It was the day before Thanksgiving. Gray clouds covered the sky. The air was biting. The temperature was below freezing. And I was on the way home.
This is my driver Jacob, a tall, strong and middle-aged man. Jacob was sent to pick me up and take me three hours on a drive inland in Mexico. Like most drivers, he is very talkative. As we were driving, he started to tell me his story. Out of the habit shaped by my career, I like to chat and I like to get to know people and their stories.
He shared with me that since the pandemic, he had to change jobs and was currently spending six days a week away from his family in a town that had more work. This life certainly can seem full of pains at times. It is up to us, though, to make each one a blessing in disguise (伪装，掩饰).
He mentioned the name of his hometown ‘Nah Bok’ and shared that he had to spend five hours on his only day off on the three different buses to get there and back to spend one day with them. His mother, his wife and his kids are there, waiting for him. The weekly trips are tiring but worthwhile for those short moments of happiness and joy. Then they parted ways, wishing well thoughts for the week ahead.
I do understand such experience. Admittedly, I was one of those kids like his. My father had worked away when I was young, sometimes away for weeks and months at a time. I remember us kids waiting for our turn to have just a couple of minutes on the phone with him back before we had Skype (一种即时通讯软件).
注意：
1.所续写的短文词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
After two hours into our drive, I saw a sign saying ‘Nah Bok’.
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That’s a little moment of JOY I brought to the man.
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注意：1. 词数80左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文流畅；
3. 开头已写好，不计入总词数。
Music is playing an important part in our study and daily life.
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In a word, music should make life better and help people become happier.
One Christmas Eve, my seventeen-year-old son called me from the bakery where he worked part-time. He was on the evening shift with a couple of co-workers, and the store was about to dose. The person from a local charity who was scheduled to pick up the leftover bread and cakes hadn’t shown up. He was worried about what to do with the food, so I suggested he call the manager to ask for advice. The manager told him to throw the leftovers into the garbage—approximately $1,500 worth of fresh baked goods.
It seemed completely wrong for all this good food to go to waste, so we talked about where we could take it. A new homeless shelter had just opened in our area, so I called and asked if they could use a delivery of free baked goods.
An excited staff member said, “Yes, please!” I drove to the bakery and, together with my son and his co-workers, we loaded up the truck and made our way to the homeless shelter. As we walked toward the entrance, a woman stopped and held open the door for us. Thinking we were staff, she thanked us for what we were doing and said she was really grateful for her new temporary home. She introduced herself and told us her street friends call her “Star”. We chatted for a while on the sidewalk with light snow falling around us. She said that moving off the streets into the shelter had saved her life.
Star told us she spent her days looking out for those who needed help and trying to do kind things for others whenever she could. Then she asked for a favor. She showed us a phone number. She’d wanted to tell her friend she was okay so he wouldn’t worry, but she couldn’t afford the long-distance call. I said I would be happy to pass on her message. She wrote his name on a card. Then she hugged us both, and we wished each other a merry Christmas.
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。
On Christmas morning, I called the number on the card. A man answered the phone.
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A few months later, I was driving when I saw Star standing in the middle of the crosswalk.
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A spider (蜘蛛) was looking for a suitable place to make its web. He wanted his web to be in such a place where a lot of insects and flies would come and get trapped in his web. In this way he wanted to spend his life eating, drinking and relaxing happily.
Soon, he found a corner (角落) of the room of a house and started preparing to make his web there.
Just when he started weaving (织网) the web, a cat passing by started laughed loudly after seeing him. When the spider saw the cat laughing, he asked, “Why are you laughing?”
The cat replied, “I am laughing because you are foolish. Can’t you see how clean this place is? No flies or insects will come here. Who will fall in your web?”
After listening to the cat, the spider gave up the idea of making a web in that corner and started looking for another place.
Then he saw a window and started weaving his web there. The spider had prepared half of the web. Then a bird came and started making fun of him, saying, “Have you lost your mind? Why weaving your web near this window? A strong wind will blow and your web will fly away.”
The spider understood and stopped weaving the web on the window and started looking for another place. While searching, his eyes fell on an old cupboard (橱柜). The door of that cupboard was slightly open. He went there and started weaving a web. Just then a cockroach (蟑螂) came and said, “It is useless to make a web at this place. This cupboard is very old. It will be sold in few days. All your hard work will go fruitless.”
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。
Para 1: The spider listened to the advice of the cockroach and stopped making the web in the cupboard and started searching for another place.
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Para 2: An ant who was watching all this went to the spider and said.
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