A young boy, named Timmy, lived in a small town. He disliked doing any work; he found it boring and would always come up with a reason to avoid it. His room was always messy with toys thrown everywhere, socks under the bed. Books and clothes piled up like a small mountain. Homework often remained untouched on the desk, buried under comic books and game controllers.
Timmy avoided chores, finding them less exciting than his digital universe. Day and night, Timmy tapped buttons, lost in virtual battles, his eyes glued to the screen. Socializing means chatting with fellow games online rather than meeting friends outside.
One Saturday morning, Timmy’s mom asked him to clean up his room. Timmy frowned and ignored his mom, diving deeper into his video game. His mother sighed and went on with her chores. That afternoon, as Timmy was standing by the window, he noticed his neighbor, Mr. Jenkins, working tirelessly in his garden, repairing the wooden fence (栅栏).
At the sight of Timmy, Mr. Jenkins smiled and called out, “Hey, Timmy, I need a helper to hold the wooden strips (木条). And could you lend me a hand for a moment?” Hesitantly, Timmy walked over. Mr. Jenkins showed him how to do it. He continued to help do gardening work such as watering and weeding(除草) in the garden. As they worked, Mr. Jenkins shared his adventurous stories when he was a soldier, and Timmy listened with respect.
Hours passed, and to Timmy’s surprise, he enjoyed helping out. His hands were dirty, but he felt delighted and meaningful. As they finished, Mr. Jenkins thanked Timmy and showed him the result of their teamwork: a neat garden full of colorful flowers and fresh greenery. Timmy felt proud and realized that work could be fun and rewarding.
注意：1.续写词数为150 词左右;2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
The next day, Timmy decided to give his own room a change.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Later, when his mother entered his room, she was astonished.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________In a big city lived a girl named Amy. She was a clever and lively child, but her heart was often clouded by dissatisfaction. Whenever she saw other children playing with new dolls or dressed in fancy outfits, Amy’s eyes would sparkle with envy and she wished she had them too.
So she always asked her mother, “Mom, can I have this?” or “Mom, can I have that?” If her mom didn’t satisfy her need, Amy would respond with endless complaints or tears. She didn’t understand why she couldn’t possess what she desired.
Her mother, a wise and loving woman, tried to reason with Amy. She explained that Amy already had so many toys and clothes. She said, “Amy, you’re lucky to have so much. Learn to be happy with what you have.” But Amy’s ears were deaf to her mother’s words. She could only see what she lacked, and her heart remained heavy with dissatisfaction.
Amy’s discontentment affected her social life at high school. Her bad temper and constant complaints about what she lacked made it difficult for her to make friends. When Amy saw her desk mate Lily using new stationery (文具), she immediately said, “I have better ones.” Once, hearing some girls talking about their new dresses, she interrupted rudely, “My mom will buy me the same one, even nicer.” Other kids couldn’t bear her attitude and kept away from her gradually, which made Amy feel more lonely and unhappy.
When Amy told her mother the “unfair treatment” she faced at school, her mother was deeply concerned about her. She knew that Amy’s constant dissatisfaction was not appropriate and would eventually ruin her happiness completely. “Something must be done.” she thought. After deep consideration, she decided to take a different approach. One day, she invited Amy to join her in volunteering at a local charity that helped the children there in need. Initially, Amy refused, but her mother’s determined attitude persuaded her successfully.
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。
As they arrived at the charity, Amy’s eyes were opened to a world she had never known.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________That voluntary experience and the conversation with the children changed Amy’s life.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The smell of defeat filled the air on a warm October evening. In the school parking lot stood Coach McDonald and me, a loser in the 160-pound weight class.
Coach McDonald’s hands firmly grasped my shoulders, his eyes looking through my uncertainty. “Billy,” his voice cut through the uneasy quiet. “The potential for you to become an excellent wrestler exists. It takes time,” he argued.
“Don’t you see? I lost... again. Ten matches. Never won.” Frustration struck me as I stepped away from Coach McDonald. Pulling my cell phone from my equipment bag, I said definitively, “I need to call my mom. She’ll pick me up.” I just wanted to get away as soon as possible and flung myself into Mom’s arms. She had always been my best friend and supporter.
While waiting for her to answer my call, the thought of quitting the sport rumbled in my mind. I was so frustrated at that time that I ignored the joy and satisfaction wrestling had brought to me.
Coach McDonald closed in. “Billy, look at me,” he said. “Pound for pound, you’re the strongest and most flexible (灵活的) kid on the team. That’s a winning combination. Master the techniques in practice, and victory will be yours, I promise.”
I coughed and pulled my sweaty shirt off my chest. “When, Coach?”
With a knowing look, Coach said, “Do you know how long it took me to win my first match?” He stood up straight, squinting (斜视) like he was recalling a tough time. “During my first year, I lost every match. I ended the season 0-11. I didn’t lose at all in the following two years, including two state championships. Billy, that can be you someday. But it’ll never happen if you quit.”
In that silent moment, I felt a slight pain within me, but it was weak, not strong enough to change my mind. Coach cleared his throat, glancing at his watch. “Well, I’m hungry.”
“And my mom’s here,” I said. Then I jumped into her car.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右;2.请按如下格式作答。
In the car, I told her I lost again and I was hesitating about quitting the team.
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The next day, I walked into the training field again.
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Running has always been a big part of my life. It was an easy and cheap way to stay healthy when I was a teenager and at university. As I got older, I kept running though I took on the responsibilities of being a mom, having a job and other hobbies. Running was a fun activity that I could do quickly and then get back to my busy day.
When I moved to a new city, I was excited about trying new foods, visiting new places, meeting new people and having new experiences. But, I also felt lonely and really wanted to make new friends. I joined a book club and a dinner group. But after a few months, I still felt like I hadn’t made any close friends.
One day, someone asked me if I wanted to run in a half marathon. Without thinking, I said, “Sure, count me in!” A half marathon is 13.1 miles, which is a lot longer than the three miles I usually ran. I was a bit scared, but also excited.
After the shock wore off, I started to learn everything about running a half marathon. I even bought my first pair of really good running shoes. They were the most expensive shoes I’d ever owned. I was ready to start training with them.
My new running friends picked me up at my house, and we started to jog together. I took it slow at first, running one mile, then two. They taught me how to run properly and how to drink enough water. I learned new words like chafing, carb loading, strides, and electrolytes. I slowly built up to running three, four and five miles. Running seven miles straight felt like climbing a really high mountain, and I started to love the feeling I got after a long run.
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 day of the race finally came.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________All the training I had done was now paying off.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________A golden haze settled over the cornfields. The sun prepared to rest for the evening, and I intended to follow. Saying goodbye to the clan (宗族) I was staying with, I headed back to camp. I looked forward to setting my camera aside for an evening to reflect on my time in Ethiopia.
It wasn’t long when I heard a voice behind me, “Photo, photo, photo.” A young Surma boy about eight years old followed closely at my heels. I breathed a tired sigh. I had no energy to press the shutter button one more time, no matter how beautiful or eager he was.
Over the past four days, many in the camp had wanted their photograph taken. I hoped the boy would find someone else to snap his photograph, but he kept following me and saying, “Photo, photo, photo.” He managed to catch my eye. With eyes wide full of hope, he asked me again with anticipation on his face.
As I looked at him, half interested, an idea for a composition flashed in my mind.
I kneeled in the cornfield and instructed the boy where to stand and how to pose. As I prepared to take the photograph, his energy suddenly shifted from eagerness to shyness to fear.
No matter what I told him to do—how to stand and how to look—I just couldn’t get the shot. Frustrated, I gave up. I looked at the boy, who looked alone and awkward. He’d wanted his photograph taken, and now he’d gone camera-shy.
In an effort to cheer him, I clapped my hands, saying, “That was great. You were great.” Others in his clan gathered around, cheering and clapping loudly. The boy’s face immediately broke into a smile. I intuitively (凭直觉地) took a few shots of the moment. That photograph turned out to be better than I’d imagined.
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 printed a large copy of the photograph and returned to the Surma boy’s clan.
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As I left Ethiopia, I held onto the memory of the Surma boy’s joyous tears and the collective hope of his clan.
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There was a story that all the kids told at my school. I don’t know if they believed it but some of them certainly acted as if they did. On the way from my home to school there was a little old cottage. You could only just see the cottage, as if it were trying to hide itself behind the lemonade trees and bushy garden. At times, but not very often, the children had seen a little old woman make her way along the cracked leaf-covered path from the front door to the mailbox. Her fingers were twisted in funny shapes, her body was bent over and her back hunched (弓背). If she lifted her head to look at you, her face was all wrinkly. “The witch (女巫) at Number 97” was how most kids spoke of her. “Don’t look in her eyes,” you could hear them say. “She’ll capture you in a magic spell, take you into the house and never release you again.”
In the mornings and at the end of the day, my friends and I would pass Number 97 in a group. We felt safer and more secure in numbers. But now, I played the recorder so well that I was asked to join the school band, and that meant staying after school one afternoon a week to rehearse (排练). So I had to walk home all by myself.
I set out as I normally would but as I began to approach the little old cottage it looked scarier than ever. For a while I hesitated, not knowing what to do. I wanted to run but felt I really needed to just walk my way through the experience. I took some deep breaths and tried to think of something different: Home, supper and my bed. While thinking of those things, the dreadful look of the old cottage seemed to fade. When I started thinking about the witch again, the cottage loomed big and frightening in my thoughts. “No,” I said to myself, “Concentrate on how good it will feel to get home,” and with that I started to feel easier.
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。
But as I reached the front gate to Number 97, my heart almost stopped.
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One day, I asked the “witch”, Mrs. Walcott, if I could know her story for homework.
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When I was about four years old, I started washing my face on my own. However, I always ignored the area behind my ears on purpose though my mom would often remind me.
One summer, in July of that year, my mom drove me to my grandparents’ house for our annual summer holiday visit. When we arrived, I was told that Grandma had gone on a trip with her friends and wouldn’t be back for another two weeks. Feeling a bit down, I went to the yard to play while my mom and grandpa caught up on some things. Although I couldn’t hear their conversation clearly, I had a strong feeling they were talking about me based on their gestures and expressions. Later, my mom returned home, and she would come back to pick me up two months later.
After dinner that night, Grandpa asked me to take a bath before going to bed. Since I loved taking baths, I happily agreed. With the bathtub (浴缸) filled with water, Grandpa reminded me, “Just make sure you clean the area behind your ears really well. You wouldn’t want potatoes to start growing there, would you?”
“Potatoes?” I stopped in my tracks and turned back to look at him. “Yes, potatoes. If you don’t clean the dirt behind your ears, potatoes might actually sprout (发芽) and grow there,” he explained, causing my eyes to widen in surprise. “But I don’t have any potatoes behind my ears, Grandpa,” I said as I ran my fingers along the back of my ears. He took a quick glance and replied, “Oh, I see a couple of sprouts: starting right there!” He urged me to get into the bathtub immediately and scrub (擦洗) them away thoroughly.
I nodded, still in disbelief. This was the first time I had ever heard such a thing. Why hadn’t my parents warned me about this before? I wondered, but couldn’t find an answer. Nonetheless, I felt shocked by Grandpa’s warning.
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 hurried to jump into the bathtub, carefully scrubbing behind my ears.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“What are you looking at behind your ears?” Grandma asked me curiously.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________My 10-year-old son and two friends attended a wonderful basketball camp on 6 August 2023. The camp was over two hours long, with more than 60 kids in attendance. I watched how much fun my son was having throughout the day.
A few minutes before the session (一场) ended, there was a shooting contest. Only a few kids were chosen to compete, and my son was not one of them. The contest winners received prizes and recognition, and some children were also selected as “All Star” due to their excellent performance. Again, my son was not selected.
My son was struggling to deal with his disappointment. Of course, as his mother, I would have loved to see him win an award. He absolutely loves the sport, and he is impressive at rebounding (篮板球). He would have enjoyed the honors. It would have also been fun to see either of his friends selected. But sometimes it doesn’t work out that way.
When the camp ended and we walked out, I could see how disappointed he was. I love my kid’s confidence and his competitiveness, but it can also lead to dealing with disappointment and frustration.
At the camp, he played a basketball game with kids he had never met, guarded them fiercely and took shots easily against them. As his mom, I was thrilled he spent the day without his iPad. All in all, the day felt wonderful. The last thing that I wanted was for these awards to ruin the experience.
I could see how he was feeling about the day. I decided to simplify it for him. I did the math and figured out the shooting contest and awards were about 6% of the total camp. The rest of the camp, the parts that he enjoyed, were 94% of the day. Even though the kid loves math, it was hard for him to see the contests and awards as a small part of his day.
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。
Paragraph 1:
At night, I went to chat with him.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2:
Indeed, we should learn how to be more positive.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________In 1940, I worked in the checkroom of the railway station. I saw everybody that came up the stairs.
Harry was a young man who came to the station and waited at the head of the stairs for the passengers from the 9:05 train.
I remembered seeing Harry that first evening. He wasn’t much more than a thin, anxious kid then. He was all dressed up and I knew he was meeting his sister, who he hadn’t seen for many years.
Well, the passengers came up and I had to get busy. I didn’t look toward the stairs again until nearly time for the 9:18 and I was very surprised to see that the Harry was still there. His sister didn’t come on the 9:18 either, nor on the 9:40, and when the passengers from the 10:02 had all arrived and left, Harry was looking pretty upset. Pretty soon he came close to my window so I called out and asked him what his sister looked like.
“She’s small and dark. She is nineteen years old and very neat in the way she walk,” he said. “She has a face that has lots of spirit. I mean she can get mad but she never stays mad for long, and her eyebrows come to a little point in the middle. She’s got a brown fur, but maybe she isn’t wearing it.”
“I couldn’t remember seeing anybody like that,” I told him.
He showed me the telegram he’d received: ARRIVE THURSDAY. MEET ME AT THE STATION. MAY. It was from Omaha, Nebraska. “Well,” I finally said, “why don’t you phone to your home? She’s probably called there if she got in ahead of you.”
He gave me a sick look. “I’ve only been in the town for two days. We were going to meet and then drive down to the south of the city where I’ve got a job. She doesn’t have my address.”
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。
When I came on duty the next day, Harry was still there and I asked more about his sister.
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One day, after about two weeks, I thought I could say something encouraging to him.
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Life is as good as you make it. I made the most of my time and I loved my life, fitting work, school, homework, and fun with my family and friends into my busy schedule. I was an outgoing, energetic, fun-loving twenty-something, with an optimistic attitude and strong faith. I valued my relationships and worked hard at achieving my goals.
I was living with a close friend while working at a few jobs to put myself through university. In my last term, life turned upside down. It was a clear morning on September 25th in 2020. I was working as a traffic controller, wearing my high-visibility jacket. As I was holding up my stop sign, I was hit by a car at about 80 kilometers an hour. I flew across the street, and landed in front of my coworker.
I was in critical condition. I was admitted to the ICU. After several surgeries, the doctor informed me that, according to the medical reports and my condition, I would never walk again.
Because of my brain injury, my memory didn’t last longer than the present moments that I was experiencing. My life was very difficult. I had lost all of my independence. For a long time, I required help to be fed, bathed, moved, dressed, and even taken to the toilet. I couldn’t stand. I could only lie down or sit in my wheelchair. I had also lost my sense of smell and taste.
I was slow to process information and my vocabulary was very simple. I couldn’t follow people’s conversations and I lost my creativity. I always felt stupid and confused. Without visual memory, I couldn’t distinguish fruits, vegetables, meats, animals, or even people that I should have known.
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。
Just at this moment, my teacher Mr. Martin stepped in to help.
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On the other hand, I worked hard to strengthen my muscles and improve my range of motion.
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