I am a proud mother of three children, my last little one being delivered in the middle of this pandemic (疫情). She was born in August and her name is Aida.
Shortly after having Aida, my mother-in-law Ann showed me something she learned from her friend’s mother in an art class she attended weekly, She had showed me how to knit (编织) a scarf.
I spent a lot of time breastfeeding my sweet little girl, so I had some extra time to do something with my hands throughout the day. I enjoyed making the scarf so I purchased tons of yarn (线) since it was winter. I wanted to make scarves for my three children as Christmas gifts.
There was a new family that moved in down the street. The only daughter of the family was Jane, a shy girl, aged 14, the same age of my oldest son David. It seemed that she came from a financially disadvantaged family, for she always wore old clothes. Worse still, in such cold days, she had no more clothes to wear and trembled with cold.
Due to the pandemic, society was thrown into crisis mode. Schools were closed, food supplies and deliveries were suspended and children were stuck at home. In such discouraging time, however, they became good companions, talking and playing at home or around the houses.
It was dreadfully cold this winter. Every time David came back from outside, with red face, he always cried, “Mum, it is freezing outside!” Then, he came over to see whether I finished the scarf. I could tell how impatient he was to wear my scarf sooner! I had to speed the project to satisfy his expectation. But David comforted me by saying he could wait a few days. What a kind and considerate boy he was! Then my great art project finally was accomplished on the morning ahead of Christmas.
注意：1.续写词数应为150词左右；
2.续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语己为你写好。
Paragraph 1: I wrapped the scarf around David’s neck.
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Paragraph 2: Later that day David came back saying Jane also deserved a scarf.
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A Great Monday
Monday started out well. I woke up on time, ate breakfast and did some last minute studying for my math test later that morning. I was confident of getting good grades. I left my house and ten minutes later, I sat with my friends on the school bus. We were busy chatting about how we spent our weekend. At the next stop, a student named Ryan got on the bus. He was in a rush and tripped (绊倒) over someone’s foot. There was a loud noise as he fell to the floor.
Every one of us on the bus laughed. Ryan got up, brushed his jacket and went to an empty seat. He tried to laugh with us, but his face was red with embarrassment. The rest of the morning went by quickly. I did well in my math test. I read two more chapters of To Kill a Mockingbird in English class. Soon we heard the lunch bell. I met my friends from the cheerleading team in the dining hall. I noticed Ryan a few tables away, sitting by himself. He caught me looking at him. I smiled at him quickly and looked away.
When we finished eating, we went to the courtyard to practice a cheer we would do at that night’s football game. After much practice, we finally managed to do the cheer perfectly. We decided to practice it again one last time. Just like the rest of my day so far, the cheer was going great. I raised my leg for one last toe touch. That was when I felt my jeans (牛仔裤) split (裂开) down the middle of my backside.
I froze. I had no idea what to do. I heard people burst out laughing and I saw them pointing at my torn jeans. I tried to cover myself with my hands, I tried to laugh too, but I felt tears begin to well up in my eyes.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式作答。
Then I saw Ryan running towards me.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________That night, after the cheer at the football game, I found Ryan.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Last Saturday David was taking a walk in the park near his home when he noticed a woman with a boy of about eight years old. When David passed them, he heard the woman yelling: “How stupid you are! You’re good at nothing.” David stopped and looked at the little boy. The boy said nothing. He just stood there, looking upset.
David was reminded of his English teacher Mrs. Brown in middle school. After he entered middle school, David lacked self-confidence because he was often made fun of by others. He was often told that he was good at nothing, which David believed.
But one day it all changed. That day, in an English writing class, Mrs. Brown asked them to read a novel. They were asked to write a new chapter of the novel after they finished reading it. A few days later, David handed in his story. He didn’t give it much thought. But the next day to his surprise, the comment “well done” from Brown came into view the moment he turned to the page where the story was written. When David read that, he almost burst into tears. He had never expected to be praised. He suddenly gained some self-confidence.
That day after he returned home, he wrote another short story and gave it to Mrs. Brown the next morning. And again he was praised. David became very interested in writing. He often wrote short dories and asked Mrs. Brown to read them and correct them for him. Mrs. Brown always gave him good advice to improve them. One year later, David joined the school newspaper and became an editor of it. He gained his confidence and was hopeful about his future.
He succeeded in entering college and kept writing. Several years after graduating from college, he had his first book published, becoming famous as a writer in his country. And he owed his success to Mrs. Brown’s encouragement. Without her encouragement, his life might be very different now.
注意：1. 续写的词数应为150左右。2. 请按照如下格式在答题卡相应位置作答。
Inspired by his own life story, David decided to do something for that boy.
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_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When things went wrong, Ittleby Fein always had something nice to say.
When Dad forgot about the pizza and it burned, Ittleby comforted him by saying it would still taste good. And he was right. The pizza edges were dark and crispy, but the middle wasn’t half bad. When Ittleby’s friend David got a low score on the spelling test, Ittleby said that he would do better next time. And, sure enough, David studied hard and got 100 percent the next week. When his teacher, Mr D, bumped into a bookstand in the library, Ittleby told him not to worry as Mrs Bog wouldn’t be upset. He was right. The librarian just laughed and helped pick up the books.
Ittleby looked on the bright side. And everyone liked that about him. Everyone, that is, except Hazel. Hazel was the new kid in the class. On her first day, Ittleby said, “Nice to meet you, Hazel. I think you’ll like it here.” Hazel stared at him. “I doubt it.” Ittleby didn’t know what to do. He’d never met anyone like Hazel.
When Mr D said they’d have recess inside because of the rain, Ittleby said, “Every cloud has a silver lining.” “A silver lining?” Hazel shook her head. “Clouds are white. Maybe gray. Where do you get this stuff?” Ittleby felt as if the wind had been knocked out of him. Outside the window, the clouds had rolled over the sun. The room felt darker.
“Bad things come in threes,” said Hazel. No outdoor recess is number one. What will the second thing be? The class didn’t have to wait long to find out.
Greta was carrying a tray of paints during art class. She tripped, and the paint went flying. There was blue on the floor and red and black on the walls. Hazel declared it to be the second bad thing. Ittleby didn’t know what to say. Hazel seemed so sure about the Rule of Three Bad Things.
Emma came to look at Ittleby’s painting. “It’s beautiful. I especially like the grassland.” She said.
注意：
1、续写词数应为150左右;
2、请按如下格式作答。
She picked it up, not realizing she had paint on her fingers.
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“Want to add one?” Ittleby asked Hazel.
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Strange Footprints in the Snow
Tom woke up and looked around. For a moment, he wasn’t sure where he was. Then he remembered. He and his sister, Lucy, were visiting Aunt Gwen. Yesterday they spent seven hours helping Aunt Gwen clean her basement. Today they would have time to play.
He looked out of the window. Fresh snow covered the ground. He could hardly wait to go outside. Tom got dressed and hurried downstairs to the kitchen.
“Hi, sleepyhead(贪睡者),” said Aunt Gwen. “Lucy has already eaten her breakfast. She’s outside.”
“That’s where I’m going as soon as I finish breakfast,” Tom said.
A short time later, he zipped up(拉上拉链)his coat, put on his boots, and walked out of the front door. The sun made the snow sparkle. He looked around. He didn’t see his sister, but he saw something else. There were strange footprints left in the snow across Aunt Gwen’s yard.
“They’re far too big to be Lucy’s. They look like they belong to a dinosaur,” Tom said. Then he added, “But that’s silly. Dinosaurs are not around anymore.”
He looked closer: The footprints were the shape of a very large oval(椭圆)with a stem. “Maybe they belong to an elephant or a hippo that escaped from the zoo,” he thought. He held his breath and listened. He didn’t hear anything.
He remembered a book he’d seen earlier on Aunt Gwen’s shelf. It was a book about animal tracks. He dashed inside to get it. The book had pictures of animals and the tracks they made. He turned the pages one by one, but none of the photos looked like the footprints in Aunt Gwen’s yard.
He stared at those footprints again. An animal that made such big tracks would have to be heavy. Its tracks should sink far down into the snow. Yet these footprints seemed to skim across(掠过)the top.
How can that be? He wondered.
Tom noticed something else. The tracks never left Aunt Gwen’s yard. Instead, they turned and went around the house. “Maybe the animal is still here,” he whispered.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右;
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡相应位置作答。
Though a little scared, Tom made up his mind to find the animal.
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It turned out that his sister was making the sounds.
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Heiss, 61, and his wife lost their only child, a son. They had no grandchildren. Being around children at Christmas had been absent in their lives.
On December 12, Heiss was hiking there mote expanse of land behind his farm in Patagonia, Arizona, a town near the US-Mexico border, when he spotted a balloon on the grass. Heiss walked towards it with his dog, thinking he should pick up the plastic and throw it away. That’s when he noticed the balloon’s string was attached to a piece of paper.
“Dayami”, it read on one side, in a child’s writing, and a hand-drawn bow accompanied the word. Heiss turned over the paper. It was a numbered list, all in Spanish. Though he wasn’t good at Spanish, Heiss could see it was Christmas list. Heiss was attracted and suspected that a child named Dayami had tried to sent Santa Claus a Christmas wish list by balloon, which he used to do himself when he was a kid. Unfortunately, nobody had ever returned the letters he had sent.
Heiss wondered whether he could find the girl who had sent this paper. It would be difficult, but he had a few clues. About 32 kilometers to the southwest, just across the border, was the city of Nogales, Mexico, with a population of about a quarter million. With the help of wind, Heiss was pretty sure the balloon came from the southwest city, Nogales.
Heiss brought the note home to his wife who was fluent in Spanish and helped him translate the list. They determined that Dayani, probably a girl, had asked for dolls, clothes and art supplies, among other things. Heiss then post on Facebook about his search, attracting photos, hoping people in Nogalesmight know the girl’s family. A few days passed with no leads. Heiss worried that time was running out before Christmas.
On December 19, Heiss sent a private Facebook message to Radio XENY, an AM radio station based in Nogales. The next morning, Heiss awoke to a message from Radio XENY. They had located Dayami, an eight-year-old girl, and her family, who indeed lived in Nogales. Best of all, they were willing to meet at the radio station.
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。
“It just changed my entire day,” Heiss said.
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On December 24, the Heisses were decorating the Christmas tree when they heard a knock on the door.
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Meggie was a babysitter for Mrs. Quinn. The house was at the end of a road, and the yard was filled with so many trees that she couldn’t see any of the neighbors’ houses. She always felt slightly frightened when she was left alone with the babies.
One snowy evening, Meggie was watching an old movie on the sofa after the babies had fallen asleep. Around nine o’clock, she heard a car on the driveway. Then she heard a loud knock on the door.
“Who is it?” she asked after she looked through the hole on the door and saw a middle-aged man standing in the entryway. “Ben. Your brother.”
Assuming that the man had mistaken her for her employer, Mrs. Quinn, Meggie replied, “Mrs. Quinn can’t come to the door right now.”
“Ask if Ben can come in.”
Meggie’s mother had always warned her: Never open the door for a stranger while you’re babysitting.
“Go over to the window,” Meggie said.
The man stepped forward.
“The truth is that I’m babysitting,” Meggie said through the screen. Then remembering her mother’s second warning: Don’t advertise that you are alone. Meggie quickly added, “Mrs. Quinn will be home soon.”
“It’s awfully cold out here. Can I wait inside?” the man said, rubbing his hands together. “Please let me in. I promise I won’t bother you.”
“But Mrs. Quinn hadn’t said anything about your dropping by tonight.” Meggie explained. “How can I be sure that you are telling the truth?”
“That’s because she didn’t know I was coming. I was planning to surprise her on her birthday.”
Her birthday? But Meggie hadn’t seen any birthday cards lying around. Her heart raced. She remembered the emergency number Mrs. Quinn left her, so she said, “I’ll call her and see what she will say.”
The smile disappeared from the man’s face. “You’re going to leave me outside to freeze to death? Let me in now!” the man threatened. “Or you’ll be in big trouble!”
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。
Meggie was scared by the man’s sudden anger.
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Soon the sound of the car died out in the darkness.
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It was the biggest night of my life—opening night. Hours of preparation, daily rehearsals, and weeks of perfecting songs had gone into this production. I had recited my line a thousand times, convinced that my one sentence would be the highlight of the show,if only I delivered it with just the right amount of expression. This was big. Bigger than big. This was influential, a big event for every second grader to pass through my elementary school. This was the second grade play.
There was just one problem. My mom and dad wouldn’t be attending the musical. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to;they would have gone if they could. There was just one thing standing in the way, a six-letter word that my seven-year-old brain hadn’t quite processed yet: cancer. My mom’s surgery was scheduled on the same night as the second grade play, quite possibly the most important night in all of my seven years of life.
My parents had explained it all to me. The cancer was making my mommy sick,and she needed the doctors to take it out as soon as possible. But as they said, the show must go on.
Soon the big moment came,and we all filed onto the stage and stood seriously looking out at the audience of moms, dads, siblings and grandparents. The show began, and my second grade class started singing with off-key but nevertheless angelic seven-year-old voices.
Finally,it was my turn to speak.The kid standing next to me made an attempt to hand over the microphone, and I took a deep breath before beginning my line. As I started to speak, I noticed something had gone horribly wrong. Blood rushed to my face when I realized that the microphone was not turned on. Embarrassed, I turned it over and switched the device on. I then proceeded to say my line as quickly as possible and hand the microphone off.Looking out,I couldn’t find any comforting faces, and I just knew that I had messed up.
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。
When the show was over,I walked off the stage to find my grandparents waiting for me.
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A few days later my mom returned home from the hospital.
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A Christmas Tree for Mrs. Mueller
The black-and-white photograph of Mrs. Mueller that I took pictured her seated on the sofa in our living room, smiling shyly. Mrs. Mueller was our next—door neighbor when my sister and I were growing up.
We got to know her after her husband died. She didn’t have children of her own and no relatives that we knew of. She was gentle and kind, and Laurel and I considered her our special friend.
Early one December, Mrs. Mueller went into the hospital. Laurel and I were busy making Christmas presents, and we pondered (思考) what to make for Mrs. Mueller. She would be coming home a few days before Christmas to an empty house with no holiday decorations. We lit upon the idea of decorating a small tree that would greet her with lights and cheer. We were wondering how to carry out our plan when the answer appeared
I was in Miss O’Keefe’s sixth grade class that year, and we had decorated a small tree with paper-link chains and ornaments (装饰品) we’d made in art class. It was beautiful. Best of all, it had to be removed from the classroom before Christmas vacation.
Miss O’Keefe said there would be a drawing (抽签) for the tree. We’d each write our name on a piece of paper and put it through the slot (窄缝) in the shoebox she had decorated. On the last day of school before vacation, she’d draw a name from the box, and that student could take home the tree.
As I put the folded piece of paper with my name “Holly Wheeler” into the box, I was beside myself with excitement, hoping I could be the lucky dog. My mother pointed out there were 30 children who might win the tree, but I was certain I would get it because our purpose was good: We wanted to make Mrs. Mueller happy.
注意：1.所续写的短文词数应为150左右;
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Paragraph 1:
The day before vacation finally arrived.
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Paragraph 2:
I raced to my mother’s car excitedly when school was out.
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Life is full of surprises and twists. We do not know what will happen in the next second. But still, we continue to live our lives. One of the tools that help us is faith.
It was a hot day, and the sands were shining like gold in a desert. Andrew, touring the place, lost his way in the desert. He could not find his way back, and the water in his bottle dried. He was in desperate search of water. Otherwise, he will die due to dehydration(脱水).
As he struggled walking in the desert, he saw a small hut(木屋) at a distance. Initially, he didn’t think it was real. But he continued walking towards it, and as he reached closer, he realized it was a hut.
He opened the door and found nobody there. It seemed like the place was in abandoned condition for a long time. He was surprised to see a hand water pump, and it had all connections undamaged and a pipeline to the ground. Then he started pumping, and there was no sign of water. And he continued his effort and gave up due to exhaustion.
He started searching the hut for any other source of water. Then he found a bottle of water hidden in the corner. He was happy, and when he was about to drink the water, he found a piece of paper attached.
It was written in the paper, “Please use this water to start the pump. It works. After you have done, do not forget to refill the bottle again.” After reading the message in the paper, he went into a dilemma, “Will the pump work if I use this water? Is the pump in good condition? Can I trust the words in the paper? If it is false, then my last source of water will get waste.”
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。
He paused for a minute and closed his eyes, praying.
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The map explained the direction to the nearby village.
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