Once, when I was a teenager, my father and I were standing in line to buy tickets for the circus. Finally, there was only one family between us and the ticket counter.

     This family made a big impression on me. There were eight children, all probably under the age of twelve. You could tell they didn't have a lot of money.

     Their clothes were not expensive, but they were clean. The children were well-behaved, all of them standing in line, two-by-two behind their parents, holding hands. They were excitedly talking about the clowns, elephants, and other acts they would see that night with their brothers or sisters in a low voice.

One could sense they had never been to the circus before. It promised to be highlight of their young lives. The father and mother were at the head of the pack, standing proud as could be. The mother was holding her husband's hand, looking up at him as if to say, "You are my knight in shining armor."

He was smiling and responding in pride, looking back at her as if to say, "You got that right." The ticket lady asked the father how many tickets he wanted. He proudly responded, "Please let me buy eight children's tickets and two adult tickets so I can take my family to the circus."

The ticket lady gave the price. The man's wife let go of his hand, her head dropped, and his lips began to shake. The father leaned a little closer and asked, "How much did you say?"

     The ticket lady again quoted the price. The man didn't have enough money.

     How was he supposed to turn and tell his eight children that he didn't have enough money to take them to the circus?

     Actually we were not wealthy in any sense. So I understand how the kids would feel. I felt sorry for them.

注意：

所需写的短文词数应为150左右；

应使用5个以上短文标有下划线的关键词语；

续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已经为你写好；

续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词。

Paragraph 1

Seeing what was going on, my dad put his hand in his pocket, pulled out a $20 bill and dropped it on the ground.

Paragraph 2

That day my father and I went back to our car and drove home without any tickets.

    Middle and high school days are both fun and busy. Students spend their days in class, listening to the interesting and sometimes boring words of the teacher. They spend the short breaks running, playing, and shouting happily before going back to the classroom again. But how should students spend their free time outside school?

In Western countries, it is common for students to have a part-time job after school and at weekends. Students can earn their own money and learn more about the "real world". They enjoy the extra independence and money, and parents enjoy the quiet house. However, it seems that, in China, parents worry so much about their children' studies that they would prefer to see their children spending most of their free time studying and preparing for all those exams.

    It is natural for parents to feel that way, but I believe the answer lies in balance. Sometimes, Western school children work long hours after school to make money, and so they become too tired to listen in class or have no time for homework. But Chinese students spend so much time on their studies that all else becomes less important until they want that new MP4 player.

    So, find a good and healthy balance! If you have a part-time job, you'll be happy, and your parents will also be happy because you're spending your hard-earned money and not theirs!

【写作内容】1） 概括短文的内容要点，该部分的字数大约30词左右；2） 就"如何利用课余时间"这个主题发表你的看法，至少包含以下的内容要点，该部分的字数大约120词左右:

a. 以自身为例，简述你平时是怎样打发课余时间的；

b. 你如何看待自己利用课余时间的方式；

c. 你的父母对你利用课余时间的态度及你的看法。

【写作要求】你可以使用实例或其它论述方法支持你的论点，也可以参照阅读材料的内容，但不要抄袭阅读材料中的句子。

    My name is Clara. I still remember that chilly December day, sitting in science class. I'd finished a worksheet early and picked up a Time for Kids magazine. A piece of news caught my eye. NASA was holding an essay contest to name its Mars rover (火星探测器). Before I even knew anything else about it, a single word flooded my 11-year-old mind: Curiosity.

    I couldn't wait for the bell to ring so I could get started on my essay. That afternoon, I raced home, sat down at the computer, and typed until my fingers ached. “Curiosity is an everlasting flame that burns in everyone's mind…”

Five months later, my mom received a phone call, and immediately, a wide smile spread across her face.

    On August 5, 2012, at 10:31 p.m., the rover named Curiosity touched down safely on the surface of Mars, and I was honored to have a front-row seat in NASA.

    Curiosity is such an important part of who I am. I have always been fascinated by the stars, the planets, the sky and the universe. I remember as a little girl, my grandmother and I would sit together in the backyard for hours. She'd tell me stories and point out the stars. Grandma lived in China, thousands of miles away from my home in Kansas, but the stars kept us together even when we were apart. They were always there, yet there was so much I didn't know about them. That's what I love so much about space.

    People often ask me why we go to faraway places like Mars. My answer is simple because we're curious. We human beings do not just hole up in one place. We are constantly wondering and trying to find out what's over the hill and beyond the horizon.

    Directions: Read the following passage. Answer the questions according to the information given in the passage.

    Kids and Ponds

    Years ago there was a group of kids who would hang around at some local ponds in the woods near their houses in Warwick, Rhode Island. In summer they caught frogs and fish. When winter arrived they couldn't wait to go skating. Time passed, and the ponds became the only open space for the kids to enjoy themselves in that neighborhood.

    One day. a thirteen-year-old boy from this group of kids read in the local newspaper that a developer wanted to fill in the ponds and build over a hundred small houses called condominiums. So the boy went door to door and gathered more than two hundred signatures (签名）to stop the development A group of citizens met and decided to support him.

    At the meeting of the town planning board (委员会)，the boy was quite nervous at first and spoke very softly. But when he saw the faces of his friends and neighbors in the crowd and thought about what was happening to their favorite ponds，his voice grew louder. He told the town officials that they should speak for the citizens. He also insisted that they should leave enough space for children. A few days later，the developer stopped his plan.

    Nine years later, when that teen was a senior in college, he was informed that the developer was back with his proposal to build condominiums. Now twenty-two years old, he was studying wetlands ecology. He again appeared before the town planning board. This time as an expert witness, he used environmental protection laws to explain restrictions on development in and around wetlands and the knowledge of wetlands ecology to help improve the development. Finally some condominiums were built, but less than half the number the developer wanted. The ponds where those kids used to hang around were protected by a strip of natural land，and are still there today.

    It was a hot summer day that found me running down the street with a dollar in my sweaty hand. The closer I got to Sam & Joe's Stationery Store, the more excited I was. After all, a dollar was a tidy sum for an 11-year-old boy in 1961.

    Out of breath, I swung open the door and got a blast of cold air that instantly cooled me off. I was in a place of pure happiness. Sam & Joe's had it all—books, candy, toys, baseball cards，puzzles and games. I went directly to the bar and ordered a bottle of soda. There I sat, considering my next move.

    Books always came first. I picked out five titles. Next came the candy, rows and rows of it. I chose five candy bars, which brought my total to 75 cents. Then a bottle of cold orange juice, a bag of chips and a pack of Ted Williams baseball cards. After paying the clerk, I still had 5 cents.

    I hurried directly to my backyard, where an apple tree patiently waited for me. There, sitting in the shade against its strong trunk, I read my books, ate my candy and drank my orange juice.

    As I sat in my own personal heaven, I started thinking about having more. That's when a fantastic life—changing idea popped into head: If I could get more money, I could buy more books I liked, buy anything I wanted. That's how it all started.

    In 1940 the German army entered the Netherlands, beginning an occupation that lasted five years. Members of the Dutch royal family(荷兰皇室) were forced to go to the United Kingdom to avoid being caught. However, the threat of German bombing attacks meant that England was not completely safe. For this reason Princess Juliana and her daughters, Princesses Beatrix and Irene, moved to Canada and settled in Ottawa. In January 1943 Juliana gave birth to a third daughter, Princess Margriet Francisca. The Government of Canada temporarily declared her place of birth as outside of Canadian land, meaning Margriet could hold Dutch citizenship and therefore still be qualified for the Dutch throne.

    In 1945, the Dutch royal family returned home. Shortly after her return, Princess Juliana presented 100,000 tulip bulbs to Canada in appreciation of the important role played by Canadian troops in liberating the Netherlands and for providing her family with a safe place during the war. The following year she sent 20,500 tulip bulbs. Juliana continued to send thousands of bulbs as a yearly gift, a tradition that continued after she became queen in 1948. The gift of tulips is an ongoing tradition, and each year the people of the Netherlands and the Dutch royal family each send 10,000 bulbs to Canada in recognition of the close ties between the two countries. The gift of bulbs and the tulip flowers attracted interest and visitors in Ottawa. In 1952 Karsh, an Armenian-born photographer, suggested the idea of a tulip festival to the Ottawa Board of Trade. The first Canadian Tulip Festival took place in 1953. The first festival proved popular, and it became a yearly event. To mark the festival's 50th anniversary in 2002, Canada Post issued a series of commemorative stamps(纪念邮票) and plates featuring the flowers and Princess Margriet returned to visit Ottawa. In the following years the festival began to focus more on international friendship and the festival's historical origins. Now it is one of the world's largest tulip shows.