's Anderson Cooper, Sara said, “Instead of failure being the outcome, failure became not trying. It forced me at a young age to want to push myself so much further out of my comfort zone.”
If we view failure as weakness, we avoid stepping out of our comfort zone.
What has been the greatest lesson you have learned when taking a chance? Please share with us.
| A．And, most importantly, it means you tried. |
| B．Let's take a look at how Sara faced failures. |
| C．In reality, Sara's father had re-defined failure. |
| D．Early on, Sara overcame a series of difficulties. |
| E．Instead, we must remind ourselves that failure is an action. |
| F．It is important to reflect on what can be learnt from failure. |
| G．We tend to connect failure with a bad experience we had as a child. |
5 . Nowadays mail delivery is a little different. I still get my mail from my mailbox. Nothing, but my neighbors’ mail. I thought that was curious.
I proceeded to take my neighbors’ mail to them. I was about to put the mail in their mailbox when a tall man came running out shouting about messing with his friend's mail. He snatched (夺过) the mail from my hand, opened the mailbox and pointed to the mail inside.“You were after this.
I shook my head, “No, believe me. I got this mail by mistake in my box today. I was just bringing it to them.” He gave me a funny look and went back into his house.
I got the knock on the door the next morning by two very polite officers. The annoyed tall man had phoned the police and told them I was a crazy old woman going around mixing up everyone's mail. Before I could finish telling them about what was going on, the officers had watched a dog approach my mailbox with mail in his mouth. He took out the mail that was in my box and put letters in. He pushed the door closed with his nose, picked up the new pile of mail he had gotten from my box, and repeated this all the way down the next street. We all started laughing.
The dog had belonged to a mail carrier who had died. No one thought to check (the carrier lived alone) on the man’s dog. The dog had been trained to put mail in and take mail out of the boxes. When he got loose, he assumed his duties.
I went by to talk to the annoyed tall man to fill him in on what had happened. He was very pleased when he realized I was not a mail thief. He did, however, adopt the little guy.
1. Why did the tall man give the author a funny look?| A．To show his disbelief. | B．To express his curiosity. |
| C．To contain his annoyance. | D．To hide his embarrassment. |
| A．By analyzing the case. | B．By witnessing the mix-up. |
| C．By questioning the author. | D．By consulting the tall man. |
| A．was well-trained and devoted | B．used to live a lonely and busy life |
| C．was assigned to replace the carrier | D．guarded the mail in the neighborhood |
| A．A mail service | B．A dog’s tale |
| C．Special delivery | D．Noble duties |
Everything about moving day was a puzzle. I didn't know anything about our new building on a new street. Our old life was broken into pieces and packed up in piled boxes. I wondered if it would ever fit back together again.
Mom introduced me to our new neighbours, the Chens. Mrs Chen worked with Mom at the job she'd just started. Mr Chen was a famous craftsman(匠人) from China.
Mom said it was a fresh start, but it felt broken to me. I just wanted things to go back to how they had been before.
After the first day at my new school, I walked home alone. Mom had told me she had to work. I was still hoping she'd meet me after the bell. I had to open the door myself with the new key. I felt a bit hungry and went straight into the kitchen, ripping tape from the packed boxes while I searched for a clean plate. My fingers slipped, and something went crashing to the ground.
“Benjamin” cried Mom from the doorway. I didn't hear her come in. “What just broke?” she asked, kneeling to pick up the pieces. In her hands, I recognized the shattered pieces. It was Grandma's bowl. “I can't believe you broke this,” she said.
“Well, I can't believe we have to live here now! I can't believe I have to switch schools, and I can't believe you didn't even meet me after my first day” I ran into my room, slamming the door behind me.
The broom swept across the kitchen floor. Then the click of Mom's bedroom door closed behind her. I sneaked out into the kitchen and found the fragments in the dustbin. There were so many pieces in here, but maybe I could put them back together. Turning the pieces, I tried to match them,but this bowl would never look the same again.
“I'm sorry I yelled,” said Mom, as she opened her door. “Please just throw out the pieces. We can't make a fresh start with broken things.”
As I wandered down the hall, Mr Chen was emptying his garbage.
注意：
1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 续写部分分为两段,每段的开头语已为你写好。
Paragraph 1：
“Are you sure you want to throw that out?” he asked.
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Paragraph 2：
I brought the repaired bowl into her room.
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7 . A woman is volunteering in ashelter. It all started because she missed her own
Sandy was at a loss when her beloved Angus died last year — terribly lonely, yet not quite
Remembering that her dog had loved being read to, she brought along a
It's now been 18 months sinceSandy first began
Sandy was
Inspired by Sandy's style of
| A．husband | B．kid | C．dog | D．animal |
| A．ready | B．free | C．sorry | D．grateful |
| A．However | B．Meanwhile | C．Besides | D．Therefore |
| A．comforting | B．admiring | C．missing | D．helping |
| A．toy | B．book | C．camera | D．photo |
| A．settling into | B．stealing into | C．heading for | D．looking for |
| A．duty | B．work | C．good | D．wrong |
| A．uneasy | B．unsure | C．unhappy | D．unaware |
| A．reading | B．attending | C．waving | D．whispering |
| A．content | B．patient | C．strict | D．careful |
| A．interviewed | B．trained | C．petted | D．photographed |
| A．teaching | B．living | C．thinking | D．volunteering |
| A．accepted | B．predicted | C．recorded | D．organized |
| A．involved | B．experienced | C．united | D．relaxed |
| A．competition | B．company | C．service | D．advice |
I was lacking in everything needed to start a new friendship.
My parents moved to the town when they decided to look for new jobs but they didn’t realize I was really hurt when I said goodbye to my old friends. It felt awful to be a new student in the school and when my classmates were chatting, what I could do was to be caught up in my thoughts watching the clouds outside the window. I was not good at math or history; nor was I good at drawing or dancing. I was shy and timid. I had a few friends back at my hometown and it seemed that they were the only ones who I could be friends with for my whole life. I felt I had achieved a point of saturation with regard to having friends and I could make no further addition to my friend list. I was ashamed of myself, so I believed I deserved no notice from others until Emily came to my world.
Emily was fearless, outspoken and easy to go. She was everything I was not and I was too shy to come out of my shell. I met Emily in school almost every day and yet I never talked to her. We were in the same class but we were like poles apart. How I wished I could be like her or at least be a friend of hers!
It was another ordinary day.
I wandered to the bus stop in the morning and waited for the school bus. Birds were singing songs with their friends but who could I sing songs with? I got on the bus and went straight to my usual seat, complaining in a low voice about getting up early and going to school like every other day, and about how things were going to be the same all over again. Little did I realize something different would happen that day.
Para. 1:
When I got up to get down the bus, my schoolbag was stuck in the armrest. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Para. 2:
I got noticed by Emily, who brought me courage to start a new friendship!
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