Jumping Over Boundaries
When I was in elementary school, we had an annual sports day. Girls could do many things like hopscotch, jump rope, tetherball, and dodgeball, except high jumping. Only boys could do high jumping.
That’s what I wanted to do — high jumping. So I went to the coach.
“Girls don’t do high jumping,” the coach said. “Girls have all these other things they can do.” He excitedly described how much fun it would be.
I’d been high jumping in the backyard with my five brothers for years. Although I am a girl, I did high jumping pretty well. My brothers could rarely beat me. Whenever my back crossed the bar, that feeling is extremely wonderful. I went home and told my mother what the coach had said. My mother, a small, thin woman only four feet eleven inches tall, said, “I think we should go visit him.”
“Visit who?” I asked confusedly.
“The headmaster.”
“Visit the headmaster?” I was terrified. Would I get in trouble? Would my mother and I be crossing boundaries we shouldn’t cross?
My mom and I went to Mr. White’s office. “Linda wants to do the high jump,” my mother said.
“Mrs. Martinez, you don’t understand. This is the tradition of our Annual Sports Day,” he said.
“But Mr. White, I don’t know where it says that girls cannot do this.”
The headmaster couldn’t find any rules that said girls couldn’t do the high jump. “I have to think about this,” he said at last.
When we got home, my mom told me something I would always remember: this wasn’t just about me. “Maybe other girls want to do this, too,” she said.
My mother waited a week, but still didn’t get the headmaster’s reply. So she walked over to the school again. “Mr. White, please. I ask you this not for me and not for Linda, but let’s just see how it works.” In the end, Mr. White agreed.
I stood on the field of the high jumping competition.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________To my surprise, some of the cheers I got were from boys!
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Mr. Tai, the teacher in charge of sports at Sarasota High School in Florida, had just celebrated his 58th birthday—an age at which many would think seriously of retiring (退休). However, it was not so with Mr. Tai. He had an outstanding record of athletic achievements in leading the school’s sports team. Some of the students he had trained had become national runners. The school board agreed he continued to work as they did not want to lose the services of so meone who had successfully led the school sports tea m to the finals of the National Athletics Championships.
In the year before, however, the school team did not get as many medals in the National Athletics Championships as expected. Mr. Tai’s hopes were fired this year by two promising star athletes, Farid and Hassan, who happened to be twins.
In the school’s sports meeting, Farid broke the school’s twenty-year record for the 100meters event. His brother, Hassan, was just a second behind. Since Hassan had an ankle (踝关节) injury, Mr.Tai decided to submit (提交) only Farid’s name to the finals of the National Athletics Championships. On the day he submitted the results of the best runner in the school, he mistakenly wrote Hassan’s name instead, without noticing it.
When Mr.Tai received the list of the finalists (参加决赛者) in event, he was quite surprised and immediately he realized that he had made the mistake. However, it was too late to inform the sports secretariat (秘书处). Apart from that, pride also did not allow him to admit his mistake at that moment. Therefore, He decided to inform Farid’s brother, Hassan, and start to train him in the final preparations for this event.
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。
Hearing that he was not a finalist, Farid could not believe his ears.
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Unluckily, Hassan lost the race.
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Jasmine lived on a small farm with her parents and her sister Grace. They were poor and made a living selling animals, but they treated the creatures very kindly. Jasmine was quite a help to her parents. She loved riding horses and caring for them. Of all the horses, Madeline was her favorite. She was a white horse with beautiful locks of golden hair. She was the swiftest horse in the stable. Jasmine always dreamt of riding Madeline in a race and winning it.
Life was harder for the poor family recently because losses had occurred in the business. All they could do to support their daily life was to sell a horse. Jasmine was not at all happy with this idea. She thought about what to do for a long time, to see if she could come up with an alternative solution.
One day, she saw an advertisement in the local newspaper for a horse race. The winner of the race would get $1,000! She thought that she and Madeline could enter the race. She told Grace about her idea and Grace was also happy with it. They went to the race organizer and added Madeline’s name to the list of horses running in the race. He told them that the race was in eleven days’ time.
The next day, during a routine check, the two girls found Madeline seemed to have lost the color from her face. “She looks pale and unwell,” Grace said, with a worried look. She began stroking her mane (鬃毛). “You’re right, Grace. Go and call mother while I get Madeline some water,” said Jasmine. Grace ran off to inform their mother. Meanwhile, Madeline was getting paler. Grace returned shortly with their mother, who phoned a vet immediately. The vet came quickly and after checking Madeline over, said that she was ill. The whole family was very worried as Madeline’s health continued to get worse. She would hardly eat anything. Madeline’s situation broke Jasmine’s heart. Her only wish was that Madeline would soon get better.
注意：
1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡上的相应位置作答。
Whenever Jasmine had time, she went to check on Madeline and take care of her.
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On the day of the race, Jasmine headed to the race course with Madeline.
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Paul and I were on our school basketball team, The Lions. We loved basketball and were both huge fans of the NBA. When we weren't playing on the court which was next to our building, we were watching a game on TV. My favorite player was LeBron James. Paul's favorite player was Tyrone Bogues, a guy who played for the Charlotte Hornets, although we actually agree that they are both champions.
Bogues was only 1.6 meters tall, which made him the shortest player ever in the NBA. Guess what? Paul was only 1.6 meters tall, too! Paul knew that being shorter than other players meant that he had to practise more. During all those hours of doing jump shots on his own, he used Bogues as his inspiration. Paul once said, "If Bogues could make it, why not me?"
Our coach was not so sure. Paul had to try out many times just for making the team. He was still usually on the bench, being just a replacement, which was really tough on him. Everyone knew Paul had real skills, and was someone who worked really hard and had a strong desire to play for the team. However, Paul didn't get a chance.
This week. The Lions were playing our main competitors, The Bears, a team whose record this season had been perfect. They hadn't lost a single game. It would be a tough one. Paul didn't know he'd soon get the chance that he' d been waiting for.
Suddenly, a player and I crashed into each other. Pain raced through my body. My knee hurt badly. The team gathered around, looking worried. The last quarter was about to begin, and my team was behind by 10 points.
注意： 1. 续写词数应为150左右；2. 请按如下格式作答。
I said quietly to the coach that I couldn't play anymore as the doctor put an ice pack on my knee.
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Paul jumped up and rushed onto the court.
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