It was a chilly morning in spring. Only a few people were around as I jogged through the park. Ahead was an elderly gentleman sitting on a wooden bench a few feet off the path. I was ready for a break to catch my breath and check my pulse. I sat next to him, looked at my watch, and started counting my heartbeats. After a few seconds, he interrupted my focus by asking how often I jogged. I responded without making eye contact, “Two or three times a week.” He attempted to engage me in the small talk that one engages in with a stranger.
His genuineness and comfortable smile eventually won me over, and soon we were talking about everything under the sun. We first discussed our favorite television programs, great places we had visited, meaningful moments in our lives, paths taken and not taken. Unexpectedly, we began revealing our politics, exchanging our different experiences as parents. He mentioned that his daughter and her ten-year-old son were coming to visit him in a couple of weeks; he hadn’t seen them for two years. How he looked forward to their visit! We chatted as if we had been friends for decades.
I think it was the chill that broke the moment between us. I looked down at my watch. What seemed like a half-hour had actually been three hours! We were totally unaware of time and place. We who were strangers had somehow become soul mates. We said our gentle farewells, “See you around,” smiling and waving as we parted. We knew we probably wouldn’t meet again.
Several days later, while putting newspapers into a recycling bin, I chanced to see the old man’s picture on the back page, in the obituaries (讣告): “Mr. – passed away yesterday… Please send donations to the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation.” Tears welled up in my eyes and trickled down my cheeks as I drove home. I was also weeping for his daughter and her not having had that moment of closeness with him that I just had on that Sunday morning.
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。
Arriving home, I sat down and wrote her daughter a brief letter.
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It was almost eight months later when an envelope arrived.
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I once work in Indonesia school teaching English on a supporting program. One afternoon, while I was walking across the campus, I noticed a girl sitting on a stone, her head bowed over a notebook, completely absorbed in her studies, her fingers tracing the lines of text as she mouthed the words silently. My footsteps interrupted her, and she stood up to walk towards me. “My name is Andara,” she introduced herself. She asked if I could help her improve her English. I could tell it took immense courage for the young Indonesian girl to approach me and ask for help.
“I want to go to a US university,” she said with confidence. I was surprised. I asked to pay a visit to her family before I made any promises. After a two-hour bus ride, I met her family. I realized they would never be able to afford the expenses of a US university. Andara lived in a two-room house crowded with her parents and two brothers. The walls were dingy patched with years of wear and tear. Moved by her eagerness, I agreed to work with Hani on a volunteer basis to help her pursue her educational dreams.
Andara’s enthusiasm was increasing with her language ability, but I was becoming more and more discouraged. The prospect (前景) of taking part in the Test of English Fluency in Jakarta filled me with worry, as the entire examination was an impossible challenge for someone who had never interacted with a computer before.
One day I received the announcement of a scholarship opportunity for a major US university. After reading the requirements, I knew Andara couldn’t meet the qualifications. I told her that there was only a slim chance and encouraged her to be more “realistic” about her dream. But she remained determined.
“Will you send in my name?” she asked.
I couldn’t turn her down. I completed the application, with the painful truth about her academic life, but also with my praise of her courage and perseverance (坚持不懈).
注意：1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
In months that followed, Andara worked even harder.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Then, not long after coming back from Jakarta, we received a letter from the scholarship association.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________You are discussing the following picture with your English friend Jim. Now you are telling him how you understand the picture and what makes you think so.
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That summer I turned 18. I was wild with excitement because I just took my driving license and my parents bought me a new perfect car. I was reminded repeatedly by my parents to drive cautiously. Along with this new privilege (特权) came new responsibilities. I would practice the same routine-call my parents and tell them where I was going, whom I was with and when I would be home. It became a typical cycle.
I had been working all day in the hot sun.I was exhausted and ready for a nap. But my stomach told me something different. So I called my friend Mike and made our way into town. After our meal, we never knew our day would soon change for the worse.
It takes only a moment to turn your life upside down. I recalled later that I was driving fast. Actually too fast. I reached the conclusion two years later that the mistake would be with me for the rest of my life.
Mike and I were driving down a dusty gravel (沙砾) road. I was driving a shiny black Saturn,which was the car I had admired for long. I was overflowing with excitement and pride to be driving it.It was perfect in my eyes. I could see the rolling hills in the distance. Tall pine trees traveled on both sides of the road.The music playing loudly, we both were in high spirits. Somehow, without realizing it, I sped up.
Enjoying ourselves in my car,we came across a loose spot of gravel. My tires were stuck in it and desperate to escape. My car started fishtailing (摆尾行驶). Terrified,I pressed hard on the brakes and all of a sudden the car lost control. I froze, my body was stiff, great panic holding me entirely in its power. Looking into the right, I took a glimpse of Mike, whose body had leaned towards me. His face went pale but he was trying to balance himself. The car was rushing left to right, coasting (惯性滑行) along the gravel as if it were ice. It was only seconds later that my car crashed head on into a big pine tree.
I heard a roaring sound of my car hitting the trees.___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Fortunately enough, Mike and I were not seriously injured.
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For many young people, including young parents, the smartphone plays an important part in their life and work. They also depend on it for entertainment, playing games, watching movies and viewing TikTok short videos.
A young couple, Paul and Sue, have a three-month-old baby, who they named Tony. He is a lovely baby. Like most babies, he sleeps about 16 hours a day. Unlike other babies, he seldom cries when he is hungry, sleepy or has a wet diaper. When he is awake, he smiles and moves his little hands and legs while watching what’s happening around him. That’s why taking care of Tony isn’t too much trouble for Paul and Sue. They still have time to stick to their habit of watching TikTok videos.
One beautiful sunny spring Sunday, Paul and Sue decided to take Tony to a park nearby for the first time, thinking that the sunshine and fresh air were good for him. They put Tony into the stroller (婴儿车) and pushed him to the park, which was about a fifteen-minute walk. There were many people in the park, old people sitting on benches and chatting, boys playing football on the lawn, girls running about and young parents like them pushing strollers.
After a short walk in the park, Paul and Sue sat down on a bench. Soon other young parents came around. They greeted each other, had small talks about the good weather, and chatted about their babies. When the young couple found Tony went to sleep, they covered him with a small blanket, pulled the canopy (罩子), said goodbye to other young parents and wheeled the stroller towards home. Halfway, a cry of the baby came out from the stroller. Paul and Sue were shocked.
It’s unusual for Tony to cry and the crying sounded strange to them.
注意：1. 续写的词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
The couple stopped right away to take a look, only to discover it was not their baby.
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Other parents put forward their ideas and helped to take action.
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My mom is the greatest morn ever! As I grew up, I saw her as my hero for all the things she would do for me. I remember she would fix my baby dolls and help me color pretty pictures when I started elementary school. I remember in middle school, I would see her do things that fathers were supposed to do, like fixing the car without caring how greasy her hands would get. Now that I’m in high school, I see how she is strong but sensitive at the same time. She looks at life with a positive attitude no matter what the situation is.
One day I came home from school and saw papers on the kitchen table and my mom sitting with a worried face looking at my dad. My dad wasn’t working at the time because he had broken his leg. I had heard my parents talk about money issues a couple of times before, but I never asked about the situation.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“We have to be out of the house in two weeks,” my morn said. She had her elbows (肘部) on the table and one hand over her forehead. Then I realized this was a serious problem. That very day, she made phone calls and started to look for a place to rent.
We had no money and no idea what we were going to do. I read the papers on the table, which said we had lost the house because we hadn’t been paying the rent. I was surprised that all this was going on. My dad seemed to be doing nothing about it and my mom never said anything about it. It seemed like everything was falling apart, but my mom seemed as if this was making her stronger.
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。
That whole week she tried her best to find a place for rent.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“We are starting to move today,” she said with a smile on her face.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Last August, my husband, our two kids and I were on vacation for a nice week away. We had hiked about half a mile to a popular spot called Diana’s Baths, where the water falls off a series of flat rocks. The baths were full of families, so we made our way to one of the upper levels of rock to keep our distance.
Both where we sat and down below, the water fell into small pools, where kids in swimsuits were playing around. I watched as some younger parents nervously took their children away from the rocks’ edges, feeling grateful that our kids, at six and eight, could keep their physical space with more confidence. I was still terrified as I saw my two boys jump between the slippery rocks. At the top of my voice, I warned them not to run and to stay away from the edges.
Then, seconds later, I turned and saw my son Wyatt sitting down between two rocks in a fast-moving stream. I yelled at him to get out. He yelled back something that I couldn’t hear, and then he disappeared over the edge. I screamed, over and over, “Somebody help my son!” I didn’t even know what help he needed. My husband was rushing down the rocks. Wyatt was sitting up-he was alive. My biggest fear was erased.
It was about 12 feet from the top of the waterfall to the pool below, and Wyatt had fallen on his back, straight onto the rocks. While everyone else looked on from a distance, too afraid or unbothered to help, one of the visitors, Lisa, didn’t hesitate. By the time I had climbed down the rocks and my husband had pulled Wyatt out of the water, she had already called 911 for an ambulance. She told me that she was a nurse. She put a towel under Wyatt’s head and asked us to keep him still and on his back, “I’m not leaving you.”
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。
The rescue team came and took Wyatt out of the park on a stretcher to the ambulance.
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On the day Wyatt checked out of the hospital, Lisa turned up, with a bunch of flowers in hands.
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