Paula is a 55-year-old woman living in New Jersey. She lives a happy life without concern for financial or social problems and she constantly shares laughs with her family and friends. About ten years ago, her husband Michael gave her a gold ring with a diamond in it on their 20th wedding anniversary. She cherished it very much and wore it every day.
Having been married for almost 30 years, Paula had everything set for herself, and knew that her life in New Jersey was a thrilling one. One day, Paula was in the bathroom cleaning everything up, from the sink to the floor. She wanted to keep her house clean and beautiful. As soon as Paula finished washing the bathtub, she moved on to the part she feared most: the toilet. Wanting to get it out of the way, she quickly cleaned the inside of the toilet with a brush, and flushed (冲走) the soap away. After finishing, she felt there was something wrong, but she couldn’t think of what it was.
Paula’s heart skipped a beat when she noticed that her left ring finger felt a bit lighter. She slowly looked down at her ring finger, hoping that her treasured anniversary gift was still on it. She was frightened to see that it was lost. She didn’t notice that she flushed it down the toilet.
Paula said, “I must have flushed it down. It had been a little big on my finger, because it was winter time and my hands were smaller. I felt so bad about it. Sad and embarrassed.”
She couldn’t believe that she just let thousands of dollars go down the drain (下水道)，literally. She searched the bathroom and even the house, hoping that she just dropped it somewhere and forgot about it. She even took apart the toilet and searched the inside pipes with a flashlight, but in vain. Paula had no idea how to explain this to her husband. To buy the ring, Michael worked extra hard before the anniversary, so to tell him the bad news was unimaginable for Paula.
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 softly knocked on the door to their bedroom.
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After finishing her explanation, Paula wiped away her tears and waited for Michael to say something.
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Kelsey was grateful for everything her mother had done for her. In spite of being raised by her mother alone, Kelsey received a good education, and now held a leading position in a large company.
Recently the company was making corporate brochures in which achievers would share their success and thank their parents as well. For this, the achievers would have to take photos of themselves with their parents.
Kelsey didn’t really want that because her mother had put on a lot of weight due to a sedentary (久坐的) lifestyle. Kelsey managed to contact one of the best photographers and made a reservation in advance. When she and her mother came to the photographer’s studio, Kelsey took the man aside and said, “Please make sure my mom looks thinner in the photo.” But the photographer said what her mother really needed was a diet or exercise, not a photographer.
Kelsey insisted that he shouldn’t make her mother look like a slim dancer. She just expected him to do his best to make her mother look a bit thinner. The photographer finally agreed and took measures to hide some details, setting the right light and choosing better angles for shots. But it was not easy to fool the camera.
Kelsey’s mother noticed how the photographer was having a hard time and how her daughter was shaking her head. She smiled and said that she just wanted photos with Kelsey no matter whether she looked heavy or not.
The next day, Kelsey came to pick up the photos with her mother. The photographer printed out several photos, copied the rest on a flash drive (闪存盘) and handed them to Kelsey. Kelsey was disappointed and complained. How she wished her mother could look much thinner! The photographer shrugged (耸肩) helplessly and said nothing. Kelsey’s mother, however, said that the photographer did a good job and she was who she was. Then she told Kelsey to accept the fact that her mother was not “the tiny girl Thumbelina in the fairy tale.”
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右;
2.请按如下格式在相应位置作答。
Finishing her words, Kelsey’s mother turned and went out of the studio.
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Kelsey felt so ashamed that she came near to tears.
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My Gift to Charlie
We moved to a new small town when I was six. Having moved to the United States from the Far East, I was not accepted by children (even children of my own community did not accept me as I had lighter skin than the others). School was spent walking the playground alone or sitting on the grass bank watching other boys play football. On bad days I would hide in the cloakroom (衣帽间) under the coats and remain there the whole day.
It was one day that I by chance met an old man named Charlie, who lived six houses away. I stood on the street side of the fence and watched as he busied himself in the garden. Charlie was a short quiet old man in his 60s He had a bald head with brown hair on the sides and a round rosy face. He always wore gold-colored glasses easily recognized his walk as he’d collect his morning paper and milk.
I did not speak to him for a long time but instead stood at the fence as he did his thing. He did not speak to me, but waited patiently for me to break the silence when ready. This continued for months. After school and at weekends, I just stood and watched him. He would sometimes look up and show me the cause of his joys or pains; it might be a carrot, or a handful of weeds. After several months I found a biscuit placed on the fence post on a small blue plate. Later, weak orange cool drink was added to this when it was hot. Charlie started to speak to me and would share stories from his past as if I was his closest friend I offered very little in return and absorbed all that he said. I was grateful for the time that I spent listening to him.
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。
Paragraph 1
Four years later I left the small town, but our last chat at his house and his gift for me always remain in my mind.
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Paragraph 2
Fortunately, when I was 15, I came across Charlie’s wife, Mary, who told me something about him. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
One of the most pleasant sounds in sports is the whoosh of a basketball moving quickly into the netting. Take away the net and all that is left is the unsatisfying silence of a ball pushing air around as it sails through the rim (篮圈). Did it even go through? Sometimes it’s hard to tell.
So it was really a shame that in a small American town to which Anibal Amador moved from New York, there was no basketball net on any basketball court in any park. The retired worker was a basketball addict and so was his son, Frank, a high school student. When they had time, they would go to the nearby playground in the park and join the players there in playing basketball. However, without the nets, it just didn’t feel good and satisfactory. As a matter of fact, no one would like to play that way, for they couldn’t shoot the ball to their hearts’ content. Anibal often heard the players complain about it from time to time.
That was really something that bothered Anibal. One evening on their way home, he mentioned the problem to Frank, who suggested they should do something about it. Soon they took action. They took advantage of their spare time and did careful field research into the playgrounds around the neighborhood. Then Anibal visited the website of the town park department which was in charge of the basketball courts, uploaded what they had surveyed and put forward the suggestion that nets should be attached to the rims on basketball courts.
They waited and waited. After a long time, they finally got the response. The town park department said that nets were non-durable goods. If they did as suggested, they would have to be putting up nets all the time and maintaining so many basketball courts was a great expense, which they couldn’t afford. It wasn’t workable to keep nets on all the rims in all the parks, so they were terribly sorry that they couldn’t manage it.
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。
Anibal and Frank decided to address the problem on their own.
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Everything ready, they came to a nearby basketball court with a stepladder (折梯).
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