Harry’s reward
Harry didn’t want to learn to swim. He couldn’t figure out what the use of learning to swim was. But Harry’s parents believed it was a great pity for a healthy boy to be afraid of the wind and the sea.
“Everybody, especially every Englishman and boy, should know how to swim,” Papa had said. “There is never any knowing the use it may be of.”
“Isn’t it very hard to learn?” Harry asked.
“It takes some patience,” his father said. “But in three weeks or so, you should be able to swim fairly well, if you have a lesson every day.”
There was no escaping it, however. Papa, though very kind, was very firm, and once he said a thing, it had to be done. So with a rather white face, poor Harry set off every day for his swimming lesson. He was a quick and clever boy, and a strong boy, and his father knew this. After the initial fear was overcome, it went on better and faster than could have been expected. Two weeks later, Harry had the pleasure of hearing his father say to his mother, “He swims already very nearly as well as I do myself.”
Seacliff, the place at which the family was spending the summer, was not a fashionable watering place but a little village. There were a few gentlemen’s houses in the neighborhood, so that in fine weather merry groups met at the little sheltered bay among the rocks.
One day, Harry, having finished his own morning swim, set off to walk home at his ease. Suddenly a sound disturbed his pleasant thoughts. A carriage was rushing wildly along, coming nearer and nearer. The driver, Ann, stood upright in the carriage (马车), hitting the poor horse as if she were mad, while from time to time she screamed, “Help, help!”
“What is it?” screamed Harry too, as Ann passed. She would not stop, but she threw back some words through the wind. “My sister—Alice—is drowning (淹溺). Go to the village to fetch someone who can swim.”
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。
Harry ran back to the bathing place at once.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________There were plenty of hands to help carry them to land once they were within a safe distance; however, it was Harry who was the true hero.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I am a proud mother of three children, my last little one being delivered in the middle of this pandemic (疫情). She was born in August and her name is Aida.
Shortly after having Aida, my mother-in-law Ann showed me something she learned from her friend’s mother in an art class she attended weekly, She had showed me how to knit (编织) a scarf.
I spent a lot of time breastfeeding my sweet little girl, so I had some extra time to do something with my hands throughout the day. I enjoyed making the scarf so I purchased tons of yarn (线) since it was winter. I wanted to make scarves for my three children as Christmas gifts.
There was a new family that moved in down the street. The only daughter of the family was Jane, a shy girl, aged 14, the same age of my oldest son David. It seemed that she came from a financially disadvantaged family, for she always wore old clothes. Worse still, in such cold days, she had no more clothes to wear and trembled with cold.
Due to the pandemic, society was thrown into crisis mode. Schools were closed, food supplies and deliveries were suspended and children were stuck at home. In such discouraging time, however, they became good companions, talking and playing at home or around the houses.
It was dreadfully cold this winter. Every time David came back from outside, with red face, he always cried, “Mum, it is freezing outside!” Then, he came over to see whether I finished the scarf. I could tell how impatient he was to wear my scarf sooner! I had to speed the project to satisfy his expectation. But David comforted me by saying he could wait a few days. What a kind and considerate boy he was! Then my great art project finally was accomplished on the morning ahead of Christmas.
注意：1.续写词数应为150词左右；
2.续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语己为你写好。
Paragraph 1: I wrapped the scarf around David’s neck.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2: Later that day David came back saying Jane also deserved a scarf.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Emily was a shy and quiet student in Greenfield High School. Emily was known for her quiet behavior and her love for literature, often found lost in the pages of a book during lunch breaks.
One day, as Emily walked through the hallway, she noticed a colorful poster announcing an upcoming English poetry competition. Her heart raced with excitement at the prospect of showcasing her talent, but her mind was immediately flooded with doubts. “What if my poem is not good enough? What if everyone laughs at me?”she thought to herself, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment.
As the days went by, Emily found herself caught between her desire to participate and her fear of failure. She talked with her best friend, Sarah, who had been by her side since they were little. She was known for her outgoing personality and her ability to make everyone feel included.
“You have a gift, Emily, ”Sarah said reassuringly, her blue eyes filled with encouragement. “Don’t let your fears hold you back. You never know what might happen unless you try. ”
With Sarah’s support, Emily decided to take a leap of faith and submit her poem for the competition. As the day of the event drew near, she felt a mix of nervousness and expectation. She spent hours perfecting her poem, carefully choosing each word and line to convey her emotions. She practiced her poem in front of the miror, trying to perfect her delivery and expression.
But despite her newfound confidence, Emily couldn’t shake off the feeling of doubt in her mind. These thoughts consumed her, making it difficult for her to focus on anything else.
It was during one of these moments of self-doubt that Sarah came to her rescue once again. “You’re an amazing writer, Emily, ”she said, her voice filled with warmth and sincerity. “Your poem is going to be incredible. Just believe in yourself. ”With Sarah’s words in her mind, Emily felt a renewed sense of determination.
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:
On the day of the competition, Emily took a deep breath and stepped onto the stage.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2:
In the end, Emily’s poem won first place.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________In the first grade in senior high school, I was extremely shy, I had friends, but it just wasn’t in my personality to be very outgoing, even when I knew someone. I was afraid I would do or say something wrong, so usually I just smiled and listened to other people’s conversations.
I did well in school and I loved to write. However, I would escape into my writing, where I could be myself and never had to worry about what other people thought of me. In my stories, I was never shy, I often imagined that I was the main character in the story. My teacher, Mrs. Sather, always encouraged me to write more and be myself. She told our class to go after our dreams and dig in with great efforts. I thoughts he was one of the first people to see my inner strength.
One day, she showed us a play she had written and announccd that our class was going to perform it. “I’ll begin to choose all the performers tomorrow” she said, “I need someone who is not afraid to be onstage in front of a lot of people to play the lead part of Dorothy. Anybody wants to try?” A few excited hands shot up -mine, of course, was not one of them and Mrs. Sather smiled. “We’ll talk more about it later,” she said. Then the bell rang and my classmates slowly left the classroom.
“I will never do that,” I thought. But after rereading the play, I was deeply attracted by the story and couldn’t help imagining myself to be the main character Dorothy. There seemed to be a new person inside me, a much more daring, outgoing person who had been hidden all along, just waiting for the opportunity to appear. However, I still felt shy and could never picture myself acting in a play in front of two hundred people. Having struggled for a few minutes, I still did not know how to make the decision.
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。
When I was packing my schoolbag, Mrs Sather asked me to go to her.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
One week later, it was time for me to perform on the stage.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Jean’s dream was to be a great chef, so when she was 20, she travelled to France, which has the most famous cuisine in the world, to learn to cook. After twelve years, she was among the best.
Her father, Bob, was getting old, and she wanted to be near him. Jean accepted an offer from one of Washington’s top restaurants. The manager offered her a handsome salary, and 30% ownership of the restaurant. The next day, Jean went to sign the contract. As she got out of the car, she caught sight of a green sunshade. Instead of going to meet the manager, she crossed the street towards the old restaurant, Fargonetti’s. She pushed open the door and the memories came flooding back.
Jean’s mum died when she was just 11, and her father lost his job and was forced to freelance (从事自由职业). Money was very short. When Jean turned thirteen, Bob had made a reservation at Fargonetti’s, the capital’s best restaurant.
“I’m not hungry, baby girl. I had a huge breakfast,” Bob said. “This is all for you!” “Oh,” Jean cried. “Daddy was so silly! He’s been saving to come here for lunch for MONTHS and now he ruined his appetite with breakfast!” The waiter, Carl Bader, immediately realised what was going on and went to Mr Fargonetti, the restaurant owner, and told him about Jean and Bob.
An hour later, surprisingly, the waiter brought wonderful dishes and set them before the father and daughter. “Lunch is on the house with Mr Fargoneti’s compliments (致意),” Carl said. For Bob and Jean, it was a free but magical meal. They were on cloud nine when they walked out. “Jean,“ said Bob happily. “I feel our luck has changed!” And it did! The next day, one of Bob’s old friends called and offered him a job at a new magazine, and Jean believed Fargonetti’s had made it all happen. That was when she decided to become a chef!
Twenty years later, the old restaurant looked run-down and sad, but Jean recognised the waiter immediately. “Carl?” she asked delightedly.
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。
The man looked surprised.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Jean was staring at Carl and a brilliant idea was taking shape in her mind.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Larry had butterflies in his stomach. Today was the day for him to meet his girlfriend Kate’s parents. He was planning to leave them a good impression, so he was in his finest suit. On the way, he secretly recited a few jokes he picked up online the previous night. His weird behavior caught Kate’s attention.
“What are you doing, honey?” she asked. Blushing, Larry told her what he was doing. She, on the other hand, actually found his eagerness to please her family quite cute. “Well, let’s hear your jokes.” she said teasingly.
They were so immersed in their chatter and laughter that before they knew it, they had arrived at the house of Kate’s parents, who gave them a warm welcome. As an orphan, that night, Larry felt the love and warmth he had always longed for since childhood.
The next day, they drove downtown to pick their engagement ring. Everything was working out just perfectly. However, on their way home, a truck driven by a drunk driver smashed into their car, sending it flying off the roadside down a steep hill before it got stuck between several trees.
Larry struggled out of his seat to save the then unconscious Kate. As he made every effort to wake her up, the car began to slip down again. With only seconds to act, he hastily removed her seat belt and pushed her out of the car before it fell downhill again with him trapped inside.
A rescue team finally arrived and drove them to a nearby hospital. Under the doctors’ treatment, Kate woke up the next day. She was only slightly injured, but Larry remained unconscious due to severe damage done to his brain caused by the heavy impact.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右了；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Para 1: The doctors were afraid Larry might never wake up again.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Para 2: Larry told Kate to leave him and find someone else.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Two months to save my girl’s life
As my feet pounded the pavement, sweat dripped down my forehead and back. “Just a little bit further,” I told myself, determined to push forward. Though I’d never been much of a runner, I had a crucial motivation to save my little girl, Bridie. Born in January 2017, she had beautiful big blue eyes. But shortly after her arrival, doctors pointed out that her head was measuring quite large. Within days, she was diagnosed with sagittal craniosynostosis. Doctors explained that she’d need surgery. They also noticed that her limbs and fingers were measuring quite short, so Bridie went through genetic testing to find out why. When the results came back, my wife and I met with the specialist. “Bridie has Mainzer-Saldino syndrome,” he said. He also revealed the rare condition would cause reinal (视网膜的) degeneration, meaning she could go blind and develop kidney (肾) disease.
So, when Bridie fell ill in 2019 with common flu, it caused a loss to her little body. Sadly, the medications she needed to help her recover weakened her kidneys even further. By December that year, her specialist revealed they were only functioning at 30 percent. “If it gets any worse, she will need to start dialysis (透析),” he admitted, adding that a transplant might be required sooner than we first thought.
It broke my heart, and I knew I had to step up to help save my girl. So I volunteered to give her one of my kidneys right away. After undergoing multiple tests, I was declared a match. But there were still several barriers I had to overcome before I had the all-clear to donate.
“You’ll have to lose 15 kilos before we consider you fit to transplant,” the specialist told me in June. He gave me two months to get into shape. At 96.5 kilos, I wasn’t overweight, but I needed to lower my BMI to be fit for the surgery.
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。
I was determined to do whatever it took to save my little girl.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
In November, the big day finally arrived.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
It was six o'clock when Breanna heard her mother’s phone receive a text message as it’s at on the kitchen bench. “Mum, I bet it’s Dad!” Breanna said and jumped up from the sofa, books spilling out in front of her. She had been deciding which story her dad would read in one of his funny voices for the night. Breanna’s mum rubbed her temples (太阳穴) and sighed softly. “Honey, would you mind seeing if that’s Daddy? I’ve got a bad headache but I want to start cooking a lovely meal for us to enjoy tonight.”
“Sure, mum,” Breanna skipped into the kitchen to check the phone. Her dad had been away for two whole nights working on a malfunction (故障) at his company’s warehouse that was at risk of theft. Breanna felt sure he’d been able to act like a superhero and save the day — but did it have to take so long? She picked up the phone and read the message, “Just leaving now — can’t wait to see you both.” Breanna confirmed excitedly, “It’s from Daddy! He’s on his way home!”
Her mother managed a weak smile as her daughter clapped her hands with joy. It had been four months since she’d lost her job and with only one income to support the family. Her husband had taken on as many shifts and extra duties as he could to make ends meet. Times were tough and he was working long hours, but it made the time Breanna spent with her daddy even more special. “Oh, that’s wonderful news. Now let’s see what I can find to eat,” her mother rose painfully from the sofa and added.
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。
“Great! Mum’s got a bad headache but I’m going to help her cook dinner. See you soon!” Breanna sent her dad a quick reply.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Another message from her father drew Breanna’s attention.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
When the tragedy struck me during the Depression (大萧条), my father did the only thing he could.
The tragedy happened in the year 1933. I was only 6 years old when I was rushed to the hospital with two crushed feet. My parents were told I might never walk again.
The accident happened when I was sitting in front of our house in Lowell, Massachusetts. I was playing in a puddle (水坑) after a rainstorm when I felt a huge weight on my feet. When I looked up, there was a car tire on my feet. I cried out, but the motor was running and no one could hear me over the engine.
The driver had run across the street for a newspaper. When he got back to his car, he drove away — never knowing he had parked on my feet.
Just about then, our neighbor’s son came home and saw me bent over my feet in pain. He immediately carried me home, and I remember thinking how tall and strong he was.
An ambulance came, and I remained in the hospital for 3 weeks while my feet were “repaired”. When I returned home, I could hardly walk.
I sat in our bay window and watched the children play on the street and longed to join them...but I couldn’t. I felt so left out despite my parents’ company.
My parents were told that if I was ever to walk again, I’d need treatment, which in those days meant riding a tricycle (三轮车) to strengthen the muscle and eventually get my feet back into condition for walking.
Our family couldn’t afford such an expensive thing. Times were tough during the Depression, and there were five mouths to feed, besides buying coal and wood for the stove.
Dad couldn’t afford the bus fare and on cold winter days he walked 7 miles every day in his only winter coat to get to work. No, there was no money for a tricycle. I would be a disabled person all my life.
Paragraph 1:Then one day, while sitting at my usual place in the window, I saw my father walking up the street carrying a tricycle on his shoulder.
Paragraph 2:
It was many years later before I learned where and how Dad had got the tricycle.
