A few days ago, the teacher announced the list of candidates for the swimming team. Since I knew I didn’t qualify for the swim team, I’ve been feeling frustrated. I clearly knew that I had to wait a whole year to try out again that might as well be a million years. During that time, when I returned home, I just locked myself in my bedroom.
Dad knew I was feeling down. Without comforting or encouraging me directly, he said it was time for me to help in the kitchen last Sunday. To be honest, I couldn’t imagine what help I could offer. Moreover, my dad is a postman and he doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who would bake great bread. Still, I followed right behind him. Dad got out the flour and milk and intended to teach me how to make the bread, which seemed to be a huge challenge for me and demanded a great amount of energy.
Dad mixed the milk and flour to make the dough. The first step almost exhausted my patience. Next came the most difficult but amusing part — doing nothing. We waited for an hour for the dough to slowly swell and double in size. Then we beat the risen dough down to let the air out, divided it into two and waited for another hour. “Take your time. Don’t rush to put the dough directly into the oven, but if you do, the bread will be hard.” Dad explained As the flour dust in the kitchen quietly settled, time didn’t seem to matter. The dough was going to rise at its own pace.
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My father smiled and said, “It’s your turn to complete the remaining steps.”
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When I tasted the bread, I seemed to understand the meaning of “bread spirit”.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________A little boy almost thought of himself as the most unfortunate child in the world because poliomyelitis (脊髓灰质炎) made his leg lame and his teeth uneven and ugly. He seldom played with his classmates; and when the teacher asked him to answer questions in the class, he always lowered his head without saying a word.
One spring, the boy’s father asked for some saplings (树苗) from the neighbor. He excitedly told his children to plant a sapling each person. The father said, “Whose small tree grows best, I will buy a favorite gift.” The boy also wanted to get his father’s gift. But seeing his brothers and sisters carrying water to water the trees with great enthusiasm, anyhow, he hit upon an idea: he hoped the tree he planted would die soon. So watering it once or twice, he never attended to it any longer.
A few days later, when the little boy went to see his tree again, he was surprised to find it not only didn’t die, but also grew some fresh leaves, and compared with the trees of his brothers and sisters, his appeared greener and more vital. And his father kept his promise and bought the little boy his favorite gift.
Since then, the little boy slowly became optimistic. Nevertheless, again and again on his mind the little boy wondered why his little tree should grow so much better than others’, since he had never paid enough attention to the tree. Who should have done everything?
注意：1. 续写词数应为150词左右；2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
One night, the little boy lay on the bed but couldn’t sleep.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Decades passed.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________There are too many treasures in life we take for granted, the worth of which we don’t fully realize until they’re pointed out to us in some unexpected way. So it was with Mama’s minestrone soup (意大利浓菜汤).
There was no recipe for her minestrone soup. For our large immigrant family, Mama’s soup guaranteed we would never go hungry. It was a symbol of security. Its recipe was created spontaneously (非计划安排地) from what was in the kitchen. And we could judge the state of our family economy by its contents. A hearty soup with tomatoes, pasta, beans, carrots, celery, onion, corn and meat indicated things were going well. A water y soup suggested hard times.
At one time, however, Mama’s soup pot became a source of embarrassment to me, for I feared it would cost me a new friend I had made at school. Sol was a thin, dark-haired boy, and an unusual pal for me because his father was a doctor and they lived in the best part of town. Often Sol invited me to his home for dinner. The family had a cook in a white uniform who worked in a kitchen with shining utensils (厨房用具). The food was good, but I found it bland (清淡的), lacking the heartiness of my home food served from flame-blackened pots. Moreover, the atmosphere matched the food. Everything was so formal. Sol’s mother and father were polite, but conversation around the table was subdued (克制的). And no one hugged! In our family, warm hugs were a constant and if you didn’t kiss your mother, she demanded: “What’s the matter, you sick?” But at that time in my life, all this was an embarrassment.
I had known Sol would like to eat dinner at our house, but that was the last thing I wanted. My family was so different.
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2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Finally when Sol asked again if he could come to our house, I had to say yes.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________But to my amazement, I noticed Sol took a spoonful of Mama’s minestrone soup.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The Secret
“Your secret is safe with me” was Ming’s promise when I told him that I wanted to learn ballet, which was unusual for boys and must be laughed at by most people in my place. I even dared not tell my parents about it.
Ming was my best friend at school. Wearing the same type of school uniform, Ming looked older and bigger, but we were the same age. We grew up together in the same neighbourhood and our parents knew each other well. Ming was always the first one to hear stories from me. I trusted him on everything and anything. One afternoon after school, we met at the balance bars on the school playground as usual. It was just the two of us. I gathered up courage and told him about my secret.
Ming seemed slightly surprised, but he soon smiled and agreed to keep it a secret for me, as he had done other times. We were best friends after all. After a few push-ups, we headed for our own homes.
The next morning, in the school corridor, just as I was about to wave at him and say hi, I noticed something was different. As soon as he saw me, he dropped his head and continued to walk on, avoiding eye contact with me. In the classroom, I couldn’t help casting frequent glimpses at his side—he wasn’t looking at me. In fact, he remained quiet all day. When the school bell rang, he picked up his schoolbag and left the classroom in a rush. Was it because of my secret? What did he do to my secret?
I ate very little that evening. Mum frowned when she saw the food I’d left in the bowl. Dad threw me a disapproving look and asked me how my day was. “It was OK,” I replied, “lots of homework to do.” I stood up, ready to leave the table.
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。
“Wait!” Dad raised his hand and gestured me to sit down.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“Ming will remain your friend,” Dad comforted me.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I was 11 years old when I asked my parents for piano lessons. We were in the impact of the recession (经济衰退). My mother had recently been out of work and so my father became the only bread earner for our family. A polite “no” was the answer.
That didn’t discourage me. I Googled the dimensions of a keyboard, drew the keys onto a piece of paper and stuck it on my desk. I would click notes on an online keyboard and “play” them back on my paper one — keeping the sound they made on the computer in my head. After a while I could hear the notes in my head while pressing the keys on the paper. I spent six months playing scales and chord sequences without touching a real piano. Once my mother saw it wasn’t a craze, in spite of the fact that she and father never wished their daughter to work in music, she borrowed some money from family and friends, and bought me 10 lessons.
I still remember the first lesson. I was struck by how noble and elegant the sound of the piano was, as I had become familiar with the artificial electronic sound. The teacher tried to explain where middle C was but I could already play all the major and minor scales (音阶), as well as tonic and dominant functions.
After eight lessons, I obtained the first grade piano certificate (证书). By the time I started secondary school, we couldn’t afford lessons again, so I returned to my paper keyboard. I passed grade three, then grade five, practicing only on my paper keyboard.
For the grades above that, there’s an expectation that you include a certain sensitivity into your playing. The head of music at my school said I could practice on the school’s grand piano. I would wake up at 5:30 a.m. to get there in time and play until lessons started. I’d skip lunch and then practice after school until the caretaker kicked me out. At home, I’d have dinner, do three hours of revision, and then mental practice until 1 a.m.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题纸的相应位置作答。
One evening, when I was about 13, I came home, and my mother said she had a surprise for me.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________My father was very much against playing the piano, but when he heard my playing, something inside him changed.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Isla and I were studying in the same school. We had been friends since we were six years old. I took Isla as a smart, funny friend, but not all students at our school did, especially the girl students. Girls in our school wore fashionable branded clothes, but Isla sewed hers and her curly hair and thick glasses made her look like a fish, which made her stand out like a sore thumb(招眼).
For me, sometimes I felt embarrassed to be around Isla, particularly when students said rude words about her hair, clothes, glasses—even about the fact that she got really good grades. Isla always seemed to be able to ignore what other students thought, but I couldn’t. I began to distance myself from her.
Our school had a tradition—there was a talent show every spring. Students would sing, dance, play musical instruments, and do whatever they could to show their talents. Being our graduation season in this senior school, this year’s talent show would be obviously different. It would be a huge night.
Ava, who was an outgoing girl, invited me to be on her dance team. “We win the talent show every year, and we expect a satisfactory graduation this year,” Ava said to me excitedly. “We need a new dancer. But only you, not her!” Ava pointed to someone behind me.
I didn’t need to turn around to see who she meant. “Oh, I see,” I said quietly. Ava had hardly headed out when someone tapped on my shoulder. It was Isla. When I saw her confused face, it was like waking up from a dream. Isla asked me eagerly, “Emily, are you going to take part in the talent show?” I hesitated without response. “That’s great, Emily!” Isla told me without waiting for my answer that she was also going to participate this year. I couldn’t believe what I had heard. I started to worry about her when I imagined that she was in front of a huge crowd, and that everybody would laugh at her.
Time passed quickly, and I had barely seen Isla since then. For me, I had to practice hard every day with Ava and the team to keep up since the other dancers had already known the steps.
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。
Ultimately, it was my turn to perform, and I felt extremely nervous.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I stepped off the stage and expressed my thanks to Isla, who was ready to sing.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________It was a heartbreaking moment when my husband Bruce passed away in the late fall. Then deciding what to do with his garden was way down on the list of necessary tasks. During the first few months, I cried with our family, planned a memorial, celebrated a quiet Thanksgiving, and panicked over not having bought Christmas presents.
As the new year began, the often rainy days and long nights deepened my sorrow. I found myself exhausted at the end of February, both physically and mentally. Then the daffodils (水仙花) came out in the garden.
Years before, Bruce had planted dozens of these lemon-yellow flowers. To him, they served as a reminder of hope, a promise that light and warmth would soon replace cold and dark. Looking at those daffodils, I thought about how Bruce had considered our garden a living work of art, carefully choosing plants so we’d see new blooms every month.
Then I noticed all the weeds that had taken root and spread everywhere. The neglect (疏于打理) showed, for Bruce’s illness had lasted a couple of years, a time when he didn’t have energy for yard work the way he had before.
Faced with the neglected garden, I felt at a loss how to deal with the garden in the beginning. My daughter suggested I hire a person to clean and tidy everything up. I didn’t respond.
Every time I sat in the garden alone, the memories of the lively garden came flooding, like the numerous scenes in an unforgettable film. I was reminded of so many days when Bruce came home from work, put on old clothes, and headed out of the door to mow or prune (修剪). Orange dragonflies followed him around the yard as he worked. Honeybees buzzed among the flowers, birds sang beautiful songs, and gentle breezes carried the sweet smell of earth. No matter how cold or wet it was, the fresh air and physical activity made him energized and refreshed. For Bruce, the work was quiet and comforting, which was a relief, as well as a pleasure.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右：2.请在答题卡的相应位置作答。
“I should tend the garden well on my own,” I though to myself.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The garden was so full of vitality (生机) that I expected others to appreciate it with me.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________On a windy day, Emily invited Nora to play football in her garden. “I go first!” Nora shouted as she kicked the ball towards Emily.
“Is that all you got? Watch me, the champion, hit the ball. It will travel off to infinity (无穷大)!”
Emily ran like the wind to the ball and kicked it so hard that it flew over the fence of her garden and into the neighbor’s house. There was a sharp cracking sound.
“Uh oh... what did you do?” Nora asked, feeling afraid.
“L…I don’t know. Oh no! 1 think I broke my neighbor’s window,” Emily cried as she dashed across her garden and hid behind some cherry bushes. Nora faded into thin air.
Terror was written all over Emily’s face. She saw the neighbor, Mr. Mason, picking up the pieces of sharp glass. There was anger, as well as panic, on his face.
The sun was setting. Emily knew that it was not secure for her to stay out so late. Eventually, as the light faded, she returned home, keeping her eyes wide open for the neighbor.
Her heart was shaking as she cautiously arrived home. Her mother saw the sweat on her face. She knew, her daughter had done something wrong. Mother sat next to Emily on the comfortable sofa and then asked, “Emily, are you okay? Is something wrong?”
Emily held her mother’s hands. Her eyes were wet with tears. “Mom, I did something bad, but it was unintentional. I hit the football so hard that it flew out of our garden and broke Mr. Mason’s window.”
Mother listened to her patiently as she calmed her and wiped her tears away. Then she held a sharp-tipped pencil. “Do you know why pencils have erasers?” Mother asked, surprising Emily since she wasn’t expecting such a question.
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。
“To erase our mistakes, ” Emily replied.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________With her heart beating fast, Emily walked up to her neighbor’s front door.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________It Takes at Least 200 Hours to Make a Close Friendship, and More to Maintain It
Many of us worry that we don’t put in enough time to maintain close friendships. But how much is enough? Unfortunately, there’s no magic formula (公式) for how much time you need to spend on your friends to keep them. Each friendship and friend are unique and develops or ends depending on how we interact.
Forming a friendship in the first place takes a certain number of hours of being together. We need between 40 and 60 hours together for a person we know slightly to become a casual friend. In order to move from casual friends to close friends, we need to spend an additional 140 to 160 hours together for a total of about 200 hours.
However, deeper interactions can quicken that timeline. We can form a close bond in less than 200 hours with meaningful conversations. Contrarily, spending 200 hours together doesn’t necessarily mean a person will become a close friend. They have to want to be your friends. Some co-workers can spend 300 hours together and never become close friends.
When it comes to maintaining friendships, it’s not just the number of hours spent together, but what we do that matters. Engaging in passive activity with friends — like watching a TV series — is fun and enjoyable, but it doesn’t do as much to maintain friendship as having deep conversations, sharing feelings, and being a good listener. And routinely checking in with people we choose to connect with, through calls and texts or in person, helps maintain relationships and leads to higher scores of positive feelings, like happiness.
The key point is that sharing things about ourselves can lead to close friendships. Once that closeness is established, some ways to maintain closeness are supporting friends when things go wrong for them and celebrating their achievements.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The new year was coming and my family began to make this year’s plan for it. “The weather report says this unseasonably warm weather will continue through the week. We could shake things up and celebrate the new year with a picnic party in the backyard!” said my mum.
“Our San Francisco weather can be pretty unpredictable,” said my dad. “Maybe we should come up with a sensible indoor plan.” Then he continued, “Hey! Why not start this year with something different? ”
“Yeah!” my little brother, Tex, agreed.
“It’ll be a great!” said Mom. Then she turned to my cousin, Mareya, who was staying with me, “Mareya, we’d love to have you and your family join us. And how about we invite Ollie and Grandma? ”
We all cheered. And after the fastest kitchen cleanup in history, Mareya and I raced over to Ollie’s. Grandma was also excited and suggested we get out the instruments and make a little music.
Grandma’s music suggestion got us thinking. Ollie, Mareya, and I made up a simple song, and somehow, it turned into an idea for a play! Later that afternoon, we went back to my house to find out the costume box. Naturally, my little brother and sister joined right in.
We made up a play, in which the forest animals threw a party to celebrate the arrival of the New Year Queen. Fast-forward to New Year’s Day when we worked all morning to set up our backyard stage. We prepared some flowers and a basket of pine nuts (松子) to greet the Queen when she stepped on the stage.
Unfortunately, the weather that morning was so windy and cold that we all felt freezing. Mum suggested us giving the performance indoors. But we insisted on showing the play outside, as we had all set up for it in the yard. Mum then said that we could start with the play outside, and then had the food inside. Everyone agreed.
Once our audience were seated, Ollie opened the show. When we were half way through the performance, right in the middle of our song-and-dance scene, a strong wind blew! Suddenly, there was a mess as everybody hurried to pick things up. But afterward, the air was calm again.
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。
“The show must go on!” Grandma called from the audience.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Attracted by the smell of pine nuts dropped on the ground, two real squirrels (松鼠) ran onto the stage.
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