After a simple rebirth

Fu Ying planned to immerse herself completely in study this semester. She refused all invitations to participate in competitions, saying that she would concentrate on her studies.

As a result, after receiving the award for the first monthly exam, she was suddenly asked by the award-giving class teacher to go to the office after class.

After raising the flag, Fu Ying went straight to his office. After finishing the work at hand, Teacher Tan talked to Fu Ying.

"Fu Ying, there is an English speech contest in the city. The teacher hopes you can participate."

"English speaking contest?"

Fu Ying didn't want to go and felt it was weird. Shouldn't the English teacher find her for the English competition? Why did it go to the Chinese teacher?

"Yes, I think this competition is a great training opportunity for you. It is also an important task for the school. The Municipal Education Bureau directly notified all high schools. Originally, a preliminary competition should be held within the school, and the students who eventually won the championship should participate.

However, the educational resources here are limited, and students do not have many opportunities to practice speaking. We have also asked various English teachers, and they said that there are not many students in our school who are good at speaking.

This is the first time our school has participated in a city-level competition since the establishment of the high school department, and we hope to achieve better results.

Speech contests are different from general knowledge contests. It is not enough to just answer the questions. It requires a high level of on-the-spot reaction ability, so we chose to directly send outstanding students to represent us in the competition. "

Fu·Outstanding Student·Ying, the school’s hat is too high.

"Am I the only one in the whole school participating in the competition?"

“It’s not just you. We will select one more person from your freshman or junior year of high school to compete together. We will also have a mentor to accompany you, but our ultimate hope of winning the prize still lies with you.

I know you would rather spend more time on studying and are not willing to participate in these competitions, but we have discussed this several times with the English teaching and research group, and we found that there are only a handful of students who are good at speaking and are not easily stage frightened.

The school really hopes that you can participate. It would be best if you can get excellent results, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t. We can just consider it as accumulating competition experience.

Besides, if you get into the top ten, I can help you apply for a scholarship again. Add your final exam bonus and you can get the same amount as in the first semester of your freshman year. How about that?"

Speaking of scholarships, Fu Ying's eyes lit up. The top ten would get 1,500 yuan! She's great!

Fu Ying tried to speak again.

"1500 for the top ten, what about the top five or top three? Also 1500?"

Teacher Tan smiled, but his eyes were burning.

"You don't have to worry about that. The school will not mistreat any student who works hard and brings honor to the school. I can guarantee that if you are in the top five, the amount will be increased to 2,000. There will also be rewards from the Education Bureau. The specific amount will range from 300 to 1,000 depending on the ranking. The school will give all the rewards to the winning students."

After hearing this, Fu Ying suddenly felt that she was about to become famous!

She didn't say that she thought she would definitely win the award, but thinking about the double award from both the school and the city, she was very motivated.

What’s more, the school has specially contacted me, and my head teacher has stepped in and explained it so clearly, so it makes sense for me to participate!

Fu Ying nodded in agreement.

"Teacher, I am willing to represent the school. I cannot guarantee that I will get a good ranking, but I will practice speaking more starting tonight and try my best.

Have the specific competition time and rules been announced? I will make a study plan. "

Teacher Tan shook his head.

"The current teaching plan is to start in mid-April, before the May Day holiday, but there is no specific date and no specific rules have been issued. It only says that the English speech on the future topic will be released. I will tell you when it is released. It is best for you to prepare first."

After saying goodbye to her head teacher, Fu Ying started thinking about this matter.

According to what the head teacher said, it was a speech contest, but it also tested one's on-the-spot performance. Fu Ying roughly guessed the format of the contest.

It should be similar to the CET-4 and CET-6 oral exams. There will be about three parts. The first part is self-introduction, the second part is speech presentation, and the third part is role-playing or on-the-spot discussion of topics.

I just don’t know when I will know the specific situation.

What Fu Ying needs to do now is to take time out every day to do shadow reading and develop her sense of language to the best.

Then prepare a simple and not clichéd self-introduction, a speech that is more suitable for English expression, and try to organize your own language questions and answers on some topics.

This means that she has to spend nearly an hour every day practicing for this competition.

Since she had agreed, she had to do it well. Fu Ying set the tasks and began to adapt to the new plan.

A week before the competition, they suddenly informed us that the competition would be held on Saturday, April 20. At the same time, the specific competition rules were announced, which were similar to what Fu Ying had expected. After the self-introduction, they would present their speech, but the third part turned into questions from the judges.

Fu Ying didn't expect that it would be the judges who would ask questions. This would probably make many already nervous students even more nervous. They would have to answer questions from real people in English, and face judges who they didn't know whether they were teachers or something else. The judges are not simple people, and it is easy for students to get confused or even collapse under multiple pressures.

But for Fu Ying, it was actually more advantageous. She was not afraid of these people, nor was she afraid of communicating in English. Moreover, she had already prepared in case someone asked her a question, but she hit the mark by accident.

On the afternoon of April 19th, Fu Ying and a junior girl from the first year of high school followed their English teacher and got on a bus to the city. The person driving the bus was not the driver, but the head of the English teaching and research group of the high school department, and everyone in the school called him Director Chen.

Director Chen is the person in charge of leading the team to the competition. He is also responsible for communicating with other schools and is also the driver.

Because Gumang Middle School only had one public car, and the school needed it for other purposes, they had to requisition the school teacher's car. Director Chen happened to be a school leader, so it was natural for him to drive them there.

English teacher Mr. Li sat in the passenger seat, Fu Ying and her junior schoolmate sat in the back. Fu Ying was holding her schoolbag, which contained the things she had prepared.

A few days before departure, the teacher talked to them about the choice of clothing. The school respects students' choices, which means that the school does not provide clothing and they have to provide their own.

Fu Ying decided to wear the cheongsam she wore for the school anniversary. It is a multi-purpose garment and can stand out among a crowd of school uniforms and casual clothes in occasions like this.

After the departure, the junior students sat on the side nervously. The director in front asked them questions from time to time, and they answered them in turn. Fortunately, the director did not really want to test them, and he stopped talking after asking for a while.

Fu Ying finally fell asleep when the vehicle turned eighteen corners and was about to enter the highway.

I woke up on the highway. In the past, it took eight hours to get from Gumang to the city center by taking a small road. The road was not easy to drive and the speed was not fast. Now that the highway is connected to the city center, the time has been reduced to five hours. When Wumeng County is also connected to the highway, the time can be reduced to more than three hours, but it will take several years. Fu Ying remembers that the highway was built after the high-speed railway was opened.

After getting off the highway, Fu Ying and her husband kept looking at the surrounding scenery. It's funny that she has lived for so many years and has never been to the city. She doesn't know what the city looks like, but it seems that all cities are more or less the same.

We passed a residential area, tall buildings and an ancient city wall. There is not much nightlife here, so there are no bright lights at night and it feels more quiet.

At 11 o'clock in the evening, Fu Ying and three others finally arrived at the hotel, which was also the venue for the competition.

I don’t know why they didn’t choose the school to decorate, but it doesn’t matter to Fu Ying, as they are all unfamiliar with the place.

Four people got two rooms, the director had one room each, and Fu Ying and the other three ladies had one room. After all, it was school funds, so they saved as much as possible. Fu Ying and the schoolmate slept in one bed, and the English teacher slept in another bed.

What Fu Ying was worried about was that a standard hotel room was usually only about 1.3 meters in size. Fu Ying was afraid that the two of them would affect each other's sleep. She could not guarantee the sleeping position, nor could she guarantee the sleeping position of her junior.

After reporting the name of the school and preparing to submit her ID, Fu Ying went straight to the front desk lady and asked,

"Hello, do the standard rooms in the hotel have two beds that are both 1.5 meters long, or are there bunk beds? We are three girls, and the beds are too small for us to sleep in."

Many people think that hotels only have standard double rooms and king-size rooms. In fact, many hotels have different room types. They only list these two types for unified sales and pricing. But the bigger the hotel, the more choices there are.

Some rooms are a bit bigger, so the hotel may arrange two 1.5-meter beds, but they are charged as standard double rooms. A family room has two beds, one large and one small, one 1.5-meter and the other small 1.3-meter, and they are also charged as standard double or king-size rooms, and the room rates are generally the same.

If you don't make any requests, the hotel will definitely make arrangements at will.

Sure enough, I heard the young lady answer,

"There are family rooms on the floor where you're holding the competition, but they're a bit far from the other king-size room. Do you still want them?"

Fu Ying thought it was okay, but the decision was in the hands of the teacher. Fu Ying looked at Teacher Li, who asked the front desk for details.

"Is a master-girl room two beds or two rooms?"

"Our family room has two beds, one large and one small. The small one is 1.3 meters long and can accommodate three people.

Teacher Li nodded.

"That's fine. It doesn't matter if we don't go to the same school. Just arrange a room for us."

After registering their IDs, they took their room cards and luggage and entered the elevator.

Maybe it was really too late. When I entered the hotel, I didn’t meet any other guests, nor did I see any teachers or students from other schools.

After entering the room, Fu Ying asked Teacher Li which one he wanted, and the teacher really chose the small bed to sleep on alone.

After putting down their things, Teacher Li asked if they wanted to go out for something to eat. Fu Ying and the other teacher shook their heads. It was too late and they were unfamiliar with the place, so they should go to bed early.

Teacher Li didn't ask any more questions and just put the things next to the bed.

Fu Ying went to the toilet first. When she was in the toilet, she found that there were only two sets of disposable supplies. When she came out, she called the front desk and asked them to send her an extra set.

Under the astonished gaze of her schoolmate, Fu Ying took the set of toiletries that had just arrived, brushed her teeth, washed her face, and went to bed.

Seeing that she seemed to have never stayed in a hotel, Fu Ying roughly taught her how to use the shower head and how to squeeze toothpaste.

Fu Ying's calmness comforted the schoolmate, and soon she finished washing up, and the three of them fell asleep peacefully.