Logan was a brilliant student. He had committed to doing everything it took to win a scholarship to study at a good university. But nothing was more important to the 17-year-old boy than supporting his mother who was sick. After school hours, he would work as a bagboy at the local grocery store. Together, Logan and his mother managed to make ends meet while still fighting to achieve bigger dreams.
Now right outside the grocery store, Logan spotted a familiar face. “Mr. Peters!” Logan called out to the old man holding crutches (拐杖), whom he recognized as his new neighbor. Mr. Peters waved at Logan. Logan happily helped the old man find what he needed and helped him bill the items, too.
“That will be $23, Mr. Peters,” Logan said.
Mr. Peters was taken aback by the bill’s amount. He asked, “And how much without the fruits?”
“$19, sir.”
“I see.” Mr. Peters looked in his wallet. He studied the bill and said, “Actually, I’ll just take the greens, thank you.”
“You know what? Here, let me pay for your order. It looks like you may have … left your card at home or something.”
Mr. Peters didn’t see this kind gesture coming, and even though it hurt his pride a little, he accepted the boy’s help.
Logan paid for the order and handed the bags to the old man. But Mr. Peters could only move a few steps forward as he tried to hold all the groceries without the crutches slipping away Logan rushed to Mr. Peters and offered to carry the groceries to his home. It was a short walk, but the two men were engaged in conversation all the way.
“What are you doing working at a grocery store? You look like you should be in college!” Mr. Peter asked.
On listening to Logan’s story, Mr. Peters was moved and thought he should do something. “It was lovely to meet you, Logan. Maybe you could pop in after your shift at the store today?” he asked.
Logan agreed, suspecting that the man probably needed some help around the house.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；2. 请按如下格式在相应位置作答。
After work, Logan knocked on his neighbor’s door and discovered the most astonishing thing about the old man.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“I’ve asked some former workmates to notice a scholarship application from a young man named Logan,” Mr. Peters continued.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________2 . My mom enjoyed inviting people for Thanksgiving. After my family moved far away from all our
I missed our big family gatherings before moving here, but Mom had a(n)
Our first guests arrived: three foreign exchange students. Mom’s original plan was to
After dinner, Mom suggested sharing something we were thankful for—another annual
Suddenly something
| A．colleagues | B．relatives | C．neighbours | D．strangers |
| A．close | B．random | C．specific | D．favorite |
| A．generous | B．energetic | C．curious | D．powerful |
| A．applicants | B．beggars | C．population | D．volunteers |
| A．shelter | B．award | C．repay | D．host |
| A．set out | B．took over | C．broke down | D．showed up |
| A．burst | B．dropped | C．pulled | D．fell |
| A．recovered | B．declined | C．rose | D．stretched |
| A．exploded | B．suffered | C．slid | D．withdrew |
| A．impressive | B．unlucky | C．unusual | D．awesome |
| A．contest | B．opportunity | C．anticipation | D．tradition |
| A．grateful | B．sympathetic | C．familiar | D．addicted |
| A．cost | B．worked | C．remained | D．meant |
| A．inspired | B．convinced | C．struck | D．drilled |
| A．welfare | B．community | C．friendship | D．future |
One afternoon after school, Mary and her brother, Keith, were eating at a cafe near their home. That afternoon, they had to share their table with another person. That person was a young lady in her twenties. After eating, she went to the restroom. Without realizing, she had left her cellphone on the table. Five minutes later, she came out and walked out of the cafe without looking back.
Mary saw the cellphone on the table. She quickly told Keith, “Keith, the girl left behind her cellphone.”Keith looked at the cellphone. It took his breath away. It was one of the latest models on the market. Keith had always wanted a cellphone. But his parents had told him, “You don’t need one. You can always use the house phone.” He stared at it for some minutes. Then, he said slowly, pausing on every word, “I want to take the cellphone.” Mary could not believe her ears. She only stared at her brother, “You can’t! What if the owner comes to look for it?”
After making the decision, Keith quickly got the cellphone and put it in his schoolbag. Then, he took Mary’s hand and led her out of the cafe quickly.
Once back home, Keith locked his room door with trembling (颤抖的) hands. Inside his room, he took out the piece of beauty. Oh, he liked it so much. He had his own cellphone. Soon, he was polishing it happily. But Mary told him, “Keith, you cannot keep the cellphone. What will you tell our father about this? He will ask you how you got the cellphone.” Keith said quickly, “I will say a friend lent it to me.” Mary said, “Now you are lying too. Oh dear! When had Keith turned so dishonest?”
Then, Mary saw a house phone number on the cover of the cellphone. “This is the girl’s phone number. Why don’t we just call this number? We will talk to her and ask her to come and take back her cellphone,” she was trying to talk some sense into him.
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。
That night, Keith turned over in bed from time to time.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Mary was very happy to hear that.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The Bicycle
When I was nine I needed to earn some money, so I asked Mr. Miceli, the newspaper publisher in my Chicago neighbourhood, about an after-school paper route. He agreed only if I had a bicycle.
My dad bought me a used bike, but right after that he fell ill and couldn’t teach me to ride. Mr. Miceli, however, merely asked to see the bike. So I walked to his garage, showed it to him and got the job.
At first, I filled my delivery bag with rolled papers over the handlebars and walked my bike down the sidewalks. But pushing a bike with a load of papers was awkward; after a few days I borrowed Mom’s two-wheeled shopping cart.
It took me longer to make my deliveries by cart, but I didn’t mind. I sent each paper to its proper destination. In rain or snow, I put Dad’s old raincoat over the cart to keep the papers dry. I got to meet everyone in the neighborhood — working-class people of Italian, German or Polish origins who were invariably kind to me.
When Dad returned from the hospital, he was too weak to resume his original job. Now we needed every penny we could raise to pay bills, so we sold the bike. Mr. Miceli must have known I wasn’t using a bike, but he said nothing about it to me.
On the Thursday evening before Christmas, 1951, I rang my first customer’s doorbell. Even though the lights were on, nobody answered, so I went on to the next house. No answer, nor did anyone respond at the next family on my route, or the one after.
I was very worried; I had to pay for my papers every Friday. And while it was almost Christmas, I never thought that everyone would be out shopping. So I was very happy when, going up the walkway to Mr. Gordon’s house, I heard music and voices. I rang the bell.
注意：
1. 续写词数应为 150 左右；
2. 请在答题卡的相应位置作答。
The door flew open, and Mr. Gordon dragged me inside.
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After walking the bicycle home, I opened those envelopes.
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5 . At age 23, Chad’s life was just beginning. But one night, a drunk driver crashed into his motorcycle and his leg was severely injured. To save the leg, Chad went through operation after operation, but in vain. When the doctor announced the leg had to come off, Chad sank into a bitter desperation. How would he function with only one leg? Would he have the family he had always dreamed of? And how would he ever pay off the hospital bills?
Nothing we did eased his deep frustration. One night, I brought Gene, the husband of my colleague, to Chad’s hospital room. Gene joked with Chad at once, telling him he was “on his last leg”. Chad exploded, “How can you talk like that when they’re going to cut off my leg?” Gene just bent over, rolled up his trousers and revealed his own prosthesis (假肢). I left them alone.
When I returned an hour later, the light had come back into Chad’s eyes. “Gene said that people who give to others always get back more than they give. He said I should not worry about my future and the most important thing was never to give up.”
Four months later, Chad was back at work. He remembered Gene’s words. He learned to ride a bicycle with his fake leg, swam one-legged and practiced running slow. However, the hardest problem was how he would ever get back on his “foot” financially. The hospital bills would take him thirty years to pay.
His doctor often called to ask him to rush to the hospital and offer comfort to an injury victim. No matter how tired Chad was, no matter when he was called, he would drop everything to help. One day, he received a different call. “Chad,” the doctor began, “I am calling to tell you that a stranger has just paid all your medical bills.”
Gene was right. People who give freely to others get back more than they give.
1. What can we learn about Chad after the accident?| A．He felt concerned about his future. | B．He left the hospital in desperation. |
| C．He regretted riding the motorcycle. | D．He refused to receive the treatment. |
| A．He tended Chad carefully and lovingly. |
| B．He offered some funny words of comfort. |
| C．He shared a similar story of his own with Chad. |
| D．He proved to be capable of swimming one-legged. |
| A．Determined and helpful. | B．Caring and humorous. |
| C．Confident and cooperative. | D．Ambitious and warmhearted. |
| A．Love breaks down barriers. | B．Kindness is always rewarded. |
| C．A good medicine tastes bitter. | D．He who laughs last laughs best. |
May 18, 1986, was the kind of beautiful, sunny day that regularly brought the Rodriguez family to Santa Catalina Island for some fishing on their nine-metre pleasure boat, the DC Too. They spent the day fishing in the Pacific Ocean, then left the island in the early evening.
Soon thick fog rolled in. Louise fell into a light sleep beside her five-year-old sister, Trisha, at a table on the boat’s lower deck. Their father’s sharp orders frightened her awake: “Get out of the boat. It’s sinking!” Louise pushed her sister into the cold, dark water. The girls were followed by their mother, Petra Rodriguez. Both girls wore life jackets,but the adults did not. Within seconds, the boat capsized, leaving just the tip of its bow in the air.
After some time, her father told them he would swim for help. Louise watched him disappear into the darkness. A while later, her mother went still. Then her sister died, too.
Pisano and Strasser, both 25, were going on a fishing expedition. The fog was so thick that they couldn’t even see the stern(船尾) of the boat. They decided to try one more spot before going home. Late that afternoon, the fog cleared and the sun started shining. On their return voyage, about 11 kilometres away from Catalina Island, Pisano noticed something yellow floating in the water.
Strasser steered(驾驶) the boat closer and Pisano jumped into the water. He swam toward the figure and grabbed the life jacket. Fortunately, Louise was saved and quickly sent to hospital. The little girl soon recovered, but the search for Louise’s father, sister and mother was in vain.
Louise was adopted by her aunt and uncle. She attended college, got married in 2013 and gave birth to a son. In her late 20s, Louise began to wonder about her rescuers. She even tried to find them but no luck. One day, Louise came across a magazine article featuring Pisano talking about the 1986 rescue.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Realizing Pisano was the very person she was looking for, Louise decided to find him.
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Louise recognized her rescuer the moment she saw Pisano.
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7 . Literature was something I was interested in. At school I was that kid who stuck his hand up to
I lived then in Lagos. The ghetto landlords had unlimited
However, after finishing my A-levels, I had a job working for a paint company.
The first
Then, one morning, a letter came from Longmans' African Writers’ series. I remember giving a cry of
| A．think | B．read | C．cry | D．speak |
| A．libraries | B．charities | C．exhibitions | D．attractions |
| A．act | B．write | C．cook | D．paint |
| A．talents | B．wealth | C．powers | D．freedom |
| A．friendship | B．possibilities | C．injustices | D．welfare |
| A．memory | B．suffering | C．service | D．adventure |
| A．Traffic | B．Climate | C．Accommodation | D．Security |
| A．making up for | B．getting down to | C．looking forward to | D．setting out for |
| A．resigned | B．retired | C．returned | D．resolved |
| A．option | B．draft | C．visit | D．picture |
| A．freed | B．inspired | C．fired | D．prevented |
| A．re-writing | B．withdrawing | C．job-hunting | D．exploring |
| A．friends | B．teachers | C．writers | D．publishers |
| A．fear | B．joy | C．pain | D．sorrow |
| A．ended | B．changed | C．began | D．improved |
8 . When Narayanswami was invited to a dinner by a friend who worked at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, she was excited. Many of the guests flew planes. “I must have expressed some yearning(渴望),”she says, because someone told her “You should join the flying club!” The next day Narayanswami, who was 57 at the time, arranged to meet an instructor. “I said ‘Aren’t I too old?” He said “We’ve got students in their 80s.”
Narayanswami grew up in Southwest London, and at grammar school suffered horrific racist bullying. The library provided shelter. But, as she reached her late teens, she feel family pressure for an arranged marriage; “I really protested,” she says. “But I want to be an astronaut! My mother made a promise. As long as you are getting an education we will not look for a husband for you.”
Narayanswami studied biology at Leicester University, then did a PhD at St Andrew, followed by postdoctoral research at the University of California. “Every time you move you get further away,” her dad remarked on the phone. “I didn’t feel I would be able to escape unless I did that,” she says.
In 2020, aged 64, Narayanswami finished 423 flight hours she needed to earn her pilot's license. Then she applied to Nasa’s astronaut corps, but received a very appreciative rejection. Even now, at 66, she says “I haven't been able to figure out how to deal with it. It doesn’t go away.” The racist bullying she received as a child has cast a very long shadow.
Flying has helped. It is a workout: she has to tow the plane out to the taxiway. And it offers a different perspective. “I can see eagles, bears, mountain lions, birds of prey. I love the beauty of the clouds. They are like hills. Vaster than our hills,” she says.
New possibilities have arisen—Narayanswami chairs the board of the General Aviation Awards in the US—but she finds relaxing difficult. In flight, she is part of a huge network of people who are communicating by radio frequency. There is no sense of skin colour. We are all tied together by our voices.
1. How did the instructor’s words sound to Narayanswami?| A．Disappointing. | B．Embarrassing. |
| C．Annoying. | D．Encouraging. |
| A．Accepting an aged marriage. | B．Receiving an education. |
| C．Keeping a distance. | D．Making a promise: |
| A．It indicates prejudice against her. | B．It ruins her childhood memory. |
| C．It raises concern for her age. | D．It leaves room for negotiation. |
| A．A good way of relaxation. | B．A different dimension of life. |
| C．A rich knowledge of wildlife. | D．A full exhibition of leadership. |
9 . Throughout history, people have promoted stories of curse. Here are some famous ones.
King Tut's Curse
In 1923, a British archaeological team opened the tomb of "King Tut". Two months later, when the team's sponsor died from a bacterial infection, British newspapers claimed that was because of "King Tut's curse". Whenever other members of the team died, the media mentioned the curse gain.
Though it's not clear how many people took the curses seriously, these stories became popular subjects for some horror movies and comedies.
The Curse of the Polish King's tomb
In 1973, a group of archaeologists opened the tomb of Polish king Casimir IV in Poland. European media covered the great event, and the researchers joked they were risking a curse on the tomb by opening it.
When some team members began to die shortly after, some media suspected it was due to a curse. Later, experts discovered traces of deadly bacteria inside the tomb that could cause lung illnesses when breathed in.
The Curse of Tippecanoe
In the mid-20th century, US media began to note a pattern that, starting with Harrison and ending with Kennedy, every 20years the country elected a president to die in office.
Believe It or Not claimed the "pattern" was due to a curse placed by the chief of Shawnee, Tecumseh, on Harrison and future presidents after Harrison's troops defeated Tecumseh's at the battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. This story bears a similarity to other "curses" in US books and movies about disturbing Native burial grounds.
1. What can be learned from the first two curses?| A．It was the media that made up the curses. |
| B．Whoever opened the tombs would be cursed. |
| C．All he members died after the opening of the tombs. |
| D．The bacteria in the tombs could probably cause the deaths. |
| A．evil spirits |
| B．loyal guards |
| C．powerful gods |
| D．American natives |
| A．Events. |
| B．Mystery. |
| C．Religion. |
| D．Entertainment. |
When I was a baby,my parents always gave me anything I waned. Then my dad died when l was three, and I got even more stuff as my mom, fiends and family tried to make me feel better. Mom continued to treat me to whatever I wanted until I was seven and my world changed.
My mom had thought buying houses was a good way to invest her money.But the real estate (房地产) market crashed. I went from the kid who got an iPod when his tooth fell out and who had the coolest house to hang out in, to literally haying nowhere to stay. Mom's best fiend Auntie Loren, took us in until Mom could figure out what to do.
After the real estate crash, when I asked fora new toy, or bike, or even to see a movie Mom would say "maybe for your birthday" or "I'm sorry honey, but we can't really afford that now." I didn't know it then, but Mom had grown up in a family where money was never a problem, so this change was as big for her as it was for me. My constant requests for toys and video games were not helping my mom, who was already a widow, deal with her feelings about our new crisis-our financial situation. But I wasn't used to hearing "no”. So for a year or two I kept asking.
Then something happened that would change my way of thinking forever. My mom had been working hard all year, just to pay for the necessities, like our water and power bills. When she asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I said I wanted a new video gaming system . I didn't know it was expensive. All knew was that my friends had them and that I wanted one, too.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.请在答题卡的相应位置作答。
On my birthday believing that I would get what I wanted, I opened the gift.
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From then on, I did't expect to get everything that I asked for.
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