我的同学玛丽
【内容提示】
玛丽是你的一名同班同学，她同你是好朋友。写一篇英语文章，介绍她的情况。主要内容如下：
①玛丽虽然只有十几岁，但却长得出奇地胖。
②她待人友好、热心，经常帮助别人，从不和人吵架。
③她虽然胖，但却行动敏捷，充满活力。她常常在操场锻炼。
④玛丽是一位可爱的女孩。
【作文示范】
My Classmate Mary
Mary is one of my classmates. we are good friends. She is a little bit special, for it is hard to find a girl so fat in her teens. Someone says, “She seems like a big snow ball with two smiling tiny eyes which can speak. ”
Mary is kind and warm-hearted. When somebody in class falls ill,she goes to attend to① him or her. When John has troubles in his studies, Mary always helps him with his lessons. As I am not able to knit a sweater②, she lends me hand in doing so. When classes are over, she is always the first to clean the blackboard. When an old teacher has difficulty in walking upstairs, she goes over to support him or her. In a word, whenever she is in need, she never stand by with arms folded.
Although she is so fat, she is quite quick in action and full of energy. You can often see her on the playground, either playing basketball or volleyball. Sometimes, I make fun of her by saying, “You＇d better play football as a doorkeeper③.” She just tolerantly④ laughed. It is something that I admire her because she is never in the mood of self-humiliation⑤ forher fatness.
An old saying goes that “being lovely makes a person pretty”. I think that it is true of Mary since she is the case in point⑥.
【词语解释】
①attend to 照顾，护理
②knit a sweater 织毛衣
③doorkeeper[＇d&:?ki:p+]n．守门员
④tolerantly[＇t&l+r+ntli]ad．宽容地
⑤in the mood of self-humiliation 为……而自卑
⑥the case in point 恰当的例子
【写法指要】
1）本文是介绍自己同学的说明文，它从两方面展开：第二段写“同学”的热情、友好；第三段写她行动敏捷，充满活力。玛丽虽胖得出奇，但她的上述优点使作者感慨不已，所以作者引用一句名言“可爱使人美丽”结束全文。这是一种常用的结尾段的写作方法，值得学习和借鉴。
2）第二段连续使用了6个以“when”，“as”以及“whenever”引导的时间状语从句构成的复合句。这种重复使用同一结构的修辞句法叫做平行结构（parallelism）。它的使用可以使所表达的内容得到强调。这里，作者是要通过列举事实强调玛丽对同学和老师的热情友好。