Jumping Over Boundaries
When I was in elementary school, we had an annual sports day. Girls could do many things like hopscotch, jump rope, tetherball, and dodgeball, except high jumping. Only boys could do high jumping.
That’s what I wanted to do — high jumping. So I went to the coach.
“Girls don’t do high jumping,” the coach said. “Girls have all these other things they can do.” He excitedly described how much fun it would be.
I’d been high jumping in the backyard with my five brothers for years. Although I am a girl, I did high jumping pretty well. My brothers could rarely beat me. Whenever my back crossed the bar, that feeling is extremely wonderful. I went home and told my mother what the coach had said. My mother, a small, thin woman only four feet eleven inches tall, said, “I think we should go visit him.”
“Visit who?” I asked confusedly.
“The headmaster.”
“Visit the headmaster?” I was terrified. Would I get in trouble? Would my mother and I be crossing boundaries we shouldn’t cross?
My mom and I went to Mr. White’s office. “Linda wants to do the high jump,” my mother said.
“Mrs. Martinez, you don’t understand. This is the tradition of our Annual Sports Day,” he said.
“But Mr. White, I don’t know where it says that girls cannot do this.”
The headmaster couldn’t find any rules that said girls couldn’t do the high jump. “I have to think about this,” he said at last.
When we got home, my mom told me something I would always remember: this wasn’t just about me. “Maybe other girls want to do this, too,” she said.
My mother waited a week, but still didn’t get the headmaster’s reply. So she walked over to the school again. “Mr. White, please. I ask you this not for me and not for Linda, but let’s just see how it works.” In the end, Mr. White agreed.
I stood on the field of the high jumping competition.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________To my surprise, some of the cheers I got were from boys!
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________2 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。
My son Joey was born with disabled feet. The doctors assured us that with treatment he would be able to walk normally — but would never run very well. The first three years of his life were spent in surgery, casts and braces. By the time he was eight, you wouldn’t know he had a problem when you saw him walk.
The children in our neighborhood ran around as most children do during play, and Joey would jump right in and run and play, too. Although I was a little worried about his state, we never told him that he probably wouldn’t be able to run as well as the other children. So he didn’t know it. Every day after school, he would run and jump crazily, laughing cheerfully with his friends. Before bed, he was delighted to share everything that he enjoyed with me, and the brightness on his face drove away all my anxiety.
In his seventh grade, the school planned to hold a cross-country race. On hearing the news, he jumped with joy, and he decided to go out for the cross-country team. What worried me most was the extreme strength and patience that was required for the race. However, his strong determination eventually changed my attitude towards the event. I made up mind to be in favor of him. Every day he trained with the team. He worked harder and ran more than any of the others — perhaps he sensed that the abilities that seemed to come naturally to so many others did not come naturally to him. Although the entire team runs, only the top seven runners have the potential to score points for the school. We didn’t tell him he probably would never make the team, so he didn’t know.
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。
One day, he got a fever, and I advised him to have a rest.
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Two weeks later, the big day came.
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3 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。
I grew up in southeastern Michigan. I was a fan of Detroit Tigers, a famous baseball team, as a young boy.
My childhood dream was to be like my hero, Al Kaline, and someday play for the Tigers. My Dad would take me to Tiger Stadium several times a year and my hero Al Kaline would never let me down. We never attended a game that he didn’t get at least one hit.
I was crazy about baseball. If there was a game in my high school, I was never absent. I kept practising so that I could achieve my dream of playing for the Tigers, and I was doing well at each level of play. Later, I got a chance to sign up for a strong American Legion baseball program. There I met our coach, Bob Ohm, who knew a lot of baseball and taught each of us the basics as well as more advanced baseball skills. With Bob Ohm’s help and my hard work, I had set new records in many baseball championships.
My dream to be like my hero seemed to draw near. One summer, I went up to play the final season in Marinette. There were scouts who came to find the best players. This was it! My big chance!
Well, as the game progressed I hit the ball very well getting five hits in the game. Unfortunately, I also made four mistakes. The final mistake actually drew laughter from the crowd.
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。
After the game, I knew my dream of playing professional baseball was lost.
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Today, I teach baseball in a high school.
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I was never a fast runner and thus I always didn’t like running. Throughout my childhood, whenever we competed in the 50-meter run, the 400-meter, or any other type of race, I would finish in the bottom half. In my late teens, as a member of a baseball team, I was the slowest runner on the team. In the preseason training, I was always the one running by myself at the end.
Therefore, twenty years later, when I entered my first official running race — a 3,000-meter challenge in my city — at age 38, I certainly didn’t expect to win or come close to winning.
I was there because my college friend Jim Hosek was the director of the race, and he asked me to run. The race was aimed at raising money for the unfortunate patients in a hospital and encouraging the patients and their fanilies to be brave, determined, and confident with sportsmanship.
It was a heartwarming program.I wanted to support it, so I showed up, paid the entrance fee, had a number pinned (把……别住) on my back, and moved over to the starting line. There, I waited with about 300 other runners for the race to begin. I was nervous. Would I be the last one to finish a race again? Could I even finish the race? I wondered.
Before long, someone spoke into a microphole, “Anyone weighing over 200 pounds comes down to the scale (秤), please.” Knowing I was over 200 pounds, I walked down to the scale. A man told me to stand on it. “Two hundred and three pounds,” he said. Then he wrote down the race number that was on my back. Out of curiosity, I asked him why he did so,and then I was told there would be an award ceremony (仪式) after the race. One award was for the first finisher in the over 200-pound group, and this special award would be announced at the end of the ceremony.
Not expecting the award, I ran towards the starting line, never realizing there were only two runners weighing over 200 pounds.
Paragraph 1:Soon after, the race started.
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Paragraph 2:
Then came the last award, and to my surprise, my name was announced.
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The cafeteria (自助食堂) conversation on Monday was all about hockey (冰上曲棍球) again. Jade usually fit in with the sports crowd, but now she was not included in the conversation.
“When will you get out on the ice, Jade?” Hazel asked. Jade was a soccer star at her old school in California. “I’m inviting her to play hockey.” Hazel told other players at the table.
Jade lowered her voice. “I can’t make it to open skating time because I have to look after my younger brother Calvin until 6:30.”
But Hazel had been friendly since their first meeting and she wasn’t going to give upon this. “A rink (溜冰场) is behind the stadium. I can practice with you thereafter the closing time. You can buy skates from Ms. Silva, the facility manager. 7 o’clock this evening at the rink!” Hazel told Jade excitedly.
However, Jade didn’t tell Hazel she couldn’t afford the skates and hockey stick. After school Jade hurried home to look after Calvin. When she was cleaning the crumbs (面包屑) under Calvin’s highchair with a broom, she got an idea. At 6:35, Jade grabbed the broom and an old tennis ball.
At the rink, Hazel hadn’t turned up yet. In her dirty shoes, Jade practiced hitting the ball with the broom independently. Surprisingly, she scored a goal. But her smile disappeared as she saw Ms. Silva walking over.
She looked down at Jade’s feet pitifully. “Your shoes made the rink dirty. Those aren’t skates and hockey stick.”
“I’m really sorry for the dirt,” Jade apologized. “I don’t have money for those.”
“You didn’t tell me that!” Hazel appeared, holding Jade’s hands.
“Want a weekend job?” Ms. Silva advised gently. “I’ll teach you how to remove the dirt and leaves. A month later you may get new skates!” “Definitely.” Jade replied. “I’ll be there with you!” Hazel said.
注意：1.续写词数应为100词左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
In the following month, Jade was a dutiful staff and practiced with Hazel in the rink every night.
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I clicked the link (点击链接), sign un here. This wouldn’t be my first half marathon (马拉松赛跑); I had run a flat half when I was thirty-eight. But that was eleven years ago. Now, it was November 2022, and I’d had a shoulder injury before, and I was turning fifty. So, as awful as running 13.1 miles seemed, I was going to do it.
I signed up for a women’s training group, a group of strangers with whom I would spend a few months preparing for the race, and then I was directed to sign up for the actual race. I imagined a course somewhere beautiful in Florida. Or perhaps in sunny California, I was shocked when the race website opened, and I was greeted with the words, “Zion at night, half marathon in the darkness.” In Zion? At night? Oh, no.
I looked at the website. Was it to late to quit? Actually, I had just signed up for a coaching group that was meant to “encourage me through running”. Giving up before I even started seemed like a terribly shameful thing to do. I looked through the photos of the race.
I lost all my confidence. Runners wearing headlights and running shoes filled the computer screen. I couldn’t do this, I thought. I hadn’t run on paths in Delaware. I hadn’t run on paths or up hills. I clicked onto the next photo and looked at the happy runners advancing alongside a frightening cliff (峭壁). I was also afraid of heights.
A text came through my phone. It was Nicole, our training group’s brave leader, a woman who has run hundred-mile marathons. This is what happens when you run a race with someone who has strong willpower. “Sign up for the 4 am start time,” she wrote.
As I filled in my name and address, I tried to think about how likely I was to get injured during training. Realistically, that was my best way to get out of this race. I filled out the form and started worrying. About everything.
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 Nicole encouraged me, saying that she was with me in spirit on every run.
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On the day of the race, we drove to Zion at 4 am.
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“Hello, hello!” called out a pleasant voice.
Andy Waters looked up and saw his new neighbor, Francis Frame.
“Hello, yourself,” he shouted cheerfully, as he fastened on his roller skates. “Want to go skating, Francis?”
“I can’t. I lost my roller skates last fall, and mother says she can’t afford to buy me another pair just now.”
Andy looked at his neighbor’s long legs. They were just the right kind, he thought, to make a fast skater.
“That’s hard luck, Francis, because if you had some roller-skates, maybe you could be in our skating relay race (接力赛) next Saturday.”
“Oh! Don’t I wish I had some skates!” cried Francis.
“I have to go for the training now but I can let you use my skates sometime when I am not using them.” Andy said bye to Francis.
When Andy skated slowly toward the end of the block, he thought about Francis Frame. Francis hadn’t lived in the block very long, and none of the other boys knew him. So the new boy was left to himself a great deal, and must often be very lonely.
“Yes,” said Andy to himself, “it certainly is a pity about Francis! I ought to do something about it.”
As he skated to the vacant lot where they usually trained and raced, he met the captain of his team, a large boy called Buddy Bowers. “I stopped for a few moments to talk to my new neighbor,” said Andy. “don’t you think we could use another boy on our team for the race? That new boy, Francis Frame, I mean?”
“We just can’t do it. The other team wouldn’t let us take on an extra boy.” Buddy refused.
Soon the training began and Andy practiced very hard, for his heart was set on having his team win the race. Still, he couldn’t help knowing that his short legs kept him from being a fast skater. On the way home, Andy thought of a way to help his team win as well as help Francis Frame — he could pretend to be sick on the racing day and have Francis take his place!
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。
Thinking of this, he raced to the home of his new neighbor.
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Finally came the racing day, and Andy and Francis showed up together.
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Super Roy
“You’re a halfback(中卫).” I looked over my shoulder at the empty field behind me. “Me?” I asked, pointing to my chest
“Yes,” the coach said again. “You’re a halfback. Yep, no doubt about it.”
The coach’s name was Super Roy. Someone told me his real name once, but it never stuck. When I got to practice that day I was a small kid with little athletic experience or skill. I wondered if I belonged there at all and what Super Roy had seen in me that I didn’t see in myself.
“Are you sure I’m a halfback?” I asked him the next day.
“Let me see,” he said, standing back to have a good glance at me, which made me nervous about what he would say
“Yep. You’re a halfback. Might as well get used to it.”
“Okay,” I said, puzzled but beginning to accept the idea, strange as it seemed.
Later that day we started running plays. Time after time the quarterback put the ball right in my hands. Me, the silly fellow who had to be reminded how many points a touchdown was worth. I expected to go all season without touching the ball. I expected to be a bench warmer, and now the ball was in my hands—literally.
Super Roy had a routine he did every day. As practice came to an end, he would pick one of the players to step forward. The player had to recite a quote Super Roy had given him the day before. It was a very important moment in practice. No one wanted to forget his quote in front of the whole team.
After practice was over one day, Super Roy spoke to me. “Your turn tomorrow,” he said. “Ready for your quote?”
“Okay,” I said, stressed in deep concentration. “I’m ready.”
“Well, here it is: ‘It’s not the size of the man you play, it’s how you play the man.’ Got it?” “Yes, Coach.”
Super Roy winked at me and gave me a pat on the shoulder. “And I believe the quote will help you make a miracle in the inter school match next month,” he added.
On the way home, my mind played like a broken record, which made me murmur the words repeatedly.
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: There came the practice time the next day.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2: I stepped into Super Roy’s office after the match.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________On a bright Saturday, my peaceful lunchtime was suddenly interrupted when my dad surprised me with an unplanned idea. I couldn’t hide my annoyance as what was supposed to be a relaxing Saturday turned into a day focused on football — a sport I wasn’t very excited about.
Many of my friends loved sports, while I preferred to find comfort in the pages of a good book rather than run around on a football court. My lack of interest resulted in average performance on the team, and I often felt like I was a problem for both my coach and teammates.
Things changed last week when our coach announced a coming match against the champions scheduled for a month later. The realization that this important game would have a big audience only made me more anxious. The fear of possibly letting down the team weighed on me.
Determined to make a positive impact, I decided to practice hard every day. My motivation came from wanting to help the team and to overcome the self-doubt affecting my performance.
As the match day approached, my teammates seemed unsure about including me in the lineup (阵容). I wouldn’t have minded sitting out, but the situations were different. With one player short, they reluctantly (不情愿地) included me, and The Thunder Strikers, our team, stepped onto the field to enjoy cheers from the crowd.
The pressure was intense. The game started, and within the ten minutes, I received a warning. Before long, the referee showed me a second yellow card, forcing me to leave the field. When I got back into the game, the score was tied, and the next goal would decide the winner.
As the ball came toward me, I felt a bit scared. My teammates seemed tired, and the other team really wanted to win. With great courage, I kicked the ball. The opponents (对手), maybe not expecting much from me because of my earlier struggles, were surprised when the ball went past the goalkeeper.
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 Thunder Strikers won!
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________After this win, football became different for me.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“You’ll have to be quicker off the line to beat Kendall on Friday,” Coach Dugan said. Kendall this, Kendall that. For weeks, I’d been hearing about how fast this kid was — Kerry Kendall from Wilson Middle School. I was tired of it.
Eric came close to me. “I heard that Kerry Kendall trains at a camp with Olympic coaches. Not only that — I heard he cheats. I heard he’ll do whatever it takes to win,” he said. That doesn’t mean he cheats, does it? I wondered.
“Let’s go, boys,” Coach said. When I heard his whistle (哨声), I ran rather hard toward the finish line. I crossed two full steps ahead of everyone else. That should satisfy him. Coach Dugan looked at his stop-watch and nodded. “Better, Alex. But let’s do it again.” And again and again. I couldn’t get any faster. Besides, Kendall trains with Olympic coaches! And he cheats. Why bother?
Practice was never easy, but lately Coach Dugan had been pushing us extra hard. He told us to work harder, because the extra effort marked the difference between a winner and a runner-up.
A gentle wind greeted me as I got out of Dad’s car and headed toward the track. My legs felt strong and ready. Ready? Coach had me more than ready.
Kids from every middle school crowded the infield. I was searching for Kendall. But I couldn’t see anyone extra tall, so I sat on the grass to stretch. “Are you Alex?” a voice asked. I looked up over my shoulder. A tall kid. Kerry Kendall. I nodded. Kendall then sat down next to me, starting to stretch, too. Was he trying to psych me out ( 震 慑 我) by warming up so close? I wouldn’t let that happen. I kept quiet and continued stretching. “Heard you’re fast,” he said. His leg muscles bulged (隆起) like he worked out plenty. “Save it for the race,” I said.
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。
After a minute, he asked, “Is it true you have a private trainer?”
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When Kendall turned back, I saw the truth in his eyes.
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