My doorbell rings at 11 a.m. On the step, I find an elderly Chinese lady; she is small and slight, and she’s holding the hand of a little boy. In her other hand, she holds a paper carrier bag.
I know this lady. It is by no means her first visit. She is the little boy’s grandmother, and her daughter bought the house next door last October.
My visitor’s daughter, Nicole (who speaks fluent English), is currently in Shanghai, but her parents are in Vancouver for the summer with the little boy. Nicole has told her mother that I am having heart surgery shortly, and the result is that her mother has decided I need to be supplied with meals.
I know what is inside the paper carrier bag—a thermos with hot soup and a stainless-steel container with a meal of rice, vegetables and either chicken, meat or shrimp, sometimes with a kind of pancake. This has become an almost-daily occurrence.
She doesn’t speak English and all I can say in Mandarin is hello.
So here we are, two grandmothers a world away from where we were raised, neither of us able to speak the other’s language but communicating one way or another (with some help from technology). The doorbell keeps ringing and there is the familiar brown paper carrier bag, handed smilingly to me by her.
I’m working on some more Mandarin words. “Thank you” is, of course, the first one. Somehow, it seems inadequate.
【寫作內(nèi)容】
1. 用約30個單詞概述上述信息的主要內(nèi)容；
2. 結(jié)合上述信息，用約120個單詞發(fā)表你的觀點，內(nèi)容包括：
（1）談?wù)勀銓@個溫暖的小故事的看法；
（2）假設(shè)你出國學習，你會如何與鄰居交流？（不少于兩點）
【寫作要求】
1. 寫作過程中不能直接引用原文語句；
2. 作文中不能出現(xiàn)真實姓名和學校名稱；
3. 不必寫標題。
【評分標準】
內(nèi)容完整，語言規(guī)范，語篇連貫，詞數(shù)適當。
One possible version: During her illness, the author has been taken care of by an old Chinese lady, who rings her doorbell and provides her with meals, which becomes a regular routine. Although she doesn’t speak English, her kindness needs no translation. After reading the story, I am deeply moved. What I feel is the love among people, which is powerful enough to break barriers. People can live in harmony regardless of their skin colors and languages. If I go abroad for further study and face the problem of how to communicate with neighbors, first of all, I will make efforts to learn their native language and establish sincere communication with them. Then learning about their cultures and taboos can better promote our understanding of one another. As an old saying goes, “a good neighbor is better than a brother far off”. When we study abroad, a neighbor may be of great help to us, especially in emergency. (155)
One possible version: During her illness, the author has been taken care of by an old Chinese lady, who rings her doorbell and provides her with meals, which becomes a regular routine. Although she doesn’t speak English, her kindness needs no translation. After reading the story, I am deeply moved. What I feel is the love among people, which is powerful enough to break barriers. People can live in harmony regardless of their skin colors and languages. If I go abroad for further study and face the problem of how to communicate with neighbors, first of all, I will make efforts to learn their native language and establish sincere communication with them. Then learning about their cultures and taboos can better promote our understanding of one another. As an old saying goes, “a good neighbor is better than a brother far off”. When we study abroad, a neighbor may be of great help to us, especially in emergency. (155)