Brrrring! The bell rang as I tapped out a quick beat on my desk. I’ve figured it out, finally! I couldn’t wait to play it for my neighbor Mia.
Mia and I had been working for weeks on a song for Saturday’s band competition but we had been stuck on the ending.
I waved when I saw a familiar face jogging toward me down the hall.
“Hey, Will!” Liam grinned. “Ready for some training after school? I’ve been working on my jumper.” He turned around and shot an imaginary ball into the air.
Uh-oh. I’d forgotten all about basketball. I didn’t want to fail Liam, but I was dying to try out the new ending. Maybe if I had a reason to skip…
“Hey, Liam. I don’t feel so great.” I gave a small cough for effect. “Another time?”
“Sure, no problem. Feel better soon, OK?” Then Liam left immediately.
Lying was easier than I imagined. I could finish the song and Liam’s feelings weren’t hurt.
After playing the ending, I looked at Mia hopefully, “What do you think?”
“Perfect!” She exclaimed in delight.
”That sounded great, guys.“ Liam stood on my basement steps with his eyebrows raised.
Oh, no. Busted. ”Thanks, “ I said, trying to think quickly. ”It was strange. I came home and suddenly felt fine. I would have met you at the court, but it was too late. And then Mia stopped by, and—“
”But, in fact, you called me,“ Mia said, shaking her head.
”I had intended to call to ask a homework question, and then…” My voice trailed off(逐渐减弱). I coughed, but it sounded fake. “I can’t remember how it went exactly, but I’m feeling better now.”
"Well, that’s good, I guess.” Liam forced a smile.
Before I could think of something to say, Liam tossed(扔)a case of a movie intended to comfort me onto the couch, Captain Crush, Part 2, the sequel to our favorite movie in which an evil villain’s little lie turned into a big mess, and left with eyes filled with disappointment, followed by Mia.
注意:1. 续写词数应为75左右;
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。(注: 第一段的续写已给出, 请根据第二段首句续写成完整的短文)
Para.1: After Liam and Mia left, I grabbed the movie and popped it in. I needed a distraction from how awful I felt. When watching the movie, I couldn’t help but thinking what if I lost two friends because of my lie. In my mind, two voices battled. The angel urged me to be frank and apologize to him while the devil argued that it was a white lie/a good excuse to spare his feelings. The two voices tortured me so much that I couldn’t bury myself in the movie. What’s worse, the hesitation left me tossing and turning restlessly for a whole night.
Para. 2: The next morning, I met Liam at the bus stop.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________2 . Psychologists Edward Deci and Richard Ryan tried to find the core of living well. Their research in self-determination theory conducted over the course of four decades with a network of 500 participants in 39 countries, has found that the experience of happiness is affected by the satisfaction of basic psychological needs to feel competent, self-determining, and positively related to other people in the activities of one’s life. These are universal needs, observed across all stages of life and in every culture in which studies have been conducted, and they help explain the truth in the ancient ideal of happiness, or human flourishing (繁荣).
According to this ideal, living well involves fulfilling one’s human potential in ways that are admirable, sustainable (可持续的), and personally satisfying. Ryan and Deci identifies three broad forms of potential: social, intellectual, and productive/creative. In other words, the forms are psychologically linked to the satisfaction of human beings’ universal basic needs for positive relatedness, self-determination, and competence. Fulfilling all three forms of potential is the key to happiness, and shaping our lives and institutions accordingly would be much more matched with sustainability than pursuing wealth without limit.
A related finding, which is very important for the pursuit of sustainability, is that escape from poverty is important to happiness but the pursuit of wealth, status (地位), and image as life goals is less beneficial to happiness than the pursuit of life goals that directly fulfill our basic forms of potential and satisfy our related psychological needs. Societies that have promoted the accumulation of wealth without limit have not raised their general level of happiness by doing so. It should be evident to any observer of life in the U.S. that as wealth and inequality have grown, most Americans have become more painfully focused on occupational insecurity and on status competition that has simply become more expensive and less sustainable.
As a consequence, we could be happier both now and in the future if we could overcome the blind faith in wealth accumulation that shaped the socially, politically and environmentally unstable world with which we must now deal.
1. What did Deci and Ryan find in their research?| A．Happiness is only determined by oneself. |
| B．500 people feel competent in their lives. |
| C．People should spend 4 decades to meet the basic needs. |
| D．Every culture has the similar understanding of happiness. |
| A．By achieving our potential. | B．By shaping our lives and institutions. |
| C．By pursuing wealth without any limit. | D．By identifying three forms of potential. |
| A．To show the importance of wealth. |
| B．To present the necessity of escape from poverty. |
| C．To introduce the new finding of the pursuit of life goals. |
| D．To prove the wrong concept between money and happiness. |
| A．Confident. | B．Supportive. | C．Disappointed. | D．Unconcerned. |
I have always been free and easy when it comes to handing out small change on the street, and a couple of months ago I lend 200 to a man I had never met before. Anyway, let me tell you about Brendan.
On my way back to London, I spotted a man with a large backpack and his thumb out to ask for a free lift. I pulled over and lowered the window.
“Which way are you heading?” I asked. “I’m going back to London.”
“Ah, that would be grand,” came his immediate reply. He opened the door and put his backpack on the back seat, “I’m Brendan,” he said with a smile. “I’ve had my thumb out for a day and half. Nobody seems to stop these days.”
As we headed cast along the motorway, Brendan told me about the two recent family tragedies that had pushed him out of his old life and on to the road. He told me that he was 52. He laughed a lot and enjoyed his off-grid (离网) lifestyle until the week before when he’d been mugged (抢劫). And now he just wanted to get some casual work in London, so he could then get himself home to Ireland.
It must have been the notion of home that got me and helping a man who’d clearly had a tough time seemed like the right thing to do. To my surprise I heard myself say: “Well, I’ll lend you 200 to fly home, Brendan.”
“Grand,” he replied excitedly. Then, after a pause, “and please don’t worry. I’ll definitely pay back the money when I get home.” He took my phone number and address, saying he’d call as soon as he could.
Eight weeks past, a call from Brendan made me disappointed.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________A month after I got the call, to my surprise, a package was delivered to me.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________4 . My four-year-old son, Will, suffered from autism spectrum disorder (自闭症). And he went through many hours in
One summer afternoon, with a bucket (桶), Will and I were walking along the
“Will, why do you keep on
“Mom, this one looks like a smile when you hold it this way. ” He showed a broken shell and explained. “It
My eyes were full of tears as I
| A．experiments | B．foods | C．exercises | D．treatments |
| A．river | B．lake | C．beach | D．stream |
| A．threw away | B．looked into | C．left behind | D．turned over |
| A．unpleasant | B．unusual | C．colorless | D．useless |
| A．sharply | B．clearly | C．perfectly | D．commonly |
| A．puzzled | B．delighted | C．discouraged | D．embarrassed |
| A．gather | B．reject | C．count | D．spread |
| A．covering | B．decorating | C．preparing | D．filling |
| A．pushed | B．reached | C．buried | D．moved |
| A．uniquenesses | B．styles | C．symbols | D．qualities |
| A．informs | B．persuades | C．reminds | D．warns |
| A．observation | B．performance | C．adventure | D．expression |
| A．agreed | B．realized | C．pretended | D．decided |
| A．relieved | B．removed | C．examined | D．saved |
| A．wisdom | B．power | C．wealth | D．beauty |
5 . Powerful Quotes To Help You Find Your Way When You Feel Lost
Everyone has moments in their lives when they feel a little lost, and it is at these times that we begin to question who we are and what the purpose of life is. Many people have struggled with similar emotions before us.
Powerful quotations about feeling lost will encourage you to search within and discover how you truly are. With all of life’s ups and downs, it’s simple to feel like your life is meaningless, that there is no hope for the future.
Perhaps you’ve become lost in your work, your relationship, or your parental responsibilities.
You need to understand that you are not alone if you’re feeling lost.
| A．The only life you can actually lead is the one that is immediately in front of you. |
| B．So follow them, set aside your concerns and allow yourself to see the life that lies ahead. |
| C．In any event, you shouldn’t let yourself become trapped in this condition of confusion. |
| D．Your current difficult situations are temporary. |
| E．Being lost is perfectly normal. |
| F．Get help from some powerful professional quotes. |
| G．However, maybe you’re experiencing a difficult time that you weren’t prepared well. |
6 . Frank Herbert’s science fiction Dune was the first coming-of-age story that helped me survive my lonely junior high school. At age 12, my life was the tiny, boring cycle of home, school and my parents’ store. Dune cracked it all open and led me to a universe that made my little world a lot more bearable. Unlike Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye who kept breaking windows, Dune’s main character, Paul Atreides, equipped me with a junior-high survival guide.
Paul is not a classic underdog. He’s the son of a king. He’s been trained since birth in war arts, politics and critical survival skills by a group of smart and experienced men with impossible-to-pronounce names. But when his world is turned upside down-when he leaves his home, loses his father and enters a physically and politically hostile environment-he doesn’t complain and cry. He adapts.
To this day, I still can recite his words against fear: “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total destruction. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
The steady diet of literary fiction assigned by my teachers was escapist and the very act of reading (whatever the content) usually took me out of a given moment, but didn’t provide much advice on how to face my daily conflicts and painful insecurity.
Dune was escapist, too. However, it was expansive and literally redefined possibility for me who had been struggling along with eyes on the ground, just trying to make it through another day of boredom and hardship of being a teenage girl. Paul lifted my eyes up so I could see the stars.
1. Which best explains “hostile” underlined in paragraph 2?| A．Safe. | B．Unfriendly. | C．Unbeneficial. | D．Pleasant. |
| A．His good education. | B．His noble birth. |
| C．His courage to face fear. | D．His escapist attitude. |
| A．She was an optimistic girl. | B．She was not loved by her parents. |
| C．She had a carefree childhood. | D．She felt insecure and unconfident. |
| A．The Catcher in the Rye Should Be Banned |
| B．Teenagers Should Not Read Literary Fictions |
| C．Dune Became My Junior-High Survival Guide |
| D．Science Fiction Is Better Than Literary Fiction |
7 . Moving forces us to face the extraneous. File cabinets and drawers stuffed to the brim, boxes piled high in the backs of closets — why keep letters and cards that we never re-read? One card with my grandmother’s handwriting should be enough.
An unnerving yet productive strategy is to envision someone dealing with the piles of papers if you suddenly weren’t here. You instantly realize that most of your accumulation will one day be thrown into a recycling bin. The things you are saving as reminders of your past are useless to others. Sure, you may value what you keep, but worth is essentially all in your head.
In a real sense, to throw things away is to prepare to die. This is not a gloomy declaration but rather an enlivening recognition of the freedom that follows when we take ourselves less seriously. It’s the same as looking at a sky full of stars and feeling the relief of being tiny and unimportant. Awareness of the briefness of our time on earth and the impermanence of both our attachments and our sufferings can become a powerful basis for clearing things and emotions alike.
A few years ago, dear friends were called home from work to a big fire. They watched as their house burned to the ground, despite the efforts of several fire crews. Everything material, cherished things, and accumulations were reduced to ashes —clothes, photo albums, furniture, paintings, books, boxes of old letters, the piano.
By nightfall, what they had left were the clothes they had worn that day and the photos they had kept at their workplaces. At first, they felt completely collapsed, but once they emerged from the initial shock and grief, they were sustained by a lot of love from family and friends. They were alive, and this is what really mattered. It is astonishing to discover how little weight our possessions carry in this calculus of true necessity.
1. What does the underlined word “extraneous” mean in Paragraph 1?| A．Invaluable. | B．Irrelevant. | C．Suitable. | D．Necessary. |
| A．It’s useless. | B．It’s essential. | C．It’s personal. | D．It’s recyclable. |
| A．By recognizing the burden of freedom. | B．By letting oneself fade into insignificance. |
| C．By being aware of the preciousness of time. | D．By treasuring the attachments and sufferings. |
| A．To demonstrate the cruelty of a fire. | B．To stress the weight our possessions carry. |
| C．To emphasize the importance of love from friends. | D．To show the insignificance of our possessions. |
8 . A little stream flowed down from a high mountain far away through many villages and forests, until it reached a desert. The stream then thought, “I’ve been through countless obstacles. I should have no problem crossing this desert!” But soon she found herself gradually disappearing into the mud and sand. After numerous tries, she found it was all in vain and was very upset. “Maybe it’s my destiny! I’m not destined to reach the vast ocean in the legend.”
At this time;a deep voice came, saying, “If a breeze can cross the desert, so can a river.”
It was the voice of the desert. Unconvinced, the little stream replied, “That’s because a breeze can fly, but I cannot.”
“That’s because you stick to what you are If you’re willing to give it up, and let yourself evaporate (蒸发) into the breeze, it can take you across, and you can reach your destination,” said the desert in its deep voice.
The little stream had never heard of such a thing. She could not accept this idea. After all, she had never experienced anything like it before. Wouldn’t it be self-destruction to give up what she was now?
“How do I know if this is true? and will I still be what I am now?” asked the little stream.
“Yes, and no. Whether you’re a river or invisible vapor, your inner nature never changes. You stick to the fact that you’re a river because you don’t know your inner nature,”answered the desert.
Deep down, the stream vaguely remembered that before she became a river, it was perhaps also the breeze that had carried her halfway up a high mountain, where she turned into rain and fell onto the ground and became what she was now. Finally the little stream gathered her courage and rushed into the open arms of the breeze; which carried her to the next stage of her life.
The course of our lives is like the experience of little stream. If you want to surpass the obstacles in your life in order to head for the destination of Truth, Virtue and beauty, you should also have the wisdom and courage to renounce (放弃) your ego (attachment to yourself).
Perhaps you can try asking yourself these questions: What is my inner nature? What is it that I cling to? and, What is it that I really want?
1. What obstacle did the stream come across when starting to cross the desert?| A．Her effortless attempt. | B．Her unrealistic goal. |
| C．Her bowing to fate. | D．All that struggle for nothing. |
| A．Confident — shocked — determined — withdrawn |
| B．Sad — determined — disappointed — shocked |
| C．Disappointed — doubted — confident — surprised |
| D．Hopeful — upset — shocked — determined |
| A．Give up what you are, and you will never owe it again. |
| B．While you change physically, your inner nature will never change. |
| C．Only by sticking to yourself can you realize your dream. |
| D．Changing yourself means losing control of everything. |
| A．When you can’t change the environment, change yourself. |
| B．Stick to your inner nature rather than what you are. |
| C．Once starting the journey, you should stick to your goal. |
| D．Be flexible and adaptable, venturing into the unknown. |
9 . When trouble hits someone in your community, how can you respond? This year, a wildfire has left many people in my community
Imagine a Circle of Care.
When I am in the center of such a circle, I do not want to
When you are in a closer ring and
Whenever you are in the circle of care,
| A．agreeing | B．working | C．connecting | D．struggling |
| A．reappear | B．rebuild | C．repeat | D．recall |
| A．care | B．strength | C．respect | D．appreciation |
| A．Find | B．Draw | C．Join | D．Run |
| A．debt | B．surprise | C．crisis | D．doubt |
| A．darker | B．larger | C．fewer | D．nicer |
| A．Face | B．Point | C．Pull | D．Continue |
| A．cycling | B．certain | C．widening | D．complete |
| A．team | B．family | C．center | D．community |
| A．interesting | B．satisfying | C．amusing | D．encouraging |
| A．hear | B．aid | C．imagine | D．question |
| A．joy | B．anger | C．pain | D．freedom |
| A．talking | B．protecting | C．lying | D．waiting |
| A．praising | B．visiting | C．helping | D．following |
| A．forget | B．feel | C．miss | D．increase |
| A．time | B．energy | C．space | D．money |
| A．give up | B．look for | C．think about | D．deal with |
| A．emotional | B．lasting | C．unknown | D．visible |
| A．begging | B．deciding | C．pretending | D．offering |
| A．Reach out to | B．Have faith in | C．Keep away from | D．Catch sight of |
10 . I grew up in a small North Dakota town. Dad was a farmer, so we kids were taught
One summer day, Dad asked me to back his truck up.
As a teenager, I usually worked part-time on Uncle Jim’s farm in my
The “can do”
| A．early | B．hard | C．recently | D．fast |
| A．Frankly | B．Skillfully | C．Intentionally | D．Unfortunately |
| A．curious | B．scared | C．embarrassed | D．hesitant |
| A．mad | B．pleased | C．worried | D．proud |
| A．entire | B．quality | C．spare | D．limited |
| A．emptied | B．operated | C．placed | D．transformed |
| A．built up | B．ran into | C．tore down | D．passed by |
| A．claimed | B．doubted | C．worried | D．assumed |
| A．disappointment | B．surprise | C．fright | D．satisfaction |
| A．decline | B．suffer | C．grow | D．change |
| A．admiration | B．judgment | C．affection | D．attitude |
| A．tough | B．confusing | C．relaxing | D．valuable |
| A．comment | B．expectation | C．reflection | D．plan |
| A．broken | B．recognized | C．refreshed | D．raised |
| A．justice | B．belief | C．interest | D．courage |
