1 . At age eleven, I was in middle school. As the oldest and my mom’s “grown up” girl, I had to keep my cool. But before Christmas, every chance I got, when I was
It had been a (n)
On that Christmas morning, we
“Here’s another one for you,” said Mom as she
“Mom, I can’t...”
I was
I have always remembered that Christmas full of deep
A.alone | B.asleep | C.awake | D.alive |
A.tore | B.felt | C.smelled | D.broke |
A.easy | B.tough | C.common | D.shiny |
A.excited | B.embarrassed | C.disappointed | D.nervous |
A.approach | B.excellence | C.secret | D.point |
A.slowly | B.unconcernedly | C.passively | D.eagerly |
A.contributions | B.attempts | C.requests | D.arguments |
A.handed | B.took | C.threw | D.provided |
A.ashamed | B.stressed | C.bored | D.confused |
A.recognised | B.recalled | C.refused | D.returned |
A.inspired | B.scared | C.stopped | D.encouraged |
A.outweighed | B.equaled | C.meant | D.indicated |
A.give out | B.give up | C.settle for | D.pay off |
A.doubt | B.relief | C.love | D.trouble |
A.remember | B.comment | C.understand | D.share |
The boy sat on his chair, with his hand above the keyboard. He thought about what to write.
He recalled that the competition deadline was merely a week away. But he still had not even started on his piece. He looked at the brochure again. “WRITING COMPETITION!” the title read. His mom had encouraged him to enter the writing competition, and now he was taking it on as his personal task for the holidays.
As the boy reflected on his previous writing efforts, he realized how hopeless his task of winning was. Every story he ever wrote was based on other stories. He had little imagination, and unfortunately, imagination was the key to writing.
Suddenly, he had a brainwave. This time, he came up with an original and imaginative story.
The words shot towards him like a storm of leaves. Words were coming easily, flowing through him, faster than he could type. He typed faster than he ever had before. He continued to type, amazed at how easy writing this story was. The boy could not stop writing. He looked at the word count and saw the number “248” staring right back at him. He was not even halfway yet.
Then he heard the call of his mother saying time for bed. He continued writing the piece, ignoring her. He had to make up for the time he had lost thinking about a topic to write. Finally, he finished. The word count now read “498”.
“Perfect,” he thought, “just under the word limit.” He knew this was the story that would win.
He went onto Google and searched for the competition. He found the page but there was no “Enter” button.
Confused, he then re-read the page again. It read COMPETITION CLOSED.
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。
Paragraph 1:
After a few seconds, the boy eagerly checked the deadline of the COMPETITION on the website.
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Paragraph 2:
His mother came up and comforted him.
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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。
Lily was renowned for her desire to achieve perfection in everything she undertook. Whether it was school projects, art assignments, or even helping her parents with household chores, Lily’s commitment to excellence was unwavering.
One sunny summer day, Lily’s family decided to spend a day at the beach. As they arrived, Lily’s eyes were immediately drawn by a group of children who playfully built and then tore down their sandcastles. They giggled and shouted, their excitement on full display. “How silly, ” she thought, not quite getting why they enjoyed doing that.
Lily, being herself, decided to build a perfect sandcastle that would become the envy of all beachgoers. She began to plan every detail in her mind, from the balanced structures of the towers to the delicate decorations. Then, she set about piling sand to make the towers and walls of her sandcastle. Painstakingly, she crafted each feature of her work, carefully smoothed the surfaces and adjusting every detail to her vision.
Jake, Lily’s younger brother, didn’t seem too concerned with building a fantastic sandcastle. He picked a spot nearby and amused himself with the sand. He scooped up handfuls of sand, let it slip through his fingers like grains of time, and then molded it into careless shapes with the carefree abandon of a child. Jake’s happiness was contagious. Mom and Dad joined him, laughing and joking over Jake’s playful creations. From time to time, they called out to Lily and invited her to join the fun, knowing that the pursuit of perfection could be exhausting.
Nevertheless, Lily stayed where she was, determined to create an impressive sandcastle. She frowned at Jake’s unconventional, abstract art-like sandcastle shapes and persisted in her efforts. However, the process didn’t go as smoothly as she had anticipated. The sand didn’t always hold its shape, and the waves constantly lapped at the edges of her creation.
Para 1: As the day wore on, Lily’s sandcastle kept losing its form.
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Para 2: With bitter smile, Lily decided to join her family.
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4 . Andrew Powell was pulling envelopes from the large mailbox outside his contemporary house when he noticed something
“We’ve decided to live here,” the
Over the next few months, additional items mysteriously
More than a year later, Mary and Shelley are still living rent-free in the mailbox, to the delight of the neighbors who now
“It’s just somebody out there who is having some fun, giving us all a little community
Andrew says he now doesn’t want to know who is
A.alive | B.unusual | C.important | D.unique |
A.notice | B.board | C.mail | D.message |
A.by mistake | B.by chance | C.on purpose | D.on sale |
A.gifts | B.cards | C.dolls | D.posts |
A.displayed | B.acquired | C.designed | D.decorated |
A.came back | B.wandered off | C.showed up | D.broke in |
A.before | B.since | C.unless | D.when |
A.follow | B.comment | C.download | D.appreciate |
A.improvement | B.possibility | C.truth | D.progress |
A.difficulty | B.conflict | C.case | D.mystery |
A.care | B.humor | C.blessing | D.support |
A.artistic | B.academic | C.sympathetic | D.realistic |
A.suitable | B.eager | C.responsible | D.ambitious |
A.describing | B.imitating | C.celebrating | D.enjoying |
A.light | B.camera | C.tent | D.bench |
5 . The Glover kids in Newburgh, New York, want to make a little extra money themselves before the school opens. So, earlier this week, they set up a lemonade stand on the side of the road.
Now, in most stories, that’s when the police
Whitney posted the picture on social media with explanatory words. The
Dozens of customers have
A.Progress | B.Business | C.Budget | D.Service |
A.demanded | B.proposed | C.warned | D.informed |
A.angry | B.generous | C.anxious | D.responsible |
A.take over | B.leave out | C.shut down | D.tear apart |
A.course | B.licence | C.fund | D.record |
A.surprised | B.tired | C.upset | D.confused |
A.context | B.case | C.reason | D.issue |
A.other than | B.instead of | C.as for | D.due to |
A.investigated | B.prevented | C.praised | D.punished |
A.contributions | B.differences | C.objections | D.adjustments |
A.posing | B.exchanging | C.preparing | D.searching |
A.refreshing | B.effective | C.amusing | D.creative |
A.apology | B.development | C.support | D.debate |
A.stood out | B.stood by | C.stopped out | D.stopped by |
A.change | B.donation | C.supply | D.application |
When coming to this city for high school, I moved into the new house with my parents. We were very grateful to the owner for renting us this house at a cheap price. The house was really comfortable to live in. It was warm inside and full of life outside.
A tree in the front yard attracted my attention, and all I could confirm was that it was a fruit tree. My father thought it was a fig(无花果) tree, and sure enough, as the months went by, the tree grew huge leaves and finally bore the fruit—figs, the size of my fist. How wonderful they were! I took many pictures of the fig tree. And then we wondered how to deal with the figs. My mother thought for a while and said, “Why not try making fig jam?” I responded quickly, “That’s a good idea!”
Jack, one of our neighbors, just visited us and asked if he could pick some figs from our tree. Certainly, we encouraged him to take as many as he liked. In fact, Jack was extremely polite and friendly to us. He introduced himself at the first sight of us. He always waved to me as he came home or as he left for work.
When I picked the figs with him, he told me about how he had been living in the house next door for close to twenty years. He said, “Bruce, the owner of the house you live in now, used to be my best friend. And we had planted this very fig tree a few years before he went to the nursing home.” I was amazed to know that we actually enjoyed the fruit of his work. He told me that he was so impressed by the quality of the fruit this year. I found a fruit box for him to put the figs in. Both of us enjoyed the pleasure of sharing.
When Jack set out for his home, I turned to my parents and advised doing something in return for Jack and Bruce’s kindness and friendliness.
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.
Finally, we decided to invite Jack and his family to dinner that night.
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The next day, our family and Jack visited Bruce in the nursing home.
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7 . A Chinese girl Tan Fanglin overcame a world-class mathematics problem and was invited again to attend the World Laureates Forum when she was 15. Communicating with 65 top scientists in the world, she became a rising star in this meeting of the world’s sharpest minds.
Her discovery has won her many prizes in youth innovation competitions in China. However, Tan is not a “genius” in the traditional sense. Tan was born in a scholarly family. Her father was a professor of mathematics. Tan showed a high interest in mathematics when she was very young. She likes to find questions on her own. The more difficult the problem is, the more potential she will unlock. In this process, her father will only give proper guidance.
Tan took part in many research projects. So devoted to the projects, she once made serious mistakes during the exam at school. Instead of severely rebuking her, her parents let her find the problem by herself and achieve a better balance between textbook study and research. It was because of the respect and trust of her parents that Tan began to plan her study time scientifically and applied the learning methods summarized in the process of mathematics research to the classroom. With her hard work, she made great achievements in mathematics.
Attending this meeting enabled Tan to get more inspiration from the world’s top scientists. She even got the opportunity to talk with germ Miesenböck, who is pioneering the field of Optogenetics (光遗传学). Miesenböc has encouraged her not to lose her passion and love for what she does and said accepting failure is important to researchers. He has stressed that people all know that even Thomas Edison went through hundreds of unsuccessful attempts before finally inventing the light bulb. Tan has met many difficulties in her research and often feels upset. The words have made her feel inspired.
1. What can we learn about Tan Fanglin?A.She went to the meeting with her father. | B.She has a strong love for mathematics. |
C.She never made mistakes in her school exams. | D.She was invited to attend the Forum for the first time. |
A.Helping. | B.Challenging. | C.Criticizing. | D.Praising. |
A.By correcting her mistakes. |
B.By offering extra training for her research. |
C.By stressing the importance of scientific research. |
D.By respecting her and encouraging her in self-development. |
A.All roads lead to Rome. | B.Nothing is impossible. |
C.Where there is a will, there is a way. | D.Failure is the mother of success. |
8 . One year, a college in the United States announced that it would offer a lot of money for the pure white marigold (金盏花). The high reward attracted so many people, but in nature, besides golden, the marigold is brown, and it is not easy to get the white one. So after they were excited for a time, many people had forgotten the announcement.
One normal day after 20 years, the college received a letter and 100 seeds of pure white marigold. It was an old woman of over 70 years old. Some experts in the college doubted it, but in order not to let her down, those seeds finally took root (根) in the earth. The miracle appeared after one year; the field was covered by pure white marigold.
Therefore, the old woman who was always unknown to the public became a new focus.
The old woman was a flower-lover. When she read the announcement 20 years ago, she got very excited like others. But her eight children were totally against her decision. After all, a woman who never knew the seed genetics (遗传学) couldn’t complete what the experts could never do, so her thought was only a day dream.
Still, the old woman didn’t change her mind and went on working. She planted some of the most common seeds and took good care of them. A year later, when the marigold came out, she chose one faintest (最暗淡的) from those golden and brown flowers and got the best seed. The next year, she again grew them and chose...Day after day, year after year, through many seasons, the old woman’s husband died, her children flew far, a lot of things happened in her life, but only the wish to grow the pure white marigold took root in her heart.
Finally, after 20 years on the day we all know, in the garden she saw a marigold, which was nearly white, but as white as silver or snow.
A problem even experts couldn’t deal with was solved by an old woman who didn’t understand genetics. Was it a miracle (奇迹)?
To take root in the heart, even the most common seed can grow into a miracle!
1. According to the passage,________ marigold is unusual.A.white | B.purple |
C.brown | D.golden |
A.the children didn’t agree on their mother’s decision |
B.the woman needed the great reward for her big family |
C.the experts also succeeded in growing the white marigold |
D.the woman took good care of the flowers instead of her family |
A.was luckier than experts |
B.put her heart into flowers |
C.got support from her family |
D.studied the seed genetics well |
A.the difficulties of getting the white marigold |
B.the possibility of going beyond experts |
C.the unforgettable development of marigolds |
D.the importance of holding on to dreams |
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.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________10 . I first “met” Wang Jian through the documentary From Mao to Mozart, an award-winning account of the musical journey taken by violinist Isaac Stern through China in 1979. In it, eleven-year-old Wang Jian performed in front of one of the most famous artists in the world with confidence and focus. It was a memorable experience.
Many years later, as I was looking through the Haydn section in a record shop one day, an unforgettable face on a CD cover caught my eye. I immediately recognised it as Wang Jian’s and it was quite unexpected. His eyes had remained very much the same as those of the little boy on the stage some twenty years ago. As I was a lover of Cello (大提琴) Concertos, needless to say, his recordings became my favourite.
I was very lucky to find myself a passenger on the same Music Cruise Wang Jian was performing on a few years ago. I still remember experiencing his performance of Schubert’s Arpeggione during a stormy crossing of the Mediterranean. My stomach was trying to deal with the ups and downs of the sea, while he fought his own discomfort by sinking (使沉入) himself in his performance. Of course, it is the best Arpeggione I have ever heard.
I was once told that an artist can be an extremely different person from the music he or she plays. I used to doubt that, but after several experiences, I’ve reconsidered this opinion. I still remember a Russian pianist, extremely talented, with whom I had a drink following his concert. The memory of his superficial (肤浅的) conversation paired with rude laughter still frightens me.
But Wang Jian is different. I found him to be just the person his beautiful music would suggest. He plays in a simple, clean and sincere way. Despite his success and fame (名声), he remains simple, friendly, and generous — a real gentleman and a well-respected artist.
1. How did the author first know of Wang Jian?A.He came across him in a journey. | B.He learned about him from a film. |
C.He met him at an award ceremony. | D.He read about him in a violinist’s story. |
A.Proud. | B.Surprised. |
C.Curious. | D.Doubtful. |
A.His generosity. | B.His confidence. |
C.His concentration. | D.His friendliness. |
A.Wang Jian will win more popularity. |
B.The pianist is not so talented as Wang Jian. |
C.We should never judge an artist by his looks. |
D.Wang Jian’s characters are as good as his music. |