As a child, I grew up in a modest neighborhood where access to books was limited. My parents installed in me a love for reading, and I longed for more knowledge. That’s when Mrs. Henderson, a retired teacher with a passion for books, decided to establish a little library in our community.
The library was a small wooden structure, almost like a dollhouse, situated at the end of our street. Mrs. Henderson filled it with a variety of books, from children’s stories to classics and non-fiction. The library was free for anyone in the neighborhood to use, and it quickly became a hub for the curious minds of our community, myself included.
I vividly remember the first time I stepped into that tiny library. The shelves were packed with books of all kinds. I felt like I had entered a treasure trove. I started borrowing books regularly, and the more I read, the more I thirsted for knowledge.
It wasn’t just the books that made this library special; it was Mrs. Henderson herself. She would spend hours talking to each child, helping them choose books that matched their interests. She made learning fun and accessible, and she inspired us to dream big.
注意：续写词数应为 150 左右。
As I continued to visit the library, my horizons expanded. I read about places I had never seen, met characters with diverse backgrounds and experiences, and learned about different cultures and perspectives.
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Every time I entered the library, I could always see Mrs. Henderson busy with the books. She knew us by name, our favorite genres, and our wildest dreams. One day,
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1. 书名及该书概要；
2. 你的感悟。
注意: 1. 词数100左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节, 以使行文连贯。
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1.书名、作者和主要内容；
2.推荐的理由。
注意：
1.写作词数应为80左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Recommending a good book
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Does Reading Improve Health
When thinking about our well being and taking care of ourselves, some things that we should do are harder than others. Reading is one of the easier ones. What follows are a number of ways in which reading can help maintain and improve health.
Reading allows you to de-stress by unplugging and escaping. In one study, reading was found to be as effective as yoga and humor in reducing subjective feelings of stress over a 30-minute period, as well as blood pressure and heart rate. Note that a good old-fashioned book or a dedicated eBook reader is the best way to do this.
Readers may live longer than non-readers. One study found that this was supposed to be due to the effect that reading has on maintaining cognitive abilities over time. In another study of individuals aged 64 and over, those who read at least once a week were less likely to experience cognitive decline than those who did not. At the 14-year mark of the study, and regardless of educational level, those who read more enjoyed greater protection. This effect is maintained into readers’ 80’s.
Bibliotherapy, or the use of various reading materials for the promotion of psychological health, is a well-known aid to mental health treatment. Bibliotherapy can consist of any type of literature and may include self-help books, focused readings, first-hand accounts of others’ experiences, and even relevant fiction. This can be a powerful strategy and has been used successfully to reduce depression, suicidal thinking, anxiety, stress and etc.
The benefits of reading are innumerable and reading is a low to no-cost activity. Cheap and no-cost books are everywhere. Public libraries continue to be one of the most amazing resources. If you aren’t a natural reader, you have nothing to lose by giving it a try.
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Reading makes a full man. — Francis Bacon
内容要求：
1.你对该引言的理解；
2.举例说明；
3.恰当的结尾。
注意：
1.短文开头已给出，不计入总词数；
2.文中不能出现考生的具体信息。
3.词数80左右。
As Francis Bacon puts it, “Reading makes a full man.”
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Why Should We Read Literary Classics?
Many have grown up on a healthy diet of literary classics. Some literary classics have been inspiring readers in many ways. In this age of fast-turners, how does investing our time in a timeless literary classic change us for the better?
Many literary classics from yesteryear, which got little or no success when published, are considered invaluable. These books offer a window through which we can experience histories rooted in different cultures. One can always ask, “But we can do so by reading our history books too. Why do we need to read classics?” The simple answer is that these literary classics are not just a retelling of history. They allow us to have a more individualized experience, where they show us other ways to look at history.
It is common knowledge that reading as a habit helps us improve our command of the language. But literary classics have an edge: the enriching writing style is something that sets them apart. Fascinated with the amazing wording and phrasing, we’ll surely pause and wonder about what we read. For instance, when we read Shakespeare, we naturally begin to consider how to better express our ideas just like his far-reaching “Have more than you show; speak less than you know.”
One more benefit is that after reading classics, we won’t see non-classics as just other stories: we’ll become interested in them. Maybe we’ll realize that some details we ignored last time are actually worth appreciating, or we’ll discover literary devices that bring a whole new meaning to the story. Literary classics offer us more perspectives to dig deep and enhance our ability to think and reason, which will inevitably spill over into our reading of other works. We finally fall in love with non-classics as well.
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Once upon a time, in a land far away, there was a small village. The village was located in the heart of a big jungle(丛林). Surrounded by the high mountains and in the shade of green trees, the villagers happily lived a life of happiness.
All of them were used to their robotic daily tasks and none of them had the imagination or the will to try something new, except for one girl named Hannah. Very few people in the village could read, let alone write, and Hannah was one of them. Her parents had made sure that their only child got everything possible.
Hannah was an adventurous spirit with an imagination far beyond her time. She loved to explore and would spend hours in the woods looking for new things. She loved to create stories in her head and used to imagine herself as one of her characters. Sometimes, she even told stories to her friends, adding her own touch of curiosity every now and then to different stories, making them more interesting. She wanted to inspire the sparks of curiosity and imagination in them.
One afternoon, when Hannah was on one of her adventurous searches, she came upon an abandoned cottage(遗弃的小屋). The cottage looked very old in its condition. The door was hardly hanging and the wood was about to break apart into pieces. Even though Hannah’s mother had strictly warned her not to go wandering in abandoned places, her curiosity drove her to approach it.
注意：
1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式作答。
Opening the door, she was left shocked by a room full of books!
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To her disappointment, her friends showed no interest in the tales she told.
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I loved reading books very much as a child, but my single mother was struggling financially, so I often went to the library to read for free. My favorite books were science fiction (科幻小说). Once, I spent a whole afternoon reading science fiction in the library.
While I was enjoying reading, an illness nearly knocked me down. My illness was very strange, and no one really knew what it was. I always woke up with a rush of urine (尿). And then I found out that the disease had impacted my entire life. I remember when I was in the sixth grade, I had to go to the bathroom in the middle of a class. Realizing I had to go to the front of the class and write my name on the blackboard in order to go to the bathroom, I put up with it. By the end of class, the urine had soaked into (渗透) my jeans and my chair. Since then I had no deskmate. And my shame spread from class to the whole school.
After that, I became more isolated (孤立的) and silent, but I got a ride to the library once a week and checked out all the science fiction novels I could carry. Thanks to them, I got through the days when I was sick and couldn’t go to school.
When I was fifteen, the high school asked my mother to take me out of school. My mother and I were both relieved. I had managed to get excellent grades despite missing 85% of my classes, but the school couldn’t put up with my absence of school most of the time. My mother could see how sick I was, and knew how much I actually wanted to be there. But the school officials had started to get involved.
Worse still, my mother died suddenly not long after I dropped out of school, leaving me an orphan (孤儿) at 17.
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。
Just when I couldn’t live anymore, a science-fiction magazine saved me.
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My background made my science-fiction works more creative.
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Reading Is Important For Your Brain
You can take fish oil pill or go to a language class, puzzle books, or a few hours of exercise every week. There are countless methods to improve your memory and cognitive (认知的) functioning. But the cheapest and easiest way to sharpen your brain is right in front of your face. It’s called reading.
The most basic impact occurs in the area associated with language reception. Processing written material—from the letters to the words to the sentences to the stories themselves—puts our brain to work. That happens when we process spoken language, too, but the very nature of reading encourages the brain to work harder and better. And the benefits of reading continue long after you’ve put down that great book. A small study at Emory University found that some of those benefits lasted for five days. “We call that a shadow activity, almost like a muscle memory,” says Gregory Berns, PhD, director of the Center for Neuro-policy at Emory. In fact, this is how reading in a certain font can improve your memory.
However, not all reading is created equal. Results from a study conducted at Stanford University indicate that close literary reading in particular gives your brain a major workout. MRI scans of people who are deep into a Jane Austen novel showed an increase in blood flowing to areas of the brain that control both cognitive and executive function, as opposed to the more limited effects that come from more leisurely reading.
The ability to read closely is something that needs to be cultivated. An author notes that even she, someone who reads for a living, has found her ability to concentrate on the written word fading as more of what we read is on a screen. “Unfortunately, this form of reading is rarely continuous, sustained, or concentrated,” she writes.
Of course, there’s an easy solution: Turn off your phone and your computer, set aside a good hour or two—and just read.
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“This Saturday, we’ll be visiting cats at the animal shelter. If you’d like to join us, here’s an application form”, said Ms. Delgado, the school librarian who had held the reading engagement event for students.
Ben loved cats and he had always wanted one, so he hurried to take an application form. Then Ms. Delgado added, “We’ll be reading to the cats and award readers who make most progress.” Ben stopped. Reading al oud can be a challenging task. Ben might feel his heart racing, his palms sweating, and his voice shaking as he read. He might stumble over words or lose his place in the text. He might feel like everyone was watching him and judging him. Still, he really wanted to visit the cats, so he took an application form anyway.
On Saturday, Ben arrived at the shelter with some of his classmates. “This is Max,” the shelter worker told Ben as she handed him a gray cat. Ben carried Max to a beanbag chair and sat down. Max settled onto his lap. He took a book he’d been working on and started reading. Max, very different from other cats walking around the room while the kids read, purred (发出呼噜声) on his lap as if he had understood what Ben read.
“I’m glad Max is staying and listening to my reading and he is the best cat ever,” Ben told Dad excitedly. “I’m glad you two are friends,” Dad said. All week, Ben’s heart was filled with anxiety as he waited for Saturday to arrive. He was eager to read to Max and the anticipation of spending time with his feline (猫咪的) friend made him restless and nervous. When it arrived, Ben got to read to Max again.
“What if someone adopts Max?” Ben asked Dad later. “I guess you’d read to a different cat,” Dad said. “But I don’t want a different cat. I wish we could adopt Max,” Ben said to Dad. He knew they couldn’t because Mom had allergies (过敏). Ben loved the cat so much that he even told his next-door neighbor, Mrs. Patel, about Max. “Max sounds like a special cat,” said Mrs. Patel.
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。
Week by week, Ben realized that reading seemed easier with Max’s company.
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