Fifteen years ago, I took a summer vacation in Lecce in southern Italy. After climbing up a hill for a panoramic(全景的)view of the blue sea, white buildings and green olive trees, I paused to catch my breath and then positioned myself to take the best photo of this panorama.
Unfortunately, just as I took out my camera, a woman approached from behind, and planted herself right in front of my view. Like me, this woman was here to stop, sigh and appreciate the view.
Patient as I was, after about 15 minutes, I grew frustrated. Was it too much to ask her to move so I could take just one picture of the landscape? Sure, I could have asked her, but something prevented me from doing so. She seemed so content in her observation. I didn’t want to mess with that.
Another 15 minutes passed. The woman was still there. I decided to take the photo anyway. And now when I look at it, I think her presence in the photo is what makes the image interesting. The landscape, beautiful on its own, somehow comes to life and breathes because this woman is engaging with it.
This photo, with the unique beauty that unfolded before me and that woman who ”ruined" it, now hangs on a wall in my bedroom.
Perhaps we all live in each other’s spaces. Perhaps this is what photos are for: to remind us that we all appreciate beauty, that we all share a common desire for pleasure, for connection, for something that is greater than us.
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要求：
1. 词数80左右；
2. 不得抄袭文章原句。
For a long time, a boy wondered why his desk-mate was always the first in the class, but he could only rank (排名) the 21st.
At home, he asked his mom: “Am I more stupid than other kids? How can I always fall behind? I just can’t come up with an answer.” Mom was aware that her son’s self-respect had been hurt by the ranking system, but she didn’t know what to say to help.
She wanted to say that intelligence differs and that yes, her son’s friend really was the smarter boy. But that would so upset her son. Thank goodness she didn’t say it.
Her son and his friend went on to high school that year, though the boy tried as hard as he could, her son’s friend was still ahead of him. But she took pride in her boy for his hard work, sincerely proud. It was around this time that she decided to take him on a trip to the seaside. On the trip, she at last found an answer for him.
Today her son no longer cares about rankings. He doesn’t have to, for he himself is now the top of the class at the top national university. After university his teachers and classmates fully expect him to have a promising career.
Invited to speak to his old high school, he mentioned a valuable childhood experience. It was about that holiday his mother had prepared for them: “Once, on a trip to the sea, my mother and I were lying on the beach. She pointed to the sea and said to me: Do you see the seabirds fighting for food out there? When a wave comes near, the little birds rise quickly. The awkward seagulls (笨拙的海鸥) are far slower and have to struggle to get away from the wave. But these awkward birds prove to have the biggest, strongest wings, which allow the bird to travel the farthest when the season changes and they leave for foreign shores, leaving the little birds behind. Son, I have a feeling that you are one of those seagulls.”
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It was the old lady’s birthday. She got up early to be ready for the post. From the second floor flat she could see the postman when he came, and the little boy from the ground floor brought up her letters on rare occasions (场合) when anything came.
Today she was sure there would be something. Myra wouldn’t forget her mother’s birthday, even if she seldom wrote at other times. Of course Myra was busy, and she herself had got a medal for her work for the aged. The old lady was proud of Myra. And Myra had been to see her mother three times since two years ago.
The old lady was eighty today. She had put on her best dress. Perhaps Myra might come. After all, eighty was a special birthday. Even if Myra did not come, she would send a present. She was excited, like a child.
Mrs. Morrison had cleaned the flat, and she had brought a bunch of flowers when she came to do the breakfast. Mrs. Grant downstairs had made a cake. Little Johnnie had been up with a packet of mints (薄荷), and said he wouldn’t go out to play until the post had come.
“I guess you’ll get lots of presents,” he said.
What would it be? A pair of slippers, a table lamp, or a travel book? She stood by the window, watching. The postman turned round the corner on his bicycle. Her heart beat fast.
Johnnie knocked at her door. “Granny, granny,” he shouted, “I have got your post.”
He gave her four envelopes. Three were unsealed cards from old friends. The fourth was sealed (封闭的), in Myra’s writing. The old lady felt a sudden feeling of disappointment.
Almost reluctantly (不情愿地) she tore the envelope open. Folded in the card was a piece of paper. Written on the card was a message under the printed Happy Birthday — Buy yourself something nice with the cheque (支票), Myra.
The cheque dropped to the floor like a bird with a broken wing. Slowly the old lady picked it up. With trembling fingers she tore it into pieces.
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Sue and Johnsy were two young artists, sharing a small flat on the third story of an old house. Once Johnsy fell very seriously ill in November. She had pneumonia. Soon she gave up hope for survival. The doctor who attended her did not see any positive change in her condition.
One day he told Sue that Johnsy’s chance of survival was limited unless she had something to hope for. She had made up her mind that she was not going to get well. If she lost her hope to live, medicines would do nothing. Sue tried her best to make Johnsy take interest in things around her. But there was no response from Johnsy. She always lay still on her bed looking at an ivy plant through the window gradually losing its leaves, and had taken it in her mind that she would die when the last leaf fell.
Sue continued to convince Johnsy that she was foolish to pin her destiny to the survival of the last leaf on the vine. The old ivy leaves had nothing to do with her getting well. The doctor was confident that she would get better. Johnsy was too depressed to say anything.
She kept on counting the remaining leaves on the creeper. One day Sue informed Behrman, an old fellow artist, who was their downstairs-neighbour, about this and he was annoyed that Johnsy had such little hope. He was aware of her wish to die when the last leaf fell.
Behrman came to their room and found Johnsy asleep. Sue drew the curtain together and they went to the next room. She peeped out through the window and saw only one leaf on the creeper which seemed to fall anytime because it was raining heavily and icy cold wind was blowing.
Behrman did not say a word. He went back to his room and decided to do something for Johnsy’s life. He painted a similar leaf and sticked it on the creeper while Johnsy was sleeping.
Next morning, after the storm, Johnsy saw the last remaining leaf still clinging to the creeper. She was filled with hope. She decided that she wanted to continue living. She thought that there must have been a reason that the leaf had refused to die, and it was a sin to want to die.
Johnsy soon recovered from her illness.
After some time, Sue informed Johnsy that Behrman had died of pneumonia while being out in the wet and cold, painting the last leaf. Behrman had finally painted his long-promised masterpiece— the leaf which saved Johnsy’s life, sacrificing his own in the process.
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A heart-warming story tells of a woman who finally decided to ask her boss for a raise in salary. All day she felt nervous and hesitant. Late in the afternoon she summoned(鼓起)the courage to approach her employer. To her delight, the boss agreed to a raise.
The woman arrived home that evening to a beautiful table set with their best dishes. Candles were softly glowing. Her husband had come home early and prepared a festive meal. She wondered if someone from the office had tipped him off, or…did he just somehow know that she would not get turned down?
She found him in the kitchen and told him the good news. They embraced(拥抱)and kissed, then sat down to the wonderful meal. Next to her plate the woman found a beautifully lettered note. It read, “Congratulations, darling! I knew you’d get the raise! These things will tell you how much I love you.”
Following the supper, her husband went into the kitchen to clean up. She noticed that a second card had fallen from his pocket. Picking it off the floor, she read, “Don’t worry about not getting the raise! You deserve it anyway! These things will tell you how much I love you.”
Someone has said that the measure of love is when you love without measure. What this man feels for his wife is total acceptance and love, whether she succeeds or fails. His love celebrates her victories and soothes her wounds. He stands with her, no matter what life throws in their direction. He may say that he loves her to death. But he doesn’t. He loves her to LIVE, for his love nourished her life like nothing else can.
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注意：1. 词数80左右；
2. 可适当增加连接词，以使行文连贯。
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Meet the Woman Who Gives Rescued Farm Animals a Second Chance at Life
Shortly after doctors diagnosed ten-year-old Jenny Brown with bone cancer, they had to cut off her right leg below the knee to save her life. Facing a year of chemotherapy (化疗) after the surgery, Jenny begged her mother for a kitten. The orange calico Jenny named Boogie rarely left her side, licking tears from her cheeks after hospital visits and curling up in her lap as she adjusted to life with a prosthetic (假肢的) leg.
“My relationship with Boogie showed me that animals think, feel, and suffer as much as we do,” says Jenny, now 44.
In 1994, Jenny graduated from Columbia College Chicago and began a career in television and documentary production. On the side, she volunteered as a videographer for animal rights groups, and in 2002, she shot undercover footage of horrible animal mistreatment at several Texas farm animal stockyards. “After seeing that, I knew I needed to help animals,” says Jenny.
A year later, she gave up her film career and with her fiancé, Doug Abel, a film editor, opened the Woodstock Farm Sanctuary, a nonprofit organization dedicated to rescuing and recovering farm animals, on a 22-acre property they bought in the rolling hills of Woodstock, New York, the next year.
In August 2007, she received a call from Animal Care and Control of NYC about a small goat it had found hopping around Prospect Park. Jenny guessed it had run away from one of the city’s murder-houses. The goat’s legs were severely injured, probably from being bound together with wire, and its mouth was covered in aching.
Jenny and her team brought the goat, which they named Albie, to the preserve, but they soon realized that Albie’s left front leg was injured beyond repair. After a veterinarian(兽医) cut off the leg. Jenny asked Erik Tomkins, the doctor who makes Jenny’s prostheses, to fashion a leg for Albie. To date, seven of the preserve’s animals have received prosthetic limbs or braces. “On most farms, animals with these illnesses would be immediately killed,” says Jenny.
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Adam lived with his parents in one city while his grandparents lived far away in another city. Adam’s parents usually took their son to his grandparents’ house during summer holiday every year and stayed there for around 20 days. Adam’s grandfather loved him very much and spent a lot of time playing with him. His grandmother always cooked delicious food for him. Adam loved his stay there. This continued for years. The boy grew up over time.
One day Adam said to his parents, “Now, I am old enough to go to grandparents’ house alone. So, please let me go by myself.”
His parents didn’t agree at first but Adam insisted(坚持). They finally agreed. But they were worried about his safety. So, they taught him everything he needed to know to travel alone.
The day came when Adam was to leave for his grandparents’ house. And his parents came to see him off at the train station. When the boy was comfortably seated on the train, his parents got off and waited for the train to leave.
While waiting, the father went to the window and kept talking to his son. He handed his son an envelope(信封) from the window and said, “Son, if you feel afraid on the way, open this and read it. It will help you to calm down.”
The boy kept that envelope in his pocket carefully and said goodbye to his parents. When the train was ready to leave, the boy smiled and told his father, “I remember everything. Don’t worry.”
At every station where the train stopped, people kept coming and going. The boy started feeling a little lonely.
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