The art competition at school was always a highly anticipated event. This year was no exception, with students from all grades eager to showcase their creative talents. Among them were two friends, Jane and Sally.
Jane had a deep passion for art, but she often struggled with expressing her ideas on paper. She would spend hours in front of a blank canvas (画布), trying to capture the perfect image in her mind, but her efforts often fell short. Sally, on the other hand, was naturally talented and her artworks were always praised by teachers and classmates.
As the competition drew nearer, Jane worked harder than ever, staying up late into the night to perfect her piece. Sally, however, seemed to take it all in stride (大步走), casually sketching and painting without much effort. She often teased Jane about her lack of talent, making jokes that were meant to be light-hearted but stung Jane deeply.
On the day of the competition, Jane’s heart was filled with both excitement and fear. She had worked so hard on her piece, but she knew that it still paled in comparison to Sally’s effortless creations. As she set up her canvas and began to paint, she could feel Sally’s eyes on her, mocking (嘲笑) her every move.
Halfway through the competition, Jane encountered a difficult obstacle. She couldn’t seem to capture the essence of her subject the way she wanted to, and her frustration mounted. She looked around at the other students, seeing their confident strokes and vibrant colors, and she felt a pang of defeat. She wanted to give up, to throw away her brush and walk away.
But just as she was about to do so, she caught sight of Sally. Sally wasn’t laughing or mocking her now; instead, she looked at Jane with a mixture of surprise and concern. It was as if she realized that her words had hurt Jane more than she had intended. And in that moment, Jane found a new resolve. She wasn’t going to let Sally’s words or her own doubts defeat her. She was going to finish her piece, no matter what.
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。
With renewed determination, Jane returned to her canvas.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________She heard her name announced as the winner of a special recognition award for perseverance and dedication.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________It was a sunny morning, and I accompanied my elderly mother to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, but I was always nervous. My mother was going to Canada for two days and then accompanied by my niece to Germany to visit my second brother and sister, but I was unable to accompany her because of my work, so my mother, who was in her seventies, had to fly alone.
On the way to the airport, my mother hid her worries and put a smile on her face so that her family would not be worried. But I couldn’t help but think about what my mother was going to do when she got through customs, which exit she was going to take when she arrived in Canada...Not to mention a big suitcase of luggage and a box of souvenirs. A few days ago, my mother cooked some of the children’s favorite foods, store in a refrigerated box and prepared to bring them to her children and grandchildren to taste. Since my sister got married in Canada, she has missed my mother’s cooking. This time, if it weren’t for the fact that my second sister was too busy to get out in Germany, and my mother could visit her son who had settled in Germany for more than 20 years at the same time, I am afraid that she would never have traveled alone.
Originally, I planned for my mother to only carry small luggage, so that she did not have to check it in, and it was easier to enter and exit. But when I packed her bags, I picked up more than two-thirds of my things for my younger brothers and sisters. The mother is like this; she always thinks that she is not enough to think about her children. As long as she sees the children happy, she can be happy for a long time.
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。
I accompanied my mother to the counter, seeing a couple talking and laughing.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I was so moved that I couldn’t stop thanking them.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“Alice, you spend too much time on your phone,” her father said. “You need to focus on your studies.”
“But Dad, I’m doing my best,” Alice replied. “I’m balancing my phone time with my studies.”
In the tense meal, Alice and her parents argued about her recent changes. They were focused on her increased attachment to her phone and its impact on her studies. Her parents were concerned that she was neglecting (忽视) her studies and worried about the impact it might have on her future. They felt that her attachment to the phone was taking her away from her studies.
Alice said, “I know you’re worried about me, but I’m trying my best. I just want to have some fun with my friends and take a break from studying sometimes.” However, her parents didn’t seem to understand or accept her explanation. They felt that she needed to focus more on her studies and less on the phone.
The argument escalated (升级) when Alice announced that she wanted to leave the science club she had been a member of for years to join a new social media club. Alice explained, “I’m not sure if leaving the science club was a right decision or not. I just feel like I need a change.” Her mother was shocked and said angrily, “You made this decision without thinking it through. You’ve done well in the science club, and you have a lot of potential to go further. You’ll regret it if you don’t keep going.”
After that argument, Alice, feeling increasingly frustrated, withdrew into herself and spent more time in her room. She started to avoid her parents as much as possible and didn’t want to talk to them about anything related to her studies or her future.
Her parents saw that the little girl who had come back laughing and talking was gone, and now they saw a face that was alternately angry and sad. She did spend less time on her phone, but she became increasingly unhappy.
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。
One night, Alice’s parents knocked on the girl’s door and said they wanted to talk to her.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________At this point, Alice seemed to see some hope of joining the social media club.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The Day Mother Cried
Coming home from school that dark winter’s day so long ago, I was filled with anticipation. I had a new issue of my favorite sports magazine under my arm. Dad was at work, my sister was away, and Mother wouldn’t be home from her new job for an hour.
I was shocked into stillness by what I saw . Mother pulled into a tight ball with her face in her hands. She was crying. I had never seen her cry.
I approached cautiously and touched her shoulder. “Mother?” I said. “What’s happened?”
She took a long breath and managed a weak smile. “It’s nothing, really. I’m going to lose this new job. I can’t type fast enough.”
“But you’ve only been there three for days,” I said. “You’ll catch on.” I was repeating a line she had spoken to me a hundred times when I was having trouble learning or doing something important to me. She sobbed in silence .
I felt helpless and out of place. At the age of 16 I still assumed Mother could do anything. To provide enough income for my college two years later, Mother was crazy for ways to save money.
A few months ago, Mother arrived home with an old typewriter. It skipped between certain letters. “That’s all we can afford,” Mother said. “It’s good enough to learn on.” And from that day on, immediately after dinner, Mother would disappear into her sewing room to practice. The slow tap, tap, tap went on some nights until midnight. On Monday, she got a job as a typewriter at a radio station. I was not the least bit surprised but she was excited. But on Tuesday Mother looked drawn. I didn’t care honestly.
My shock and embarrassment at finding Mother in tears on Wednesday showed how little I understood the pressures on her. Sitting beside her on the couch, I began very slowly to understand.
“I guess we all have to fail sometimes,” Mother said quietly. I could sense her pain. I reached out and put my arms around her.
A week later Mother took a job selling dry goods at half the salary the radio station had offered. “It’s a job I can do,” she said simply.
注意：续写词数应为150左右。
But the evening practice routine on the old green typewriter continued.
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The old green typewriter sits in my office now, unrepaired.
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Triiiiiingggggggggggg, the bell rang. Suddenly my heart was raising and fear rose within me. I was nervous as I started to feel sick, really sick. I ran to the bathroom and washed my face with water. I felt my heart pound against my chest, hard and loud as I looked into the mirror and whispered “Come on, you can do this.”
Some were looking forward to this moment for ages; but not me. I felt frightened every time I imagine how uncomfortable it would be on a stage, and being the center of attention. If it was a speech, I could manage, but repeating a scene from a movie that has already been done by professional actors is simply hard because we get compared to them. But there was no choice.
As I made it to the assembly hall, I went over the script in my head. Suddenly I tensed as I couldn’t remember all the lines. Once I was there in the assembly hall, my brain literally stopped working because of all the noise and the tension in the air.
As soon as the teachers who were supposed to judge our performance entered, the crowd quieted down and the performances began. I was really nervous until the first performer was called, because I was really tired of being the first in everything as my name is the first in the register. But the more I waited, the more tired I got of waiting. There came a point where I, who once was feeling sick and scared of performing, wanted to go on stage and get my performance done. That’s when I found out that I was arranged to perform the next day. I was quite happy because maybe that would give me some more time to practice and improve the weaknesses that I saw in others.
The bubble burst when the teacher asked us to perform that day. My heart beat raced and as I walked on to the stage, I was shaking. When I got up along with my friend, I had a good look around. There were 50-60 people, which weren’t much. Then I felt really stupid for being scared of having an audience.
注意：
1. 续写词数应为150词左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
I introduced myself and stared to perform what I had been dying for long before.
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After I was done, I looked at the audience, thinking how much I loved doing this.
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It was Thursday morning. Phil was on a mission. Hurrying along the Primary 3 corridor, he was looking for his younger brother Jimmy, who had left the house early to walk to school with a friend and had forgotten his pocket money. As a Primary 6 boy, Phil had been asked to make sure that Jimmy had it in time for break.
Phil was about to enter his brother’s classroom when he thought he saw the back of his brother’s jacket further ahead. It must have been Jimmy. No one else in the school had a jacket like that one. “Hey Jimmy!” he called out but his brother did not stop. Phil rushed forward and grabbed hold of the boy. But it wasn’t Jimmy. It was someone Phil had never seen before and he was wearing Jimmy’s jacket. As the boy struggled to break free, Mrs. Atkins came towards them. Immediately, sensing the teacher’s presence, Phil released his grasp. Staring at both boys, Mrs. Atkins ordered them to follow her. Once they were at the school office, Mrs. Atkins asked the younger of the two to explain.
“I was walking along the corridor when this boy grabbed me. I didn’t do anything!” explained Daniel.
“He stole my brother’s jacket,” explained Phil.
“Liar!” Daniel immediately jumped to his feet and faced Phil, his fists tightly closed. “I have never stolen anything! This jacket is from my mother. Stop saying that!”
“Boys! I am sure this is a simple misunderstanding. Isn’t possible that this is just an identical jacket, Phil?” Mrs. Atkins reasoned.
Phil shook his head forcefully. “My mother got that jacket for me when she was overseas some years ago. Go on, look at the label inside the collar. It will say ‘Di Roma’. That’s because she got it in Rome. That is my jacket which I’ve outgrow n so Jimmy, my younger brother, has been using it.”
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, Mrs. Atkins asked Daniel for permission to look at the label.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________A short while later, Mrs. Atkins explained that she had called Daniel’s mother.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Pimple on the Nose
“Nooo!” screamed Asha as she saw a huge pimple(痘) on her nose. She didn’t have time to cover the pimple as she was running late to school. She gobbled her breakfast, grabbed her bag and got into her school bus just in time. As soon as she entered, kids started laughing. Nobody was willing to make her sit beside them. Even Anita, her bus mate acted a bit differently with her.
Asha was lost in thoughts. A new thought popped in her mind every second. Once she thought “Great! As if homework and exams were not enough, I have to worry about my pimple as well.” The next minute another thought popped in her mind. “I am tired of using that face wash. I still wonder how I agreed to use that horrible thing! How can…” Mr. Shetty, the bus driver said “Asha, do you want to miss the class?” Asha was so lost in her thoughts that she did not even notice that everybody had got down the bus except her.
She did not want to step into the campus. She thought, “What will my teachers think? What will my friends think?” After some time, she gathered courage and entered her class expecting that she would be laughed at.
It was a very hard day at school for her. As soon as she got home, she hugged her mother tightly. As she did so she felt all her worries were not even a dot in front of the warm and loving hug.
Later that day, she went to the supermarket with her mother. While coming back she heard people commenting on her pimple. A small child cried, “Daddy! My cherry is on her nose! Get it for me.” She heard some boys murmuring, “If she would have been in our school, she would definitely be chosen as the joker in the dance.”
Asha wondered why people cared so much about her appearance.
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。
Finally it was time for bed story, and mom asked her to choose a book.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Her mother asked her never to judge a book by its old cover but to pay attention to the details.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I was born into a “running family”. I lost count of how many marathons(马拉松) my dad has participated in, and I'm pretty sure my mom travels by foot more than she does by vehicle. My brother. Mike, has followed in their footsteps by running when he can, and competes in at least 4 races throughout the year. Unlike him, I didn't naturally fall into the running life: I put up a fight.
“Running is the best thing for you, I don't know how people can dislike it,” my dad questioned during many dinner conversations in grade school.
“You would be a fool not to join the track team, Colleen,” my mom suggested in her serious voice.
“Of course I will,” I replied while rolling my eyes. “What could be funner than running?”
Then I began to spend the long winter months waking up each morning with the sun and birds. Each day began like the previous one: sneakers, headphones, and stretching. The fresh air filled my lungs as Iran out the front door, greeted by the empty streets and sidewalks. The world became my very own training ground. As my knees pounded against the track, I found peace in the growing sun.
Soon I found myself agreeing with my parents and laughing at the idea of once disagreeing with them. Actually, running in the morning has become my favorite part of day.
The time had come that my dad finally asked the big question. The question I had been nervous about for a while. “So, the marathon is in November. What are you thinking?”
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。
I was not sure if I was ready for this.
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The day of the marathon finally arrived.
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I drove to Yosemite Valley, California, for the first time in years. This was the first time I’d traveled to the valley by myself. I connected with my friends and found out about Facelift, a project started by a rock climber, Ken Yager. The goal was to spend a week volunteering to clean up trash in Yosemite Valley.
Thankfully, Yosemite Valley only has one or two roads, so it was impossible for me to stay lost for long. I pulled into Yellow Pine, the campground set aside for volunteers at the event.
I felt shy and insecure as a new comer. When I found the Group camp area, I saw eight event coordinators (协调者) I’d been talking with recently but had never met. These were outdoor people. I found a campsite, parked, got out, and walked over and introduced myself. They were nice.
The week turned into a wonderful learning experience. Meeting new people was a bonus. A few became forever friends. But the nights were really hard! I was alone in my tent in the thick, black forest. There were absolutely no lights. I rarely slept. A ranger (护林员) warned us about recent bear activity in our campground. A mother bear and her cub had been spotted wandering around during the day. The ranger explained that bears with cubs are especially dangerous. Great information, I thought. What should I do with it? I knew, my fear doubled.
Each night, I wrapped the band of my headlamp around my wrist so I could instantly turn on its bright light. I placed a couple of metal pots by my sleeping bag to make noise if I heard anything. I lay awake most of the night staring at the tent door to see if it moved.
The week flew by. I enjoyed every part of it, except for the sleepless nights. My daughter Leah joined me on the last day. We would drive together back home.
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。
Leah asked how I did camping alone for the first time.
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After I finished, Leah gave me a funny look.
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In a quiet suburb, there lived a high school student named Liam. He was the son of two chemistry. Naturally, everyone thought Liam would follow in his parents’ footsteps and chemistry. Naturally, everyone thought Liam would follow in his parents’ footsteps and pursue (致力于) a career in science and become a scientist. However, Liam’s heart was to put into something entirely different—he was passionate about literature and writing.
Each morning, Liam would wake up to hear his parents discuss the latest scientific discoveries and development over breakfast. One particular morning, Liam was upset, as the task of selecting his high school courses weighed heavily on him. He knew his parents would expect him to fill his schedule with science and math classes and engage in work related to science. At breakfast, Liam’s mother noticed his sadness and asked, “Is everything alright, Liam?” Liam hesitated (犹豫) but then replied, “I’m just thinking about my course selection for next semester.” His father cut in, “You should consider more science courses. They will prepare you for a great career in science, just like us.”
Throughout the day, the thought of disappointing his parents troubled Liam. He loved and respected them but felt hesitated between their expectations and his own ambition. That afternoon, Liam met his best friend, Sam, at their favorite cafe. “Liam, you seem worried. What’s on your mind?” Sam asked. Liam admitted, “I’m struggling with course selection. My parents want me to focus on science, but I really want to take more literature and writing classes.” Sam listened carefully and comforted him, “Liam, it’s important to follow your passion. Maybe you should talk to your parents about what you really want. They might be more understanding than you think.”
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。
Encouraged by Sam’s words, Liam decided to have an honest conversation with his parents that night.
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Liam’s parents listened intently, their expressions softening as they began to understand the depth of his passion.
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