A Helping Hand
I spent most of my teenage years in an old farmhouse in the Durham County countryside. That was more than 30 years ago, but life there dated back to an even earlier era. I spent my summer days doing manual labor in the tobacco fields, while my summer evenings were spent preparing vegetables in the backyard. My fall weekends were often spent cutting wood and storing logs for the fire. Living where we did, we could see three or four other houses from our own, none of them within shouting distance. We knew our neighbors, most of whom were elderly. We usually offered our kindness when they needed help.
Jimmy lived across the street, on the far side of a tobacco field. He was seventy years old and lived alone. He lost his wife two years ago. He had barely supported himself these last couple of years since his health had gotten worse. One day, we went to visit him at his home. It was a small wooden house with dirty windows and a curtain that had been mended several times. The poor old man would sit in an armchair by the window, holding a faded photo, and with tears in his eyes, recall happy memories of his wife.
One weekend, my father went to check on Jimmy, but a rare heavy snow happened to fall. It was so heavy that he couldn’t get his old truck up Jimmy’s uneven (不平坦的), snow-covered road. Nobody could understand what made Dad climb the 400 yards or so to Jimmy's house. My brother and I were waiting anxiously at home. After a long time, he rushed home and told us that Jimmy was sick and had no firewood left.
My father asked us if we would like to help. We all nodded our heads willingly, but my brother was secretly worried. He asked my father how we could help. Although we could meet Jimmy's needs for things like food and firewood, my father held the belief that the loss of his wife made Jimmy unhappy, and wanted to offer Jimmy a moment of joy. We left the house and walked across the snow-covered fields. Our footprints went deep into the snow, only to disappear as the snow continued to fall. We headed across the field, aiming for Jimmy's house.
注意：1．词数80左右；
2．请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
We knocked on Jimmy’s door, and he greeted us.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________A Four-legged Guardian Angel
Snow had just melted off the ground that April day at our house in Regina Beach. I had just cleaned up the pool in preparation for selling the house. The year before, I had lost my job, and now our financial situation was depressing. Finally, I had put the home on the market. Even worse, I would have to give up my beloved Great Dane (大丹犬), Brigitte, because I could no longer afford the cost of feeding it. The thought of losing the dog and our beautiful home was almost more than I could bear.
Deep in discouragement, I sat typing up my application letters. Out of the corner of my eye I could see my thirteen-month-old son, Forrest, as he lay on the carpet, playing near our big, gentle Brigitte. It seemed as if Brigitte was always meant to be in this family and she turned out to be a perfect companion.
Brigitte came to our house on Christmas eve when the doorbell rang and I was sure some of my Christmas packages had arrived. I ran to the door but no one was there. I sensed something and looked down, only to find a beautiful Great Dane sitting there, looking up at me with big, intelligent eyes. Perhaps, someone had found the puppy somewhere and left her there, and then rang the doorbell and ran away. They accurately guessed I would welcome an additional family member and take care of her.
Thinking of these, I couldn’t help sighing and went straight back to work. However, I hadn’t typed more than two sentences when Brigitte began barking and running back and forth to the sliding glass door overlooking our pool.
I raced to see what was happening and noticed that the sliding door was slightly open. Suddenly, I realized Forrest was nowhere to be seen. In panic, I opened the door and ran outside.
注意：1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡相应位置作答。
There I was surprised to see Brigitte, who was terrified of water, dive into the pool.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Finally, the doctor said Forrest was all right and could be released from hospital.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________A cactus (仙人掌) stood all alone in the desert, wondering why it was stuck in the middle of the desert. “I do nothing but stand here all day,” it sighed. “What use do I have? I am the ugliest plant in the desert. My spines (刺) are thick, my leaves are tough, and my skin is uneven. I can’t offer shade or juice to the passing travellers. I don’t see that I am of any use at all.” All it did was stand in the sun day after day, growing taller and fatter. Its spines grew longer and its leaves grew tougher. It truly was strange-looking.
“I wish I could do something useful,” it signed. By day, hawks (鹰) circled high overhead, and the cactus called, “What can I do with my life?” Whether they heard or not, the hawks flew away. At night the moon floated into the sky and cast its pale light on the desert floor. “What can I do with my life?” the cactus called. The moon only stared coldly as it continued its course.
A lizard (蜥蜴) passed by, leaving a little trail in the sand with its tail. “What worthy deed can I do?” the cactus called. “You?” the lizard smiled, pausing a moment. “You can do something. Just wait for the right moment. The hawks circle their ways overhead, making beautiful patterns for us all to admire. The moon hangs high like a lantern at night, so we can see our ways home to our loved ones. Even I, the lowly lizard, have something to do. I decorate the sands with these beautiful trails as I pull my tail along. And you, you will show us your beauty some day.”
Paragraph 1:
It went on year after year, and the cactus grew old.
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Paragraph 2:
The desert hadn’t known such a flower of it.
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Five years ago, I had a nine-to-five job, and I usually commuted (通勤) to work by bus. Those long tiring hours of travelling were always annoying. But one day, it was healing.
It was a warm March evening, and I’d just taken a seat on the bus that would take me home. I sat in the third row, by the window, on the driver’s side. It was nearly 6:00 p.m., but the bus was not yet full and the driver gave no signs that he intended to get the bus on the road anytime soon.
A middle-aged woman took a seat opposite me. She was crying. Not speaking to anyone in particular, she tearfully told her story.
She had come to the city to visit her daughter. On the way to the last stop, a thief had stolen one of her bags. It had contained half of the money she’d brought with her. The other half was rolled in a handkerchief and hidden under her blouse, so she fortunately still had some money left.
The bus conductor, driver, and other passengers listened to her story. After a few minutes, she stopped crying, took out some cheese bread from her bag, and began to eat, looking still worried.
An old man in tattered (破旧的) clothes got on the bus. He sat in the seat directly in front of the woman.
After a few minutes, all seats were taken. The driver got behind the wheel and started the engine. The bus conductor collected tickets and began asking us where we were getting off. When he came to the old man’s seat, he became doubtful and asked the old man whether he had any money. The old man admitted that he did not. He explained that he had spent all his money this morning when he’d accidentally got on the wrong bus and now he was trying to go home.
注意：
1.所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2.续写部分分为两段, 每段的开头语已为你写好；
3.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Upon hearing this, the bus conductor ordered the old man to get off the bus.
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The woman seated behind the old man was also listening and observing the whole thing.
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On a snowy day Steve sat down on the usual seat in the Union Square. Every Thanksgiving for nine years he had sat down there at one in the afternoon. Every time, a wonderful thing happened to him, which made his heart feel full of joy.
On those other Thanksgiving Days, Steve usually had been hungry. But today Steve was not hungry. He had come from a dinner so big that he had almost no power to move. His body had suddenly become too big for his clothes; it seemed ready to break out of them. They were torn. You could see his skin through a hole in the front of his shirt. But the cold wind, with snow in it, felt pleasantly cool to him.
The dinner had not been expected. He had been passing a large house near the beginning of that great broad street called Fifth Avenue, where lived two ladies of an old family who had a deep love of tradition that on Thanksgiving Day food will be offered to the first hungry person to walk by. Today Steve happened to be the one to pass by on his way to the park.
Steve sat in the park, appearing to be waiting for somebody, but appearing not to expect something to happen. Suddenly his eyes grew wider and his breath stopped. For the old gentleman was coming across Fourth Avenue toward Steve’s seat.
Every Thanksgiving Day for nine years the old gentleman had come there to find Steve on his seat. Then he had led Steve to a restaurant and watched him eat a big dinner, which had been a part of Thanksgiving Day. The old gentleman was thin and tall and sixty. His hair was whiter and thinner than it had been last year. His legs shook, seeming not as strong as they were the year before.
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。
As this kind old gentleman came toward him, Steve began to shake and his breath was shorter.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________With these words, the old man looked into Steve' s eyes, expecting Steve to accept the dinner.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“Nothing will ever be the same again,” Ally said to herself.
Ally's father died last summer. It wasn't fair, Ally thought. Dad was young and had never been sick. Why had his heart suddenly stopped? Ally sank slow into her father's favorite chair and looked at his picture on the bookcase. Ally smiled. “I miss you, Dad,” she said softly.
At this moment, she felt a hand smoothing her hair and looked up. “Why don't you come outside with me, Ally?” her mother asked. “The birds are nesting in the woods. By this time last year you'd already taken dozens of pictures.”
But her mother must know birdwatching wouldn't be the same this year. How could it be? Ally wondered. Ever since she could remember she and Dad had been a team, searching the woods for the special wood warbler (林柳莺). “I'll be out in while, I promise,” she answered.
After her mother left, Ally reached for the photo album she and Dad had put together. On the cover was a photo of a tiny yellow bird with blue-gray wings and black eyes. Dad cut it from a local newspaper. Ally smiled, remembering the excited look on Dad's face when he showed her the pretty bird.
“I can't believe someone spotted this little guy way up here in New Jersey,” he said. “Wood warblers are usually found in the south, not this far north. I bet if we search really hard, Ally, we'll see this little guy together someday.”
Ally closed her eyes. She loved thinking about the times she and Dad had spent searching the woods for the little bird. They'd never spotted the warbler, but her father had an amazing way of making each outing seem special. He was her best friend.
注意：
1.续写的短文词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题纸的相应位置作答。
When they were together, Ally felt comfortable with her favorite blue sweatshirt on.
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Just then her mother came to her, carrying the old net.
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It was a pleasant morning. Meena was leaning out of her window and feeding the birds. The roads were empty because of COVID-19 lockdown. Just then a strong blow of wind came and Meena saw something flying in the air from distance. “Is it a kite?” Meena thought. As it came closer, Meena saw that it was a mask.
Curious to know where the mask came from, she ran to catch the mask and finally ran to the beach nearby. The mask fell into the sea water. As Meena looked around, she saw many masks floating in the sea and lying on the beach. She wondered where they came from.
Suddenly Meena heard a low voice nearby so helpless as if crying out for someone for help. She went closer to the voice – it was a huge turtle from the sea, with something stuck into his mouth. Apparently the turtle was choking (噎住) and in great pain. Meena moved closer to him, without wasting any time pulling it out of his mouth – it was a mask! The turtle finally recovered from the pain and seemed to express relief from his eyes as if to say “thank you” for her kindness.
Meena was sad to see so many masks thrown around. Just then she saw a man dumping rubbish here, with many single-use masks poured out. “Stop!” she screamed. “Please don’t throw the waste here. The turtle might swallow the mask again and fall sick!” The man stopped at once. He was sorry for his actions and decided to help clean the beach. He called a few people from the village to help them clean it. In no time the beach was free of rubbish.
Meena was happy and couldn’t wait to go home and tell her mother about it. Her mother was very proud of her, and told her the importance of throwing single-use masks into a rubbish bin so that animals wouldn’t swallow them. Yet Meena was still worried. She didn’t want the turtles to fall sick again due to people’s ignorance.
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。
“Shouldn’t I stop wearing a mask?” asked Meena.
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The next day Meena and her mother gave out their homemade cloth masks around the village.
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Peter woke up early in the morning. He went downstairs in a hurry and started to have hisbreakfast as quickly as possible.
“Why are you in such a hurry, early bird?" Mum asked him. “We will have an English spelling test today, Mum," Peter said. “Mr. White promised to offer prizes to those who get 100 scores. I've been studying the word list since last week. Although the words are difficult, I am well prepared for them.”
Peter reviewed the spelling of each word once more carefully when Dad drove down.
Thirty words later, the test papers were collected by Mr. White. “I am to mark your papers now," he told the class. After marking the test papers, Mr. White said, “Three of you won a prize today for excellent test scores. Peter. David and Mary got 100 percent on the spelling test!" Mr. White praised them. Meanwhile, he gave the three students each a dictionary. Peter's was an English-Chinese dictionary—the one he liked best. Peter was so excited that he held it high when his classmates cheered. "This is my happiest moment,” Peter thought.
After Mr. White gave the test paper back, Peter had a look at the words, feeling proud of his spelling. All of a sudden, the word “contribution" confused him. It didn't seem right. Peter began to compare them after taking out the wordlist. “C-o-n-t-r-i-b-u-s-i-o-n，”he whispered. He had spelledit wrong.
“What am I to do?” Peter said to himself. “I expect my classmates to think I'm a master in spelling. If I tell Mr. White one of my spelling words is wrong, I'll have to give my prize back, or I will become an example for telling a lie". Staring at the red sign “100%” which was written at his test paper, Peter was lost in thought. After a while, he remembered a lesson Mum used to teach him, “We ought to be an honest person.”
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式作答。
Slowly, Peter raised his hand.
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Peter looked around and found many of his classmates were smiling at him.
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As he lay awake that night, Tony could hear his parents discussing his sister Alice’s birthday. It was just two days away. Birthdays were always a lot of fun, even though there was no money for store-bought gifts. Nearly all of toys he and his sister had were homemade. There was nothing wrong with that, he knew. Like many families in this part, they were poor.
This birthday would be different, though. Alice was older now, and he’d seen how her eyes lit up when she saw the new doll at Honey House, a neighborhood store just down the road from their house.
How he longed for her to have it! An idea finally came to him just before he went to bed. After a quick breakfast the following morning, he tied a bag to the handlebars of his bike and headed toward a village hill.
After a long journey, he reached his destination, the mango forest. There were already two other boys there. Tony grabbed his bag and set to work immediately.
The sun was high overhead. The weather was hot and nearly all of the taller trees held ripe mangoes but they were well beyond reach. Tony struggled to climb the trees to pick mangoes, though he fell off many times.
His efforts were sometimes rewarded when a mango dropped into the bag. After a while his neck ached from looking upward, and his arms grew sore. He kept at it, though, and by late afternoon his bag was nearly full.
注意：1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右。
2. 续写部分分两段，每段的开头语已为你写好。
Paragraph 1：
Tony rushed back to Honey House, out of breath, only to find the owner of the store was going to close the door.
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Paragraph 2：The following morning, Alice walked into the kitchen and took a seat at the breakfast table.
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One morning, my family and I woke up and went to eat breakfast——until we heard barking and scratching at the door. When my mom opened the door, we saw a puppy(小狗). We looked around to see if we saw its owner, but there was no one. We took it inside and fed it.
Regardless of how badly I wanted to keep the puppy, we decided to look for the owner. We looked all day, but we failed. We talked about whether we should keep looking or if we should look the next day. We all agreed to look for its owner the next day.
So, the next day my family and I looked for the dog's owner. It was so hard looking for its owner. We were looking for flyers(传单)that involved the puppy, but no luck. We wouldn't have quit because it's a puppy.
“We won't stop looking,” my mom and dad said. We were going to take care of the puppy until we found its owner.
When we woke up in the morning, we went to a pet shop to buy the puppy some dog food. After that we went back home to feed the puppy the dog food that we had just bought. After we fed the puppy, we gave it a nice bath. It was so dirty that the fur was black and sticky, but after we gave it a bath, it turned white.And I noticed there was a collar (狗项圈)on him, which said “Coby”. After we gave him a bath, we went to look for the p uppy's owner, but my mom stayed at home, and it was only my dad and me this time.
We continued looking more and more until we found flyers. “We looked at it.”it said.
“Lost Dog: Please Help if Found.” Then we looked at the picture;it looked exactly like Coby. We were all happy we found a flyer that was for Cody.
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。
There was a phone number on the flyer.
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We found the lady’s house, and then we knocked on the door.
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