Near daybreak the previous day, my friend Jess and I set out on a journey southwest from our snow-covered home in Ottawa, bound for Arizona, a warm place to escape the freezing winter. After loading our equipment and my dog Bailey into my old car, we drove along the freeway with the radio playing lively tunes. Bailey, comfortably sitting on the back seat, added to the joy of the moment. Life couldn't have felt more perfect.
As the miles accumulated behind us, by noon the following day, we pulled off at a rest area with spring-like temperatures. It was an ideal setting for a picnic-style break outside the car. After a refreshing walk, we ate salads and cheese with the sun shining brightly on us. However, the road called us, so unwillingly we headed for the car.
Once the food was stored in the trunk, I opened the back door, throwing my keys onto the front seat, and settled Bailey on the back seat before shutting the door with force. However, as I reached for the driver's door handle, a sudden realization struck me.
“Oh, Jess, the door is locked.”
“What do you mean 'locked'? How did that happen?” Jess questioned with concern.
A wave of fear washed over me as I pieced together the situation. The remote likely triggered (触发) the lock when I threw it onto the driver's seat. Inside the car were our purses, keys, and most importantly, Bailey. The rising temperatures now posed a serious threat to her-being trapped inside a hot box without water.
Assessing the problem with a clearer mind, I instantly reached out to a local auto repair service for assistance. Unfortunately, they couldn't guarantee their arrival time due to staffing shortages, leaving me anxious about Bailey's well-being. The danger of heatstroke (中暑) weighed heavily on my mind, fueling my urgency to find a solution. Breaking the window, which had been my last choice, seemed to be the only one.
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Just then a large truck approached.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Finally Bailey was saved and my car remained whole.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Far from their home in Boucherville, Quebec, looking to remember as many once-in-a-lifetime memories as they could collect, Mia with her parents Edith and Smith rode horses across the bright green grassland of Mongolia, boated on the blue sea off Cambodia, camped under the soaring brick-red peaks of Namibia and flew in a hot air balloon over the brown, lunar-like landscape in Turkiye.
Back in 2013, when Mia was 3, the family began a frustrating series of visits to doctors, none of whom had an answer for her lack of night vision. In 2015, as a last resort, an eye doctor enrolled the family in a research project. After two years, their entire genome (基因组) was mapped out.
“Right now,” the doctor continued, “there is no cure.”
Full of emotion, Edith stood up, excused herself and walked to the nearest bathroom, where she locked herself in it. Unwilling to lose it in front of Mia, who wouldn’t understand, she sat there alone and cried.
While it was tempting to seek a second opinion, Edith and Smith knew that genetic mapping did not lie: The results were definitive and life-changing.
They hesitated about explaining to 7-year-old Mia what her condition meant. Should they let her be a kid, innocent and unaware, for as long as possible? A few weeks later, it just came out, part of a coversation about disabilities in general while having lunch at their kitchen table.
“You know the problem with your eyes?” Edith asked Mia. “You’re probably going to be blind when you’re an adult.” The truth was more abrupt (意外的) than Edith had hoped, but at least it was done. Edith held her breath as she waited for Mia to respond.
“Oh, that’s not fun.” the girl said before changing the subject.
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。
Later that week, Mia started to keep everything in its place in the house.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________After two years’ work, they set out for the yearlong trip while Mia could still see.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When I started high school, I was fourteen years old and six foot tall. The scary thing about being so tall when you’re so young is that people automatically teat you as if you’re older. Yes, I was the size of an adult (actually, bigger than most! ) , but I was still just a kid. And acting more like an adult wouldn’t win me any fiends. As a card-carrying Good Boy, I wanted to meet adults’ expectations and get their praise, but as a Regular Kid, I wanted to be like my peers and get their friendship.
I walked into school that first day in my bluejacket and trousers, the school uniform. I noticed some of my old classmates from my junior high, the ones who had turned their backs on me, and we continued our policy of actively ignoring one another. I felt the pain of their betrayal (背叛) , but I forced my face to remain expressionless. I was here to study hard at academics and to work hard at basketball under my new coach, Jack Donahue. I was here to be excellent. Nothing else mattered.
Indeed I was excellent. I made the honor roll in the first semester, pleasing my parents and teachers. Leaming came naturally to me. I loved reading, especially about history and adventure stories like The Three Musketeers. Basketball, however, I had to work at to do well in.
As a freshman, my style of play reflected my personality: politely passive. I had some skills, but I didn’t have an aggressive nature: The good player around me knew how to play rough, use their bodies with authority, and power their way to a rebound (抢篮板球) . I knew I had to toughen up, and I was committed to getting better, but it wasn’t happening fast enough.
One morning, our school team was scheduled to play a game against Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, and Coach Donahue surprised me by taking me into his office. I figured he was going to discuss his disappointment in my progress as a player, maybe even say something about it all being a big mistake.
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2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
To my surprise, he handed me a team uniform.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________All day, I allowed myself to imagine the game.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Centering myself on the ice of the skating rink (溜冰场), I prepared for my skating performance. A confident smile spread across my face. This was the day I’d perform my best skating in a year, attempting a challenging jump known as the axel (前外一周半跳). My friend Caleb yelled from the stands, “You can do it, Harper!” My other friends crossed their fingers. My dad also shouted, “You look beautiful!”
As the music started, I was fully prepared. With a graceful circle, spins, and a broad smile, I began my performance. Everything progressed smoothly until I reached the crucial axel jump. As I prepared to jump, suddenly a mix of excitement and nerves filled me. To be frank, I could do it when I practiced off-ice, but I’d only landed it on-ice several times in my entire life. My coach had strategically placed it at the start of my routine to ensure my legs were at their peak for this demanding move.
I took the leap, but performed a distinct jump. It was a mere half-circle, falling short of the axel’s one and a half. I heard my friends sigh and saw my coach raise an eyebrow.
Determined, I attempted the axel again, but failed. I repeatedly tried and failed, spending so much time on the ice. When my routine ended, my dress was wet and I was far behind the beat. The silence was deafening, marking the most embarrassing moments of my skating career. As I skated away, I could sense the weight of everyone’s stare upon me.
As I made my way to my coach and dad, I heard the crowd cheering for Marlo, a charming eight-year-old, who was gracefully skating past me, leaving me with an intense sense that my skating career had come to an end.
My coach handed me my skate guards, asking if I was improvising (即兴创作) my routine. I didn’t know how to reply. My friends were embarrassed for me, avoiding my eyes. They seemed to discuss me except Caleb, my close friend. He brought me hot chocolate and apologized before skating his own routine.
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。
I felt an urge to go home, but my dad insisted we wait for the results.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________With doubt I returned onto the skating rink the next morning.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Joey, once again, had taken his entire lunch plate and mixed all the food together. He did something like this pretty much every day at camp. “It’s an experiment,” he told the other campers. “Like what we do in class. It’s fun.” Joey was crazy about experiments, which usually consisted of taking one or more things, and combining them somehow, just like mixing all his food together. Joey would usually take a bite as part of the experiment, and would try to get the other kids at the table to try it too. However, almost nobody ever would like to. Joey’s experiments almost always tasted absolutely horrible.
Joey offered a bite of his unique lunch to the kids at his table. ‘Eric, the only one who sometimes liked Joey’s experiments, decided to give it a try. But even he couldn’t eat more than a bite, which meant the table would lose their “wasted food challenge” —AGAIN.
As part of camp lunch, all the tables weighed their leftovers at the end of the meal. One by one, the tables would line up, empty their plates into a garbage can (垃圾桶), and then the garbage can would be weighed. Whichever table had the least amount of wasted food got to be first in line the next day at lunch. Whichever table had the most amount of wasted food had to stay and wash all the dishes. Each table had the same amount of campers, to be fair. The tables were each named after a different kind of tree. Joey’s table was the Scrub Pine table. Scrub Pine table had lost so many times that everyone laughed at them.
Everyone blamed Joey. He was always the one with the most leftovers. But Joey insisted it wasn’t his fault. He had a trick. Before each weighing, he always mashed up (捣烂) his mixture into the smallest ball possible. Almost everyone else’s plate was littered with uneaten food. Joey just had a ball in the corner of the plate.
Scrub Pine table had already washed dishes four days in a row, and it looked like it was about to be five.
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: So Eric decided to find a way to figure out whose fault it was.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2: One by one, Scrub Pine table each weighed their plates.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The Champion of No Score
Maggie hated Tuesdays—Tuesdays meant gym class, gym class meant picking teams and picking teams meant Maggie would be picked last.
As a newcomer, she’d come up with a special title for each classmate to remember the other kids. There was Kevin, Champion of the Clean Desk. Lynnie, Champion of Knowing the Answer First… Thinking hard, she finally decided her own title: Champion of Quiet.
Maggie felt blue as Tuesday fell again. Mr. Murphy, the gym teacher, asked for volunteer captains to pick their own basketball teams. The usual hands shot into the air. Maggie sighed and glanced to her right. She caught the eye of Jasmine. Champion of Awkward, a girl who was sometimes picked last, too. Then Maggie had an idea. So when Mr. Murphy asked if anyone else wanted to volunteer, Maggie felt her hand slowly rise. Looking again at Jasmine, she took a big breath. Maybe it was time for her to use her voice.
“Maggie?” Mr. Murphy smiled. “You want a turn?”
“Yes,” she said.
The class whispered. Maggie leading a team?
“Yes,” she answered again, louder this time.
Mr. Murphy waved Maggie to the front, where the other three captains—Champion of Jumping Rope, Champion of Never Misses a Shot, and Champion of Doesn’t Know How to Lose—stood, ready to choose their teams.
“Maggie, you get first pick,” said Mr. Murphy. “Jasmine,” announced Maggie. The class snickered. A joke? More than once, Jasmine had tried to score on the wrong basket. Eyes wide, Jasmine took her place beside Maggie. The other three captains called out familiar names—the best players on the basketball court. It was Maggie’s turn again. “I choose Frank.” Frank (Champion of the Untied Shoelace) could not throw, or catch. He knew what it felt like to be the last pick. But not today.
Three very talented teams took shape. And then there was Maggie’s team. Maggie looked at her teammates. There stood Jasmine and Frank, plus Gillian (Champion of Chatter) and George (Champion of Sleepy). “I have chosen the worst team in the history of the world,” Maggie thought to herself.
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。
Hand in hand, the Maggie team walked onto the court.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________They did lose big, but something positive began to unfold in them.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________People always say that with exercise, putting on your shoes is the hardest part. But for Emma, this was a lie. The real pain always started when all the students were gathered on the track, ready to run. It wasn’t the fatigue she minded, it was the looks others gave her. Emma was bigger than others of her age. Back in primary school, she remembers her classmates asking her why her thighs (大腿) were so big and her chest so wide. On the outside, she looked big, but on the inside, she felt as small as a pea. And PE class was when she felt at her smallest.
Not all her classmates made her feel uncomfortable, though. It was mainly a group of girls and boys—the loud, outspoken, popular kids. Although they could run faster than Emma, they preferred to jog a bit behind her, bursting out in laughter every now and then, commenting on how Emma jogged.
Just one more year, Emma kept telling herself. One more year and I’ll have graduated and won’t have to take this stupid PE class anymore. She just wanted to survive it.
But everything changed when a new girl called Kit joined the class. She had short, jet-black hair, bright eyes, and a long scar across the left side of her face. Her entrance into the classroom that day was met by dozens of curious eyes.
Although their teacher, Ms Hardy, didn’t ask Kit for a personal introduction, upon putting her bag down on her desk, Kit rose, saying, “Hi, everyone, nice to meet you, I’m Kit. I love boxing, animation and fashion. You might be wondering about my scar. I got it when I was young when I fell off my bike. Luckily, I didn’t get hurt more seriously. It’s now like a cool trademark of all the adventures I had as a kid.”
After Kit’s introduction, Emma simply sat there, her heart pounding and mouth wide open. How could someone be so confident? Even the popular kids were sitting there in shock.
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。
At lunchtime, Emma was sitting at her usual table with a few other classmates when Kit walked over to them.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________On Friday, it was time for the fearful PE class, but this time, Kit was with her.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________My parents were taking my sisters and me to the beach after several months of planning. We were all very excited. However, we didn’t know what awaited us that day.
We set out early as the beach was 200 miles away from our house. After travelling for two hours, we had only covered 100 miles because of the poor condition of the road. Moreover, that was a remote road and we didn’t see anyone or any house along the way. Suddenly, a loud noise frightened us. The car sharply swung to one side as my lather hit the brakes. Shocked, we got out and saw a flat tire (轮胎). Dad made a phone call to the roadside rescue, and the response he received was that it would take two hours to arrive. Dad decided to change the tire on his own, even though he had never done it before, as he always got help from a technician. He spent over an hour looking up how to change a flat tire in the car’s handbook and finally got it done. After he finished changing if, it was midday, so we decided to take a lunch break before hitting the road again.
After driving for another hour, the car made some strange sounds, slowed down and stopped. Dad tried to start the engine again, but it didn’t work. It was clear that something was wrong. With no houses or other vehicles in sight, we realized we were stranded (使滞留) in the middle of nowhere.
A feeling of frustration and disappointment washed over us. However, we knew we had to stay positive and find a solution. Dad lifted the hood (引擎盖) and examined the engine, hoping to find a simple fix. After some time, he discovered a loose wire that might cause the problem. With his limited knowledge of car mechanics, he managed to reconnect the wire. To our relief, the engine roared back to life. We cheered, grateful that the problem was resolved without needing outside help. Determined to reach our destination, we got back on the road, hoping the worst was behind us.
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。
But when the rain poured down, we knew the bad luck wasn’t over.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Finally, after a long and hard journey, we arrived at the beach.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________American football can be pretty competitive. From old opponents to fan drama, it’s just another part of the game. There have even been all-out violent fights in the name of defending your team. However, one high school football player Mario Hoefer showed that his love for the sport didn’t take priority over helping a person in need.
One afternoon in September, Charles City High School football team Mario was on faced nearby New Hampton in a Friday football game. Mario was captain of his team and Carter the quarterback of the opposing team.
It was really foggy and awfully hot. Filled with excited audience in the stands, the stadium felt like a heated steamer. Every player was we win sweat even during the warm-ups. All this meant the game would be a tough one and a test or the mind and body of both teams.
Soon the game began and for the first three quarters, each team seemed to have a chance to win and they took the lead by turns. So exhausted was Mario running back and forth that he cramped (抽筋) up twice. Each time he got a cramp near the New Hampton sideline, his teammates came to his assistance and stretched his leg to ease the cramp. Though feeling uncomfortable and worn out, Mario soldiered on as Charles City protected a slim lead and New Hampton attempted a late comeback.
In the fourth quarter, Mario saw his teammates across the field break up a crucial pass intended for Carter. Mario was about to cross over to the other side of the field to high five his teammates when he noticed that beside him, Carter fell onto the ground, screaming in pain, his eyes wide open and a look of panic on his face. Carter grabbed his left calf (小腿肚), trying to move his leg in different positions. Judging from Carter’s desperate expression, Mario realized Carter was possibly experiencing an unbearable cramp just as he himself had gone through minutes before. But the New Hampton players were farther away from the quarterback.
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。
Mario knew what to do next.
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The photo was posted on social media.
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In the classroom of Class 7, Grade 8, students were excited about an upcoming event. The school had organized a speech competition titled “Ways to Become Successful,” and many students were eager to showcase their public speaking skills. Among them was 13-year-old Zora, who, had already won two speech contests and was full of confidence that she could win again.
Zora volunteered to represent her class in the competition, and after a round of voting, she was chosen as the class representative. Although there were only seven days left until the big day, Zora felt a sense of ease about the competition. After all, she had been here before and knew what it took to win.
At home, Zora’s father congratulated her on her achievement, while her mother reminded her to take the competition seriously. Despite her parents’ advice, Zora was convinced that her past successes meant this would be a walk in the park. Her teacher also urged her to prepare diligently, but Zora only sought help once to revise her initial draft.
As the days went by, Zora did not put in the necessary effort to refine her speech. When the day of the competition arrived, she was hit with a sudden wave of panic. She couldn’t remember the content of her speech, and as she stepped onto the stage, her anxiety only grew. After delivering the opening lines, she froze, unable to continue. The supportive applause from the audience only added to her confusion, leaving no room for her to recall her prepared words.
Zora struggled through the rest of her speech, finishing it in a state of embarrassment and shame. As she walked off the stage, she saw the disappointment in her teacher’s eyes and felt the letdown from her classmates. It was a heavy burden to bear.
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。
Back at home, Zora could no longer hold back her tears.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The next day, Zora went to school and apologized to her class.
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