A funny thing happened to Arthur when he was on the way to work one day. As he walked along Park Avenue near the First National Bank, he heard the sound of someone trying to start a car. He tried again and again but couldn’t get the car moving. Arthur turned and looked inside at the face of a young man who looked worried.
Arthur stopped and said, “It looks like you’ve got a problem.”
“I’m afraid so. I’m in a big hurry but I can’t start my car.”
“Is there something I can do to help?” Arthur asked. The young man looked at the two suitcases in the back seat and then said, “Thanks. If you’re sure it wouldn’t be too much trouble, you could help me get these suitcases into a taxi.”
“No trouble at all. I’d be glad to help.”
The young man got out and took one of the suitcases from the back seat. After placing it on the ground, he turned to get the other one. Just as Arthur picked up the first suitcase and started walking, he heard the long loud noise of an alarm.
It was from the bank. There had been a robbery (抢劫)!
Park Avenue had been quiet a moment before. Now the air was filled with the sound of the alarm and the shouts of people running from all directions. Cars stopped and the passengers joined the crowd in front of the bank. People asked each other, “What happened?” But everyone had a different answer.
Arthur still carrying the suitcase, turned to look at the bank and walked right into a young woman in front of him.
She looked at the suitcase and then at him. Arthur was surprised. “Why is she looking at me like that?” he thought. “The suitcase! She thinks I’m the bank thief!”
Arthur looked around at the crowd of people. He became frightened, and without another thought, he started to run.
注意：续写的词数应为150左右。Paragraph 1:
As he was running, Arthur heard the young man shouting behind, “Stop! Stop!” _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2:The taxi stopped in front of the police station. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
When I was little, I lived in a house with a beautiful garden full of all kinds of Bowers. There was nothing I enjoyed more than sitting in the garden with my mother reading stories to me. When I was old enough to read, I enjoyed reading stories aloud to her.
I would never forget one day when I was in the third grade. I bad been picked to be the princess in the school play, and for weeks my mother had rehearsed (排练) my lines so hard with me. But however easily I acted at home, the moment I stepped on stage, every word disappeared from my head. Finally, my teacher took me aside, explaining that she had written a narrator’s (解说员) part to the play, and asked me to change roles. Her word, kindly expressed, still hurt, especially when I saw my part go to another girl.
I didn’t tell my mother what had happened when I went home after school that day. But she sensed my pain. Instead of suggesting we practice my lines, she asked if I wanted to take a walk in the garden.
It was May and roses were blossoming and, under the trees, we could also see yellow dandelions (蒲公英) in the grass, as if a painter had painted our garden with red, yellow and green. I watched my mother casually bend down by one dandelion. ”I think I’m going to dig up all these weeds,” she said, pulling it up by its roots. ”From now on, we’ll have only roses in this garden. ”
“But I like dandelions,” I protested, “All flowers are beautiful-even dandelions.” “Yes, every flower is beautiful in its own way, isn’t it?” she asked thoughtfully. I nodded, pleased that I had won her over. “And that is true of people too,” she added. “Not everyone can be a princess, but there is no shame in that.” Relieved that she had guessed my pain, I started to cry as I told her what had happened. She listened and smiled to me gently.
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。
Para 1: “But you will be a beautiful narrator,” she said.
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Para 2: After the play, I took home the flower.
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3 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。
I’ve spent my adult life as a college professor teaching people how to think more creatively and use more of their brainpower. Interestingly, this lifetime passion was awakened by a casual contest when I was a child.
At a family picnic for employees of the company where my father worked, they held contests for the children — who could blow the biggest bubble-gum (泡泡糖) bubble, who could hop the longest on one leg. I was 13, full of enthusiasm and the spirit of competition, so I threw myself into the contests. The grand finale, the handkerchief-throwing contest, I realize now, was not meant to demonstrate any real skill, but simply for laughs. But it stirred my love of thinking outside the box.
The judge gave each of the dozen children a cloth handkerchief and told us the winner would be the one who threw it the farthest. The first throwers, the little ones, took mighty wind-ups (挥臂动作), but when the cloth left their hands, it opened and fluttered (飘动) to the ground a few inches in front of them. The crowd roared with laughter, and being 13, I didn’t like adults laughing at us.
So it made me angry to see the kids throwing harder when the handkerchief always opened, caught the air and died. The secret was not to throw harder but to keep the cloth from opening. Suppose I hid a rock in the cloth without tying it. The rock would drive the cloth at least farther than the others, and when they separated, people might not notice a small rock landing in the grass. I had a good chance of getting away with it, but I didn’t want to win by cheating. What I really wanted to do was to show them that a kid could beat them at their own game. I had to make the handkerchief fly like a rock. Like a rock! That was it! But the question was how.
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: I was thinking really hard when suddenly a good idea struck me.
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Paragraph 2: “It’s just the handkerchief,” the judge declared, holding it up and untying the knots (结).
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My mother’s gift
A dandelion (蒲公英) in my dictionary always reminds me of my lunchtimes with my mother.
When I was in the third grade, I was picked to be the princess in the school play, and for weeks my mother had painstakingly (费力地) practised my lines with me. But no matter how easily I delivered them at home, as soon as I stepped onstage, every word disappeared from my head. Finally, my teacher took me aside. She explained that she had written a narrator’s part to the play, and asked me to switch roles.
I didn’t tell my mother what had happened when I went home for lunch that day. But she sensed my unease, and instead of suggesting we practice my lines, she asked if I wanted to walk in the yard.
It was a lovely spring day and the rose leaves were turning green. We could see yellow dandelions popping through the grass in bunches, as if a painter had touched our landscape with a little bit of gold.
I watched my mother casually bend down by one of the dandelions. “I think I’m going to dig up all these weeds,” she said, suddenly pulling a flower up by its roots. “From now on, we’ll have only roses in this garden.”
“But I like dandelions,” I protested. “All flowers are beautiful — even dandelions.” My mother looked at me seriously. “Yes, every flower gives pleasure in its own way, doesn’t it?” she asked thoughtfully. I nodded, pleased that I had won her over. “And that is true of people too,” she added. “Not everyone can be a princess, but there is no shame in that.”
Relieved that she had guessed my pain, I started to cry as I told her what had happened.
“But you will be a beautiful narrator,” she said, reminding me of how much I loved to read stories aloud to her. “The narrator’s part is as important as the part of a princess.”
Over the next few weeks, with her constant encouragement, I learned to take pride in the role. Lunchtimes were spent reading over my lines and talking about what I would wear.
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。
Backstage on the night of the performance, I felt nervous.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________After the play, I took home the flower I had placed in the pocket.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I had all the usual child fears. I couldn’t go to sleep unless the light in my bedroom was on. I dreaded that someday when my mother was distracted, Crazy Betty (our local small-town oddball) would grab me in the grocery store. On the hottest summer nights, my feet had to be wrapped tightly in my bed sheets; if one of them hung bare over the side of the bed, who knew what might grab it in its cold, slimy claw.
But all other frights paled in comparison with the Great Fear, the Titanic of my childhood terrors. That fear — and I admit, I feel a tightening in stomach typing the words even today — was that something would happen to Monk-Monk, my beloved toy monkey. That was the deepest fear of my childhood and I learned from it the lesson of cherishing what’s important in my life.
Looking at Monk-Monk today, you wouldn’t see what I see. You’d see a torn, discolored sock monkey, very much past his prime, stuffing leaking from his stumpy tail, holes on his sock-body inexpertly stitched up with thread that doesn’t match. I see my dearest childhood friend, my companion of a thousand nights. When I was only two and very ill, an aunt made him for me and delivered him to the hospital. I bonded with him fiercely and rarely let him out of my sight. When no one else was around, Monk-Monk played endless games with me, soaked up my tears, and listened to my secrets.
And then Uncle Ken came to visit. He lived in Ohio and occasionally he would come and stay with us for a couple of days. I didn’t know Uncle Ken well, and I didn’t like him very much. I had the feeling that he didn’t really like me, either. He clearly thought it was pretty silly that a big first-grader was dragging a sock monkey around, and he teased me by saying he thought he’d take Monk-Monk home to Ohio with him. His words almost scared me to death. I clutched Monk-Monk more tightly.
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。
I was at school a few days later when Uncle Ken left.
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Finally Monk-Monk was found jammed behind the sofa.
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A Painting Just Like Home
Lisa wasn’t so happy when the bell went for break. At her old school, she used to play with her friends. Now she sat alone in the corner of the field and watched the other kids play. The only thing Lisa liked about her new school was art. She hadn’t had art classes at her old school, but here they lasted a whole hour. During the art classes, Lisa forgot that she didn’t have friends here.
When clearing her table, Lisa noticed a box of chalk by the window. She put it in her pocket. Then she took her usual place at the end of the line. As she and her classmates walked down the hall and out into the playground, Lisa remembered how she and her mother used to draw chalk designs on the long drive way leading to their old apartment. The patterns are called rangoli, a traditional Indian decoration, and they look like stars and roses. Lisa’s mother said the drawings were to welcome guests to their home. Lisa missed the times.
Lisa walked to the basketball court and sat on the sidelines. She took the chalk out and began to draw her favorite rangoli pattern with huge petals and stars with eight points. “That’s pretty,” a voice said. She turned around and saw that Eric, a boy in her class, was watching her. “It’s called rangoli,” she said. “The floor of my grandmother’s house has pattens like that,” Erie said.
“What do you mean?” Lisa asked. “Hand me a piece of chalk,” Eric said. Eric sat down and began to draw. He drew flowers that were more detailed than Lisa’s, but still had huge petals. Then he drew circles inside circles, and surrounded them with small diamonds. Lisa kept drawing too.
“What are you guys doing?” a voice asked. Lisa and Eric had been so absorbed in drawing that the hadn’t noticed their classmate Emma had been watching them. “Hey,’ Emma said, sitting down beside them, “that looks like the rugs in my house. Except on the rugs, the shapes are bigger and flatter.”
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。
“Show us,” said Eric, handing Emma a piece of chalk.
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Hearing the teacher’s praise, many students gathered around.
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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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My first marathon. It’s pouring rain, my legs were cold, and I was wishing I hadn’t been too nervous to eat a bigger breakfast. “There were tables of chocolate bars every mile at my last marathon,” Dad says.
Suddenly everyone around us starts moving. Way up ahead I see smoke from the cannon. I can’t believe we hadn’t heard it. It took ages to reach the starting line. Our marathon started.
Soon Dad started to slow down. After only a mile, I overtook everyone in sight. And Dad was way behind with his left leg cramped(抽筋).
I soon reached mile 5, and I was feeling good. I still hadn’t seen a chocolate bar anywhere. Maybe they didn’t have them! Instead, the streets were lined with fast-food places. But there were lines of runners at every shop.
By mile 10, my legs felt good but I was starving. How I wish I hadn’t just had one piece of toast for breakfast! It’s raining so hard that it hurt. My hands stung from the cold. I took a power gel out of pocket and tried to open it, but my hands were so cold they felt as if they were frozen into fists. On the balconies people yelled and waved to me. That cheered me up a bit.
Then I ran past mile 13, the halfway checkpoint. Up ahead I could see my mum and my little brother cheering for me. Hearing my name from their cheers, I felt refreshed and kept on running.
Mile 15. I saw food at last! There were tables full of bananas. I grabbed a banana and scoffed it down. Then I ripped the power gel open. My hands had come unfroze. I squeezed the packet and filled my mouth with the gel. Chocolate would taste better.
When I reached mile 20, and I didn’t want to run another inch. Every step jarred my leg.
I started walking the next mile before Dad caught up running in an awkward way.
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Mile 25, we could hear the crowd at the finish line.
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When I was in middle school, my social studies teacher asked me to enter a writing contest. I said no without thinking. I did not love writing. My family came from Brazil, so English was only my second language. Writing was so difficult and painful for me that my teacher had allowed me to present my paper on the sinking of the Titanic by acting out a play, where I played all the parts. No one laughed harder than he did.
So, why did he suddenly force me to do something at which I was sure to fail? His reply: “Because I love your stories. If you’re willing to apply yourself, I think you have a good shot at this.” Encouraged by his words, I agreed to give it a try.
I chose Paul Revere’s horse as my subject. Paul Revere was a silversmith (银匠) in Boston who rode a horse at night on April 18, 1775 to Lexington to warn people that British soldiers were coming. My story would come straight from the horse’s mouth. Not a brilliant idea, but funny; and unlikely to be anyone else’s choice.
What did the horse think, as he sped through the night? Did he get tired? Have doubts? Did he want to quit? I sympathized immediately. I got tired. I had doubts. I wanted to quit. But, like Revere’s horse, I kept going. I worked hard. I checked my spelling. I asked my older sister to correct my grammar. I checked out a half dozen books on Paul Revere from the library. I even read a few of them.
When I handed in the essay to my teacher, he read it, laughed out loud, and said, “Great. Now, write it again.” I wrote it again, and again and again. When I finally finished it, the thought of winning had given way to the enjoyment of writing. If I didn’t win, I wouldn’t care.
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。
A few weeks later, when I almost forgot the contest, there came the news.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I went to my teacher’s office after the award presentation.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________We had four children, never intending to adopt a child, but a call came through that morning. A home was needed for a girl immediately. The whole family prepared to greet her. The kids helped with the cleaning. That afternoon, Trudy arrived with a social worker, Mrs Kline. I’d never forget the frightened look in her eyes. I stepped forward, saying, “Welcome to our home, Trudy.” Her eyes looked back and forth like a creature looking for a way out. This had been her fifth foster home. No wonder she was afraid. For the first two weeks, Trudy was still shy. Mrs Kline had told us her history, but I never mentioned the terrible things that had happened to her. She also got along well with all my four children.
One day, when Trudy had been with us for about a month, I took my eldest daughter, Joanne shopping for a new winter coat, and Trudy went too. Joanne was trying on a green jacket. It was expensive, but she begged, promising to do extra chores for the jacket.
Trudy picked out a jacket she liked and was looking into the mirror for long. As I watched her, I realized it wasn’t the same girl that had entered our home about a month ago. She held her head higher. Putting the jacket back on the rack, she rejoined Joanne.
“The jacket looks so nice on you,” Trudy said. “Can I borrow it sometime?” she said. I hadn’t seen her face so bright before. While they were busy, I asked the salesperson to wrap up the jacket Trudy had tried on. “Please don’t let her see it — it’s a surprise,” I explained. For the next few minutes, I kept Trudy busy while the salesperson was wrapping it. We bought the coat Joanne loved and I managed to bring the parcels to the car without being noticed.
On arriving home, Joanne proudly modelled her new coat for Trudy again. I asked Trudy to go out to the car and bring in the other parcel.
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。
I asked Trudy to open the parcel for me.
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I took Trudy’s face in my hands, and asked, “Isn’t this the jacket you were trying on?”
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