修改时间：2024-07-13 浏览次数：198 类型：月考试卷
Just before Christmas in 1994, a letter arrived at our house. The postmark was from Tuskegee, Alabama, so we all knew who it was from. We excitedly gathered around mother as she opened it.
My Dear Mother,
I didn't get the leave I expected for Christmas. I'll miss all of you. Please leave the Christmas tree up until I make it back. I hope to be home by March.
Love from your son,
Clifton
My heart sank. I felt extreme sadness that my favorite brother wouldn't be home for Christmas. My mother, being the optimist she always was, said, "Well, it looks like we'll get to have two Christmases this year!"
After Christmas, my sister and I worked together to make sure we kept that Christmas tree looking as pretty as possible. This was no easy feat. By mid-January, the branches drooped so low to the ground. Each day, ornaments would come crashing to the ground and there were brand new sprinklings of pine needles all over the wooden floor. My sister and I took turns sweeping them up. We repositioned the ornaments to the stronger branches on the tree, hoping they would stay on.
Each time we freshened that tree up, my sister and I were full of thoughts about Clifton and how happy we would be to see him again. It made us feel that he was close by, even though he was hundreds of miles away.
On March 5, the doorbell rang. We ran to the door and gave Clifton a big hug. As he hugged mother, I could see him peek over her head at the Christmas tree.
"It's beautiful," he said. "Thank you." Clifton opened his presents and told us all sorts of stories about his work in Tuskegee. That night as we slept, we heard a crash in the living room. We all ran to see what had happened. The tree had toppled onto the sofa and there were needles and broken ornaments everywhere. We all had a good laugh. It was fortuitous (巧合的) Clifton got home when he did.
If you cut in line, you might just be a bad person. The queue is a regulation where the reward (the ice-cream stand/dining room/ticket booth) is earned through patience. Your choice to avoid this time-honored process will be bound to draw the anger of those you pass by, drawing remarks like "Whoa there, Chief," the passive-aggressive "There's a line, you know!" and of course, the incredibly common "Hey, Copernicus, why don't you guide yourself to the back of the line?"
But, in the moment in which you really cannot wait, for example, the entire royal family has prepared a dinner party upon you last minute, then there is a way to cut the line correctly.
There are a few different ways to consider and a few different methods to employ. The regularity of the situation is very important. If you're waiting to use the photocopier at work, you might be more likely to manage a successful cut than if you were waiting for a lifeboat on the Titanic. Sure, that might be an extreme example. But the importance of the event does matter.
For those requests in normal situations, emphasizing either the urgency of your task or the simplicity of your task proved to be effective: experimenters who said "Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the photocopier?" had a cut rate of 60 percent and experimenters who said "May I use the photocopier because I need to make copies?" saw a success rate of 90 per cent when queuing for the copy machine.
If you have a couple of extra dollars lying around, bribing members of the line also proved to be effective. And most of the time, the person being bribed didn't end up accepting the money, because even the offer showed that the briber had a sense of desperation.
Most of us relate creativity to our concept of self, Either we're "creative" or we aren't, without much of a middle ground. "I'm just not a creative person!" a frustrated student might say in art class, while another might blame her talent at painting for her difficulties in math, giving a comment such as, "I'm very right-brained."
Dr. Pillay, a tech entrepreneur and an assistant professor at Harvard University, has been challenging these ideas. He believes that the key to unlocking your creative potential is to ignore the traditional advice that urges you to "believe in yourself. " In fact, you should do the opposite: Believe you are someone else.
Dr. Pillay points to a 2016 study examining the impact of stereotypes (固有印象) on one's behavior; The authors, educational psychologists Denis Dumas and Kevin Dunbar, divided their college student subjects into three groups, instructing the members of one to think of themselves as "romantic poets" and the members of another to imagine they were "serious librarians" (the third group was the control). The researchers then presented all the participants with ten ordinary objects, including a fork, a carrot, and a pair of pants, and asked them to come up with as many different uses as possible for each one. Those who were asked to imagine themselves as romantic poets came up with the widest range of ideas, whereas those in the serious-librarian group had the fewest. Meanwhile, the researchers found only small differences in students' creativity levels across academic majors.
These results suggest that creativity is not a fixed individual characteristic but a "malleable product, as long as he or she feels like a creative person. Dr. Pillay argues that, besides identifying yourself as creative, taking the bold, creative step of imagining you are somebody else is even more powerful. So, wish you were more creative? Just pretend!
What is the difference between happy people and unhappy people? Read the following list of things that HAPPY people do differently from UNHAPPY people and you will know.
Well, I can tell you for sure that those people who are really happy, FEAR less and LOVE a lot more. They see each moment, each challenge, each person as an opportunity to discover more about themselves and the world around them
Happy people understand that you can't really change a situation by resisting (反抗) it. But they can feel better by understanding that there might be a reason for its existence (存在). But rather, they ask themselves questions like: What can I learn from this? How can I make this better? They always seem to be pleasant and hopeful no matter what happens to them.
They do the things they do because of the meaning it brings into their lives and because they get a sense of purpose by doing so.
They care more about living a life full of meaning rather than, what in our modern society we would call, living a successful life. The fact here is that most of the time they get both, success and meaning, just because they choose to focus on doing the things they love the most.
They make sure that their actions bring meaning and happiness in the lives of many. They look for ways to give and to share the best of themselves with the world and to make other people happy.
A. They have an ideal living and a balanced life.
B. What are the things that these people do differently?
C. They are kind to themselves and others and they understand the power of love.
D. The things happy people do are not for themselves, but for the good of others.
E. They are ready to embrace whatever lies in front of them.
F. They understand that "Doing what you love is the most important for living a full life".
G. When something unpleasant happens to them, they don't try to fight it, knowing that this will make the situation even worse.
You may have heard of Osceola McCarty, who worked for 75 years as a washer woman. After she retired, she went to the bank and 1, to her surprise, that her small monthly savings had 2 to over $150,000. She donated $150,000 to the USM for a scholarship fund for students with financial 3.
What you have not heard is how Osceola's gift has 4 my life. I was a 5 student and I had my heart set on going to USM. But I 6 a regular scholarship by one point on my entrance exams, and a scholarship was the only way I could attend. One Sunday, I 7 the story about Osceola and her generous 8 in the newspaper, and went to the financial aid office and became the first 9 of an Osceola Scholarship.
I first 10 Osceola at a press conference—meeting her was like finding family. Osceola 11 married and lived alone, so my family has since become her family. My grandma and she talk 12on the phone and she 13 us in family gatherings. It was amazing that I used to cycle right by a 14 every day on my way to school and I did notice how everything was clean and neat there, but I didn't know it 15 to be where she lived.
Osceola gave me much more than a scholarship. She taught me about the gift of 16. She worked her whole life and gave to others, which reached deep inside of me and fueled my 17 to give back when I can. Eventually I plan to add to her scholarship fund. I want to give Osceola the 18 she's always wanted, so I've adopted her as another grandma. And when I graduate from USM, she'll be sitting in the audience 19 my mother and my grandmother-right where she 20.
Graffiti is writings, drawings or marks made on walls in public places. In most cases, it is often mixture of writing and pictures, usually (mark) with a tag, which is unique an artist or a group. Graffiti is now popular all over the world.
Graffiti is believed to become popular in the United States in the 1960s. Young adults in cities like New York would use paint to spray their tag on walls., New Yorkers used to see graffiti as something (disturb). Up to the 1970s, most people hated graffiti and painting graffiti was illegal and graffiti artists (punish) by fines.
Later, the image of graffiti and graffiti artists changed a lot and graffiti was no longer only found in the subways or the poor areas of cities but also in the (gallery) of Manhattan art world. In the late 1980s the popularity of hip-hop music helped to spread the culture of graffiti, first at home in the United States and then (international).
Recently, graffiti (gain) the reputation of “street art” and it has become a movement expressing the street culture of young people. You can even find graffiti in places you least expect to see it-in advertisements, on clothes, on toys and even in newspapers.
Brave Dog wasn't always his name. In the beginning his name was just Stray Dog (流浪狗).
I saw him for the first time one evening when Mattie and I went to milk the cows. He was all dusty coat and skinny-ribbed (皮包骨头的), hardly worth a second glance. But Mattie made a beeline for him, reaching out to pet him, "What a pretty dog!" The dog looked unsure, as if he weren't used to being spoken to kindly. I grabbed Mattie's arm. "Keep away from that stray dog," I told her. "You know how dad feels about stray dogs." "Don't call him Stray Dog," said Mattie. "He's a pretty dog." The dog licked (舔) her face and put a paw on her shoulder. Mattie threw her arms around his neck. "I'm keeping him," she declared, "I'm calling him Pretty Dog."
To Mattie, his name was Pretty Dog. She talked to him, played with him and fed him secretly. He responded by following her like a shadow when no one else was around. To the rest of us, his name was Stray Dog. We did everything we could to chase him away, but he kept coming back. One cold winter day, Dad set off to go ice fishing. Mattie had begged to go, but Dad said no. "You'll keep complaining about cold," he said, "I want to do some serious fishing."
Dad came home a few hours later. "Get some fine ones," he shouted from the porch (门廊). "Come to see!" Ma and I came out. "Where's Mattie?" Dad asked. Ma and I looked at each other in confusion, both thinking Mattie was with the other. Then, Ma strode to the closet. "Her coat and boots are gone." Ma turned to Dad with troubled eyes, "Maybe she went after you." Worry lines creased(弄皱) Dad's face. "She never came to the lake. Come on; we need to find her."
注意：
1）所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2）至少使用5个短文中标有下划线的关键词语；
3）续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好；
4）续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。
Paragraph 1:
On the road we found Mattie's boot prints following Dad's big ones.
Paragraph 2:
Suddenly some barks(犬吠) came from the distance.
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