Eight o’clock on a May morning, and Mary, my 17-year-old daughter, was in our study upstairs. It had served as her classroom ever since schools moved to remote learning due to the COVID-19.
From the kitchen, I listened to the sound of her tapping on the laptop or her communicating in their Google Meet session s with her friends and teachers. I resisted the desire to check on her. Way too often, I would find Mary texting friends and commenting on their Snapchat and Instagram posts about the fun they were having together. I felt it safer not to care. After all, we’d barely left the house for 10 weeks straight.
“Mom, everyone is hanging out today!” Mary’s voice came from upstairs. “Why can’t I?” I went up the stairs. Mary was lying on the floor, her laptop, school iPad and cell phone in front of her. “It’s unfair,” she said. “I have no one I can be with. I can’t wait until I’m 18. and can do what I want.”
We’d had this conversation before. Still, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. I was sick of isolating (隔离) too. Even though Mary and I were at home together more than we had been in years, we might as well have been living in separate worlds.
“Wanna watch Netflix later?” I asked. “Bake some cookies?” “No, thanks.” Mary shook her head, as if the idea of doing something together was quite beyond her. I was used to Mary’s rejection, but it still hurt. Teenage independence is healthy, but I worried that if I didn’t find a way to bond with my girl soon, I might never be close with her again. She’d be 18 in the fall and had already convinced herself she didn’t need me anymore. Maybe she was right. No matter what I did, I couldn’t seem to reach her. That evening, I logged onto Facebook and saw a friend’s family playing with their new kitten together. My mind went back to the difficult period when I was in high school and our family moved to the new city. It was a gray tabby (虎斑猫) with which Mom surprised me that brightened my days and got me through that difficult, lonely time.
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It suddenly occurred to me that having a cat in our house might help.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________We immediately decided to take the cat from the shelter home.
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Our church congregation (集会) in Toronto has a way of assisting those who have financial difficulties without making the receiver feel shame or guilt. Money is dropped into an offering box with only the name of the receiver on the envelope. The envelopes are then distributed to those members without them knowing the name of the giver.
There came a time when my husband and I were among those in need. Both of us lost jobs at that time and there was little hope that we could be employed within a short time. Of course, out of self-esteem (自尊), we did not talk about our financial difficulty with anyone else. The only reason our children knew was that we had to cut back on many things. Still, we hoped they were not aware of the extent of our need, nor of how much their father and I were suffering because of it. We did not want to burden them with a problem they could do nothing to solve.
With time going by, our situation wasn’t improving, and my husband and I knew that we would have to look for outside help. In that cold winter, just as we reached the point of despair, our church gave us a gift envelope that had been left in the offering box. You couldn’t imagine how overjoyed we were on receiving such a very substantial amount of money, which was enough to bring us through that desperate time. We couldn’t help but wonder who had given such a generous gift. We were extremely relieved and enormously grateful. In this way, we could survive this tough period with the money. Besides, we needn’t worry about our son’s university tuition, that is, he needn’t apply for any loan because he had taken a part-time job and worked hard to earn some money since he was nine years old. He had been a paper carrier for The Toronto Star, a car washer, a dishwasher and so on. He had been careful for his small earnings so we had trusted him to leave all his wages with him instead of putting it into the bank towards his education.
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A year later, our son was applying for a student loan.
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Finally, in tears, and with great unwillingness, my son told us the truth.
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When the final school bell rang, Eli walked home as usual. His trip took him across the playground, past the T-shirt factory, and across the main street. From there, Eli often cut through a blank lot (空地) where a house used to be. The house burned down years ago, but there were still flowers and trees to show that people used to live there. Everything was usual, but everything was immersed (沉浸在) in Eli’s sadness.
At that time, Eli watched a blue jay (蓝松鸦) fly into the old maple tree at the blank lot. The bird sat on a low branch and screamed loudly. It was as if the blue jay knew that he was sad, for he had failed his math test again. And he wrote a letter to Aunt Lucy. But Aunt Lucy did not reply to him.
When he got home, there was something in his mailbox. He found it was from Aunt Lucy, who lived in a different town. Upon opening it, his eyes widened with delight. It was a letter he looked forward to and a book! Eli read the letter.
Dear Eli, You told me that you didn’t do well in math. I hope you don’t give up and don’t get discouraged by a few failures. Because you once told me that you wanted to be a math teacher when you grew up and helped more children. I gave you a book. It’s about a great scientist you liked, I hoped you, like him, had been studying hard and sticking to your dream.
Love,
Aunt Lucy
After reading Aunt Lucy’s letter and receiving her encouragement, Eli’s sad mood improved a lot. Eli took the book and rushed to show it to his father, saying that it was the best gift he had ever received. His father smiled, noting Eli’s happy smile. Touched by Aunt Lucy’s thoughtful present, Eli felt an immediate urge (强烈的欲望) to thank Aunt Lucy right away. So with his father’s help, he decided to call Aunt Lucy.
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。
Eli called Aunt Lucy but couldn’t get through.
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Just then, there was a knock at the door.
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Every June, we renew an annual tradition at our house. Our children are given bowls and asked to collect pieces of nature that remind them of the summer. They leave those bowls on the front doorstep and we go for a walk. When we return, we find fairies (精灵) have turned the bowls’ contents into ice cream.
I’m not certain how this tradition developing. I think I was making up stories about fairies years ago, and it all just sort of happened. But ever since, it has been one of our favorite routines, fascinating in its simplicity. “When are the fairies coming?” six-year-old Anna had been asking all last June with expectation. Meanwhile, Joshua, nine, was getting wise to fairies and Father Christmas and such silly things. He said he would understand if, during our walk, Mum or Dad should forget something and return home.
The evening arrived. The children collected leaves, grass, pebbles, twigs and dead insects. We put their bowls on the front doorstep and went off on our walk. But after a while, I moaned (抱怨) that I had forgotten my keys and needed to go back. Joshua smiled a knowing grin (咧嘴笑) “Oh, wait,” I added, “I’ve found them! I don’t have to go back.” As we continued on our way, Joshua was beginning to get a bit confused.
Near our house, I warned that the fairies might not have arrived yet—we might need to walk for a bit longer. Joshua seemed relieved. Yes, he said, they probably hadn’t come. Yet when we reached the front door, the bowls were in the same place we had left them-filled with ice cream. Anna accepted all this with complete innocence, happy and excited and eager to eat. But Joshua was astonished, speechless, humbled. He looked up at me, at his dad, then gazed around the neighborhood in amazement. “The fairies must have come,” he said as we all sat down to feast, “Maybe … is there really … was this magic?”
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。
Joshua was quiet the entire evening, thinking over these events in his heart and mind.
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So I told my little boy the truth.
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After spending Thanksgiving on Uncle Howard’s farm, he gave us two turkey eggs. My younger brother Chris was so excited that he nearly dropped his egg on the way home. Dad put the eggs under an old hen in our backyard. Every day Chris and I would check to see if they’d hatched yet. 26 days later, two little creatures waddled (摇摇摆摆地走) behind the hen. As they got older, one was dead. We named the other Timothy.
Timothy liked to wander in the woods and find tasty berries and weed seeds. Mom kept telling us not to get too attached to Timothy, because we were going to have him for Thanksgiving. But we never paid too much attention to what that really meant. One day, Dad gave Chris and me instructions. “I want you to start giving him corn along with his regular feed,” he said. “We want a nice fat bird for Thanksgiving.” After Dad walked away, Chris’s face began to pucker, just as he did before he started to cry.
“Don’t worry, Chris,” I said comfortingly. “We’ll save Timothy, somehow.”
“Why don’t we give him away?” Chris suggested.
“No.” I said. “If we do, he’ll just end up on someone else’s Thanksgiving table.” Suddenly I had an idea. “Hey, Chris, you know that small cave in the woods?” Chris nodded. “We can take Timothy there. We’ll cover the entrance with a wire net and hide him till Thanksgiving is over.” “Yeah!” We were so excited that we gave each other high-fives. We took Timothy out of his cage and left him in the cave with water and plenty of food. We piled branches over the opening to hide the entrance.
One day Dad sent us out to look for him. Both of us felt guilty, but we wanted to save Timothy’s life, so we kept quiet. Finally, Dad decided that a fox must have gotten him. That year Uncle Howard provided a turkey for our Thanksgiving dinner. The next day a big snowstorm hit. It was days before we could get out and see Timothy. When we got to the cave, we saw something had happened.
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 wire net was pulled away from the entrance, and Timothy was gone.
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“Look at that！It’s Timothy！”Mom cried one day.
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One particularly cold Saturday in January, I was supposed to take our dog out for a walk, but it was so cold that I didn’t want to go outside. Instead, I just opened the door and let the dog out by himself. I kept an eye on him to make sure he would come back inside.
However, another neighborhood dog quickly ran past our house, and our dog sped after to catch him. I hurriedly went to grab my coat so I could follow my dog, and then I rushed outside. Unfortunately, I was already too late, and my dog was nowhere in sight. I walked a few blocks, but I was unable to find him.
Depressed, I returned home. My mother was standing at the door waiting, and she asked me what had happened. “I know I was supposed to walk our dog,” I admitted, “but I thought he would be able to go outside and come back by himself. Now he’s gone and I can’t find him anywhere.”
My mother was very angry with me; she said I should have been more responsible. She decided to help by making some signs. The signs read, “Lost: A big black dog. Please call us right away” and she printed our phone number on the bottom. “Okay, Darrell,” she said, as she handed over those signs, “now go post these on all the street posts.”
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 grabbed the signs and rushed out.
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When I returned, my mother was waiting for me, smiling broadly.
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The little bird perched (栖息) itself on the tree branch outside Vanessa’s bedroom window. It sang an energetic song as the first pale yellow rays of sunshine emerged from the horizon.
“Oh, what is that noise?” Vanessa complained to herself, pulling her bed sheet over her head in an attempt to block the sound from outside. It was no use, and she knew it because the loud birdsong signalled the coming of the day. A few moments later, Vanessa’s mom knocked on her door, and then came in with a smile. “Time to get up, Sleepyhead,” she whispered. “The early bird catches the worm, you know.”
“Ugh, what does that even mean?” asked Vanessa, with a pillow covering her face. “It’s just an expression, honey,” her mom replied. She gave Vanessa a kiss on the cheek and urged her to get out of bed. Vanessa rolled over and slept for a few more minutes.
Vanessa walked slowly downstairs, had breakfast slowly and missed her bus. When she finally got to school, she had to get a late pass. She missed the first part of math class, so she didn’t understand the lesson and had to get extra help. Her teacher gave her extra homework to make sure she knew it. This day was no fun.
The next morning, Vanessa was woken up by the same birdsong. Instead of ignoring it, Vanessa walked over to the window and opened the curtains. Soft light filled the room. “Well, hello there, little fellow,” she said when she saw the pretty bird outside, still singing happily. Suddenly, the bird flew down to land on the fresh grass. As she watched, the bird picked up a worm for breakfast. Vanessa seemed to instantly understand what her mother meant when she said “the early bird catches the worm”.
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 raced through breakfast and caught the bus.
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At lunchtime, Vanessa finished her lunch early and had time to go to the library.
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