Tomato Changed My Life
Doing things-without being planned was never my strength.
As a 14-year-old, I would refuse to go for walks around the block with my friends if I was the least bit behind in my schoolwork.
Unlike most teenagers, I lived not in my room, but in an unused kitchen upstairs where I spread my books and papers on a large round table. I spent considerable time there, working continuously for hours, and my mother worried. She would try to lure (引诱) me away. “Come and watch the parade!” she would call from downstairs. “All neighbors are out there!” She thought of all kinds of tricks-the swimming pool, ice cream, stray cats and turtles-to remove me from my -studies, but nothing ever worked.
Later, in college, the pattern continued. The library and my college dorm replaced the unused kitchen at home. When spring came along friends would stop by my dorm or peer into my library room to persuade me to play Frisbee on the lawn. “No, I would almost always say.” I have too much to do.
My college study days were gone, but not my need and love for schedules. My friends and sisters tried to keep me away from my plans, but they were hardly ever successful.
This summer, though, while house sitting for my parents, I was persuaded to change my plans in the most unexpected way. The sight of tomatoes growing in my mother’s garden lured me out of my tightly scheduled world. They drew me with the power of a lover’s gaze. Hundreds of them were turning ripe and red by the minute, decorating the garden like decorations on a Christmas tree.
“If I have time, I’ll make tomato sauce (番茄酱).” I told myself. But my long week in the house by myself was already filled with things to do: writing, and finishing a project that I brought home from the office.
Then, watching the fascinating tomatoes continuously falling to the ground in ever-greater numbers, again I mentally argued about all the things I had planned and needed to do.
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。
Finally, I gave in.
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A month later, my parents came back.
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Golden Girl
When your mother enters her ninth decade, you make a point of being a little extra careful for any signs of decline—memory loss, repetition and the like.
Thankfully, my mother has been blessed with good health, and her mental state seems to have remained alright. But when she got inked at such an advanced age, I had to wonder.
My mother looks just like many grandmothers, short, slightly fat and white-haired. She’s rosy-cheeked and jolly, and when she laughs her eyes almost seem to disappear behind her fleshy cheeks. She comes from an old, traditional family. She was a career civil servant. In short, she didn’t do crazy suff.
That all changed a few years ago. She began to surprise my older brother and me with what she described as “independence.” At the time, we merely saw them as examples of irresponsibility and possibly age-related questionable judgment.
In early 2015, the year she turned 75, she informed us she’d booked a seven-night trip to Turkey. Alone. Because she had never been. Of course, that was astonishing. There was no way my brother and I could allow that. A shaky little old lady wandering the streets of Istanbul on her own, not speaking a word of Turkish, with no knowledge of the laws and customs of the land—it was out of the question!
She paid no attention to us. Off she went. When she returned, she told us it had been a wonderful success. As it turns out, she had barely spent any time alone after hiring a taxi driver to show her around Istanbul for a few days. He took her to open-air markets, parks, and restaurants. He introduced her to a rug(小地毯)seller named Mustafa, “a lovely fellow,” and she bought some rugs. The seller had taken her address details and promised to ship the rugs home. The seller and my mother apparently struck up quite a friendship and she had told him to please drop by if he were ever in Canada. My mother beamed as she told this story.
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。
We couldn’t believe how naïve (幼稚) she had been and sat her down to explain that she had been tricked.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“Mustafa dropped by for a cup of tea as we used to drink a lot in Turkey.” my mother told my brother and me.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________3 . “A new student is waiting in your room.” My principal announced. “Name’s Mary. I’ll talk to you about her.” I nodded, some materials in my hands. “Fine,” I said. “We’re making valentine envelopes, a good way for her to get
She sat in the back of the room, her hands
The bell rang, little time to worry about Mary. After
I returned and grabbed a chance to explain this to my students. “It may be a long time
Later on a March day, my children noticed the flowers
“God, you’ve given us a
| A．involved | B．promoted | C．adopted | D．proposed |
| A．spread | B．folded | C．swung | D．extended |
| A．movement | B．response | C．complaint | D．cooperation |
| A．strange | B．full | C．sharp | D．empty |
| A．sliding | B．securing | C．settling | D．seeking |
| A．presence | B．absence | C．existence | D．violence |
| A．crazy | B．withdrawn | C．aggressive | D．risky |
| A．kindness | B．mercy | C．love | D．comfort |
| A．after | B．when | C．until | D．before |
| A．comments | B．reactions | C．approaches | D．impressions |
| A．came up | B．took up | C．came out | D．took out |
| A．grades | B．spirits | C．insights | D．relations |
| A．otherwise | B．furthermore | C．therefore | D．nevertheless |
| A．normal | B．pretty | C．depressed | D．lovely |
| A．gift | B．talent | C．miracle | D．basket |
Throughout our lives, we have encountered a lot of people that have influenced us in some sense. Their effect may be for one day or a lifetime. Often, you don’t realize how much influence someone has made on you until a particular moment. The man who made a big influence on me was my father.
Three months after turning fourteen, my life was great. I was getting settled into a high school; my grades were already getting better and I was making friends.
One day, when I got back from school, I went to the sitting room and saw my parents having a conversation. They came up to me and asked me to take a seat, because they wanted to say something very important. I soon found out that my dad’s liver(肝脏) was failing and he needed an immediate transplant(器官移植). I was surprised and bewildered(不知所措的) because my father looked all right. He worked, and he didn’t seem ill. My parents said I shouldn’t be afraid, because it was going to be all right. Four months had gone by, and my father had yet to get a new liver. It looked as if his body was steadily worsening, but he kept saying, “Dear, everything will be just fine.”
It was becoming difficult for me and my family. My father had to give up work, and my mother was the sole breadwinner(养家糊口的人). I had to bear the responsibilities of cleaning up the house making food, and looking after my father when my mother was at work. I had to limit my time with my friends, because my father started coming in and out of the hospital. My concentration on the subject was beginning to slip away. So were my grades. Two days before my school spring break, my mother got a phone call from the hospital, saying my father had an accident and was in hospital. What surprised me was that my father wasn’t injured at all. Then the next day, my mother got a phone call from the doctor saying that there was a liver that matched my dad’s body and that he needed to get to the hospital immediately.
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。
My parents and I hurried to the hospital.
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I had to take on so many responsibilities at home.
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The first of June, the King family was going on holiday tomorrow. The girls no longer had to do housework for the family, so there would be three months’ free time for them, and all the girls cheered up, jumping up and down with excitement. “Vacation, finally!” shouted Meg, coming home to find Jo already lying on the sofa. They started to plan what they would do on the vacation. All the girls reached an agreement that they would not do anything for a while, but play all the time and rest if their mother didn’t mind. “May we all try what we want to do, Mother?” asked Meg. Mrs March agreed to the plan and said they could try the experiment for a week. “It will be wonderful, I’m sure,” said Meg. “Fun forever, and no work!” cried Jo.
The next morning, Meg spent the morning with a friend and the afternoon reading in the apple tree. Jo pulled all her toys out of her closet but then left them to play some music. Amy put on her best dress and went outside to draw, hoping someone would notice the beautiful young artist. No one appeared, so she went for a walk, got caught in the rain, and came home dripping.
In the evening, they all assured their mother the experiment was going well. She smiled, said nothing, and did her work, keeping their home pleasant and running smoothly.
The week seemed to get longer and longer with nothing much to do, and it affected all three girls. Meg found time hanging heavily and read till her eyes hurt and she was sick of books. Jo sometimes suddenly shook her doll and shouted at it. Amy was quite bored, for she didn’t like dolls or reading, and she couldn’t draw all the time. By Friday the girls were glad that it was nearly over, but no one would admit that they were tired of the experiment.
On Saturday morning, the girls got up to find no breakfast and no mother to be seen.
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At this time, Mrs March returned and the girls rushed to their mother with a sense of achievement.
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6 . Sara Hinesley, who is 10, doesn’t understand why it is so remarkable that she won a national handwriting competition.
Sara, a third-grade student at St. John Regional Catholie School in Frederick, Maryland, won the 2019 Nicholas Maxim award for her cursive (草书的) handwriting.
She paints and draws, and sculpts clay. She can write in English and some Chinese. When she learnt to write in cursive this year, Sara said, she thought it was “kind of easy”. This is all despite the fact that Sara was born without hands.
To write, Sara holds her pencil between her arms and then focuses on the shapes of letters, each point and curve. “Writing in cursive feels like creating art work,” Sara said. “I like the way the letters are formed. It’s kind of art.”
Sara has never worn a prosthesis (artificial arms), and when she is offered help or a tool that might ease some tasks — such as cutting paper with scissors — she rejects it, said her mother, Cathryn Hinesley She has this independent trend where she just knows that she can do it and she'll figure out her own way. She is beautiful and strong and mighty just the way she is, and she just lives that way. She really does. She moves through life in this way that you never really see her as having a disability because she has a “can do, I-can-solve-anything attitude”
“Sara is an evidence of strong will and the human spirit,” Cathryn said. “Every day I am amazed at the things she is capable to do and that she chooses to do. She doesn't attempt to find her way to avoid s difficulty. She finds a way to finish the task.”
Sara received her national award — a medal — at an award ceremony on June 13, where she was also given a $500 prize. She is the first student from St. John’s to ever receive the Nicholas Maxim award.
1. We can infer from the first sentence that .| A．Sara makes every effort to win the award |
| B．Sara considers it easy to win the award |
| C．Sara doesn’t take the award seriously |
| D．Sara is excited at winning the award |
| A．Brave. | B．Intelligent. | C．Generous. | D．Strong-minded. |
| A．She expects Sara to be independent. | B．She is greatly proud of Sara. |
| C．She doesn’t think Sara has a disability. | D．She is concerned about Sara's future. |
| A．Health. | B．Education. | C．Science. | D．Entertainment. |
7 . A five-year-old dog named Kelsey has been praised as a hero for helping to save the life of her owner who slipped in the snow and broke his neck.
The man, Bob, was alone when he left his Michigan farm house on New Year’s Eve to collect firewood. Expecting a journey of only several meters, Bob was wearing just long johns (衬裤), a shirt and slippers when he went outside, although the temperature was around -4℃.
After the accident, he was unable to move in the snow. Fortunately, Kelsey came to his assistance. “I was shouting for help, but my nearest neighbor is about 400 meters away, and it was 10:30 pm,” Bob explained. “But my Kelsey came. By the next morning, my voice was gone and I couldn’t yell for help, but Kelsey didn’t stop barking.” Kelsey’s companion kept him warm by lying on top of him. She licked his face and hands to keep him awake. “Kelsey kept barking but never left my side,” Bob recalled. “She kept me warm. I knew I couldn’t give up and that it was my choice to stay alive.”
Bob spent 20 hours in the freezing cold. When he finally lost consciousness, his dog kept barking. Finally, hearing the barking, Bob’s neighbor discovered him at 6:30 pm on New Year’s Day and called the emergency services at once. When Bob arrived in hospital, his body temperature was below 21 ℃. However, doctors were surprised to find that he didn’t have any frostbite (冻疮). They believed it was because of Kelsey’s determination to keep him warm. Dr. Chaim Colen, the doctor who treated Bob, said, “Animals can help and his dog really saved him...He was very fortunate.”
Bob said, “I was very grateful to both Dr. Colen and my Kelsey. They saved my life. They are truly heroes!”
1. What happened to Bob on New Year’s Eve?| A．He left his dog alone in his farmhouse. | B．He was praised for saving a dog owner. |
| C．He broke his neck and couldn’t move. | D．He heard his neighbor’s shouting for help. |
| A．To keep warm. | B．To stay alive. |
| C．To keep Bob awake. | D．To seek help from others. |
| A．Helpful. | B．Fortunate. | C．Terrible. | D．Friendly. |
| A．A Neck-breaking Accident | B．The Magic Night |
| C．Warmth on a Winter’s Night | D．Determination to Keep Alive |
8 . Johan and his younger brother, Rahim, had an unforgettable fishing experience. They could not spend the evening
That evening, Rahim decided to
While out at sea Rahim helped
Excited about the
”A big fish must have damaged the net while trying to escape,“ Johan
| A．changing | B．revising | C．neglecting | D．assigning |
| A．unwell | B．unfair | C．unhappy | D．unwilling |
| A．purchase | B．sell | C．assess | D．feed |
| A．dive into | B．watch for | C．leave for | D．sail across |
| A．spot | B．view | C．net | D．help |
| A．float | B．equip | C．load | D．weave |
| A．lift | B．control | C．take | D．push |
| A．practical | B．promising | C．boring | D．tough |
| A．books | B．compasses | C．purses | D．glasses |
| A．balanced | B．rocked | C．wound | D．worked |
| A．casually | B．eventually | C．tightly | D．sharply |
| A．satisfied | B．confused | C．experienced | D．scared |
| A．edge | B．board | C．shelter | D．direction |
| A．wave | B．sound | C．catch | D．plan |
| A．gentler | B．farther | C．quicker | D．closer |
| A．knife | B．fish | C．stone | D．hole |
| A．responded | B．admitted | C．sighed | D．added |
| A．Empty-handed | B．Cold-hearted | C．Bad-tempered | D．Single-minded |
| A．hopeful | B．proud | C．doubtful | D．cautious |
| A．solution | B．vain | C．virtue | D．effort |
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（Λ），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：
1.每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2.只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起)不计分。
While leaving a shop, I heard a conversation between a staff member and a lady, whom was looking to enter the shop with her dog. A staff member was apologizing that the dog not permitted to enter—it wasn’t a support dog. The lady turned to leave out. I called out to her to wait and offer to look after the dog. She was surprised, and half joking asked if I was going to steal her dog. I told her I was a pet lover either. I then spent lovely 20 minutes get to know Baxter while its owner took his time to do the shopping. How a wonderful experience!
10 . When my son Mark was eight years old, his teacher
In
“Make it a lucky cut, ” I
“Well, did you do your homework?” the
“Yeah. ”Mark replied.
“Do you have confidence?” barber Joe asked.
“Confidence. C-O-N-F-I-D-E-N-C-E. Confidence. A lot of people spell that one
“Sure. You can spell it, ” barber Joe
And he did. And the pizza was
After thinking a bit, Mark replied, “
| A．gave | B．accomplished | C．announced | D．adapted |
| A．barely | B．badly | C．partly | D．sightly |
| A．taste | B．donate | C．apply | D．make |
| A．fear | B．need | C．favour | D．honor |
| A．when | B．before | C．after | D．since |
| A．instructed | B．begged | C．pleased | D．blessed |
| A．taking | B．catching | C．competing | D．turning |
| A．mother | B．barber | C．cook | D．reporter |
| A．right | B．serious | C．perfect | D．wrong |
| A．responded | B．interrupted | C．signed | D．remarked |
| A．discoveries | B．tasks | C．legs | D．arms |
| A．careful | B．content | C．casual | D．aimless |
| A．explained | B．added | C．found | D．introduced |
| A．free | B．bitter | C．spare | D．heavenly |
| A．me | B．yourself | C．ourselves | D．you |
| A．Months | B．Weeks | C．Decades | D．Seasons |
| A．regarding | B．disguising | C．establishing | D．taking |
| A．led | B．dealt | C．caught | D．did |
| A．pull it off | B．pull it in | C．pull it out | D．put it back |
| A．Perseverance | B．Passion | C．Attitude | D．Confidence |
