Tomatoes: The Real Magical Fruit
“Fresh tomato plants! Straight out of the ground! 50 cents each!” I shouted in the school hall. In my hands, I carried a shoebox with little tomato plants. Their homes were plastic bottles, without the top half. Most people ignored my product, but some handed me 50 cents and picked out a 2-week-old baby tomato plant.
About a month before this, I started gardening. I pulled up grass in my little garden for several days in a row. Satisfied with my work, I continued to the second step — begging my dad to take me to the supermarket. He agreed!
When my dad turned off the engine and opened the door, I practically skipped inside the supermarket. We headed straight for the garden center. I picked up planters, seeds and dirt. My dad helped and showed me the best dirt and tomato plant types to get. We got to the register, and my dad, knowing what would happen, helped me pay.
As soon as I got home, I began to plant them in my garden. The following days witnessed my visits to the garden and my parents were amazed by my devotion to my new-found love.
Then was the part where I met my problem — I planted too many tomato seeds. I realized this all too late, about 10 days later when they all started sprouting (发芽) up and I counted 45 tomato plants. A few days went by and then I ended up with 85 tomato plants.
I did what all high schoolers would do when they messed up — I asked people around. I even got a notebook to write down their suggestions. Sadly, I got the same answer from most people, “Just let them die.” WHAT?! Let my beautiful plants die? They had so much potential! They could make 20 — 30 tomatoes per plant! We were talking about the possibility of around 2,550 tomatoes!
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。
So, I decided to solve it in my way.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The result was better than I had thought.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“Where’s the rest of my paper?” thundered an angry Papa Bear, storming into the living room. It didn’t take him long to find Brother Bear and the sports section.
“I just borrowed it.” said Brother. Papa snatched it up and plumped down in his easy chair. Brother wandered into the kitchen looking for sympathy from Mama Bear. “Gee,” he said, “what’s eating him?” “Your father looks forward to his evening paper,” Mama said, “and he has a perfect right to be annoyed when half of it is missing — and furthermore, thank you not to refer to your father as him!”
She stomped out of the kitchen.
“Why not? He’s a him, isn’t he? Gosh,” said Brother, “what’s eating her?”
What was “eating” Mama was Sister Bear. Sister had been on the phone with Lizy Bruin for almost an hour.
“But Mama!” she protested when she was told to say good-bye.
“Don’t But Mama’ me!“ said Mama Bear. “This is not your private phone. You’ve had all day to talk to Lizy at school, and you’ll have all day to talk to her tomorrow. So hang up that phone now!”
Sister did as she was told.
“Phew!” breathed Brother as he fell into the seat beside Cousin Fred on the school bus.
“Tough morning?” asked Fred.
“You better believe it!” said Sister, taking the seat Lizzy had saved for her.
The four compared notes on the way to school. The children agreed that while there was no doubt that their parents loved them, they were a little difficult to get along with sometimes. They nagged (唠叨); they said no a lot; and they never wanted kids to have any fun.
“Hey,” said Brother as they got off the bus, “what are we going to do for the Parents Night Talent Show?” “Don’t know,” said Lizzy. “Let’s think about it”
When the four searched their brains, Brother snapped his fingers and said, “I’ve got it! Remember what we were talking about just now?” “Sure,” said Fred. “We were saying how grownups can be a big pain.”
Paragraph one:
“Well,” said Brother, “let’s put on a play about that, and call it...”
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Paragraph two:
Despite the difficulties in the preparation, especially costumes, their big day came finally.
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Kumar was a hard-working and ambitious student in Academic Magnet High School, who had a preference for the engineering design. One day he was walking home from school. Nothing pleased him more than to walk along the busy street and look at the glass doors of the shops. When doing so, he never failed to stop to look at the latest laptops in the computer shop. He was thinking. “I would love so much to own that laptop. But nobody will buy it for me.”
So Kumar thought hard of what to do. The school holiday was coming up next week. An idea struck him. He would do odd jobs to earn some money. Yes! That was what he would do.
His house is next to East Lake shore Drive in Chicago, where there stand varieties of cottages with beautiful gardens. It follows that he designed a plan of working in his neighbors’ gardens. First, he would approach them and ask them to let him clean up their gardens. After his finishing the job. each owner would probably pay him $50 or $ 60. Working in more than ten gardens would enable him to accumulate enough cash to buy his beloved laptop. Making up his mind triggered a feeling of joy and a brisk walk home.
The next day. he went around his neighborhood and asked the residents if he could clean their gardens. He asked them politely. “Excuse me. can I work in your garden during the school holiday?” Many of the owners were kind of curious about what Kumar was requiring and asked why. Having known about his thirsty for a laptop, they all replied “Yes”. They liked the courteous (有礼貌的) boy.
So Kumar started working in his first house. He woke up early that morning. He took three hours to clear the rubbish and cut the grass. It was not easy work. He had to mow the grass. After that, he had to pull the weeds. Then, he had to arrange the flowerpots. This arduous (艰巨的) work went on for a week. Consequently, he had no time for games or even watching television.
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 that week, his parents and friends had different voices.
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At the end of November, he had saved up enough money.
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A few senior high students were going to Fort Lauderdale with sandwiches and drinks in the paper bags, dreaming of the golden beaches as the gray cold of New York vanished behind them. As the bus passed through New Jersey, they began to notice a man, who sat in front of them, dressed in a plain, ill-fitting suit, never moving, his dusty face masking his age. He fixed his eyes on the photo in his hands, frozen into some personal cocoon of silence.
Deep into the night, outside Washington, the bus pulled into Howard Johnson’s, and everybody got off except the man. He sat rooted in his seat, and the students began to wonder about him, trying to imagine his life: perhaps he was a sea captain, a runaway from his wife, an old soldier going home. When they went back to the bus, one of the students sat beside him and introduced himself.
“We’re going to Florida,” the student said brightly. “I hear it’s really beautiful.”
“It is,” the man said quietly, as if remembering something he had tried to forget.
“Want some bread?” the student said. He smiled and took a piece. He thanked him and retreated again into his silence. After a while, the man told his story slowly and painfully.
His name was Vingo, he had been in prison in New York for the past four years，and now he was going home. “ When I was in prison I wrote to my wife,” he said “I told her that I was going to be away for a long time, and that if she couldn’t stand it, if the kids kept asking questions, if it hurt too much, she could just forget me, I’d understand,”
“Last week, knowing I would be free, I wrote her again. We used to live in Brunswick and there’s a big oak tree just as you come into town. I told her that if she would take me back, she should put a yellow handkerchief on the tree, and I’d get off and come home with her. If she didn’t accept me, forget it, no handkerchief, and I’d go on through.”
“Wow,” the student exclaimed and gazed at the photo in his hands. All the other students were into it.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；2. 请按照如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
In the photo, the students saw a young woman with two little children standing before an oak tree.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________With the oak tree in sight, the students were up out of their seats, wild with joy. But Vingo sat there, amazed.
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