9-year-old Igor lived in a huge forest in the north of Russia. His father was a woodcutter and his mother a tailor. The boy liked playing with animals in the forest, and knew the names of different birds and their songs. One freezing winter Igor was seriously ill and the doctor from big cities told his parents that only surprise could save him. Lying all day in bed, Igor only wanted his father to catch a bird and played with it. But in winter there were no birds in the forest. “You could make him a bird out of wood,” suggested the anxious mother.
The first finished birds were fat and too heavy to fly. He threw them into the fire, head in hands.
It was snowing heavily, and he really didn’t know where to find a bird. Then an idea occurred to him, “The bird needs two pieces of wood.” Eventually, he made it and showed it to his wife. “Beautiful!” she said, taking a needle and some thread (细线) and sewing the two ends together, like a real bird. She tied a long thread to the bird’s back. And it could be hung above Igor’s bed. Quietly, the woodcutter hung the bird above the boy’s bed.
At daybreak, his son was watching the bird carefully. There was a light in his eyes for the first time in many weeks. “Beautiful!” said Igor. “I’ve never seen it before in the forest. What’s its name?” “That’s a good question. I’ll find out and tell you.” The next morning, when the father entered Igor’s room, he found the boy sitting up in bed, trying to touch the bird. The last time Igor sat up in bed was many weeks before. “What’s it called?” the boy asked. “Oh, dear, I’m still not sure.”
Late on that night, Igor’s father went into his son’s room quietly and made the thread a little shorter. Then the bird was hanging a little higher above Igor’s head. Three days later, he found Igor kneeling on the bed, trying to touch the bird. His hand was very near it. “Have you decided on the name?” “Not yet. My son.” his father replied.
注意：
1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式作答。
Paragraph 1:
Again, at night the father went into his son’s room.
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Paragraph 2:
Several days later, Igor’s father was cutting wood when he heard a scream from the house.
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In March of 1994, I was 25 years old, poor and pregnant. It was 10 days past my due date. I was dependent on public transportation to get to my prenatal (产前的) appointments. That day I was going with my husband to the hospital for an ultrasound (超声波) scan.
We were excited and happy, thinking a new life would come into our world soon. To reach the bus stop, we had to cross a busy street. While we were standing on the opposite side of the street waiting for a break in traffic, we saw the bus coming. There was a huge rush of traffic just then, and no way to cross the street in time.
We began shouting loudly and waving wildly trying to flag down the driver. But the driver didn’t notice us, since her face wasn’t turned toward us. She drove quickly past the stop and down the street. Traffic cleared up immediately after this and we were able to cross the street. But it was a moment too late.
We were very anxious because this was the last bus we could have caught to get to my appointment on time. The hospital was very strict about its appointment policy— if you were ten minutes late, you had to reschedule. Rescheduling meant I had to wait a day or more. I was close to tears, about to say “Let’s go home” when a police car stopped in front of us. The officer had apparently seen the whole process, and said with a smile “Hop in- let’s catch the bus!”
We’d never been in trouble nor were we thieves, but we naturally felt uneasy about most authority figures like policemen. So it was a shock to receive this offer of help from an unlikely source! Should we accept such help? We hesitated for a second. Then we got in the car, and the officer sped toward our runaway bus.
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:
We caught up with the bus soon.
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Paragraph 2:
I gave birth to a healthy girl the following morning.
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This story happened in a small village in North America, where a disabled boy named Tom lived with his parents. When Tom was born, his right leg was a little twisted (变形的). When Tom could neither walk nor stand upright for two years, his parents took him to a doctor. After a careful examination, the doctor said complete recovery was impossible. So the doctor made a structure of iron rods (杆) that could be tied through Tom’s shoe to a belt over his knee. With the help of the structure, Tom could stand properly and walk at times, and his life became a little easier than before. But one thing always bothering him was that he could not play like other children, although he was still happy.
On the way to Tom’s school, there was a small flower shop. Its owner was a kind old man. In this shop, there lived his five small pet puppies. One of the puppies was lame (瘸的). It always dragged its leg and followed the rest of the puppies. Tom often stood in front of this flower shop after school and watched the puppies. Of the five, Tom liked that little lame puppy most.
One day, Tom saw a board hanging in front of the shop. It read “Puppies for Sale at $50” Tom went straight into the shop. Pointing at the lame puppy, he asked the old man to sell it to him. Tom took a $5 note out of his pocket and gave it to the old man. “I only have $5 now and you keep it. I’ll pay 50 cents a month for the rest,” Tom said. “But it is a puppy which will limp for the rest of its life. It will never be able to run with you or play with you in the park. Do you still want to buy it?” the old man asked in surprise.
Tom told the old man firmly, “Yes, I want this puppy.” Then the old man returned Tom’s $5 and said, “If you want this puppy, I’ll give it to you for free.”
Paragraph 1:
Tom got a little upset after hearing this from the old man.
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Then, Tom approached the lame puppy with his twisted right leg.
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Meet Hagen, a 6-year-old boy who recently celebrated his sixth birthday. Hagen is traveling with his family to Dallas with his amazing Buzz Lightyear(巴斯光年) toy. Traveling with kids is always busy, and the family had other things on their minds, so the tiny toy was unfortunately left behind.
Hagen’s mother said that when they landed, they thought they had gathered all their things and they headed to the taxi. It wasn’t until they were in the taxi that Hagen started crazily asking for his Buzz and his mother quickly realized that they did not have Buzz and he was still on the plane. Hagen was upset because he saw the toy as his best friend.
When the family understood this, it was too late to turn around their car heading for the family gathering as the plane had already departed(启程) for Little Rock, Arkansas. Hagen’s mother knows that losing a toy is never a pleasant feeling, especially for a 6-year-old and the toy is a big talking Buzz Lightyear action figure. So she had to lie that Buzz was on an awesome space task, and Hagen would get reunited with Buzz some day.
Well, LIT Ramp Agent Jason noticed Buzz all alone on the plane and his first idea was that he was probably here on a mission—and a mission did actually happen. Together with another colleague, Beth, Jason found out whose Buzz this was—there was a name on the foot and the airline’s contact information, so it wasn’t too hard—and they took Buzz on an adventure before sending him back.
Jason located Hagen according to name printed on the bottom of Buzz’s boot, ‘Hagen’. Only one passenger had flown on the plane with that name. That allowed them to locate the email of Hagen’s mother from their reservations. Then they posted the amazing pictures that Jason had taken with Buzz on his personal Facebook. The address of Hagen’s mother was given to Jason and he let Hagen’s mother know he’d be mailing him back to them.
Para. 1: Hagen got the package some days later.
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Para. 2: Hagen wrote a thank-you letter to Jason to express his feelings.
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Leo had gone nowhere during his two-week vacation. He had the money, but he hated to travel alone. He used to take vacations with Max, his younger brother, but they had a big argument at the end of their last vacation. Each of them had spent the last two months waiting for the other to apologize.
Leo did not feel good about being distant with his favorite brother. But he was not going to ask for forgiveness when, in his mind, he just broke Max’s cup by accident, but it was not a big deal at all. So Leo's summer vacation was spent in his own "back yard". As usual, he cleaned up his apartment , put away his books, trying to make his life busy and full.
However, he did do one thing new and different alone. He went to a new coffee shop at the corner. It served delicious coffee at reasonable prices, and the staff were quite friendly.
The vacation seemed endless. He always sat at a coffee table outside by himself and read the free daily paper. Each day he was there, reading most of the newspaper articles and drinking his coffee black with the question crossing his mind again and again: What was Max doing?
Leo was unhappy. Between articles, he took breaks by watching the nearby traffic and pedestrians(行人). The coffee shop was next to a huge park, the favorite place for both Max and him where they even spent a whole summer vacation battling for the same soccer team. They were champion of the town! The coffee shop, with its excellent location and coffee, had helped make his vacation a pleasant one. If his brother should be there to join him just one day, his vacation would be perfect, he imagined.
One morning, accidentally knowing from mom the cup he broke was a gift from their late grandma, Leo was deeply sorry. He tried to break the ice and smiled to Max at the breakfast table but got no response. Leo was still unhappy.
注意：1.所续写的短文的词数应为 150 左右；
2.续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好。
Paragraph 1：
Then Leo decided that he should do something more. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2：Leo got to the coffee shop early. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Bob was a small-built child who preferred indoor to outdoor activities. He was mild-mannered and mostly kept to himself. Sitting in the corner of the class, he was very much a loner. Whenever he was made fun of in class, he would turn to his mother for comfort.
At the beginning of semester 2, Bob had a new classmate, Alex, who had just returned to New Zealand. Alex was assigned a seat next to Bob. To his surprise, within weeks, he became good friends with Alex even though they were poles apart in personality. Alex was popular, outspoken and artistic. “Alex is all that I want to be, ” Bob thought to himself. He began listening to the music Alex listened to and having similar haircut. He even quit his drama club and started playing the online games that Alex played. He seemed to have been out of his loneliness.
It was not long before Bob was introduced to Alex’s “cool“ friends. He told himself that he would try all means to be part of the group. He would follow them to the football games and join the art club after school so he could spend more time hanging out with them. Bob followed them around laughing when they told jokes, agreeing when they had opinions—most enthusiastically at the ones he disagreed with. He did not dare to differ in opinions as he would not want them to think badly of him. This continued for several months. At last, Bob felt relieved that he had finally fitted in.
One day, Bob overheard Alex and his cool friends talking “Bob’s such a loser, ” one boy commented in a playful tone. “He just follows you around trying to be you. He copies you; he does not have a personality of his own!” another boy exclaimed. Alex laughed, to make matters worse, he added, "That fellow wears me out. I wish he would leave me alone. He thinks we are best friends. A thorough fool!”
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。
Bob stood rooted to the ground and could not believe his ears.
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Bob decided to change himself.
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“It’s been potatoes all week, mom! Can’t we go to the diner for a burger and an ice cream? That’s all I want for my birthday!” Eve’s 8-year-old threw his little arms around her shoulders and looked at her with puppy eyes. In her heart, she wanted to hold Dylan the biggest birthday party ever. But in reality, she could afford none of that after being let go from the third temporary job.
When Dylan saw tears rising in his mother’s eyes, he quickly changed his tone. The boy had seen her working hard to make ends meet and could not bear to hurt her. “Actually, mom, that potato salad looks delicious!” he said gently.
After the meal, the mother and son took a nap (小睡) that afternoon. But Dylan didn’t fall asleep and had something else in mind. While his mother was asleep, he carefully took out an envelope from his little pot. His mother didn’t know this, but he had saved a few dollars from the lunch money she had given him over the past few years.
He counted the money in the pot. “$28!” Dylan’s eyes lit up. “I’m sure we can get a good meal for $28!” He carried the money and left the house secretly. He took a short walk to the next block, where he almost cried with excitement as he saw the food truck that he had expected.
“Sir! Please give me everything I can get for $28!” the boy said cheerfully. But Martin, the owner of the food truck, frowned and replied, “I’m so sorry, kid. We’re out of everything!” “It’s my birthday, and I can’t even treat my mother to a nice meal. She does so much for me...I thought, for once, I would do something nice for her...” The boy kept talking out loud to himself, giving in to his urge to cry.
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。
Seeing this, Martin walked out of his food truck.
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The next day, Eve was woken up by a knock on the door with a voice, “Hello! It’s Martin.”
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Kevin was a “slow” boy. He didn’t learn his ABCs as fast as other kids. He never came in first in the schoolyard races. However, Kevin could get along well with other people. And his enthusiasm for life was quite contagious (有感染力的). So, when he discovered that his teacher, Randy Moss, was putting together a basketball team, his mother could only answer, “Yes, you may join.”
Basketball became the center of Kevin’s life. He liked to stand in a certain spot near the free-throw line and shoot baskets. Patiently, he stood there throwing ball after ball.
The day before their first game, Randy gave each player a bright red jersey (运动衫). Kevin had stars in his eyes when he saw his number 12. He quickly put it on and almost never took it off again. Kevin and his whole team truly loved basketball. But just loving the game doesn’t help you win. More balls fell out of the basket than into it, and the boys lost every game that season, except one—the night it snowed. and the other team couldn’t make it to the game.
At the end of the season, they had the misfortune to play against the first-place team-the undefeated first-place team. The game went pretty much as expected, and near the middle of the fourth quarter Kevin’s team stood nearly 30 points behind.
At that point, one of Kevin’s teammates called a time-out. As he came to the side, Randy couldn’t imagine why the time-out had been called. “Mr. Moss, this is our last game and I know that Kevin has played in every game, but he’s never made a basket. I think we should let Kevin make a basket,” said the boy.
With the game completely out of reach, the idea seemed reasonable, so the plan was made. Every time Kevin’s team had the ball, Kevin was to stand in his special spot near the free-throw line and they would give him the ball.
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。
His first shot bounced around but missed.
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Soon, all the players threw the ball to Kevin and clapped for him.
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New Beginnings
My sister and I weren’t exactly what you would call close. I was three years younger, and I thought she walked on water. Everything she did was perfect, and I wanted to be just like her when I grew up. If she wore her hair in twin braids with a pink clip one day, the next day I wore mine exactly the same way. I used to follow her and her friends around, begging to be included, but there isn’t much room in a thirteen-year-old’s life for a annoying ten-year-old sister. As a result, over time, my worship of her became indifference. We were strangers living in the same house, eating together but never communicating.
So when she sat me down last year and told me she’d be going to Israel to study abroad for ten months, I wasn’t too concerned. I figured I would get to wear the clothes she left behind and use her CD player. That was the only way I thought her leaving would affect me.
That first night after she left, I sat in my room and tried to do homework. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong, something was missing. The house was too quiet. No Tova’s CD player and no Tova’s voice giggling on the phone with her friends. Sitting there, I realized just how different it was without her in the house. Even though we didn’t always speak, I had felt safe just knowing she was near.
I cried that night. I cried over all the years we had wasted trying to live our own lives and ignoring each other’s. I cried that I couldn’t even give her a hug before she boarded her plane. But as the night wore on, my tears changed to tears of calm, tears of new beginnings.
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 picked up the phone and called her halfway across the world.
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Finally she spoke.
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Only eight days until Thanksgiving and there wasn’t going to be enough money to grocery shop for the holiday. It was hard to put everyday food on the table for three growing teen boys with the little I earned from work. There was only a few small sweet potatoes, one can of green beans, and two chicken breasts.
The next day, I met my friend and neighbor, Aleta, at her home. Her four boys and my kids were good friends. Her husband had recently lost his job due to illness, and financial difficulties hovered (盘旋) over their household as well.
“Hey, I have an idea how we can put together a meal where everyone will have enough. ”I proposed.
“I have a few cans of green beans, about three pounds of chicken legs, and three apples. ”she said.
“Great. Let’s meet at my house at 2:00 in the afternoon. If you have some peanut butter, I have enough flour and ingredients to make cookies. ”
Four days before Thanksgiving, I had finished baking the cookies. My friend called with news about a family living in our community who needed help with food and bills. The father had been in an accident and unable to work for the last few months.
We didn’t know the family well, but my friend and I went to visit them with our holiday cookies, hoping to help in some way. While everyone chatted, I walked into their kitchen to see about the food situation. The cupboards were almost empty. No exaggeration. A single can of soup, and a box of cereal (麦片) sat alone in the cupboard. That’s it. I was shocked.
Aleta and I knew the life during hard times. We left the house, eagerly wanting to help. But what could we do? Our own finance sand food situation left nothing to spare.
Almost at the same time, our thoughts connected. Without a word, we looked at each other, asking ourselves the same question. Could we sacrifice a little more and give the family our holiday meal？
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。
“How can we help them?” I asked the kids.
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On Thanksgiving Day, we delivered two full bags of groceries to the family.
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