I loved the spelling bee (拼字比赛). I trained every day after school, the dictionary pages rippling softly in the breeze. But I had never thought my arch-enemy in the spelling bee could become my friend.
Opening my eyes on Friday morning, I felt the hairs on my arm stand up. I glanced at my alarm clock — it’s only 6:27. I usually woke up at 7:01, which meant I had an extra thirty-four minutes to study. I was the best spellers in my class. I wanted to win the bee at Meadowbrook Middle School and beat my arch-enemy, Nathan Fortescue.
Nathan just read many science and math books. Really, he wasn’t a speller at heart — he’s a mathematician. Nathan and I had nothing in common except being good spellers, but since he’s a good speller without even trying, it didn’t count.
I walked into the kitchen, finding Dad cooking breakfast. He served me some porridge. I thanked him and told him the spelling test and my anxiety. My father gave me a quiz. Those words “dexterous, sesquipedalian, truncate” didn’t trouble me at all. Finally came the word “judgment”. “Easy, J-U-D-G-E-M-E-N-T.” I answered quickly, without any thought.
Dad shook his head. Not believing in him, I headed for my room, referred to the dictionary and marched back with a frown. Before parting, he told me that I should thank him, because I would probably get the word in the test.
As soon as I shut the classroom door behind me, I heard a voice from the back of the room. “You are looking pale now, and I’m afraid that you may miss the spelling bee.” Nathan smiled as he closed a giant book with dancing numbers on the cover.
“I bet a literature word will make you out on the first round.” I replied.
As Ms. Hawking walked into the room, she explained the rules—one missed, and you were out—and the spelling test began. After four rounds, only Nathan and I were left. “Olivia, your word is ‘algorithm.’” said Ms. Hawking. I hadn’t heard that word before, but I spelt it A-L-G-O-R-H-Y-H-M.
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。
Ms. Hawking frowned and said that’s incorrect.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________After class, I sobbed when I felt a hand on my arm.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“And that’s ‘The Ray of Hope’ for you!” Asta said as she ended her book review. She took a deep bow and was given thundering applause. I, too, gave applause. I was happy for my friend. Well, I was pretending to be happy for her. Deep down inside, I was rather feeling envious of Asta. She was always the one who makes speeches, debates and tells stories to others. Me? No! I had stage fright and was always the shy, quiet one who was never courageous to speak in front of others. I had never managed to do a presentation without stammering(结巴). Every time I saw someone making a speech, I would imagine myself in his or her place, receiving the applause and praise.
I was walking to the canteen with Asta. She, as usual, was looking at the script. She had been chosen to be the presenter for the National Day Celebration. I sighed to myself. Why could I not be like her, always loud and brave? If only there was a way to prove myself...
Just then, I caught a glimpse of a poster on the noticeboard.
“Minute to say it?” I read the poster out loud.
It was a competition where one has to prepare a speech about a particular topic and summarize it on the stage within one minute. This could be my big chance to overcome my stage fright! And the best part was, if I won the competition, I would receive a mini-trophy (小奖杯).
Without thinking twice, I grabbed a form and filled in it. I took a seat in the canteen with Asta and told her what I had done, after which she said that she had also signed up for the competition. Suddenly, regret hit me like a 20-pound hammer. I was competing against Asta who was the best speaker in the school! I was bound to lose! Why was I so ill-fated? I just wanted a chance to prove myself that I could overcome my stage fright.
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 big day finally arrived.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Next, it was Asta’s turn.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Harry, from Chesterfield, is going to be 11 years old. He always wants a proper birthday party but it’s always been difficult to arrange because he is an autistic (患有自闭症的) boy. It is hard for him to understand how other playground he might smile. He’s not evil-minded. It’s just his face and feelings do not match up. Unless you know him, you can’t understand the thing he does. He’s a really good kid, just misunderstood. Because of autism, he’s not been invited to a party since kindergarten, which makes him seem to be left out.
In order to make Harry not feel lonely, this year, his mother Hannah, 31, put an appeal for birthday cards for Harry on her social media because she wanted Harry to feel “included” and “less alone”. Much to her surprise, more than 200 cards flooded in her mail box within a week, some from as far as Dubai. With more arriving every day, she felt crazy and overwhelmed.
When Harry said that he wanted to have a party for his 11th birthday, his parents felt surprised but delighted. Because it meant their son was willing to deal with different people, which was a big step for him. The parents took action again. At first, no one but his family had planned on coming, they even couldn’t fill one lane. Struggle d to get more people to come, the mother turned to social media once more and the result never let her down. More and more people sent cards and some of them started offering to come to the party as well. It turned out that people with children Harry had never met responded by helping to fill the venue.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好。
Paragraph 1:
On Harry’s birthday, about 30 children in total attended the party.
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The party means a lot to Harry who was scared and nervous but also excited.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When I was a child, I was very greedy. Whenever I saw something delicious, I would ask my mom to buy it for me. There was one thing that I could never get enough of, and that was cream bread. Due to my constant consumption, my body became increasingly overweight, and my resistance weakened. As a result, my mom stopped buying it for me.
One day, while shopping with my mom, we passed by a bakery, and I started begging for cream bread. To my surprise, this time my mom agreed without hesitation. We entered the bakery, but unfortunately, they had sold out of cream bread. So my mom bought me a kind of regular bread.
Upon returning home, I felt unhappy and kept thinking about the delicious cream bread in my mind. Suddenly, the sound of the phone interrupted my thoughts. My mom answered the call briefly and then quickly changed her clothes. Seeing her anxious expression, I asked curiously, “Mom, what’s wrong? Is there something urgent?” While changing her clothes, she replied, “There’s an emergency at your aunt’s house. I need to go check on it. I’ll be back soon. If you’re hungry, just eat the bread we bought earlier.” With those words, she grabbed her bag and left.
After watching TV, I was hungry. So, following my mom’s instructions, I started eating the bread. However, as soon as I took a bite, I immediately spat it out and complained loudly, “This bread is so tasteless! It’s not even half as good as cream bread!” I threw the bread aside in frustration. Later on, my stomach growled even louder, causing me to think of ways to make the bread more enjoyable. Suddenly, I remembered that there was a bottle of something similar to cream in my mom’s cosmetics (化妆品) — facial cleanser (洗面奶). So, I walked over to her dressing table and picked up the bottle. Excitedly, I opened the bottle and squeezed (挤) the cleanser onto the bread, thinking to myself that this bread would surely taste great now.
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 had squeezed a lot of facial cleanser onto the bread when my mom suddenly returned.
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My mom sat down beside me and explained gently.
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One sunny Sunday morning, Lily woke up to an unusual silence in the house. Normally, the smell of pancakes would float through the air as her mom busied herself in the kitchen, but today there was nothing. Concerned, Lily decided to check on her mom.
She knocked softly on her bedroom door. “Mom, are you okay?” she called out. A raspy voice responded, “I’m not feeling too well, sweetheart. I’ve caught a bad cold. I don’t want you getting sick too. You can fix yourself some toast for breakfast, and I’ll stay in bed.”
Lily felt sympathy for her mom. She must be feeling really under the weather if she couldn’t even make breakfast. Determined to help, Lily decided to take charge of the morning routine. After enjoying her simple breakfast of toast, Lily noticed the sink (洗涤池) was filled with dishes. Without hesitation, she rolled up her sleeves and began washing them, just as her mom usually did. She washed each plate and glass thoroughly until they were shiny, determined to make the kitchen look as tidy as possible.
But Lily wanted to do more to help her mom feel better. Suddenly, inspiration struck. Lily remembered her mom mentioning that she had planned to plant flowers in the garden today. Maybe if she finished the job for her, it would bring a smile to her face. With newfound purpose, Lily put on her gardening gloves and headed outside. As she worked, she couldn’t help but feel a sense of satisfaction as she carefully planted each flower, imagining her mom’s delight when she saw them producing flowers.
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。
Entering the garden, she noticed that the leaves of some of the plants were turning yellow.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Later that afternoon, feeling a bit better, Lily’s mom stepped into the garden.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When I was a child, I was particular about food. It was Aunt Nelda that changed my habit of being a picky eater.
As far as I could remember, on a Friday night, when Dad and I arrived at Aunt Nelda’s house at dinner time, she prepared a big meal for us. Though the dishes smelled delicious, I didn’t feel like eating some of them. I took several bites of the sandwich and then laid it aside. Dad wanted to kick me under the table to remind me to finish all the food, but drawers (抽屉) between us protected me.
Looking at those drawers, I had a good idea. When Dad got up to refill his soup bowl, I pulled the bottom drawer open. It was full of cloth napkins (布餐巾). I put my sandwich under them and shut the drawer quickly. A plan for my rest food at Aunt Nelda’s emerged.
The next morning, I did the same to the food which I hated to eat. When Aunt Nelda saw my empty bowl, she gave me some sweets and said, “Good job, Jodi. You like my cooking just as much as your father.”
On Sunday, the food under the napkins continued growing, but somehow more slowly. Aunt Nelda was actually a pretty good cook. At noon, her children were coming for lunch. I offered to help set the table.
“Jodi, get the cloth napkins out of the bottom drawer,” she said. My heart began to beat fast. It was not because of the bottom drawer or the cloth napkins, but because of the left food.
“No, let’s use these!” I said, grabbing a handful of paper napkins. Aunt Nelda reached for the drawer. “My children prefer cloth napkins!” she said. I held my breath, waiting for the horrible scene. However, I couldn’t believe that she handed me some neat napkins.
“I’ve already cleaned them up,” she said. “It was so strange that there was much food under the napkins. I hadn’t seen mice for years! Guess what? They were back again. A long time ago, they made a nest and carried the food all over the house.”
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。
Aunt Nelda’s words made me feel relieved but ashamed.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Hearing what I said, Aunt Nelda opened her mouth wide.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Eli, a passionate high school student about environmental conservation, was eager to participate in the annual Science Fair, an event where students showcase their science projects to the audience, and make a significant contribution. However, he struggled with self-doubt, uncertain if he could create a project that would truly stand out.
Fortunately, Eli’s advisor, Mr. Keats, a man in his 40s known for his enthusiasm and willingness to assist, recognized his hesitation and offered guidance and support. He saw potential in Eli and encouraged him to pursue his passion for environmental conservation. With Mr. Keats’s help, Eli gradually gained confidence in his abilities.
Eli’s friends, Joey and Marylin, also played a crucial role in his journey to success. Both grew up in the neighboring area, attended the same school, and shared Eli’s dedication to environmental conservation. Together, they brainstormed ideas and provided emotional support, keeping Eli motivated and focused on his project.
As the Science Fair drew nearer, Eli invested all his energy into creating a project that would raise awareness about environmental conservation. With Mr. Keats’s guidance and his friends’support, Eli overcame his lack of confidence and came up with a fantastic idea of a remarkable project.
However, just when Eli thought everything was going smoothly, he encountered a setback. His initial project idea faced unexpected challenges, and worse still, Eli didn’t have a plan B. Doubts and frustration resurfaced, posing a threat to his progress. Joey and Marylin noticed Eli was in low spirits and asked him what had happened. Frustratedly, Eli told them about the project, adding that maybe he would never make it. Immediately, they understood that Eli needed more than just words of encouragement; he needed support and a community to lean on. Without hesitation, they offered their shoulders to lean on and ears to listen.
During this difficult time, Mr. Keats also offered his support and encouraged Eli to view the setback as an opportunity for growth and innovation. This encouragement fueled Eli’s determination. With their help, Eli regained his confidence and determination to overcome the obstacles in his path.
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。
Under Mr. Keats’s guidance, Eli worked tirelessly to develop a new project plan.
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The day of the Science Fair finally arrived, and Eli was ready.
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Beautiful Birthmarks: The Power of Acceptance
Whenever you hear the word “birthmark (胎记)”, you probably think of one of those black or brown spots you have somewhere on your body. However, for me, it’s completely different — I have them both on my lips and inside my mouth, which make them quite visible and, to me, ugly. When
I was young, these birthmarks kept making me feel extremely awkward and self-conscious (难为情的). As these birthmarks always drew a lot of attention, people often asked me, “What are those black marks on your lips?” When I told people that they were birthmarks, they usually said, “How strange！”
In pictures, I used to hide my birthmarks by pursing (噘起) my lips, so I would not have to deal with people’s questions. As I was growing up, the situation didn’t get any better. In the school, my classmates would always tease me, making me feel hurt and helpless. In society, I often encountered individuals who would inquire about my birthmarks even before they knew my name.
Such experiences left me feeling disheartened. I felt like people judged me by my appearance without considering my personality.
My birthmarks are caused by a genetic condition from my mom’s side of the family. My mom’s mom has birthmarks on her lips, and my mom’s uncle and my uncle have some on their bodies. I used to try to cover them up with makeup, but it never looked good. I even consulted a doctor, wanting to have surgery to remove them. But when imagining the process, I would get nervous and eventually give up.
Whenever I cried to my mom about them, she would always comfort me and say, “Learn to accept them and see them as beautiful birthmarks.” However, it wasn’t easy for me to accept my own birthmarks. Every time I showed my birthmarks, people would look at me with strange eyes. I began to regret why I had given up on the surgery and chosen to accept my birthmarks.
注意：1. 续写词数应为 150 词左右。2. 请按如下格式在相应位置作答。
Paragraph 1:
One day, I met my cousin, who also had a large birthmark on his arm._
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2:
From then on, when I met people, I began to change myself.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________A woman remarried a man from Mexico. She already had a 16-year-old daughter named Bethany, while her husband had a 14-year-old daughter named Maria. Maria and Bethany had been in each other’s lives since they were children. Their relationship as stepsisters was good until recently.
The entire family was busy planning Maria’s Quinceanera (成人礼). The woman’s husband and his ex-wife joined forces to get her a beautiful dress to celebrate the occasion. In total, the dress cost $3,000.
Bethany made it clear that she was jealous (嫉妒的) of the party. Her mom had to make her understand that in Mexican culture, a Quinceanera was a great deal, just like how she had a sweet sixteen party. However, Bethany kept comparing her party to that of Maria’s. It was a massive issue for her, and it reflected in the way she behaved around everyone at home.
Knowing how it made Bethany feel, the mom tried to spend more time with her daughter to assure her that she wasn’t being disregarded. They even got her a lovely dress for the Quinceanera, but much cheaper than Maria’s dress.
Two weeks before the big day, Maria and Bethany got into an argument regarding the TV. Bethany retaliated (报复) against her stepsister by tearing off the back part of her Quinceanera dress. After finding out what Bethany did, everyone was angry. The mom couldn’t believe what her daughter did and quickly gave her husband and his ex-wife money to get a new dress.
The mom told Bethany that she needed to get a job to pay back the total price of the dress. It was her punishment for such an unreasonable act against her stepsister. However, Bethany claimed her mom was unfair by choosing Maria over her. This made the mom question whether she was in the wrong for giving her daughter no choice but to find a job. She wrote about the story online, hoping to get opinions from others on whether what she did was wrong.
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。
To her surprise, she got everybody’s support.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Finally, the mom was determined to teach her 16-year-old a lesson.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Special#2，Please
My flight arrived in San Diego around midnight, and by the time I drove home and got into bed it was nearly 2:00 a. m. I was tired and jet-lagged when I dragged myself out of the bed. Nevertheless,I had to be up bright and early that morning: I was the opening keynoter(主旨发言人) at a national conference.
In short, I needed to recover quickly. A hearty breakfast in the early morning sun was what I needed. I headed for Carlos & Annie’s, a popular restaurant located in the heart of the seaside town.
“I’d like steak and eggs, please,” I said to the waitress after I had finally found a table in the restaurant. “Oh, I'm sorry,” she apologized. “We're out of Special#2. We've served the last of our steaks. How about Special#14?” “Oh, no steak and eggs?” I couldn't seem to accept it.
I'm not sure if it was my heartfelt sigh that caught Carlos, the owner's attention. His warm, caring brown eyes seemed determined to pinpoint the best solution. He then said, “You know, I think I did see one final steak back
there.”Pressing my luck,I quickly declared, “Wow,that would be great. But you know, I’m not sure if I want a breakfast stenk at all. What I really want is a steak—one that’s two inches thick, tender and juicy, served medium rare.” “Not to worry,” Carlos assured meand left. The young waitress gave me a wink(眨眼) and said with a knowing smile, “Carlosis being Carlos again!” I did not give her words much thought.
Then, I noticed Carlos as he left the restaurant through the side door and walked into a neighborhood grocery store across the street. Carlos exchanged morning greetings with everyone he knew and even helped the owner of the bookstore next door by holding the items that filled her arms. Then he reentered the restaurant with a bag in his hand.
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: Within minutes，an exact Special#2 was in front of me.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2: I was about to leave when I learned Carlos had already sold the restaurant.
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