A magical way,a special birthday

江西 孫朝嵐

主題語境：家庭生活 篇幅：344詞 建議用時：6分鐘

1Stephanie and Andrew McGuire of Brentwood,Tennessee don't know how much time they have left with their little girl,Adalyn.Adalyn was just 3 years old when she was diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma(DIPG),an aggressive brain tumor(腫瘤).

2For the past year,Adalyn had bravely fought her brain tumor.She spent six weeks in the hospital getting 30 rounds of radiation nearly every day.Even as she lost some of her hair,she insisted on wearing her“Princess Elsa”braids（辮子）,modeled by her favorite character inFrozen.Her love of Disney princesses never ended,even as she fought for her life.

3Her treatment options were done,and the family didn't know what the future held,so they decided to celebrate Adalyn's 4th birthday a few months early.They called upon their community to help,and they couldn't believe the outpouring of support they received.

4Tanya Sturm is the founder of Dreams &Wishes of Tennessee,a non-profit project that fulfils wishes for kids who relapsed from cancer and young adults just diagnosed.Their wishes are funded by donations and cost less than$2,500 each.

5“Adalyn's wish is to have a huge princess party,”Tanya wrote on the Internet.“She wants to build a snowman with Elsa,Anna,and Olaf.She wants to dance with Belle and she wants a princess dress,possibly a yellow one because that's her favorite color right now.”

6Before long,Tanya and her army of volunteers had put together a surprise fit for a princess! People quickly signed up to dress up as characters fromFrozenand other Disney films,and the team arranged a kid-friendly menu selected by Adalyn.

7“I put requests on social media and it was amazing how people wanted to help,”Tanya recalled.Adalyn was a little nervous at first,but as soon as she saw Olaf,she rushed to give him“a warm hug”.The party was held at a friend of the family's home.Someone donated a yellow princess dress for the birthday girl,and princess-themed balloons decorated the halls.Over 40 people attended the party,and guests feasted on meatballs,hot dogs,cheese and so on.

Reading Check

Vocabulary 1.What do the underlined words“relapsed from”mean in paragraph 4?

A.Recurred. B.Studied.

C.Defeated. D.Treated.

Detail 2.What's the purpose of the project Dreams&Wishes of Tennessee?

A.To raise funds for treating seriously ill children.

B.To make seriously ill children's wishes come true.

C.To achieve the dreams of sick children and adults.

D.To donate less than$2,500 to each ill person.

Inference 3.What is Adalyn's attitude towards the princess party?

A.Favorable.

B.Intolerant.

C.Doubtful.

D.Unclear.

Inference 4.From which is the text probably taken?

A.A medical paper.

B.A news report.

C.A travel brochure.

D.A life magazine.

Language Study

Ⅰ.Text-centered chunks

be diagnosed with 被診斷出……

insist on 堅持……

fight for 為……而戰

call upon 號召；要求

sign up to do sth 報名參與某事

Ⅱ.Discover the useful structure in the text

Her treatment options were done,and the family didn't know what the future held,so they decided to celebrate Adalyn's 4th birthday a few months early.她的治療已經完成，(她的)家人不知道未來會發生什么，所以他們決定提前幾個月慶祝艾達琳的4歲生日。

【點石成金】本句是一個主從復合句，what在句中引導的是一個賓語從句，what在句中作賓語。