Nancy’s heart felt heavy as she stood in the sad crowd. The words spoken by the priest (牧师) filled the air—saying goodbye to her beloved son, Matthew. Tears welled up in her eyes, but she couldn’t fully grasp the gravity of the moment. How could she accept that her only son was gone, a victim of a drunk driver’s careless driving?
As the funeral (葬礼) service progressed, Nancy struggled to focus on the words being spoken. The pain of loss saddened her, leaving her feeling empty. It seemed that no one else could truly understand the depth of her sorrow. While others would move on with their lives, Nancy knew that she would forever be changed.
Suddenly, Nancy’s attention was drawn to a young boy standing near another freshly dug grave (墓穴). Tears streamed down his face, and he appeared lost and alone. Both were experiencing the cruel loss of a beloved family member. The same fate created an instant connection.
A silent promise formed in Nancy’s heart as she made a decision to approach the boy. She understood the need for comfort during times of sorrow, especially for a child who had been left to go through the painful journey alone.
As the ceremony drew to a close, people offered their support to Nancy, but their words seemed distant. After all her relatives and friends left, she approached that grave. On the tombstone was a name: Marianne. Next to it lay a photograph of a young woman about her age. All of a sudden, Nancy realized what had happened to the boy: his mother passed away recently.
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。
Turning around, Nancy noticed that the boy had appeared behind her.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The day when the boy came to Nancy’s home as a family member finally came.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The day that I met my best friend for the first time, I was anxiously reviewing for an important exam in the local library. Because I kept being disturbed by others, I was unable to make any progress, The last straw was when I heard someone singing behind me. I turned around and gave the person a dirty look. It was a tall girl about the same age as me and she had a slight smile on her face. Standing near the “English Literature” section, she seemed to be looking for a book. “How could she be so selfish (自私的)?” I thought angrily.
I picked up my books, looked into her eyes and said angrily, “Please be considerate in public. I’ve been unable to study because of your terrible singing”
I still hate thinking of that moment. Let me tell you the rest of the story though.
Two hours later, I realized I’d forgotten my most important textbook in the library. What was worse, the library had already closed. I was close to tears. Just then, the phone rang. A soft voice introduced the speaker as Li Hua and asked if I was Jane. After confirming that I was, she told me that she had noticed my book in the library. As my phone number was in it, she called and told me she didn’t live far away and could bring it to me.
Paragraph 1: I sighed (叹息) with relief and agreed to meet her at the store down the road.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2: Can you believe we became best friends?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Jumping Over Boundaries
When I was in elementary school, we had an annual sports day. Girls could do many things like hopscotch, jump rope, tetherball, and dodgeball, except high jumping. Only boys could do high jumping.
That’s what I wanted to do — high jumping. So I went to the coach.
“Girls don’t do high jumping,” the coach said. “Girls have all these other things they can do.” He excitedly described how much fun it would be.
I’d been high jumping in the backyard with my five brothers for years. Although I am a girl, I did high jumping pretty well. My brothers could rarely beat me. Whenever my back crossed the bar, that feeling is extremely wonderful. I went home and told my mother what the coach had said. My mother, a small, thin woman only four feet eleven inches tall, said, “I think we should go visit him.”
“Visit who?” I asked confusedly.
“The headmaster.”
“Visit the headmaster?” I was terrified. Would I get in trouble? Would my mother and I be crossing boundaries we shouldn’t cross?
My mom and I went to Mr. White’s office. “Linda wants to do the high jump,” my mother said.
“Mrs. Martinez, you don’t understand. This is the tradition of our Annual Sports Day,” he said.
“But Mr. White, I don’t know where it says that girls cannot do this.”
The headmaster couldn’t find any rules that said girls couldn’t do the high jump. “I have to think about this,” he said at last.
When we got home, my mom told me something I would always remember: this wasn’t just about me. “Maybe other girls want to do this, too,” she said.
My mother waited a week, but still didn’t get the headmaster’s reply. So she walked over to the school again. “Mr. White, please. I ask you this not for me and not for Linda, but let’s just see how it works.” In the end, Mr. White agreed.
I stood on the field of the high jumping competition.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________To my surprise, some of the cheers I got were from boys!
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I sat in my parents’ car. Mom had insisted I go with her to pick up Dad from work. Across from Dad’s office is a bike store. That was the day my eleven-year-old eyes first saw the purple BMX Mongoose bike. From that day on, all I could think about was that bike. I even drew pictures of the bike in class. Every evening afterward, at five thirty, I eagerly went along with Mom to get Dad.
And every day I told my parents, “I want that bike!” But they disagreed and replied that I had already had a perfectly good bike at home. I’d argue it was old and ugly, thinking that my happiness depended on that purple bike. Days later, I found the store had sold that bike. I knew I’d never be happy again.
A week later, returning home from school, I tripped over something. Lying in the weeds near a river and some wooded lots, was a bike — the exact bike from the store. “Hey, whose bike is this?” I shouted, scanning the area. No one replied, and there was no one in sight. Maybe its owner didn’t want it any longer. I couldn’t leave it lying in the weeds. So I took it home and hid it behind the garage. Every day after school, I sat there, admiring it. But I didn’t feel like riding and didn’t feel as happy as I had thought. Thinking about the bike made my stomach tighten and uncomfortable.
A few days later, during lunch at school, my friend said, “Did you hear about Tyler, in the other fifth-grade class? He lost his new purple BMX Mongoose bike he had just gotten for his birthday. He left it by a river while playing in the woods. It got dark, and he couldn’t find it.”
“I’d never go off and leave a new bike like that. He doesn’t deserve to have that bike,” I replied. My friend added, “Kids say he’s nice. And they say Tyler is upset because his dad worked overtime to buy the bike for him.” For the rest of the day, I couldn’t stop thinking about Tyler.
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。
After school, I returned home and dragged to my room.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“I know Tyler’s house,” Mom said. “I’ll drive you there.”
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________It was one of the coldest days of the snowy season. We had seen the world covered with white in almost a month. The rivers were frozen. Wild animals had stopped wandering around. The small village was resting in silence. Had we not prepared enough firewood in advance we wouldn’t have made it through the nights. It was on this day that I learned the true lesson of sharing and witnessed the best miracle I have ever seen in my life.
I was in the kitchen making lunch for the family when I saw my six-year-old son, Billy, walking toward the woods. I could only see his back. He wasn’t walking with his usual steps. He was obviously walking with great effort, trying to be as still as possible. Minutes after he disappeared into the woods, he came running out again, toward the house. I went back to make sandwiches, thinking that whatever he had been doing was completed. Moments later, however, he was once again walking in that slow purposeful long step toward the woods. This activity went on for half an hour: walking cautiously to the woods, then running back to the house. Finally, my curiosity got the best of me. I crept out of the house and followed him secretly on his journey.
He was taking something in his arms as he walked; being very careful not to trip and fall. I stepped close as he went into the woods. Branches and thorns (荆棘) slapped his little face but he did not try to avoid them. He might have a much greater purpose, I thought. As 1 came closer, I saw the most amazing sight. Several little cats curled up beneath a huge fallen tree, where there was no snow but the least space for any life to survive the severe winter. Billy walked right up to them, at the sight of which I almost screamed for him to stop what he was doing. He had piled up a stack of firewood next to the kittens and was about to light it with a match! He had no idea what the fire would cause at the hands of a six-year-old.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；2. 请按如下格式在相应位置作答。
My sudden voice obviously took Billy by surprise.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Billy agreed to collect up the firewood after I decided to take them in.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I was never a fast runner and thus I always didn’t like running. Throughout my childhood, whenever we competed in the 50-meter run, the 400-meter, or any other type of race, I would finish in the bottom half. In my late teens, as a member of a baseball team, I was the slowest runner on the team. In the preseason training, I was always the one running by myself at the end.
Therefore, twenty years later, when I entered my first official running race — a 3,000-meter challenge in my city — at age 38, I certainly didn’t expect to win or come close to winning.
I was there because my college friend Jim Hosek was the director of the race, and he asked me to run. The race was aimed at raising money for the unfortunate patients in a hospital and encouraging the patients and their fanilies to be brave, determined, and confident with sportsmanship.
It was a heartwarming program.I wanted to support it, so I showed up, paid the entrance fee, had a number pinned (把……别住) on my back, and moved over to the starting line. There, I waited with about 300 other runners for the race to begin. I was nervous. Would I be the last one to finish a race again? Could I even finish the race? I wondered.
Before long, someone spoke into a microphole, “Anyone weighing over 200 pounds comes down to the scale (秤), please.” Knowing I was over 200 pounds, I walked down to the scale. A man told me to stand on it. “Two hundred and three pounds,” he said. Then he wrote down the race number that was on my back. Out of curiosity, I asked him why he did so,and then I was told there would be an award ceremony (仪式) after the race. One award was for the first finisher in the over 200-pound group, and this special award would be announced at the end of the ceremony.
Not expecting the award, I ran towards the starting line, never realizing there were only two runners weighing over 200 pounds.
Paragraph 1:Soon after, the race started.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2:
Then came the last award, and to my surprise, my name was announced.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
It was Tamika’s turn to tell her class where she went this summer. She stood up proudly. “This summer I went to Bradley,” Tamika announced. “They have a big market there. My mom bought a painting and I got second-hand inline skates. We had a great time there. ”
“That’s not a trip,” Jeremy whispered loudly to his partner. “It’s only half an hour from here. My dad and I often go to Bradley to buy tools for his repair shop.”
“Jeremy, no interrupting,” said Miss Snowdent, their teacher. “And Bradley has a fine market. I’m glad that Tamika can tell us about it. Go ahead, Tamika.” Miss Snowden smiled warmly at her, encouraging her to continue.
But Tamika didn’t feel proud of her family’s trip to Bradley any more and she just felt embarrassed. Tamika dropped her head and said in a low voice that she was finished, and then hurried back to her desk. She hoped that the other kids didn’t notice her face turning red.
Tamika listened as Peter talked about his cruise to Jamaical. She heard about Mary’s trip across the Atlantic to Ireland. She heard about John’s horseback ride through the Grand Canyon. It seemed as if everyone but her had taken a big trip over the summer. “I never get to go anywhere. ” Tamika thought to herself. A sense of sadness clouded her the whole day.
After school things got worse. One of the wheels on Tamika’s skates came loose. Now she couldn’t even skate. Sitting on the sidewalk, Tamika tried to fix her wheel but did not know how. Then Miss Snowden happened to pass by. She walked up with a smile on her face, asking. “You look unhappy, Tamika. Why are you sitting here?” Tamika lowered her head, tears building up inside her eyes. “Want to talk about it?” Miss Snowden asked kindly. Tamika nodded, trying to avoid Miss Snowden’s eyes! Bending down, Miss Snowden said in a whisper: “You know, Tamika, actually we don’t always have to travel far to learn anything.” Tamika looked up with watering eyes and wondered what Miss Snowden meant.
注意：1.续写词数应为 150左右；2.请按如下格式在相应位置作答。
Right at this moment, Jeremy was walking by and saw them.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“Yes. I can fix it,” Jeremy said with confidence.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Oh, this was terrible. “Thank you for volunteering to coach soccer…” the letter began. Coach? Soccer? Me? That was ridiculous. My knowledge of the sport began and ended with you-can’t-use-your-hands. Later that afternoon, my six-year-old son informed me that goalkeepers are allowed to use their hands. Who knew?
When Community Sports asked for volunteers, I signed up for data entry. Keyboards, I knew. Coaching? Impossible! I quickly called the head coach about the misunderstanding. It did not go well. He had been transferred out of state and would not be coaching at all. Then I called an assistant coach. In broken English, he explained, “We just arrived from India. I know nothing.”
I phoned the Community Sports Commissioner about the matter. “I am sorry,” he said. “Not enough parents are willing to volunteer. If you cannot coach, we will call your team and let them know they will not be playing this season.” Seriously, that was his solution?
“Okay,” I gave in. “I will figure out something. Sure, put me down for coach.”
“Good,” he said. “We have a coaching clinic on Saturday. You might want to attend. It would help.”
With determined resolve, I picked up my son at school. He looked through the coaching book, interested in the pictures of drills. Then he laughed. “Hey, Mom! The word ‘coach’ is by your name. That is so funny.” Funny. I had to agree with him. “Yes, son, I get to be your soccer coach. Since I don’t know much about soccer, I need to learn. Let’s start at the library.”
At home, my husband puzzledly looked at the pile of books and videos under one of my arms and the soccer ball in the other. I told him my trouble. I thought it best if I learned about the game, rules, and some practice drills. So, I bought a soccer ball.
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。
Our Saturday morning practices and games were quite interesting.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
My neighbor used to be a high-school soccer player.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Pip is a cute little squirrel (松鼠) from a loving family, whose mother often tells him that sharing is caring.
On a cold morning in the park, Pip was looking for a tree with enough branches to shelter him from the cold. Suddenly, he found a huge one, with many branches, and to his joy, a big, brown acorn was hanging from one of the lower ones.
Knowing how important acorns were at this time of year, Pip moved as fast as his tiny legs could carry him, and climbed up the side of the tree, heading towards the acorn. As he got close to the acorn, he thought about how hungry he was, as he hadn’t had any food for two days. He reached his paw (爪子) forward eagerly and just as he was about to take his first bite, somebody took the acorn from his paws and climbed down the tree. Angry and still hungry, Pip ran after the acorn thief, and jumped across the branches, from tree to tree. He would save his lunch, no matter what!
“Hey! Come back here! That’s my acorn. I found it, fair and square,” shouted Pip, who was out of breath.
The acorn thief was another squirrel, who Pip recognized as Rascal, a squirrel in the park who always stole food from others.
“You will never catch me, Pip! Everyone knows that you are the slowest squirrel in the park and I haven’t eaten today, so this nut is mine!” said Rascal.
Hearing Rascal make fun of him made Pip angrier and run faster. Finally, Pip caught up with Rascal. After what seemed like the longest fight ever, Pip managed to take the acorn out of Rascal’s paws and he ran as fast as he could to hide away. As Rascal tried to follow Pip, a huge tree branch fell on him and stopped him from running after the acorn. Rascal couldn’t climb over the branch and he was forced to admit defeat.
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。
Pip happily hugged his acorn.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“Why did you help me, Pip?” asked Rascal, quite surprised.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Single mother Krystal works hard to provide daily necessities for her kid. They may not have many material things. But love is clearly in no short supply.
Krystal was having a particularly tough time making ends meet. The bike she rode to work broke and couldn’t be used. But she couldn’t afford a new one. So she had to walk to work, spending an extra hour on the way. Once in a while, she would wonder whether there was hope in life. Her son, 13-year-old William Preston, couldn’t help but notice.
Seeing his mother work so hard to earn money, William, the sweet young man, was always helping his mother with housework. He didn’t want to see his mom walking to work every day. So, he decided he was going to do whatever it took to buy his mom another bike.
William saw on YouTube that a boy bought his mom a bike and then surprised her with it. He also wanted to do that. William came across a cheap used bike on sale on Facebook. And he knew what he needed to do to help out his struggling mom.
In fact, the 13-year-old has been doing yard work for people in his community to make some money. So, he continued to work hard and save money, which was impressive enough for someone his age. But William took it one step further.
Back in his own room, William was staring at the big box of toys that his relatives and friends had bought him as gifts. He treasured the toys. He spent most of his spare time playing with them. Among them was the game player Xbox, his most prized possession (财产). When his mother called him to have supper, he had an idea.
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。
After school, he brought his Xbox to a second-hand shop nearby.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
With the money he had saved, William bought the bike on Facebook.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
