Jackson Merle was exhausted. He was in need of money because his wife was in hospital. He had been knocking on door after door, looking for work, but no one would even listen to what he had to say. No one wanted to talk to an old man. He stood in front of the biggest house on the block. This was his last chance for the day. Every homeowner on the street had run Jackson off, without even listening to his proposal, and maybe this one would be different? Jackson rang the doorbell. Within minutes a pretty young woman opened the door.
“Good morning,” she said cheerfully, “What can I do for you?” Jackson was heartened by her sunny smile and friendly attitude. “Good morning, miss,” he said, “I’m a handyman, and I’m here to offer you and your family my services.” “What kind of work do you do?” she asked.
“I do anything you might need, miss,” Jackson said, “I do some woodwork, painting, cabinet making; I fix small appliances, some gardening, anything you need and my rates are very reasonable.” “Come on in,” the woman smiled, “I have a table with a wobbly (摇摆的) leg that needs fixing, and maybe you can paint my guest room?” Jackson couldn’t believe his ears. He walked into the woman’s beautiful house, toolbox in hand.
First, he fixed the table, while the woman—who introduced herself as Ruth—sat watching him work and chatting to him. Then he looked at the guest room. Ruth gave him money to buy paint so he could fix it up the next day. She also paid him twice what he’d asked for the table. “But, miss,” Jackson protested, “You’ve given me too much money!” “No, I haven’t, Jackson.” Ruth told him firmly, “My daddy always told me to pay a fair price for a job well done, and that’s what I’m doing!”
Over the next few weeks, Ruth’s neighbor Jolene was surprised to see the elderly man coming in and out of Ruth’s house with his toolbox in hand. Everything in Ruth’s home looking perfect, Jolene didn’t see why she needed a handyman five days a week.
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。
Ruth smiled and explained she was actually helping Jackson.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Jolene was moved by Ruth’s kindness and thoughtfulness and spread her deeds.
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Mary was a middle school student. She was beautiful, kind and helpful. She lived with her mother, who was a single mother. Her mother worked in a factory, unable to make much money. So they were living a poor life. But that didn’t prevent them from helping people who were in trouble. Her mother always told Mary that she just needed to do good deeds and good luck would come naturally. Their kindness earned them the respect and praise from their neighbors, and in turn, they often helped the mother and daughter whenever they needed.
Mary graduated from high school this year and then she successfully entered a university. To save money, she chose a university not far from her home. This way she could still stay at home with her mother, which would save a lot of money. But other costs of the university still weighed heavily on them. Among all the necessities, she badly needed a computer, which meant quite a lot of money.
Mary knew that her mother could not offer her the money to buy her a computer. She felt sad, but she told her mother about it anyway. They came up with a lot of ideas, but they didn’t think they were proper. Finally they decided to ask for help online. Soon, a kind person offered to give her a used laptop. The mother and daughter were very happy. They were very thankful for the man’s generous help. Soon after, Mary received an almost brand-new laptop. Mary carried it happily to school every day.
One day Mary went to school as usual. On her way, she saw a little boy coming out of a shop. Suddenly he ran into the middle of the busy road. The child’s mother might be too careless, and she did not notice the child run out by himself. Facing the danger, Mary jumped off her bike and rushed to the middle of the road to carry the child to safety. The child was saved, but Mary fell to the ground with her laptop.
注意：1．续写词数应为150个左右；2．请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
The people around came running to help Mary up from the ground.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________An owner of a computer repair shop happened to be standing nearby.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________A Win-Win Experience
I was a shy person and always doubted my ability. Two years ago, I went through a training program and became a volunteer. The job was to help those who cannot read and write. When I began to teach, I discovered what other people’s lives were like because they could not read.
My first student Marie was a 44-year-old single mother of three. In the first lesson, I found out she walked two miles to the nearest supermarket twice a week because she didn’t know which bus to take. When I told her I would get her a bus schedule, she told me it would not help because she could not read it. She said she also had difficulty once she got to the supermarket because she couldn’t always remember what she needed. Since she did not know words, she could not write out a shopping list. Also, she could only recognize items by sight, so if the product had a different label (标签), she would not recognize it as the product she wanted.
After learning about Marie’s situation, I decided to teach her names of daily necessities first. I would start my lessons by encouraging her to give each item in her kitchen a sticker with its name on it. She would hesitate for a while before sticking the right name during the first periods. I knew learning vocabulary can be difficult, especially for a middle-aged woman, so I came up with the idea of making up stories with the new words she learnt and wrote them down in the notebook.
As we worked together, learning how to read built Marie’s self-confidence, which encouraged her to continue in her studies. She began to make rapid progress and was even able to take the bus to the supermarket. After this successful trip, she reported how self-confident she felt.
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。
At the end of the program, she began helping her youngest son, Tony, with his reading.
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As she, full of confidence, described this experience, I was proud of myself as well
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A Community Puts on a Dazzling Display of Support
In Sara’s family, putting up Christmas lights was always a big day of celebration. Every year, just after Thanksgiving Day, her dad Anthony, 70, would visit local stores to check out new decorations and then excitedly string lights and hang decorations in and out of the house. The dazzling (绚烂的) display made him a hit in the community.
On 2020 Christmas Eve, as usual, the whole house twinkled with lights, and gifts were piled under the tree. While everyone was looking forward to enjoying another Christmas together as a family, Sara, got a call: the whole family had tested positive for COVID-19. Their Christmas celebration had to be canceled.
At first, everyone’s symptoms (症状) seemed manageable. But right after the new year, Anthony started having trouble breathing and unfortunately passed away two weeks later, though the rest had recovered from COVID-19. The following week of planning the funeral was the worst for Sara and her husband, Frank. Sorrow left them doubled over in pain. The saddest of all was that no neighbours attended her father’s funeral. Only the twinkling Christmas lights at night brought them a little bit joy. The lights were one of the last moments they had of their beloved father, so they kept them up.
One morning in February, Sara received an envelope. “Take your Christmas lights down! It’s Valentine’s Day!!!” the unsigned letter read. Sara looked at the paper in shock. Then she got angry. She could have bottled up that anger, but she decided to write about it instead. She logged on to a local community Facebook group and shared the letter. She ended the post with this: “We all had a tough year. Be kind to people because you never know what they are going through.”
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。
Half an hour later, Frank rushed into the room excitedly, with his phone in the hand.
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When night fell, Sara and Frank were surprised by what they saw outside.
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