During winter, Leo noticed that of all the houses on the block, there was one with a messy, dirty yard that looked unattended. One day, after all the snow had melted and the trees were starting to bloom (开花) just in time for spring, Leo couldn’t help but stare at his neighbor’s messy yard a little longer. The melted snow showed all the buried leaves and other trash.
He went back home and brought the tools he needed. It took Leo the entire afternoon to clear the yard. He moved the melting snow out of the pathway and swept the leaves from the ground. He also trimmed (修剪) the bushes and left them as neat as he could.
The following morning, the old woman, Abigail, opened her door with joy. She had quietly watched the young man clean up the yard the day before, much to her relief.
Abigail had not left her house in months. She relied totally on her caregiver for her basic needs and was eager to get fresh air. After sitting in her wheelchair in her front yard for a couple of minutes, her neighbors started to notice her. They walked toward her to say hi, and soon, the crowd grew.
“It’s so lovely to see you outdoors, Abigail! How have you been?” one of them asked.
“I’m so happy to be breathing some fresh air for a change. I couldn’t leave the house for months because of the snow. It was too deep, and I couldn’t afford to hi re someone to help me with it,” Abigail admitted.
“But yesterday, I saw a kind young man cleaning my yard the entire afternoon. I wanted to thank him, but I had no food to offer him because my caregiver had not arrived yet,” she shared. “He is such a blessing. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw him!”
When Abigail praised the “kind young man” who helped her, they immediately knew it was Leo. The neighbors looked at each other, with guilty all over their faces. They realized they had been so blind to Abigail’s problems that no one thought to help her by cleaning her yard.
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。
They decided to thank Leo by visiting his house.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When he opened his front door, Leo was surprised to see his neighbors bearing gifts.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________My name is Padmanaban and I am an average kid. My father is a great scientist who is known all over the world and is interested in making new things. However, I usually get around 50 points out of 100 in my exams.
One time, my scores were 45,54,65,29, and 48, as low as usual. My class topper Benjamin made fun of me like he usually did, “Here comes the son of the greatest scientist in the world. I wonder why he did not inherit (继承) his father’s brain!” The whole class laughed for the joke going on for years.
Then I found myself waiting for my birthday and my father called me to choose my present.
“What do you want for the gift?” he asked.
“I just want to beat Benjamin!” I said to him.
“You have to study for that,” my father said.
After two months, my father told me his new invention was complete. “I created the microsensor (微型传感器)!” he said. He gave it to me as my birthday gift.
“What does it do?” I asked.
“What you need to do is a little thing. You put on the power glasses, insert (插入) the sensor in it and allow it a few moments to start. Then the sensor is connected to your brain. You just think, ‘OK, micro.’ Then you ask a question. It will answer it perfectly in your brain. It’s good for your study when you meet problems you can’t solve.”
A week later, my teacher said that whoever gets the highest grade in the exam will be given a tour to the Disneyland. Wow! All I wanted to do in my life was to visit the Disneyland.
So on the day of the exam, even though I did not study, I had confidence in the sensor. It was already connected to the glasses.
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。
Paragraph 1:
I asked my father whether I could use it .
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So, with one last look on the glasses. I slowly kept it in my bag.
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The sea was shining across the horizon as my husband, Michael, and I looked out over the rocky cliff（悬崖） of Gleesons Landing in Yorke Peninsula. "Careful Abby doesn't fall down the rocks here," Michael warned as he pulled out his fishing rod（鱼竿）. Abby was our two-year-old rescue dog（搜救犬）we'd adopted one year earlier.
Leaving Michael to his fishing, Abby and I wandered off. We'd been walking for a while when we saw a small path that led down the side of the cliff towards the beach. Abby raced off and as I followed, my leg caught on a rock and I fell down the cliff. Landing three meters down, my left leg cracked violently. Shocked, I tried to keep myself calm. I couldn't feel any pain but when I tried to get up, my body just fell back down. "Go and get Daddy," I signaled to Abby as she paced nervously beside me. At first she refused to leave my side. But somehow she realized I needed her and raced off.
Alone and staring out to sea, my world faded to black. Staying awake some time later, I discovered Abby hadn't returned. Suddenly, I heard movement coming from above. "Sue?" Michael called out. Relief flooded through me as I looked up and saw Michael and Abby. "I think I broke my leg," I shouted back. "I'll go get help," he promised. "If I try to reach you myself, they'll be rescuing two of us."
Faint and tired, I held on to consciousness. Abbey came down to me and kept me company until the rescuers arrived. They carried me on a stretcher（担架） to a helicopter, where I was flown to hospital in Adelaide while Michael and Abby drove.
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。
At the hospital, the pain caused by the fall finally hit me.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“She led me to the exact spot where you were,” Michael explained.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________It all started after a routine doctor visit. I’d been planning on getting healthy, but the number s showed that my vague efforts weren’t working at all. Weijing 325pounds, I found my blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood pressure were all way over target. Things had to change. Dradically.
But I was definitely not doing another diet of cramming (塞满) denial and shame down my throat until I hit some number on a scale. I was tired of watching the weight return again and again. bringing with it more guilt and shame. Clearly, I needed to make lifestyle changes.
It occurred to me that I knew a lot about what didn’t work, since all my previous attempts had led me to this sorry state. I needed to get healthy, but in a slow, steady, rest-d-my-life kind of way.
I’ve been a software developer for twenty-five years, so naturally I went to that skill set. I thought. “What if the system I need to redesign is me?” I decided to reboot (重启) my own system. Could I make it easy? Make it fun?
That idea seems radical (过激的). It goes against diet culture and the advertising messages we’ve been bombarded with our entire lives. We’re told over and over that getting health y is difficult. No pain, no gain, right?
But I found out it doesn’t have to be that way. I started upgrading my system by reviewing all the times I tried to get healthy in the past. I made a list of what didn’t work. Then I wrote down what did work, or at least worked for a while, and why it stopped working. There were some surprises. My membership at 15-Minute Fitness, for example, was a huge success. I worked out with a trainer for an intense fifteen minutes twice a week and saw huge gains.
One by one, I went through every failed attempt. I realized that the consistent elements across all of them were guilt, shame and internal bullying.
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。
Then I came up with new rules.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________After my first 100 days, I sat e big improvements.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________It has been another long, hard winter here in the mountains of my home. High winds, heavy snows, freezing cold, and heavy rains have all hit us, causing damage to people, power lines, and even the trees around here. And today, as I look at the broken branches filling my daughter’s yard, memories from another hard winter several years ago flood me.
It was a day of dark clouds and bitter wind, and soon it began to rain. The rain was falling more and more heavily, and the wind blew wildly. You could see only a few meters on the road. At this moment, I was at work, looking through the window at the rain. I began to worry about how I would drive home from work. Luckily, the rain stopped before I finished my work.
It rained heavily for hours. The rainwater from the hills made the rivers full, filled the fields and formed water holes in the road. In addition to this, broken and fallen tree branches were everywhere.
I was driving home. Suddenly, I saw one of these branches had broken off a tree hanging above the road and fallen across it. It was big enough to crash my car, so I slowed down my car and turned on my emergency flashing lights.
Thankfully, there were no other cars there yet, but I knew that it would only be a matter of time before one crashed into that branch, maybe causing an injury or even a death. I quickly got out of my car and tried to pull the branch to the side of the road.
Just as I did, though, a little red car raced around me, hit a pool of water in the road and made my trousers dirty with rainwater.
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。
Before I said something, the red car pulled up.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Then we tried our best to remove the branch together.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I have always been free and easy when it comes to handing out small change on the street, and a couple of months ago I lend 200 to a man I had never met before. Anyway, let me tell you about Brendan.
On my way back to London, I spotted a man with a large backpack and his thumb out to ask for a free lift. I pulled over and lowered the window.
“Which way are you heading?” I asked. “I’m going back to London.”
“Ah, that would be grand,” came his immediate reply. He opened the door and put his backpack on the back seat, “I’m Brendan,” he said with a smile. “I’ve had my thumb out for a day and half. Nobody seems to stop these days.”
As we headed cast along the motorway, Brendan told me about the two recent family tragedies that had pushed him out of his old life and on to the road. He told me that he was 52. He laughed a lot and enjoyed his off-grid (离网) lifestyle until the week before when he’d been mugged (抢劫). And now he just wanted to get some casual work in London, so he could then get himself home to Ireland.
It must have been the notion of home that got me and helping a man who’d clearly had a tough time seemed like the right thing to do. To my surprise I heard myself say: “Well, I’ll lend you 200 to fly home, Brendan.”
“Grand,” he replied excitedly. Then, after a pause, “and please don’t worry. I’ll definitely pay back the money when I get home.” He took my phone number and address, saying he’d call as soon as he could.
Eight weeks past, a call from Brendan made me disappointed.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________A month after I got the call, to my surprise, a package was delivered to me.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The dog days of summer in Central Texas are hot and damp. It was a pity that our home didn’t have air conditioning. Momma and I were just trying to get through this August afternoon the best we could. Reading helped take our minds off the heat. Momma was stretched across the sofa, a pillow (枕头) under her head, reading. I sat on the floor, leaning (倚靠) back against the sofa, a curious nine-year-old in shorts sharing a fan’s flow. My book rested on the floor.
I looked at the thin hardcover my mom was reading, Ed Nichols Rode a Horse. There was a cowboy riding his horse on the front cover, but otherwise the book appeared plain and unimpressive. Before I settled, I asked, “Momma, what’s your book about?”
“It’s a story about a man, his horse and the hardships he encountered in Texas. Some of it takes place in Bosque County,” she answered.
With that, my mom returned to her story. I knew Bosque County was near where Momma had grown up. And I also knew it was best if I didn’t ask any more questions. My mom took her reading seriously.
We’d been reading for the better part of an hour-the only sounds were those that came from the fan and an occasional turn of a page — when I heard something unfamiliar. The sniffling (抽鼻子) back of tears.
I turned in her direction and saw something I’d never seen before: my mom crying. Something big — really big must have happened. My mom did not cry.
“Momma, what’s wrong?” I got up on my knees, staring directly into her face. “Are you all right?” “Jennifer, I’m fine.” Momma sat up and wiped (擦) her eyes. “You don’t need to be concerned.”
I wasn’t buying it. This was not normal behavior. “Why were you crying?” I asked in a whisper. She looked at me hard. “The book made me cry,” she replied.
I was trying to figure out how that plain-looking book could make my mostly no-nonsense momma cry when she said the most amazing thing. “The story made me sad when the horse got hurt.”
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。
That’s when I learned the truth that stories affect us.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I read Ed Nichols Rode a Horse from cover to cover with a big plan forming in my mind.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________One summer day, I decided to go for a walk in the nearby forest. I had my backpack prepared with water, food, and sunscreen. I was excited to spend some time in nature, away from the busy city.
The forest was attractive, with towering trees that seemed to touch the sky and colorful wildflowers under my feet. I walked deeper into the woods, attracted by the pleasant sounds of birds. The path I followed was winding and narrow, but I paid little attention, carried away by the beauty. I started to notice that the trees around me looked unfamiliar. Soon I found myself lost. I realized that I had no idea which way to go.
The sun was setting and I knew that I needed to find a way out before it got dark. I started walking, trying to remember which direction I had come from. But the forest was a maze (迷宫) of winding paths, and I soon found myself going in circles. Every tree looked the same, and every path seemed to lead nowhere.
The sound of leaves made me jump. Was it a wild animal? My heart was racing and I tried to stay calm as I listened for other sounds. But there was only silence, broken now and then by the distant calls of birds.
As the sun set, I fully understood the seriousness of my situation. There was no food or water left. I was completely alone, lost in a wilderness that could easily devour (吞噬) me. I walked nervously, tripping over things in my path, feeling frightened with a racing heartbeat. Hours passed, or maybe only minutes. Time had lost all meaning in this place.
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。
But then, as I was about to give up hope, I saw a weak light in the distance.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The house s owner welcomed me inside.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________What a great year we had had! A new baby daughter, a job promotion (晋升) for my husband, and a new home were among what we had received. My husband and I were grateful for them. We wanted no gifts for Christmas, because our cups were running over. So my husband and I decided to teach them to learn to share.
After dinner, we talked about doing something special for someone else at Christmas. Our oldest son said, “Why don’t we find a family who needs help and give them presents?”
All of us were excited about the idea. We didn’t know exactly how we find our “Christmas family”, but we did know we wanted to help. The next morning I made calls to friends who might know of someone in need. That evening at dinner I described the family I had found. The father was a repairman but lost his job two weeks before. He hadn’t landed a new job yet. There were three children in the family. The wife gave birth to a new baby, who was the same age as ours. But unluckily, the baby had been taking many tests as doctors tried to determine why she wasn’t developing properly. They had spent almost all their savings on the treatment, with little for daily necessities. They were in great trouble. Of course, they had little hope of having gifts for Christmas.
“Can we give them some of our clothes?” asked our daughter. We all agreed that her idea was good, and so the children ran to their bedrooms and began sorting out the clothes they had outgrown. But my husband and I knew that clothes were not enough.
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。
On Christmas Eve, my family went for holiday shopping.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Then we were off to deliver Christmas gifts to our special family.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Steven Green was a hardworking man who worked all his life to support his family. He never finished college, so he had to take hard labor jobs around the neighborhood. He worked as a builder and a carpenter through the years. He often helped his neighbors whenever needed. However, as he grew older, he could no longer do these jobs. His knees grew weak, and his health condition made it difficult for him to do difficult jobs.
Steven’s kids didn’t live in the same state as him and could only send him a little money because they also led a poor life. Unfortunately, Steven experienced constant physical pain after doing hard labor jobs for years, and he needed to take medicine every day. The money his kids offered was only enough for food, and his savings were small. Realizing that he needed more money, Steven decided to get a job again. Finally, he found a job as a doorkeeper. At first, his salary was enough to pay for the groceries and the medicine he needed. However, due to his advanced age, he started to need more medicine, and it cost a whole lot.
To pay the growing bills, Steven began to take things from his home to a second-hand store to get some money. One day, as he was carrying an old radio to the store, his neighbor, Ben, saw him. “Mr. Green, it’s so good to see you! How have you been?” Ben asked. “I’m doing great. I’m just selling couple of things I no longer use at home for some cash. Being weak is terrible when you’re old, so take care of yourself when you are young, alright?” he said almost jokingly. Ben nodded.
“Thanks for the tip, Mr. Green!” he said before waving goodbye. That same day, Steven was cooking dinner when he heard the doorbell ring. He wasn’t expecting anyone, so he curiously walked towards the door.
Paragraph 1:Surprisingly, he saw Ben standing there with a jacket in his arms.
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Paragraph 2:
“Ben must have forgotten about the check inside the pocket,” Steven thought.
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