What my father wore really embarrassed me. I wanted him to dress like a doctor or a lawyer, but on those muggy mornings when he rose before dawn to fry eggs for my mother and me, he always dressed like my father.
We lived in South Texas, and my father worked as a repairman. He liked shirts that snapped more than those that buttoned, and kept his pencils, cigars, glasses, wrenches and screwdrivers in his breast pocket. His boots were those with steel toes that made them difficult to pull off his feet, which I sometimes helped him with when he returned from repairing cars — his job that also shamed me.
I blamed the way he dressed for my social failures. When boys bullied me, I thought they’d seen my father wearing his cowboy hat but no shirt while walking our dog. I felt that girls laughed at me because they’d glimpsed him mowing the grass in cut-off jeans and black boots. The girls’ families paid men to beautify their lawns, while their fathers travelled in the bay wearing lemon-yellow sweaters and expensive sandals.
My father only bought two suits in his life. He preferred clothes that allowed him the freedom to move under cars. But the day before my parents’ twentieth anniversary, he and I went to Sears, and he tried on suits all afternoon. With each one, he stepped to the mirror, smiled and nodded, then asked about the price and reached for another. He probably tried ten suits before we drove to a discount store and bought one that saved him the bother of approaching a fitting room.
Later, he wore the same suit for my eighth-grade award banquet, but I wished he’d stayed home. After the ceremony, he praised my award and my character while changing into a faded red sweatsuit. He was stepping into the garage to wash a load of laundry when I asked what later struck me as cruel and wrong. “Why,” I asked, “don’t you dress ‘nice’, like my friends fathers?”
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。
He held me with his sad, shocked eyes and searched for an answer.
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In the following days, my father proved to me that there are things more important than what one wears.
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Ritch Addison was ashy kid. In elementary school, he didn’t speak up for himself, and he
“It turned out that I had gotten a hundred on the test and he didn’t do so well,” Addison recalled. “And I joked heartlessly about it.”
Then one day, his good friend, Holly, pulled him aside and said, “Ritch, sometimes you really hurt
Addison
“But I kept thinking about what Holly said. Finally, I realized that she was
It couldn’t happen overnight,
It was the middle of winter some 30 years ago. I was a young father with three little children depending on me. My college education, however, wasn’t helping me to find a good job in our depressed area. My work as a teacher had dried up and now I was working in a saw mill (锯木厂) for just above the minimum wage.
As I got ready to go to work I wrapped band-aids (创可贴) around my fingers and put more in my pockets. Cutting and piling wood for 8 hours a day had caused my fingers to split and bleed at their tips in the cold, dry, winter air. Then I walked down to my car in the snow and hoped it would start.
That day at work was harder than normal. The machines kept breaking down. And we had to rush to catch back up as the wood piled up. On top of it all the heaters in the building weren’t working and we could see our breath as we spent hours chopping, piling, carrying, and packaging the hard wood flooring to be shipped out.
When the work day finally ended, I walked tiredly toward the time clock, took off my work gloves and inspected my aching fingers. The splits were worse than ever and I had bled through the band-aids again. I tried to straighten out but my bad back cramped (绞痛) up as I did. I started my car and drove back home. I looked at the snow and blinked back tears. I wondered how long I could keep doing this, if things would ever get any better, and why life was so hard.
I tried to put a smile on my face as I opened my front door, but instead one appeared naturally. My daughter ran up to me, yelling “Daddy”, and wrapped her little arms around my neck. I lifted her up and my heart exploded with love.
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。
My tired body didn’t feel so tired any more.
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“Happy birthday!” my wife greeted me warmly.
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4 . A passion for sewing has been in my family for several generations, and with a few lessons from my grandma and brother, I became pretty
When I was first
I began selling my items to my friends, and now I’m selling dresses as well! My
My family and friends have offered me their constant
My advice for anyone looking to start up their very own
| A．nervous | B．confused | C．disappointed | D．confident |
| A．permission | B．attempt | C．proposal | D．exhibition |
| A．mastered | B．considered | C．created | D．remembered |
| A．looking out | B．falling down | C．starting out | D．calming down |
| A．perfect | B．attract | C．replace | D．praise |
| A．excited | B．scared | C．surprised | D．tired |
| A．particularly | B．eventually | C．apparently | D．previously |
| A．debts | B．products | C．excuses | D．attitudes |
| A．displayed | B．compared | C．sewn | D．shared |
| A．support | B．politeness | C．curiosity | D．sympathy |
| A．refuse | B．leave | C．change | D．manage |
| A．aimless | B．educational | C．positive | D．embarrassing |
| A．come across | B．deal with | C．wait for | D．insist on |
| A．honored | B．satisfied | C．astonished | D．determined |
| A．business | B．training | C．fashion | D．research |
