As a senior editor in a famous press, I always think of days twenty years before when I was 18, I lived with my grandparents, and my parents earned their living in another city, struggling to support our family. I had taken to delivering newspapers to support myself and my education.
I would be up every morning by 5 am and walk five kilometres from where I lived to the newspaper office. By 6 am, I would collect 50 copies which must have weighed over five kilograms. My delivery range spanned (横跨) three kilometres. After distributing the copies, I would rush home—another three kilometres away—cook my breakfast, and be off to my school.
One Friday morning, I got home after my deliveries, finding Afzal, a boy from the neighbourhood, at my doorstep. Afzal said his mother wanted to see me. When I asked him why, Afzal said, “She will tell you.” Tired after walking around for over 11 kilometres, I was looking forward to breakfast and some rest. I assumed his mother wished to subscribe (定期订购) to the newspaper, so I followed him to his home nearby.
A woman in her 40s opened the door. I later learned she was Afzal’s mother, Mrs Kader. She asked me to sit, pulled up her chair next to mine and gently asked, “Tell me about your routine, right from the time you wake up in the morning.” I wasn’t quite sure why she wanted to know, but I told her about my morning job in a few words. She asked me, “How many miles do you walk every day?” I replied, “A little more than 11 kilometres.” My reply shocked her.
Then she patted my back and went inside, reappearing carrying a large plate full of food for breakfast for me. It was a heart y breakfast, one that brought back memories of happy days spent with my parents. Later, as I was about to leave after thanking them, Mrs Kader asked me to wait and she went inside again.
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。
Then Mrs Kader appeared again, with a new bicycle.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I bowed to Mrs Kader gratefully and left for school.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
In a small town, there lived a young boy named Tom, who came from a poor family. Determined to gather enough money for his education, Tom decided to start a challenging journey, going door to door selling various items. Little did he know, his life was about to change with the arrival of a compassionate (有同情心的) young woman named Lucy.
While talking with Tom, Lucy, a kind-hearted individual, knew about Tom’s struggles. She thought she could do something to help him. She told Tom that education was the key to transforming his life. Determined to make a difference, Lucy gave Tom a sum of money so that he could afford his tuition fee (学费).
Moved by Lucy’s kindness and genuine concern, Tom was filled with gratitude. He was determined to seize this opportunity and remembered Lucy’s act of compassion throughout his journey towards success.
With renewed determination, Tom devoted himself to his studies, working diligently to overcome the obstacles that lay in his path. He strived for excellence and seized every learning opportunity that came his way. Tom’s pursuit of knowledge eventually paid off, pushing him towards a bright and successful future.
Years passed, and Tom worked hard and never gave up. He did really well in his chosen job and people respected him. Even though he achieved a lot, he never forgot how kind Lucy was to him.
One day, fate made Tom see Lucy when she was having a tough time. Even after a long time, Tom recognized her right away and knew he owed her something. Remembering how kind Lucy had been, Tom felt a strong urge to repay Lucy’s kindness, so he went to her and thanked her sincerely. He promised to stand by her side during her tough times. Tom listened carefully as Lucy shared her struggles and problems. He supported her wholeheartedly and offered a shoulder to lean on.
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。
Tom realized that Lucy needed more than just money.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Besides his support, Tom organized a community fundraiser for Lucy.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Henry Crawley was a cab driver who drove long circuits every day. His job kept him away from family for long hours. It was the topic of many quarrels he had gotten into with his wife, who understood why he was away so often but could not resist the urge to cry out for her husband’s physical absence.
To make up for not always being there for his daughter, Leslie, Henry was determined to make it to her 16th birthday party on time. On the day of her birthday, Henry conveyed as many passengers as he could as usual. When he finally finished the last order to a distant town outside the city, Henry rushed back to his city for the small party.
However, he got caught up in a heavy snowstorm that restricted mobility on his way back. Stubbornly, he decided he would press on anyway and continued driving even though he had to go at a snail’s (蜗牛的) pace.
It was 6: 00 pm and Leslie’s party started at 6: 30 pm. He complained about the weather as he fastened his eyes on the slippery road. As time passed, he got closer to the city. Suddenly, he spotted a person sitting beside the road. He stopped his car to check on it, and found it was an elderly woman who was unable to speak but almost freezing. Her bedroom clothes told him she must be from the town nearby he just drove past.
Henry decided to take the woman to her town, but he remembered that his wife would be upset with him if he missed his daughter’s birthday party. He called his wife to explain things. As he predicted, she said nothing, ending up the call. That made him uneasy and almost turn back to his car. But he knew that he could not leave the woman helpless. “I’d want someone to care for my wife or daughter if they ended up in such a tough situation,” he said to himself.
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。
Without any hesitation, Henry was determined to help the stranger.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Upon his arrival, it was late at night and Henry became more uneasy.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
My friend invited me to a trapeze (高空秋千) class. I was doubtful because of a lack of courage and a short of self-confidence, but her enthusiasm and assurances of strict safety rules won me over.
I had been fearful of heights since elementary school and avoiding my fear of heights became second nature. But here I was, at age twenty-six, facing my fear of heights in a rather extreme way. I had come around to the idea of trying trapeze. I figured it wasn’t much different from swinging (舞动) on the monkey bars as a kid. One difficulty I didn’t expect was the ladder (梯子). In order to reach the trapeze, I had to climb up a twenty-two-foot ladder.
I could hear one of my classmates expressing her impatience with my slow climb up the ladder. “If she’s afraid of heights, why did she sign up for a trapeze class?” However, my friend was at the top of the ladder, trying to encourage me. Besides, his distraction techniques helped to take my mind off my dangerous task. I found a rhythm(节奏) and kept going. With a slow and steady pace, I made it to the top. The cheers from my classmates rang out below.
An instructor told me to step to the edge of the platform. He reminded me of the safety rules, including the net below that would catch me at the bottom. He also asked me to listen to the directions while in the air, so I could perform a trick.
As the instructor counted down, I took a deep breath and pushed off the platform, swinging back and forth. At that moment, I lost awareness of time and space. Fortunately, the instructor’s voice came over the loudspeaker, giving me step-by-step instructions for performing a trick. Instead of doubting my inability to perform the trick, I took his directions one step at a time.
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。
During my flight on the trapeze, my fear didn’t completely leave me.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________This experience opened up a new way of seeing myself and approaching other challenges.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________My father was the kind of person who could never pass by someone who needed help. He was a firm believer in the mantra (箴言)： What goes around comes around. He believed that someday he might need help, and someone would return the favor. But I didn’t quite buy it.
One weekend, my father and I took a trip to Flaming Gorge Reservoir (水库). We loved to fish at Flaming Gorge. We owned a cabin boat that was about fifteen feet in length. We put our boat in at Sheep Creek Marina (游艇停泊港). Our goal was to go as far north as possible, spend the weekend in our boat, and fish until we had our limit.
Heading toward the Wyoming side of the reservoir, we traveled some distance before we began to fish. Frankly, the fishing wasn’t very good, but we loved being out on the boat together in such a beautiful place.
Suddenly, we saw a man on the far shore waving at us. Immediately, my father fired up the motor and went toward the other side of the reservoir, where the man was still waving at us. When we arrived, I was amazed to see a beautiful big yacht (游艇) pulled onto the shore.
The man introduced himself as Mat and then thanked us warmly for coming to his assistance. His battery was dead, and he wondered if we could help him. We did, and soon his big motor roared back to life. Mat and his family were very grateful. We lost an hour of fishing. Being an impatient teenager, I was a bit annoyed at the one-hour loss, but we were soon back out on the reservoir.
The next day the fishing didn’t improve. As a matter of fact, it was terrible, so we decided to call it quits and go back to the marina. We were about two miles from the marina when we found ourselves fighting a strong headwind that slowed our progress. The waves were kicking up, and suddenly our engine decided to quit.
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。
We tried to get it running, but it simply wouldn’t start.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
On our way home, I saw an old lady waving at our car by the roadside.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
At one time children made May Day baskets to celebrate spring and enjoy the rewards of giving surprising gifts to their beloved ones. When I was in perhaps the third grade, our class took on such an adventure. For several days, we worked on creating paper baskets. We cut colorful stripes of construction paper and wove them together, following our teacher, Miss Anderson. We cut and wove and glued. Then we decorated them with our crayons and more cutting and gluing. Finally, we fitted paper handles onto the tops so that we could secretly hang our creations on the doors of unsuspecting receivers: surely our mothers.
We were finished right on time. Miss Anderson brought armloads of flowers for us to use in stuffing our prizes. Lilacs and tulips and al the colorful flowers of spring. We had to wait until the day was nearly over before we were allowed to choose the flowers that were just right for our baskets. I chose the biggest, most beautiful blossoms, allowing myself to be selfish for the sake of my mother. Then we fidgeted (烦躁) away what remained of our day, waiting for the clock to tick down the minutes to our release.
Finally, mercifully, the bell rang! We threw on our coats, gathered our homework and our lunch boxes, tied on our scarves and then, carefully, we cradled our offerings of love and off we ran to our individual homes! I was so excited! I ran as fast as I could down the hill, across the street, up the block, heading home. I paused at the corner of my house, to catch my breath and savor the moment. Then I glanced down to admire my offering one last time before I hung it lovingly over the doorknob. Horrors! Shock, dread and depression! My flowers were gone! Apparently, bouncing out on my mad dash home, all that was left was a sad, messed-up, wrinkled little empty basket! I stood on the doorway and burst into mournful sobbing tears.
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
By and by, my mom came to the door to discover the source of the sorrow.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Para 2
Soon, my newly-decorated basket was ready to be offered again.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
It was a sunny day. Anabia, an 11-year-old girl, was excited because today was the drawing contest at her school. Anabia was really good at drawing and usually got the highest marks in art. Her teachers would often ask her to make posters for school plays and call on her during free periods to help with cuttings, drawing, shading, colouring and much more. There was an art competition taking place in school and Anabia had worked really hard and wanted to win it. But there was one thing that was disturbing her today.
Recently, a new girl, Rida, had joined her class. She was also interested in art but she was not as good at drawing as Anabia was. Miss Saima, the art teacher, helped Rida and taught her tips and tricks to improve her drawing skill. And now Rida was also considered among the best artists in grade six.
Rida was quick, smart and intelligent. Anabia became jealous of Rida’s intelligence and felt that the new girl would be tough to beat.
So that day, for the art competition, Miss Saima took all the students to the art room, told them their roll numbers and gave important instructions. Anabia’s roll number was 16, while Rida was number 17. The bell rang, indicating the beginning of the contest. Miss Saima wrote on the board: make a scene of a sunset with a flowing river and a sailing boat.
Anabia knew that the best tools to make a sunset were oil pastels (油画棒). Anabia started to look for her oil pastels in her art bag. Then, after looking through the bag, she remembered that she had left them at home. Immediately, she got up to tell Miss Saima.
Miss Saima was disappointed at Anabia’s carelessness and told her that she could not help her, as it was her responsibility to come prepared for the contest that had been announced a week in advance. Anabia’s best friends were also there, but none of them offered to share anything, much to Anabia’s surprise and disappointment.
注意：1.所续写短文的词数应为150左右;
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Anabia’ s eyes filled with tears.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Then Rida held Anabia’s hand, and the two girls waited for the winners to be announced.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________My dad and I had been looking forward to the Stale cross-country race of my senior year of high school, which would be the climax (顶点) of my existence.
I was the fastest runner on my team, and I was supposed to make it into the top fifteen. We had been working towards this race for three years. It was everything to me, and it was everything to my dad. He was a runner and was wild with joy by my success in running. He made it to every race, even flying home early from business trips to see me run. I always listened for his voice, which rang above the crowd-telling me to relax my arms, calling out my time. He pushed me. He cheered for me. He believed in me. We spent countless hours on the sandy canals of Arizona. Breathing in the dust of the desert, the blossoms of the orange trees, and the terrible smell of the dairy farm, we made our way across the city. We pounded miles and miles into our running shoes, marking with every step the path to greatness. It was a journey that was just ours. A dream passed on from one generation to the next.
Then the big day came. It was hotter than normal - too hot. My throat felt like a field of cotton, cracked with the summer heat, as I waited for the gun to fire. I gazed out at the crowd; dozens of familiar faces from church and school flickered across my view. They had come for me. They were counting on me. I saw my dad set his watch, worry and excitement etched across his face. With the sound of a gunshot, the race began.
For the first two and half miles, I felt great. I had never before been so ready for something. The weeks leading up to the race were filled with hard practices and a strict diet. The scorching sun beat upon my back, blinding me with its brilliance. Nothing was going to stop me, though.
注意：1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
However, without warning, my strength was running out.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I whispered, “I’m so sorry I disappointed you, Dad.”
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When we first met Lucky, we were surprised at his mini figure. The Labrador (拉布拉多) dog was born last Friday and was one of the four babies. He was the tiniest one we had ever seen, weighing less than 150 grams at birth.
The newborn puppy had a low body temperature and kept trembling all the time. The dog mother seemed too tired to nurse the weakest one while feeding other kids. He was so weak that we didn’t think he could make it to the morning.
I, along with my eight-year-old daughter, Alice, the smallest one in our family, stayed up with him all night. We milked his mother and used an small-sized bottle to hand-feed him. When Lucky got too sleepy to eat, we put honey on his gums (牙龈) to give his low blood sugar a quick boost, an old trick we’d learned from other dog keepers.
I slept on the couch with him on top of me. Alice held the little dog to raise his body temperature, but it failed. He still trembled with cold. Then we used a thermos (热水瓶) and changed the hot water every two hours. Meanwhile, We constantly checked the thermos temperature to avoid burning his delicate skin.
The next day, to our relief, Lucky took a turn for the better. His body temperature recovered to normal, but he appeared hungry. We started to nurse him with a regular baby bottle.
On our farm we have 15 goats plus chickens and dogs. But Lucky was too little to keep outside. Worrying that other animals could have pushed him around or harmed him, we decided to keep him indoors. We were fortunate to meet the neatest one-because he rarely made messes.
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。
He stayed in the house with us for about a month.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Lucky had his own area outside and even had new companions.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I’m a head nurse, and it’s my job to evaluate workers’ performances at the hospital.
Kenny was a new employee, and he seemed fine. After a few weeks, I had to admit that he was clean, responsible and reasonably efficient.
But he had this self-confident and energetic presence. He was a large man, both physically and socially—he was strong and independent. I worried that a place like our hospital, which demanded teamwork, was not right for such a personality.
We had a patient named Mary. At 94 years old, Mary was as weak as a spiderweb. Her husband and sisters were all dead many years ago. We really didn’t know if she had any children, but if she did, they had long since abandoned her.
Mary had a stubborn belief that someone had taken her purse. She searched for it all hours of the day and night. Unless tied to her bed or wheelchair, she would go through the door onto the street, through the laundry room and into the kitchen, mindlessly searching and never giving up. When she had to stay in bed or in her wheelchair, she would stop almost everyone who came near
“Can you lend me a comb?” she would ask. “I’ve lost mine. It was in my red purse. My money is gone, too. Where is my purse? Where is my purse? Have you seen my purse?
Every day it was the same. We all knew Mary didn’t have a purse, but we wouldn’t say it. Instead we usually answered, “Sure, Mary, if I see your purse I’ll bring it back.”
One afternoon, just before supper, I saw Kenny walking down the hall with a plastic grocery bag. He walked toward Mary in her wheelchair. Then he pulled out a red purse.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡相应位置作答。
Mary’s thin old hands flew up to her face in a gesture of wonder and joy.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Kenny leaned over, opened the purse and showed Mary a red comb inside.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
