A Chain Letter

Ialways felt that I was lucky enough not to have received any chain letters until one day I had to handle it myself.

　　The sky was blue and the sun was shining. As I cheerfully stepped out of the Pacific Department Store， I surprisingly found a letter lying in the basket in the front of my bicycle. There was nothing on the envelope but a few words，“Open it， my dear friend.”Having not[Not having] （1） been in such a situation before， I curiously opened it but soon regretted having done so. The letter said that I should copy up to 30 letters by following the exact content and then send them to different people， or I would have bad luck， such as failing in the exam. I remembered what people had said about such anonymous（匿名的）chain letters. Some of them did as the letter told， so that they didn't feel worried about whether misfortune（厄運）would fall on them， while others expressed their views that they disregarded（不顧）any warning in the letters and would throw them away with no hesitation（顧慮）as they never believed in the fore-saying[foretelling] （2） of their own fate， which， in their mind， could be maneuvered（掌握）only by themselves.

　　I stood beside my bicycle for long， trying to find out which way to choose to settle the problem. Should I do it by following the letter？ Then I would probably spend a lot of time and， after all， there had been no scientific proof that such letters really had something to do with one's future. It was superstitious（迷信的）of one to have trust in those letters and enlarge [strengthen] （3） the“chain reaction”。 Gradually， I became certain that the only thing I must do then was to tear the letter to pieces， and I did so.

　　Whistling（吹口哨）as if on cloud nine（心境極佳）， I rode direct towards home with the satisfaction of having made a right decision.

　　上海市第二中學 行林

　　評 語

　　行文流暢，語言運用老練。從一些詞語句型的使用可看出作者堅實的英語功底和較豐富的閲讀量。文章中某些語言上的不足之処點評脩改如下：

　　（1）完成態的分詞的否定詞，應放在having前麪，這與現在完成時謂語不同。

　　（2）fore-saying是作者自己造出來的詞，改用fore-telling較好。

　　（3）原文enlarge不如strengthen好。