I felt so nervous. It was the day of my interview. I woke up early just to make sure I would have time to get prepared. It felt like a normal Monday, but for me, this day was very important. There was a lot of pressure.
After showering, I put on the outfit I had carefully chosen and laid out the night before. I looked at my reflection in the mirror. “You can do this,” I encouraged myself. I ate breakfast and fed my cat. I made my way to the bus stop and waited patiently. Aside from the rapid tapping of my right foot, no one could tell that I was so nervous.
When I arrived at my stop, I walked to the office. The building was so tall and I felt small in its shadow. But I also felt hopeful. This will be a great opportunity, I thought. And what is there to lose? Looking down at my watch, I noticed that I was early. This allowed plenty of time to review my resume (简历) and further prepare myself for the interview.
The doors of the building were impressive, all steel and glass and very modern.
When I walked in, someone showed me the waiting area and offered me a cup of coffee. After a few moments, a man in a nice suit told me to join him. As we walked toward the elevators, I began to feel anxious. The palms of my hands began to sweat. It seemed like an hour had passed before I heard the “ding” of the elevators opening.
We got into the elevator, full of men and women dressed to the nines.
“It’s quite a large office,” the man said to me. I chuckled nervously. I could feel myself getting warmer. I couldn’t wait to hear that comforting “ding” that signaled an escape.
As the elevator climbed, I again nervously checked my watch. Just as I looked down, it happened.
Paragraph 1:The elevator came to a stop between floors.
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I thought that this must be the worst interview ever.
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Disappointed and upset, Tom found his money box empty. The coins lying on the bed added up to $36.22 . But the bike he wanted cost $88 . Where and how could he get the rest of money? He knew his fellows all had bikes, without which he couldn’t hang around with them on weekends. He thought about asking his parents for money, but soon gave up because he knew it wouldn’t happen.
Earning money seemed to be the only way. So he had to find a job first. He decided turn to Mr Jackie for advice, who usually had opinions in most things. “well, you can start right here, the floor needs cleaning and my car needs washing.” Then Tom’s part-time jobs began. For two months he worked every day after finishing his homework. He was surprised by a variety of jobs people found for him to do. He could hardly remember how many cars he had washed and how many windows he had cleaned, but he knew his dream would soon come true because the money kept increasing. The day finally came when he counted all the money he earned and found nearly 100 dollars. He couldn’t wait to go down to the shop to buy his dream bike.
It was by hard work that he bought the bike he had been dreaming of. So he cherished it very much. He had achieved what he thought was impossible, and that was more valuable than the bike.
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。
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Eager to show off his new bike to his fellows, he rode home in a hurry.
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20 years later, Tom devoted himself to
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One day, a teacher decided to inspire her students in high school. She called each student to the front of the class, one at a time. She told them how the student made a difference to her and the class and she gave each of them a blue card which read, “Thank you for being here. Who you are makes a difference.”
Then she decided to pass on this inspiration and kindness to more people. So she gave each of the students three more cards and told them to go out and give the cards to whomever they wanted to give.
One of the boys, Daniel, went to an cleaner on the street. He gave the old man one blue card and said,“Thank you for keeping our city clean and tidy. Your hard work means a lot to us.” He then handed two more cards to the old man and said, “here are two more cards, please go out and find somebody to honor, give him a blue ribbon, then give him the extra blue ribbon so he can inspire a third person to keep this inspiration going.”
Surprised but touched, the man took the card.
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Carlos woke up late that Saturday. It was his birthday. As he opened his eyes, he could hear the sounds from the street coming through his open window. He could hear people talking loudly. He heard kids playing and yelling (大喊). There was music coming from someone standing on the corner. He heard the cars, buses and motorbikes running past his apartment. These were all the normal sounds he heard every day, but something was wrong.
When he listened for the sounds that normally came from his apartment, everything was silent. He did not hear his mother cooking in the kitchen. She always made a big breakfast on Saturdays. He did not hear his sister Maria jumping up and down or fighting with their brother Jose. What was wrong? The house was completely silent. The only noise was coming from outside his window.
Carlos looked at the clock across the room. It said ten o'clock. Something was very wrong! Carlos quickly got up and got dressed. He looked out of the window and saw everyone walking and talking. That was all normal. What was not normal was how quiet it was inside of his apartment. Carlos went slowly to the door and listened, but did not hear anything. He opened the door to his room a little and looked around. He looked down the hallway (门厅) toward the living room. He did not see anything. He was nervous and scared, wondering, “What is going on?”
Slowly he walked out of his room and into the hallway. His stomach was making noise since he was so hungry. He started toward the kitchen. His feet moved slowly as he walked, not knowing what to expect. “Mom? Jose? Maria? Where are you?” he called out, but no one answered. “Where is everyone?” he thought to himself. Just then, Carlos thought he heard a noise coming from the kitchen. It sounded like someone was there. He moved slowly toward the kitchen doorway, and thought to himself, “What’s going on? Why is everything so quiet? Who is in the kitchen?”
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：
He got to the kitchen door and looked inside.
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Paragraph 2：
Sitting in the middle of the kitchen table was a small box.
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Quiet Virtue: The Conscientious
The everyday signs of conscientiousness(认真尽责)—being punctual,, careful in doing work, sef- disciplined. and scrupulous(一丝不苟的) in attending to responsibilities—are typical characteristics of the model organizational citizen, the people who keep things running as they should. They follow the rules, help out, and are concerned about the people they work with. It's the conscientious worker who helps newcomers or updates people who return after an absence, who gets to work on time and never abuses sick leaves, who always gets things done on deadline.
Conscientiousness is a key to success in any field. In studies of job performance, outstanding effectiveness for almost all jobs, from semi-skilled labor to sales and management, depends on conscientiousness. Among sales representatives for a large American car manufacturer, those who were most conscientious had the largest volume of sales.
Conscientiousness also offers a buffer(缓冲) against the threat of job loss in today's constantly changing market, because employees with this quality are among the most valued. For the sales representatives, their level of conscientiousness mattered almost as much as their sales in determining who stayed on.
But conscientiousness in the absence of social skills can lead to problems. Since conscientious people demand so much of themselves, they can hold other people to their own standards, and so be overly judgmental when others don't show the same high levels of model behavior. Factory workers who were extremely conscientious, for example, tended to criticize co-workers even about failures that seemed unimportant to those they criticized, which damaged their relationships.
When conscientiousness takes the form of living up to expectations, it can discourage creativity. Success in creative professions like art or advertising calls for a balance between wild ideas and conscientiousness. Without enough conscientiousness to follow through, people become mere dreamers, with nothing to show for their imaginativeness.
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I was 28 years old, the age when most young people have their eyes firmly fixed on the promise of success but I was a failure. Six years earlier, fresh from college, I had joined a dramatic producing company, and had been going into small towns and rural communities producing country-style musical comedies. But, in the summer of 1940, the country was in a depression, radio had changed people's tastes, and part-time shows weren't all that big any more. So , jobless and with nothing else in sight, I went back home. Later I got a job as a recreation-room director in my hometown. It paid $50 a month, for which I was grateful, but it sure was a dull job.
I felt so frustrated with my plan to be a dramatic star. Restless and dissatisfied though I was it was nice, in a way, to be back home. I tried to teach some of my town's children music and drama. And when I got a chance, I'd try my luck as a performer myself. I'd dress up as a country girl and tell little stories and jokes that I'd picked up during my years living around country folk. I gave this country girl a name-Minnie Pearl.
One October afternoon I was in the recreation room, waiting for the children when a banker friend, Jim Walker, came in and said, "We're going to have a bankers' meeting here. I understand you've been teaching some children dramatics and dancing and singing. Would you let the children entertain the bankers? "I said, yes. Suddenly, he turned and added, "Oh, by the way, the speaker from Chicago is flying here. If he's late, would you mind doing that Minnie Pearl thing? "I told Jim I'd do it.
That night the children sang and danced to old-time, popular songs when I was backstage. After we finished the performance, Jim came to me. "The speaker's not here yet. You'll have to help us. ""All right, "I told him, "just give me a minute to dress up."
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：
Then I went out in front of the hundred or so men in the audience.
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Paragraph 2:
Then I walked off the stage into the audience, and a banker greeted me.
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For students chasing lasting wealth,the best choice of a college major is less obvious than you might think.
The conventional wisdom is that computer science and engineering majors have better employment prospects and higher earnings than their peers in liberal arts.
This is true for the first job,but the long-term story is more complicated.The advantage for STEM majors fades steadily after their first jobs,and by age 40,the earnings of people majoring in fields like social science or history have caught up or even surpassed.
This happens for two reasons.First,many of the latest technical skills that are in high demand today become out-dated when technology progresses.Older workers must learn these new skills on the fly,while younger workers may have learned them in school.Skill undesirability and the increased competition from younger graduates together lower the earnings advantage for STEM degree-holders as they age.
Second,although liberal arts majors start low,they gradually catch up to their peers in STEM fields.A liberal arts education fosters valuable “soft skills” like problem-solving,critical thinking and adaptability.Such skills are hard to quantify,but they have value in a wide variety of careers in the long run.
Why did that happen?According to a 2018 survey,the three qualities of college graduates employers considered must important were written communication,problem-solving and they ability to work in a team.In liberal arts traditions,these skills are built through the dialogue between instructors and students and a broad range of subjects.
I’m not suggesting that students should avoid majoring in STEM fields,but I do think we should be careful of the urge to make college curricula ever more technical and career-focused.A balanced choice should prepare students for a future that none of us can imagine.
