It was one of ordinary days in October, grey and drizzling all the time. I dragged myself out of the bed and all of the routines began early. I dropped my two older children at school with relief and unwillingly headed to the supermarket to buy groceries with my youngest. Never had I felt any tinge of gratitude for my comfortable home or lovely family.
I was getting mad and frustrated with this early day, and my son, just four years old at that time, was being difficult. I raced around to pick the items with no regard to the cost, while trying in vain to control my naughty child whose behavior had now added to my complete displeasure. Yes, I was that mother, threatening, roaring at a small child, the kind of behavior you see in others before you have children and think,“I will never be one of those people.”
Eventually we made it to the checkout and stood in the queue waiting our turn. After a short time, I noticed that someone had joined the line behind us. I turned and saw an old man. He wore a dirty overcoat, tied around the middle with rope. His shoes were worn-out, and his trousers tapped around sockless ankles even on this cold, wet day. In his hands he carried a small box of long-life milk.
As I had too many groceries, I asked him if he’d like to go ahead of me. It was more like an automatic reaction than an act of kindness on my part. Perhaps I just did it out of a sense of guilt, or I just wanted him gone. After all, it was his presence that made me uncomfortable, in the same way I feel uncomfortable and avoid my eyes when passing a homeless person.
He didn’t respond to me as if I had said nothing to him. Then I looked at him and repeated my words. This time, I was sure that he had heard what I said.
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。
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Life never really turns out the way we expect it to. We have dreams and expectations. And dream-come-true stories are everywhere — except, it may seem, in our own lives.
As a child, Barbara never quite found the bond with her parents that all children need. Her father left the family early, and her mother did menial jobs.
“I couldn’t let my life keep me from caring about other people,” she says. “Maybe it’s unfair or just the way it turns out for people, but I still have a son.”
Barbara raised her son the best she knew how and “he turned out pretty well,” she says, smiling. And after the hard years of making ends meet and giving him a good start, she made a career change.
“I never thought I was supposed to feel sorry for myself,” she says. “And I like people.”
Barbara works as an in-home caregiver for elderly people in their last year of life. She spends 10-hour days, six days a week, with people who have Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, sometimes sleeping on their sofa when they are afraid to spend a night alone. Most don’t have families close by, and Barbara becomes the person they rely on for everything: meals, bathing, bathroom duties, daily walks if they can, mental exercises like crossword puzzles and re-learning family faces.
She only charges what the family can afford and only works with one client at a time. “They become the family I never had, over and over again,” she says, laughing.
The spaces left empty in Barbra’s childhood are filled with memories shared with her from lives fading away in the dusk. For 30 years, she has been making people feel good at a time when most would just be waiting to die, alone and unnoticed. When seeing their faces when they are with Barbara, you’d think the last years were the best.
“I’ve found something I never had,” Barbara says. “We make each other happy. So I try to give them what they want most.”
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。
She’s learned from her experiences that old people want their loved ones to visit them.
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I posted Barbara’s story online to call on children to visit their parents.
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As a fourteen-year-old girl, you may think that the biggest problem you can probably face is failing one of your classes in high school, but not everything is as easy as it seems. My parents are going through a lot lately. We recently moved from Houston and bought a house in Dallas, and my dad had almost no money left in the bank due to the fact that he had to pay the water and electricity company in order for them to be available in my house.
My brother, who was a nice, happy, free-caring six-year –old boy, just like every other, started to become very distant from us the first week we moved into the house. As much as we tried to ask him what was wrong, he wouldn’t tell us. I was really confused by the way he acted, because he normally was a nice and kind little boy who would often go out and play with the neighbours and would just be outside, enjoying the day. That little boy completely turned around and became a very distant, cold child. He would keep silent and sit in his room the whole day with the door closed. He would not go out even for supper, and we were wondering what happened.
We went to talk to his teacher who said that he was very shy when it came to talking in front of the other kids, but he had developed a little confidence and started to play with the kids in his class. The teacher mentioned that he and a kid from a higher level started ‘‘hanging out” away from the rest of the kids. My mum thought of it as a good thing, thinking it meant that my brother had started to make new friends, but I knew it meant something else. I tried talking to my brother even though he didn’t want to, but he didn’t say anything dealing with the bigger kid.
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Until one day, he came home, crying, and it seemed I was the only one who noticed.
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After a while, he gave in and started telling me that the bigger kid had stolen his lunch.
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On a hot 95-degree evening in September 2016, the Woodlands High School JV White team was threatening to win its first game of the season. The fans and players alike were almost crazy. “I was really pumped,” said Highlanders linebacker Ryan Ferrini, then 16.
With little time left in the fourth quarter and the Katy Tompkins High School Falcons up 29-28, all the Highlanders had to do was go one yard for a touchdown to grab a dramatic come-from-behind victory.
Instead, they gave the game away.
On the previous play, after the Highlanders had driven the ball deep into the Falcons’ territory, quarter back Will Gentry had connected with then-15-year-old receiver Austin Brauweiler at the three-yard line. As Brauweiler turned up field, a Falcons defender delivered a violent hit, knocking them both to the ground at the one-yard line.
“There was huge force, as if a truck had hit me,” said Brauweiler, who suffered a bruised bone from the collision. But it was the Falcons’ player who got the worst of it. He lay motionless on the turf (草皮). Trainers and coaches ran to his side. Five minutes later, he was still down. Game officials told Highlanders coach David Colschen that the teen had lost all feeling on his left side and an ambulance had been called. “I was very upset,” said Brauweiler.
The EMTs (内科急救专家) arrived, and soon after, a call to a medical transport helicopter was made. That’s when the Falcons’ coach walked across the field and told Colschen that his players were too worried to finish the game and would give up the game. Colschen wouldn’t have it.
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“It was the right thing to do,” said Colschen.
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The injured player prefers to remain unnamed.
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