A Precious Dress
I was raised in a family where my parents were united in their way of bringing up children, but it mostly fell to my mother to actually carry it out, and she managed the family budget effortlessly. Looking back, I honestly think I would be a different person if my mum hadn’t turned a dress into a life lesson I carry with me today.
If we complained about not having what another kid did, we’d hear something like I don’t care what so-and-so got for his birthday, you are not getting a car for your birthday or a lavish sweet-16 party. We had to earn our allowance (零用钱) by doing chores around the house. My brothers can no doubt remember hours spent cleaning the house. I can still remember how long it took to polish the legs of our dining table. Sometimes, I couldn’t even contain my envy of Chloe, a neighbourhood girl, always beautifully dressed, whose parents satisfied her with almost every need.
One day, my mother drove me downtown to buy some household necessities-and there it was in the shopping window. Pink, lovely, delicately trimmed (镶嵌着) with lace, the dress winked (眨眼) at me and I knew I had to have it. “It’s beautiful, ” my mother said when I pointed it out to her. “What a beautiful dress! ”
I tried to hide my desire at first. But then I guess I couldn’t stand it any longer. “Mum, please get it? I’ll do anything, but I need that dress. I love it. Please?”
I was desperate.
“You know,” she said, gently rubbing my back, “if you save up, you could buy this yourself.”
“By the time I make enough, it’ll be sold!”
“There might be a way,” she said.
And so our paying plan unfolded. Mum bought the dress and put it safely in some hiding place where I couldn’t find. Each week I eagerly counted my growing savings increased by extra work. Weeks later, I counted and jumped for joy. Oh, I made it! I finally had the exact amount we’d agreed on Having put on my dress, I flew to school like a bird. However, the unthinkable happened.
The moment I arrived at the school gate, Chloe appeared in exactly the same dress.
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Hearing me crying loudly, Mum gently pushed open the door.
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I never knew how important life was until I almost lost my little brother. It all started when my brother got sick. I was nine, and he was just nine months. At that time, he kept touching his ear. The first doctor my mother took him to told her that it was an ear disease.
After a week, he was still touching his ear continually. My mother took him to a different doctor. The doctor ran blood tests on him and thought he should be in the hospital as soon as possible. At first, the doctors did not know what was wrong with him. A couple of days later, they found out he had a type of bone marrow (骨髓) cancer.
The doctors tried one round of treatment. It helped, but my brother lost his hair. Then he needed a bone marrow transplant (移植). They needed to find a bone marrow donor (捐赠者), so the doctors tested my family first.
I was so afraid to get a shot. My sisters and I were all crying. We got it over with quickly, and it did not hurt as much as I thought it would. A couple of weeks later, we found out that one of my sisters and I were both matches. My parents had to choose which one of us should be the donor. After thinking about it for a long time, they made their decision one Sunday.
That day, after having our lunch, my parents put me on the sofa. With tears filling their eyes, they told me that they wanted me to be the bone marrow donor because I was older. They asked me whether I’d like to be the donor. Hearing it, I was excited and nervous.
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。
I wondered whether to agree it or not.
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About 45 days later, my brother’s health improved a lot.
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After 22 years of marriage, I have discovered the secret to keep love alive in my relationship with my wife, Peggy. I started dating with another woman.
It was Peggy’s idea. One day she said to me, “Life is too short, you need to spend time with the people you love. You probably won’t believe me, but I know you love her and I think that if the two of you spend more time together, it will make us closer.”
The “other” woman my wife was encouraging me to date is my mother, a 72-year-old widow who has lived alone since my father died 20 years ago. Right after his death, I moved 2, 500 miles away to California and started my own life and career. When I moved back near my hometown six years ago, I promised myself that I would spend more time with Mom. But with the demands of my job and three kids, I never got around to seeing her much beyond family get-togethers and holidays.
Mom was surprised when I called and suggested the two of us go out to dinner.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I thought it would be nice to spend some time with you,” I said. “Just the two of us.”
“I would like that a lot,” she said.
When I pulled into her driveway, she was waiting by the door with her coat on. Her hair was curled, and she was smiling. “I told my friends I was going out with my son, and they were all impressed. They can’t wait to hear about our evening,” Mom said.
注意：
1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右;
2. 续写部分分为两段, 每段的开头语已为你写好：
Para 1: Minutes later, we arrived at a restaurant in the neighborhood.
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Para 2:“How was your date?” Peggy asked when I got home.
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Mary and her little son Andy lived alone and led a hard life. They didn’t have much, but there was always food on the table-for Andy, at least.
To support the family, Mary did three jobs. It was tiring, but Mary didn’t give up. Each day when she finally got home, she’d bring Andy home from a kind neighbor, who attended to her boy for hours daily.
Years later when Andy was 15, Mary was still working hard. One morning she crazily looked for the house keys, worried about getting late for work. She had a long day ahead, but she didn’t even make it to her house’s front door. She tried to move the sofa to see if the keys had fallen behind it. At the time, Andy was preparing to go to school.
Suddenly, Mary fell due to long-term lack of sleep. And when she fell, her head hit the sofa’s edge, which caused her to faint immediately. So worried, Andy did everything he could to help his mom. Finally, he took her to hospital.
Hours later, Mary woke up, noticing Andy’s hand on her shoulder. The doctor brought her document for her to read. She soon knew why she was in hospital. And she knew the fall had reduced her sense of hearing to 20%. Mary couldn’t help crying. “What am I going to do now?” she thought as she looked at Andy. With tears in eyes, Andy said, “I love you, Mom!” And it saddened them both again because Mary could barely hear Andy’s words.
The doctor recommended wearing a hearing aid. It was a very expensive device. “Who has that kind of money?” Mary thought, feeling upset and hopeless.
But Andy wasn’t. “Mom has taken good care of me for years. It’s high time that I did something to try to repay her,” Andy thought. He was determined to take a part-time job to earn the money for the hearing aid. Since his academic performance was very good, he decided to work as a tutor for grade kids.
注意：1．续写词数应为150左右;2．请按如下格式作答。
First, he made advertisements.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________One morning when Mary was still sleeping soundly, Andy put the hearing aid in her ear.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Arshad had been out window shopping with his parents. That was all they did these days because they didn’t have enough money to afford all the shiny clothes, shoes and other fancy items the windows displayed. Even from a distance, they looked so promising and inviting that one couldn’t help but go over and look at them.
Ever since Arshad’s father lost his business and had to close down his garment shop, Arshad’s family barely had the money to make ends meet. They even had to move to a rented house, which was smaller and was situated in the shabbier part of the city. Unlike his previous house, where he had a big luxurious room all to himself, here Arshad had to share his room and bed with his naughty younger brother who always had the room in a horrible mess.
What was worse, the playground in this neighbourhood was nothing like the one in his previous neighbourhood; the swings were all broken, the monkey bars were all rusted and grimy, and the see-saw(跷跷板) only had one seat. There weren’t even any bookshops nearby where he could spend his free time, flipping through his favourite comic books and novels.
That day, Arshad and his brother were terribly bored when their father decided to take them all out for window shopping. When his father saw the sad look on Arshad’s face, he sat down next to him and said in a solemn tone, “Remember, there are children out there who don’t even have the things you do, like, warm clothes, a roof over their heads, good education and all the delicious meals that your mother prepares for you, three times a day. You should always be grateful for what you have.”
After the trip to the mall, Arshad’s father decided to take his two boys to a government school in their neighbourhood. The children in the school barely had chairs in their classrooms. Instead, they sat on rugged carpets draped over a hard, stone floor. Three or four children shared torn, second-hand books amongst themselves. The playground didn’t even have any swings and there was not even a cafeteria!
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。
Arshad remembered how he always complained about the swings in his playground.
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Thinking of the happy children in that school, Arshad decided to do something.
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After I stepped into the school library, I went straight to the shelves filled with books at once. It was break time and I had dropped by the library to borrow a book. Just as I was looking through some books, a girl in my class, Alice, came up to me. Alice was a pain in the neck as she would often make fun of others. That day, Alice laughed at me about my deepest secret -that I had come last in class in the mid-year examinations.
I blushed(脸红)hotly in shame. At the same time, I became extremely angry. My best friend, Lynn, was the only one who knew my secret. How could she betray(背叛)me?
My anger grew as thoughts about my friendship with Lynn flashed through my mind. We had been good friends since Primary 1. We hung out together, studied together and stayed up till the early hours of the morning to exchange our dreams. We were closer than sisters. When she needed a shoulder to cry on, I would be there. How could she do this to me? I was so mad that I could not control myself.
Brushing aside Alice’s taunts(嘲弄), I stormed to the place where Lynn usually went - the school field. Lynn looked at me with a welcoming smile on her face. The sight of her treacherous(背信弃义的)face made me mad and crazy.
“How could you do this to me? I thought we were friends!” I shouted at Lynn. “I hate you!”
A look of bewilderment(迷茫)crossed her face as she said,
“Wha ... What’s wrong? What did I do?”
Lynn cried out but I was cold and I didn’t show any kindness to her at all. I told her, “You are no longer my friend!”
And then I stormed away and returned to the library to calm myself down.
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。
Paragraph 1: About 5 minutes later, one of my classmates came up to me and handed me my diary.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2: Luckily, Lynn was still in the field.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________People often have a tough time dealing with their feelings of disappointment. That is when you should give them time and understanding and he or she just might come around before long.
I remember talking with my friend Avery about the coming school play Alices Adventure in Wonderland, which we both applied for. Avery had a talent for acting and she was anxious for playing Alice while for me I didn’t care what part I played as long as I would be in. However, when character list was posted, we were surprised to find that I got the part of Alice and Avery was chosen to act the rabbit. I guessed it was because I hadn’t been nervous at all during the audition (试演). But that situation really didn’t occur to me.
Then I asked Avery, “Do you want to come over after school and we can practice our lines?” “You mean, practice your lines?” Avery replied, not even looking at me. “No, thanks. I’m pretty busy this week.” I continued to ask if it would be OK for next week but her answer was negative and full of anger.
That night at dinner, after my parents congratulated me on getting the lead role, they asked how I felt. “Well, I can’t understand.” I said and told them about Avery’s reaction and I believed that she pretty much threw away our friendship.
“Hmm,” said my dad. “Arizona, don’t you think this might be an opportunity for you to be an extra-good friend?” “Dad’s right,” added my mom. “Sometimes when our friends do well, we feel envious (羡慕的) and don’t know how to act. Try giving her a little time and understanding. She’ll come around.”
Over the next week, I did my best to give Avery some space. I practised my lines but I knew I needed some help since my voice was not expressive enough. Day by day, Avery’s attitude seemed softened. As the rehearsal (彩排) day was near, I made a decision.
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。
One day after school in the rehearsal room, I approached Avery.
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Then came the big day.
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