I was born in a small village in the mountainous province of Lao Cai in Vietnam. In my poverty-stricken small village, girls hardly had the chance to complete their education. But I was lucky. I was born into a family where my parents supported our education. As one of the very few families that could afford all children to continue to study till high school, my parents faced a lot of negative opinions from our neighbors.
I was not always there for the criticism, however, as I lived in boarding schools for ethnic minority (少数民族) children. There were a lot of girls and boys from different ethnic groups in our schools. In these second homes, I learned from teachers and friends and most importantly, I was trained to live independently and with confidence. And this gave me the motivation to try harder every day.
In 2017, I came to Hanoi, the capital city, as a first-year student at the University of Languages and International Studies. It was a life-changing experience for me. I was thrilled at the fact that the students here were so bright and brilliant. The world became much bigger for me — far different from my small town. “Where are you from? Are you an ethnic minority?” Those were the frequent questions I had from my classmates at the beginning. At first, I was afraid of those questions and then I realized that when I began to talk openly about my culture, I was warmly received.
It goes without saying that confidence grows in a nurturing (滋养的) environment. Again, I found myself lucky. Slowly I started to engage in school activities and after some time, I volunteered for community activities.
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。
In 2019, I became the leader of a students’ group working on voluntary projects for our ethnic community.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Now I am working as a teaching assistant in an international primary school.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Mary Lee seemed to have everything. She was very beautiful with a wonderful figure and an attractive face. She was very rich. Her clothes were better than anyone else’s and she had more of them. Her books were always new and expensive as were her pens, school bags and bicycle. She was very clever too and without appearing to do very much work. She was always the first in all the examinations and always answered all the questions, while the rest of the class were still thinking.
With all this, or really because of all this, no one liked Mary Lee. She was too good, too clever and she was also very proud. No one was quite good enough to talk to her or to be seen with her or to be her friend. And so, with all her proud ways and riches and brains, she was lonely but she did not care because she was always the best in everything. She was like a princess in the class. She always thought that the other students kept their distance from her because she was too excellent. “Lions and tigers are always lonely, and only the weak get together,” she told herself.
As the end of term drew near, the pupils including Mary Lee began to think about the most important prize of all. This was the prize, offered by the principal, for the best essay to be written on one of two subjects: Happiness and Friendship. All the teachers and pupils paid close attention to the prize, for it was really a great honor. “I needn’t worry about that,” thought Mary Lee, as the others began to read and to think about the essay. “I shall easily win. After all, my compositions are always better than the other students’.”
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。
“Pride goes before a fall,” they say and it certainly did in the case of poor Mary Lee.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Mary Lee suddenly realized that how silly she had been.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________My writing career began quite accidentally. It was all because of my friend Henry.
Born into a poor family, Henry had no chance to attend school. He couldn’t read but he liked my reading for him greatly. One day I played a little trick on Henry. I was reading him a story from my textbook. Suddenly I moved away from the story and made up my own, pretending to turn pages regularly. Henry, of course, had no idea at all. Upon finishing the story, Henry began to clap.
“That was the best story you’ve read me in a long time,” he said, still clapping.
I laughed. “Really?”
“It was great. Will you read me more of it tomorrow?”
“Fascinating,” I thought, feeling like a man who discovered a buried treasure in his own backyard. That same night, I tried writing my first short story. It was a story about a man who found a magic cup. If he cried into the cup, his tears turned into pearls (珍珠), but he was a happy man and rarely cried. So he managed to find ways to make himself sad. The story ended with the man sitting on a mountain of pearls, unable to feel happy any longer.
The next day, I ran to Henry after school, asking him to hear the story and told him I wrote it last night. Henry was totally absorbed in it, his face shifting as the story developed.
“Some day, you will be a great writer,” Henry said. “And your stories will be read all over the world. But can I ask a question? Why didn’t the man just eat some onions to make himself cry to get pearls?” I was shocked because I never expected Henry could be helpful to my writing. I rewrote it and with Henry’s encouragement, I sent it to a magazine. To my surprise, it was published and sold well.
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。
Whenever I finished a new story, I would turn to Henry.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I decided to use the money to help Henry.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________1.你的锻炼经历；
2.你的心得体会;
3.其他。
注意：
1.词数100左右;
2.开头和结尾已为你写好。
Good morning！My name is Li Hua.
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Thank you!
