A Blind Man Helped Me See, the Beautiful World
It was late afternoon when the chairman of our company gave me an assignment: I would leave the next day to accompany an important American businessman to tourist sites in northern Thailand. Silently angry, I stared at my desk. The piles of paper bore witness to a huge amount of work waiting to be done, even though I had been working seven days a week. How will I ever catch up? I wondered.
After a one-hour flight the next morning, we spent the day visiting attractions along with hundreds of other tourists, most of them loaded with cameras and small gifts. I remember feeling annoyed at this dense collection of people.
That evening my American companion and I climbed into a crowded van to go to dinner and a show, one which I had attended many times before. While he chatted with other tourists, I exchanged polite conversation in the dark with a man seated in front of me —Hans, a German who spoke fluent English. I wondered why he held his head motionless at an odd angle when listening. Suddenly the truth struck me. He was blind. “Could I sit beside you at the dinner?” he asked. “I’d love it if you’d describe a little of what you see.” “I’d be happy to,” I replied.
Seated at a table close to the stage, Hans asked, “What do other tourists look like?” “All nationalities, colors, shapes and sizes, a gallery of human faces,” I whispered. “Very close to us is an elderly Japanese woman,” I said. “Just beyond her a yellow-haired white boy of about five is leaning forward. They’re quiet, waiting for the performance to start. It’s the perfect living portrait of childhood and old age, of Europe and Asia.” Hans nodded and said, “The music seems out of tune to our Western ears, but it has charm.”
注意：1. 所续写短文的词数应为100词左右；
2. 续写部分为一段，开头语已为你写好。
Then he asked me to describe the musicians to him.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________As a teaching student, I was sent on my first practicum(实习) at a local high school. During my practicum. I found that the awful aspects of high school haven’t changed since I was there. It can still be a place where judgements are made on different kids.
Jess was a Year 10 student who always respected her classmates, though she failed to be treated equally in return. Kids constantly made fun of her. As a teacher, I felt it natural to protect students like Jess, but I soon realized that there was so little I could actually do.
Tyson, a Year 12 student known for his music al talents, turned out to be opposite. He was always surrounded by admirers and was willing to help others. Obviously, he was a confident, helpful and popular young man.
When the school talent show came around, Jess asked to perform a solo act. I was hesitant to allow her to take the stage, fearing she might make herself the target of laughter. However, I knew that it would be unfair to say no on these grounds, so her name made it onto the list of performers.
When the day of the show arrived, the whole school gathered in the concert hall. The show began and I was pleasantly surprised that each performance was greeted with cheers and applause, creating an encouraging atmosphere. Then, on the stage stood Jess, smiling broadly. The music started and, to my horror, she missed the first line of the song. She became so nervous that she sang in the wrong key and forgot her lyrics(歌词). As Jess struggled on the stage, some kids in the audience whispered and giggled, but most remained silent.
注意：1. 续写词数应为100左右；2. 续写部分为一段，请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Jess looked embarrassed and was about to give up when something amazing happened.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________A Change of Heart
It was a cold winter and my family had a tough struggle. Mum had a bitter time raising us kids by herself in our small community as dad passed away five years earlier. We relied on social assistance.
Looking back, I realized what Mum went through sending us kids to school. Every morning she would place a new piece of cardboard in our shoes because our shoes were worn out. When we got home, Mum would have French toast ready for us. Constant moving was typical for my family in those days, and it didn’t look like we’d be in our current house much longer. Rent was $25 a month, but Mum couldn’t pay it, and we knew we would be forced to leave right after Christmas on the first of January.
The holidays were fast approaching, and we were given $25 for Christmas from social services. Mum said that instead of buying food, she was going to use the money to pay our rent. That way we’d have a roof over our heads for a little while longer. Then she told us that there would be no Christmas gifts.
Unbeknown to Mum, I had been selling Christmas trees, shoveling (铲) snow and doing odd jobs to earn enough money to buy a new pair of boots. I knew exactly which boots I wanted. They were ten-inch, Top-Genuine, Pierre Paris boots, and they cost $23.
The big day for getting my boots came on Christmas Eve afternoon. I was very excited as I hurried up the road to catch the bus into town. It was only a half-mile walk, but on the way I noticed a house with Christmas lights and decorations. It was then that I realized at our house, we had no lights, no decorations and no turkey or ham for Christmas dinner.
注意：1. 续写短文词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡相应位置作答。
As I continued walking, I began to feel strangely ashamed.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________With decorations and food, I reached home.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“We’re leaving!” Dad called.
Cody grabbed his flip-flops (平底人字拖鞋). He was about to race downstairs when he noticed the tiny airplane on his cousin’s desk. “That would be fun to take to the beach,” he thought, “I don’t think Quinn will mind if I borrow it.” Quinn didn’t really play with toys these days anyway. He had a summer job now. Cody quickly put the airplane into the pocket of his bathing suit.
He could hear the waves crashing as he, Dad, and Uncle Jeff unloaded the car. Cody put down his towel and made a runway in the sand. Then he took out the airplane and imagined taking off. After a steep climb, he put the plane through a series of loops, rolls, and dives (俯冲).
“Cody, are you coming with us?” Dad called. Dad and Uncle Jeff were eager to catch some waves.
Cody carried his bodyboard and ran after them. They dived and swam out to where they could stand to catch the waves. When Cody spotted the coming wave, he turned toward shore and started kicking. As the wave picked him up and shot him forward, he felt as if he were flying. Dad and Uncle Jeff caught the same wave and they all cheered with joy. They rode wave after wave.
Soon Cody’s teeth were chattering. He was glad when they decided to head back to their place on the sand. He lay down on his towel, enjoying the warm sunshine. But in a sudden panic, he sat up. “Where is the airplane?” He murmured and searched the sand around him, but found only broken seashells.
Cody walked around and kept looking for the airplane wherever it may be. But as it became clear that the air plane was lost, he was thrown into fear, wondering what to tell Quinn. On the way back home, he felt more and more upset.
注意：1.续写词数应为80词左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Just when Cody stepped off the car, he felt something sharp in his pocket.
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The long summer vacation only lasted a few days, and I stayed at home doing nothing So I decided to call my little buddy to find a summer job. The hot wind blowing in the hot summer, and my body began to sweat constantly. We know that the job is not easy to imagine now, but we still insist, finally it paid off, we finally got a suitable job interview, and I was excited. We didn’t have any work experience. This was our first interview.
When waiting for the interview, we found that many students like us were there, too. When the manager came out, I was so nervous that I could feel my heart beating fast, and I was relieved when he read my name. I was picked up with my little friends, but in fact, we found that most of the students were selected. When we are hesitant to work in the daytime or night, there are a lot of students chose the night shift, because they feel it’s cooler at night than during the day. So we decided to take the night shift, too. When I told my mother that I was going to work on the night shift, and my mother was in a bad mood. She said it was hard work on the night shift and asked if I could hold on. I was full of confidence and said there was no problem.
Although it was a little cooler than the daytime, the workshop was quiet and terrible at night. When I thought it was about daybreak, I took a look at the time before I found out it was less than 12 in the middle of the night. Oh, my God, how long is it? What time does it break? After midnight we can go to the dining hall, but in front of the dish we have no appetite, we hurriedly picked a few mouthfuls of rice, or we’ll be hungry all night. Although this work looks very easy, which is to give the milk packing, but only a few days later, my fingers began to blister, and it is very difficult to sleep during the day.
注意：1.所续写短文的词数应为100左右；
2.续写部分为一段，段落的开头语已为你写好；
Just after a week, I decided to quit.
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Katie was exceptionally small. We were in the fifth grade, but she was as short as a third grader. Although her body was small, Katie was big at heart. She had a sharp mind, too. Sometimes she got her share of teasing, but Katie knew how to handle it. All the kids who knew Katie liked her a lot.
Katie loved helping others in the class, so whenever someone was stuck on the computer he always called her for help and advice. Katie loved jokes and she always had a joke that would cheer someone up whenever he was down. She was truly the most kind and generous friend anyone could ask for.
But the other day she was in big trouble. She was such a sweet girl; a third-grade teacher always dreamed of having a classroom filled with students like Katie. She was never ever a discipline(纪律)problem. I just couldn’t imagine why she had made her parents so angry.
It seemed that Katie had been running up(积欠)sizable charges in the lunchroom. Her parents explained that Katie brought a great homemade lunch each day, and there was no reason for her to buy school lunch. They assumed a sit-down with Katie would solve the problem, but failed. So they asked me to help them get to the bottom of this situation.
So the next day, I asked Katie to my office. “Why are you charging(记账)lunches, Katie? What happens to your homemade lunch?” I asked. “I lose it,” She responded. I leaned back in my chair and said, “I don’t believe you, Katie.” She didn’t care. “Is someone stealing your lunch, Katie?” I took a new track. “No. I just lose it,” she said. Well, there was nothing else I could do.
注意:1. 续写词数应为 100 左右;
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
The problem was still unsolved the next week until I noticed a boy in the school canteen.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Grandpa Dixon’s last grandson passed away from a rare disease. With all of his relatives gone, the man grew lonely as he entered his late 80s. His house was big and empty, and he often thought about his lost family. His grandson had lived with him after his parents passed away, and the old man loved him dearly. Grandpa Dixon took care of him in his final days, and he struggled to overcome the loss when he was gone. He even gave up his woodworking hobby.
With no one left to care for, the elderly man started looking towards his community, and he slowly got to know his neighbors. His one neighbor, Sarah, was always pleasant, and he discovered they had much in common. She was a single mother with no other family left. She didn’t have much, and she made a bed for her little Cherise in an empty drawer every night. So, when Grandpa Dixon found out about this, he gave her his late grandson’s old crib (婴儿床) that he had made himself.
“Oh, that’s so sweet of you! The woodwork is lovely, Grandpa Dixon. Where did you get it?” she asked when he showed up at her house with the crib.
He explained he had built it for his grandson before the boy was born. She gave him an impressed look, thanked him again, and the two carried the crib into her room. That night, baby Cherise slept very well, only waking up once. Sarah was so happy about the new crib that she showed it off to all her friends.
“My goodness, Sarah! Where did you find this?” they all wanted to know.
“Grandpa Dixon, the sweet man next door, showed up on my doorstep with it and said he had built it for his grandson. The poor man has no one left after his grandson passed away. I feel so bad for him. I wish there were something we could do.”
The story of Grandpa Dixon and his incredible crib spread through the community.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右;
2.请按如下格式作答。
Paragraph 1: Soon people showed up at his front door, asking whether he would build them a crib as well.
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Paragraph 2: After a while, he made it his late career out of the hobby.
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The Other Shoe
Shoes are made for walking.
But Aamir, a homeless Indian boy, doubted it. Wandering the noisy railway platform, he found one of his flip-flops (人字拖鞋) broken again. He hurried to a corner, sat down and tried to fix it, his bare foot pressing awkwardly against the ground. However, it was beyond repair.
He gave up and looked around aimlessly, staring at people’s shoes. Suddenly, his eyes were drawn to two boyish legs wearing flawlessly white socks and equally perfect black leather shoes, which were glittering in the mid-day sun. It was a boy of his age. He couldn’t treasure his possession too much, obviously, because every ten seconds, he stopped, bent down and carefully wiped a dust or two from his shoes. His father was constantly glancing over and urging him, “Hurry up! The train is coming!”
Aamir’s eyes followed the father and son, but mostly the leather shoes, as if enchanted (被施魔法的). Imagining himself wearing them, the comfort from the good leather, jaw-dropping look on his friends’ faces, he couldn’t help cracking a big smile.
The bell of the train drew him back; the fancy-shoe boy and his father were about to get aboard. They tried to crowd into the doorway. However, the instant the boy entered the compartment (车厢), one of his shoes fell off and before he could pick it up, the train began to pull away.
The shoe was now lying alone on the platform. Aamir’s eyes lit up with excitement. Like an arrow, he shot for the shoe and then picked it up, holding it with both hands as if holding the Queen’s crown. After a few seconds of hesitating and looking from the shoe to the train and back, he began racing — with only one good shoe, his flip-flop.
He held the leather shoe up, trying to pass it to the boy through the window, who was desperately reaching out his hand as well. However, it was never close enough.
注意：1. 续写词数应为 100左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
That left Aamir no choice but to throw the shoe onto the train.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Holidays are not necessarily for fun or rest. Doing something meaningful can also gain special pleasure. When the final bell rang, the students were reminded that there was no school on Monday—the Labor Day.(劳动节) “Enjoy your extra day off,” said the teacher to her class. An extra day of fun suited Kayla just fine. She loved breaks. She wanted to go out to play with her friends. When the school bus dropped Kayla off, she ran into the house happily.
“How was school, Kayla?” asked her mom.
“It was great, Mom. I am excited about no school on Monday.”
“You just started back to school two weeks ago. Already in need of a break, huh?” asked Kayla’s mom with a laugh.
Kayla slept in the next morning. Saturday was her favorite day of the week. It rained most of the day, so Kayla enjoyed playing video games inside. On Sunday, her friends came over and they played basketball for several hours. Then it was Labor Day, you know, the extra day off that Kayla was so looking forward to. But Kayla was awakened early that morning by her dad. He told Kayla that in honor of Labor Day, the family would be cleaning both inside and outside the house. Kayla couldn’t believe it. This was a holiday. A day when she was supposed to be enjoying freshly squeezed lemonade while playing in her tree house. As Kayla wiped her eyes, she began to wonder if this was just a bad dream.
“Kayla, your breakfast is ready. We have a lot of work to do today. Let’s get a move on,” said Kayla’s mom. As she sat down at the kitchen table, Kayla asked her parents, “Are you serious about working today? Isn’t Labor Day a holiday?”
“Yes, Kayla. It is,” replied her dad. “But your mom and I thought working hard today would make you appreciate why Labor Day was celebrated in the first place.”
Paragraph 1：At first, Kayla felt disappointed at her parents’ plan for the holiday.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________George Ellet had a bright silver dollar from his mother for a New-year gift. He thought of all the fine things he might buy with it.
The ground was all covered with snow; but the sun shone out bright, and everything looked beautiful. So George put on his hat and ran into the street. As he went skipping along, he met some boys throwing snowballs. George soon engaged in the sport.
He sent a ball at James Mason, but it missed him, and broke a window on the other side of the street. George feared someone would come out of the house and find him. So he ran off as fast as he could.
As soon as he got round the next corner, George stopped, because he was very sorry for what he had done. He said to himself, “I have no right to spend my silver dollar now. I ought to go back, and pay for the glass I broke with my snowball.”
注意：1. 所续写短文的词数应为80词左右；
2. 续写部分为一段，开头语已为你写好。
He went up and down the street and felt very sad.
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