1 . Growing up in the South Central neighborhood of Los Angeles in the 1970s, Ghuan Featherstone only remembers riding a horse with his parents at a nearby park when he was eight years old.
But ever since, he’s been chasing that sense of freedom and power he felt on the horse that day. “I felt like I could conquer anything,” Featherstone, now 51, said in a Story Corps interview last month with Jordan Humphreys, a 13-year-old horseback rider. After serving in the Army for eight years, Featherstone remained determined to realize his childhood dream of becoming a cowboy.
When he returned to Los Angeles, he learned to ride at stables known as “The Hill” in Compton. Riders there would jump on their horse backs and take their horses into the city streets. In 2012, a fire burned down The Hill. What had become a shelter for the youth was suddenly gone. Sensing the void (空缺) after the fire, Featherstone opened his own stables, Urban Saddles, in 2019 to create a space where he could teach kids like Humphreys to care for and ride horses.
As a black man, Featherstone is against prejudice. People of color are often prevented from pop culture and historical representations of the cowboy. His stable has helped keep the cowboy lifestyle alive in the streets. “Riding through the streets on horseback has given me a way to connect with others in the community,” said Humphreys. “It makes them happy seeing us on a horse and then they may be smiling, and I believe that when we come through, we give them a sense of hope,” he added.
If there’s one lesson Featherstone hopes to convey to kids, it’s a respect for all life. “We’re respecting the animals and we’re respecting each other,” he said.
1. What made Featherstone want to become a cowboy?| A．His love to his parents. | B．The duty of saving the world. |
| C．The serving years in the army. | D．His childhood riding experience. |
| A．The life of being a cowboy. |
| B．The dream of being a cowboy. |
| C．The course of opening Urban Saddles. |
| D．The place of teaching kids like Humphreys. |
| A．To teach the black kids to ride horses. |
| B．To help the kids to learn to respect all life. |
| C．To make money by teaching the kids to ride. |
| D．To train the cowboys to become more hopeful. |
| A．Smart but careless. | B．Slow but productive. |
| C．Diligent and broad-minded. | D．Determined and kind-hearted. |
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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The mother was ashamed when she heard that.
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Ali and his younger sister, Zahra, lived with their parents in a poor neighborhood. Their mother was very sick and their father was struggling to find a job, and they had only a little money with which to buy food. As they had not paid the rent for several months, the landlord was breathing down their necks.
One day, Ali took Zahra's shoes to a shoe repairman to be fixed, but he lost them on the way home. It wasn’t until he got home that he realized he had lost the shoes. He was afraid that his parents would be angry and disappointed, so he begged his sister to keep it a secret. Zahra agreed and the two decided to share Ali’s running shoes. Zahra's school hours were in the morning, so she would wear them first. After school, she would rush back and give them to Ali. He could then run to his school, which began in the afternoon. Although he ran as fast as he could, Ali often arrived late and was warned by the school.
Ali heard about a long distance race that was held for the boys in the city.When he learned that the third prize was a new pair of shoes, he decided to take part. He ran home excitedly and promised his sister that he would win her the new shoes.
The day of race arrived. Ali had a strong start, but halfway through the race he began to get tired and his legs began to ache. Getting more and more exhausted he thought only of Zahra and his promise to her. Dreaming of the new shoes he would win for his sister gave him strength, and he stayed right behind the two fastest runners, determined to finish third. Suddenly, as the finish line drew near, another runner collided(碰撞) with Ali from behind and he crashed to the ground.
Ali looked up and saw the other boys rushing ahead.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Filled with delight, Ali walked home quickly.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________4 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写一段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。
Last weekend, I went to Mark’s new house near a forest for a little get-together. After lunch when I was chatting with him and his wife Cody, he asked me, “Hey, Thora, have you ever been to a secret spot?” Before I could even finish saying no, Cody and Mark were already at the door with their jackets on. And the next moment we were heading out into the forest with a camera, a fishing net and a plastic bucket (桶).
We walked through the forest along a path by a small river. Breathing the fresh air, we three talked and laughed all the way.
“Hey! What are you guys doing ?” someone suddenly shouted from behind. Mark and Cody’s eyes immediately widened, and without a word they started running. I had no choice but to follow them, getting my shoes wet and dirty with mud. We probably ran for about 10 minutes before Mark and Cody slowed down. I stopped to catch my breath and asked, “Who was that?”
Mark replied, “The most annoying neighbor ever. There’s no telling what could happen if he caught up with us. He is always making fun of us. I dislike him.” We kept walking on for a few more minutes. Then a beautiful lake appeared before our eyes. “Wow! Amazing!” I shouted and could hardly hold back my excitement. The lake was large and the water was deep and blue, looking so peaceful with tall trees around it.
注意：（1）所续写短文的词数应为l50左右；
（2）续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好；
Paragraph1:
Looking around, we saw a boat floating by the shore.
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Paragraph 2:
“Help! Help! Help!” I was so frightened and cried for help.
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One day, when I was a first-year student in high school, I saw a kid from my class walking home from school. His name was Kris. It looked like he was carrying all of his books. I thought to myself, “Why would anyone bring home all his books on a Friday? He must really be a nerd (书呆子).”
I had quite a weekend planned (parties and a football game with my friends), so I shrugged my shoulders and went on. As I was walking, I saw a gang of kids running toward him. They ran at him, knocking all his books out of arms and tripping him so he landed in the dirt. His glasses went flying, and I saw them land in the grass about ten feet from him. He looked up, and I saw terrible sadness in his eyes.
My heart went out to him. So I jogged over to him, and as he crawled around looking for his glasses, I saw tears in his eyes. As I handed him his glasses, I said, “They are bad guys! They really should be punished.” He looked at me and said, “Hey, thanks!” There was a big smile on his face. It was one of those smiles that showed real gratitude.
I helped him pick up his books and asked him where he lived. As it turned out, he lived near me, so I asked him why I had never seen him before. He said he had gone to a private school before. I would have never hung out with a private school kid before, but we talked all the way home, and I carried his books.
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 turned out to be a pretty cool kid.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________We always hung out on weekends, and the more I got to know Kris, the more I liked him.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________6 . Owura Kwadwo Hottish teaches computer science in a school. It is a normal school except for the fact that it didn’t have
Owura became famous after he posted photos of him on the Internet. In the picture. people could see he was teaching his students by
| A．classrooms | B．computers | C．playgrounds | D．tools |
| A．operating | B．repairing | C．describing | D．drawing |
| A．poor | B．unique | C．average | D．avanced |
| A．annoyed | B．pleased | C．frightened | D．surprised |
| A．line | B．culture | C．schedule | D．school |
| A．rubbed | B．called | C．cut | D．shown |
| A．exchange | B．improve | C．revise | D．repeat |
| A．broke out | B．paid off | C．came back | D．held back |
| A．care | B．control | C．place | D．notice |
| A．suggestion | B．speech | C．decision | D．arrangement |
| A．made | B．waited | C．received | D．carried |
| A．Suddenly | B．Importantly | C．Exactly | D．Naturally |
| A．lent | B．sold | C．donated | D．applied |
| A．efforts | B．pains | C．legend | D．experiment |
| A．glory | B．wisdom | C．kindness | D．pride |
It was an unusually quiet day in the emergency room. Quiet, that is, except for the nurses who were standing around the nurses’ station complaining about having to work on Christmas Day.
I was triage (分诊) nurse that day. Since there were no patients waiting to be seen at the time, I came back to the nurses’ station for a cup of hot cider. Just then an admitting clerk came back and told me I had five patients waiting to be evaluated. “Five, how did I get five? I was just out there and no one was in the waiting room.” I complained. So I went straight out and called the first name. Five bodies showed up at my triage desk, a pale woman and four small children in somewhat messy clothing.
“Are you all sick?” I asked suspiciously.
“Yes,” she said weakly, and lowered her head.
“Okay,” I replied, unconvinced, “who’s first?” One by one they sat down, and I asked the usual questions. When it came to descriptions of their presenting problems, things got a little vague. A six-year-old girl had a headache, but the headache wasn’t accompanied by the normal body language of holding the head or trying to keep it still. Three children had earaches, but only one could tell me which ear was affected. The mother complained of a cough, but seemed to work to produce it.
Something was wrong with the picture. Our hospital policy, however, was not to turn away any patient, so we would see them. I checked the chart after the admitting clerk finished registering the family. No address—they were homeless. The waiting room was warm.
I went back to the nurse station and mentioned we had a homeless family in the waiting room. The nurses, complaining about working on Christmas Day, turned to sympathy for a family just trying to get warm on Christmas. The team went into action as much as we do when there’s a medical emergency. But this one was a Christmas emergency.
We took turns joining in the waiting room.
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As the family were to leave, the six-year-old came running back.
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8 . In the Pascucci household, putting up Christmas lights was always a big day of celebration and a family affair. Every year, Anthony Pascucci, the male head of the family, and his older sister, Connie Pascucci, and Anthony’s son, Anthony Jr., and daughter, Sara, pitched in it.
In 2020, Anthony Sr., 60, tied colorful lights all around their roof until it looked as if the brightness of the lights could counter some of the darkness of the past year with COVID-19. However, just several days after Christmas Eve the pandemic claimed his life.
Sara says the next weeks were the worst of her life. But when she pulled up to the house at the end of a long day, the twinkling Christmas lights brought her a spark of joy. Taking the lights down felt like a final act of closure she wasn’t ready to take. So she kept them up.
One day Sara received an unsigned letter which read “Take your Christmas lights down! It’s Valentine’s Day!!!” Sara was shocked and angry. She decided to post the letter. “I wanted to remind people that we all had a tough year and people should be a little more caring toward each other,” she says.
“I know what it feels like to lose someone and not want to put their things away. It’s very hard,” one man commented. And something strange began to happen. Sara was driving back from work one day when she noticed that Christmas lights were appearing—or reappearing—on neighbors’ houses. The mystery had a sweet explanation: Her neighbors had gotten together and decided, collectively, to hang their lights back up and turn them back on in honor of Sara’s father.
“To see the lights and the block lit up again,” Sara says, “it touched my heart.” A few weeks later, Sara decided she was ready to take down the lights. Sara said it was hard to pack them away—“but not as hard as I think it would have been if we hadn’t experienced all that support and love.”
1. In Sara’s family, putting up Christmas lights ______.| A．was a family routine |
| B．was Anthony’s responsibility |
| C．was the biggest event in a year |
| D．could remove the darkness of the past year |
| A．they reminded her of her father |
| B．it was still Christmas season then |
| C．it was too troublesome to remove them |
| D．they were extremely colorful and bright |
| A．ask for netizens’ help |
| B．share her anger and shock |
| C．criticize the person who wrote the letter |
| D．appeal to people to care about others more |
| A．Up in lights. | B．Sara’s sweet neighbors. |
| C．An unforgettable Christmas. | D．Let your neighbors’ lights on. |
I was more than thrilled as I held the beautifully wrapped present in my hands. Having been eager for it for a very long time, I tore it open, unable to contain my curiosity any longer. Yes, it was a brand new mobile phone. I had scored straight As for my examinations and this was my reward for it. I had always cast envious glance at my friends who were exchanging news about the latest film or fashion, the news at home and abroad, all of which I knew nothing about. Now I myself had the chance to find out.
It started out simply enough. I used it to search for information with regard to my study as I once promised to my parents. However, one day, I was doing information searching when I ran into a post looking for friends. Soon it became a habit for me to contact my new-found electronic friend. I started to spend more and more time on YouTube and became addicted to Twitter or something like that. I had never expected that the day would come when I would be completely controlled by the little thing. Whenever I was not lingering on these social networking sites, I would be going through fashion or entertainment websites. I didn’t want to be away from it for a single moment.
With time passing, I realized that I had an addiction to my phone. During weekends, when I had more time of my own, I would spend a few hours on mobile phone. Eventually, it came to a point where I had myself locked in my room, refusing to come out and involve in any family activities. I favored to stay connected to the people I had never met on the Internet. Shortly, the morning hours was spent surfing on the Internet. Small naps took the place of good sleep. Worse still, my grades at school got farther and farther away from satisfactory.
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。
It was about this time that my parents noticed my change.
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Then one day, my father took away my mobile phone.
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Hiking trails (小径) can be fun and relaxing, but sometimes can also be challenging and dangerous.
Rogers, 33, was in town from New York for adventures on Boston trails. Even he had just taken a sharp turn on his mountain bike when he was stopped by the sight of a woman sitting on the side of the trail. She was cute with long blond hair and big expressive eyes. What he didn’t know was that she was also in extreme pain.
Sydney Linden, 28, had been jogging down Adobe Jack Trail for a splendid sunset view of the Red Rocks when she hopped (单腿跳) over a rock and her leg over extended on the landing. The pain was instant. Her right leg collapsed (倒塌) and she hit the dirt hard. Linden tried to stand but collapsed. She wasn’t sure if she had broken her leg, or something else. All she knew was that the pain was a 15 out of 10.
Linden dragged herself to the shade and called a friend, but after 30 minutes, her friend was lost. And the sun beat down cruelly. That’s when she saw the mountain biker.
Rogers was trying to play it cool. He casually rode by at a slower speed, stealing a glance at the woman. Sensing her suffering, Rogers stopped and asked if he could help. Linden explained her situation and that’s when he noticed the swelling (肿胀处) under her leggings. She needed a hospital now.
Rogers helped Linden to her feet and they began to cross the rocky region and desert bushes. It was a long way to go. Leaning on Rogers, Linden tried to hop along, but the pain was severe. She would never make it to the foot of the hill this way.
要求：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。
Then Rogers had another idea.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________It was after the operation that Linden found Rogers gone.
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