In a small town, there lived a young girl named Emily. She had a deep passion for table tennis and dreamed of becoming a professional player. Despite her young age, she was determined to work hard and make her dream come true.
From the moment when Emily picked up a table tennis paddle, she was impressed by the sport. She spent every spare moment practicing her shots, focusing on her footwork and mastering different techniques. Each time she stepped on the court, she was eager to improve and pushed herself to the limit. Unluckily, Emily faced a visual impairment (缺陷) that threatened to slow her progress. She was born with a condition that affected her sight. Some people doubted her ability to play table tennis and said, “Emily, your impairment is a disadvantage. It is impossible to play table tennis well!”
But Emily refused to let their doubts consume her. With solid determination, Emily turned her impairment into strength. She used her other heightened senses to her advantage, relying on touch and sound to anticipate her opponents’ moves. While others relied on sight, she developed an incredible sense of intuition (直觉) and strategy.
Emily finally excelled in table tennis, achieving incredible milestones and representing her town in many competitions. She became an advocate of the sport in her town. However, Emily decided not to settle for winning in her comfort zone but to challenge for something higher. She joined a training team guided by a world-class coach, which brought together the world’s top table tennis players.
In the training team, Emily went through a series of trials. She carried out high-intensity training. She needed to improve not only the batting skills but also perseverance and the sense of teamwork. Her coach often encouraged her and said, “Anyone, regardless of ability, could find success.”
A few years later, Emily’s efforts paid off. She got her chance. As a member of the national team, she took part in an important international competition. That was the stage for her to show her skills, and it was also the important moment for her to realize her dream.
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。
In the competition, Emily found herself facing a strong opponent, Lily.
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Role Change
It was a Friday night, and I was just picked up from school by my uncle. He told me that my mother had been in a terrible car crash and had been taken to a nearby hospital.When we got to the hospital, my grandmother pulled me aside and said whatever I did, I mustn’t cry in front of my mother.
My mother’s room was right next to the nurses' station. As I turned into the room, I saw her lying on her side, with her tiny back to me and a pillow between her bandaged legs. She struggled to turn around but couldn’t. I slowly inched to the other side of the bed and said “hi” in a calm voice, containing my urge to cry out.
Gently holding my mother’s cold swollen hands, I tried to keep calm. She kept looking straight into my eyes as if trying to tell me how much pain she was in. I turned my face away from her, trying to hide the tears that were rolling down my face. Eventually I had to leave her for a moment because I couldn’t take it anymore. That was when it struck me that I really might lose my mother. Then I went home and cried myself to sleep.
From that night on, my life completely changed. Up to that point, I'd had the luxury of just being a kid, having to deal with my “messy” teenage life and enjoying my mother’s care. My concept of crisis was now forever changed. As my mother struggled first to stay alive and then to relearn to walk, my sense of priorities in life changed completely. My mother needed me. The trials and hardships of my daily life at school, which had seemed so important before, now appeared insignificant. My mother and I had faced death together, and life took on new meaning for both of us.
I visited my mother in the hospital as often as I could for the next two months. Finally, a sort of hospital suite (房间) was set up in our family room, and to my relief and joy, she was allowed to come home.
注意: 续写词数应为150 左右。
Her returning home was a blessing, but it meant some unfamiliar duties for me.
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My mother’s dependence on me changed our relationship.
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I managed to stop my friend Timmy’s bike in a fashionable way at the end of the narrow road in the neighborhood. If I rode just a little further, I would come to a wide road of my city. When I stopped the bike, I saw Timmy running to catch up. I was grateful to him. He had taught me how to ride a bike. Now he was teaching me how to stop the bike in a special way.
When he neared me, he congratulated me on my first successful stop. Seconds later, my dad came up. He always seemed to be strict. He didn’t want me to do anything I liked. When he came up, he said angrily, “I suppose if I allow you to ride the bike, you will agree to keep off the city road?” “But we don’t get on it,” I replied.
He shouted, “You were close enough! If you had slid one more foot, you would have been there. What if a car had been coming? This road is dangerous. It goes through the hills. Tall trees line the road, and there are many bends. If you get on the road, a driver may not even see you coming! I didn’t buy you a bike just because of the dangerous road!”
I was really sad. It wasn’t until a few weeks later that I got a chance to ride the bike again. It was a perfect afternoon. My parents weren’t at home. Timmy and I took the opportunity to ride his bike.
With Timmy’s encouragement, I dared to ride with no hands on the handle bars for the first time. Later, Timmy said, “Why don’t we try riding down the hill fast?” I knew that it wasn’t allowed. But finally, I agreed. Timmy rode down while I waited for him to come back. When he rode back, he said, “Incredible! Do you want to try it?” I said, “Yes!” I was excited because I was going to try something disallowed. I felt daring and free.
注意：
1. 续写词数应为150左右;2. 请按如下格式作答。
With excitement, I started down the hill.
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I tried to stop the bike, but still ran into the coming car, though not violently.
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My name is Maeli. I am so lucky because I have Lizzy Jo. She is my cousin and my friend!
Yesterday our teacher brought out a big box just before the last bell rang. “I have a little gift for each of you,” she said. Then she gave each of us a perfect popcorn ball. Each popcorn ball was in a transparent bag that was tied with a ribbon (丝带). Just that little ribbon made the gift look so fancy! Sometimes, it’s the tiny details that make things special.
I happen to have a great appreciation for popcorn balls, so I was pleased. Lizzy Jo and I rode the bus home. The moment I was off the bus. I untied the ribbon and placed it into my pocket. Then I took the popcorn ball out of the plastic bag. I didn’t even stop walking. Unfortunately, my feet were in a big hurry to get home, and sometimes when feet are in a hurry, they trip.
My feet tripped. I fell. And my perfect popcorn ball dropped right into a yucky, murky puddle (水坑). I was okay, but my popcorn ball wasn’t. Have you ever seen a perfect popcorn ball in a yucky, murky puddle? It isn’t something that you want to take a photo of and frame and keep forever.
I looked at my popcorn ball. That moment definitely was not the time to use the two-second rule, which I used at my grandma’s house last week. I accidentally dropped my cookie on her floor. I picked it up really fast, and I admitted that I ate that cookie. But this was a very different situation. This involved a puddle.
I wanted to cry. I knew that it’s silly to cry over a popcorn ball, but that popcorn ball was a gift! I was highly disappointed.
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。
Lizzy turned to give me a hug.
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Later that night, looking at the “new” ball, I had an idea.
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I was 11 years old when I asked my parents for piano lessons. We were in the impact of the recession (经济衰退). My mother had recently been out of work and so my father became the only bread earner for our family. A polite “no” was the answer.
That didn’t discourage me. I Googled the dimensions of a keyboard, drew the keys onto a piece of paper and stuck it on my desk. I would click notes on an online keyboard and “play” them back on my paper one — keeping the sound they made on the computer in my head. After a while I could hear the notes in my head while pressing the keys on the paper. I spent six months playing scales and chord sequences without touching a real piano. Once my mother saw it wasn’t a craze, in spite of the fact that she and father never wished their daughter to work in music, she borrowed some money from family and friends, and bought me 10 lessons.
I still remember the first lesson. I was struck by how noble and elegant the sound of the piano was, as I had become familiar with the artificial electronic sound. The teacher tried to explain where middle C was but I could already play all the major and minor scales (音阶), as well as tonic and dominant functions.
After eight lessons, I obtained the first grade piano certificate (证书). By the time I started secondary school, we couldn’t afford lessons again, so I returned to my paper keyboard. I passed grade three, then grade five, practicing only on my paper keyboard.
For the grades above that, there’s an expectation that you include a certain sensitivity into your playing. The head of music at my school said I could practice on the school’s grand piano. I would wake up at 5:30 a.m. to get there in time and play until lessons started. I’d skip lunch and then practice after school until the caretaker kicked me out. At home, I’d have dinner, do three hours of revision, and then mental practice until 1 a.m.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题纸的相应位置作答。
One evening, when I was about 13, I came home, and my mother said she had a surprise for me.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________My father was very much against playing the piano, but when he heard my playing, something inside him changed.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Life is Good Clothing is a 100 million-dollar company run by brothers Bert and John Jacobs. Like any other businessmen, they went through a lot of failures. However, the idea
“Life is good” from their mother kept them going and inspired them to build a clothing company that is now very successful.
In 1988, Bert and Jacobs took a seven-week road trip from California to Boston. The brothers said this trip changed their lives forever as they looked back on their childhood. According to the Jacobs, their childhood was perfectly-imperfect. Their house did not have heating but they were taught to always see the good in things.
They remembered playing outside all day and when it was dinner time, they would gather around the dinner table. Their mother would say to them, “Tell me something good that happened today.” Their father had a near — death accident which caused severe damage to his right hand. The accident made their father develop a terrible temper （脾气），but their mother would always sing to them and read them children’s stories. “That optimism was something our family always had, even when we had little else,” the brothers said.
During the trip, they tried to figure out what they wanted to do with their lives and decided to run a clothing business. They started selling T-shirt designs in street fairs around Boston. Their design was just a simple drawing of a stick figure with the phrase “Life is good.”
Their small business didn’t turn out so well, but the two brothers did not give up. Then they changed their target audience. This time, they tried to sell their T-shirts to college students, going to different schools every night. Again it did not work. To figure out what they had been doing wrong, Bert and John held beer parties, where they asked their friends for their honest opinions. In return , they could enjoy free beer and amusing stories from the brothers. Again this did not seem to work and they were running out of money.
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。
However, they took the risk and held another party which they thought was the last.
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Finally, someone noticed their design and showed sincere appreciation.
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Palm trees seemed to speed by the car window. Eight-year-old Katrina began to get nervous, the way she always did in new surroundings. She felt a thin shine of sweat above her lip in spite of the car’s cool air. “The aquarium won’t be crowded, I bet, and people are gonna notice me. I hate wearing this prosthesis leg (假肢).” She felt tears pinprick behind her eyes. “Not being normal is the worst.”
Entering the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, around a comer of a tank, she noticed an animal that looked unusual. “Is that a dolphin with stump (假肢) instead of a tail?” she asked an aquarium staff. He nodded. “Yes, that’s Winter. She’s a very special dolphin.” “What happened to her?” “This girl dolphin was found off the coast of Florida, caught in a crab trap. The ropes from the trap cut off the blood circulation to her tail. So she lost her tail,” Katrina caught her breath. “She’s just like me. She’s just like me.” “But she struggled to survive. Now she wears a prosthetic tail part of the day to help her swim like a dolphin’s supposed to swim.” the staff continued, “Every day, Winter shows us anything is possible if we believe.”
Katrina felt her heartstring was touched. She waved at Winter. Looking at Katrina, Winter raised her flipper (鳍), came to her and lifted her head. “She’s swimming right into my arms,” Katrina said tearfully. They made eye contact. She seemed to be speaking to Katrina: We’re the same.
Back home, all Katrina talked about was Winter. For two weeks, she cried and begged her mother to take her back to Clearwater.
Unfortunately, another blow hit Katrina. She fell on the hardwood floor at home and broke her other leg. Katrina was in constant leg nerve pain. After a through examination, the doctor explained bad news that she would need another surgery on her leg. Years of a living hell came back to her.
She started fearing surgery again and refused to take any.
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。
Katrina’s mom decided to take her back to Clearwater.
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Finally came the day when Katrina was in the hospital again.
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