Money Well Spent
It was late spring, and we were living in a house in a rural part of Tennessee. I have always loved to garden, and this morning seemed like the perfect time to be working on the broad flowerbeds surrounding the old house we were remodeling (改建).
I jumped when I heard a soft voice. “Hello? Could I have a glass of water, please?” a seventeen or eighteen-year-old girl asked hesitantly, looking at the ground.
“Of course,” I said, taking off my gloves. I went into the house and came back out with a cold bottle of water. She drank most of the bottle with the first swig (大喝) and then turned as if to walk back down the road.
“Did your car break down and do you need some help?” I asked.
She shook her head and took a deep breath that ended somewhere between a sigh and a sob. There was a flash of anger. “My dad threw me out, so I’m going to live with my grandma in Memphis. But she can’t come to get me, so she has a ticket for me at the bus station,” said the girl.
“It is thirty miles from our house to the bus station in Clarksville. How about I driving you there?” I suggested. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she nodded. “Well, let’s give your grandma a call,” I said. “She’s probably worried.”
Within a few minutes, the girl was dialing her grandma on my phone. As soon as I talked to her, she confirmed the whole story. The girl’s mother had died suddenly in an accident. Her dad had been coping with a lot of anger, and the two of them were not getting along.
At a second thought, I took out some extra cash from our emergency stash (储藏) in my top dresser drawer. About thirty minutes later, we pulled up to the bus station. But the bus wasn’t scheduled to arrive for another two hours.
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。
“Hungry for a burger?” I asked .
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About a year later, a car pulled up in our driveway.
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From the first day that I brought Juan, a penguin I saved on a beach in Uruguay (乌拉圭), to live at St. George school, one student in particular wanted to help take care of it. That boy’s name was Diego. The shy 13-year-old Bolivian (玻利维亚的) boy wasn’t gifted at study. And none of St. George’s after-school activities seemed to suit him either. In addition, Diego’s knowledge of English was limited, so he didn’t like talking with his classmates. But the saddest part was that he suffered homesickness. It came as no surprise that the boy spent much time with Juan and the penguin liked him.
I’d been thinking of letting Juan swim in the school’s outdoor pool. Then one night, Diego and I brought Juan to swim there. The penguin dived into the pool, flew like an arrow across the water and suddenly hit the wall on the opposite side. Diego was worried and took a sharp breath. After a moment, Juan rose to the surface spluttering (发噗噗声), gave an energetic shake and swam again. It flew from one end to the other, doing dramatic turns and finally found the freedom to express its nature.
“Look at it!” Diego shouted. Then he asked me quietly, “Can I swim with it?”
“What? And it’s ‘May I swim,’” I corrected him. “Sir. May I swim? Please! Just five minutes.”
I was shocked. I never knew Diego wanted to do anything, apart from taking care of Juan and avoiding others. “But the water is cold. Are you sure you want to go in?” “Please!” Diego begged. “All right, but be quick!” I said, thinking he’d sink like a stone. Diego’s eyes were shining. He ran to the dorm to get changed and reappeared in no time.
注意：1. 续写词数应为120左右；
2. 以下问题可能帮助你：
Para 1: Could the boy swim?
What did the author see?
How did the author feel?
Para 2: How did the boy react to his teacher’s praise?
How did the boy feel?
What did they do later?
3，请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Without hesitation, he dived into the water.
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“Diego! You swim really well! Brilliantly, in fact!” I said excitedly while handing him a towel.
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A few years ago, on a cold winter evening, I was having dinner with some good friends. One of them told us a sad story about something that had happened the day before. Her sons friend was in his mid-twenties and self-employed. He lived on the second floor of a house nearby. Someone who lived on the first floor had been smoking and fell asleep. The house burned down. Although everyone was safe, the house was completely destroyed with everything in it.
All this young man had were the clothes on his back and his pickup truck. He had no family in the area and nowhere to go. My friend was putting him up for a few days until he could decide what to do next.
Those of us sitting at the dinner table felt sympathetic for the young man. Everyone started opening their wallets to contribute money. My friend stopped us and told us he would not accept money. All he wanted was a warm coat and some other used clothing. We were all more than happy to fulfill this request and were told that he wore a size 3XL. None of us knew men who wore such an unusual size, so it was going to be a challenge to take care of this quickly.
But it was a typically cold New York winter, and I couldn’t imagine him without a coat. So even though I had fifteen people coming to dinner on the coming weekend, and I had many things to do for the big party, I decided to look for a coat in a size that was difficult to find.
I got dressed and went to the thrift shop (旧货店) the next morning. I was there when it opened at nine. I went through every coat and jacket but found nothing even close to what I needed. As I headed toward the exit, I considered trying to find something in a department store, but it would be expensive, and I had no time to shop.
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 as I was about to leave the shop, the shopkeeper who was tall and strong came out of the storehouse.
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I took the coat, thanked the kind shopkeeper and left the thrift shop.
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