An Unexpected Present

Today I received a letter. The unfamiliar， naive （天真的）and immature （不成熟的） handwriting on the envelope showed that the letter was written by a child. Full of curiosity， I tore open the letter， only to find [and was surprised to find] （1） that it was written by my little nephew——Jianjian. I like Jianjian very much. He has not yet entered primary school. But he was able to write such a good Chinese letter. It was not easy for him to do so. In the letter， there is [was] （2） a picture which was drawn by himself. It was a zoo with a lot of animals in it. On the end [At the bottom] （3） of the paper， there were six Chinese words， meaning“Happy New Year to You.”The words and picture were so well done that it was hard to believe that they were made by a child of no more than five years old. Actually when he was only two or three years old， he showed great interest in drawing pictures. Some time later， encouraged by his parents， he began to draw pictures by himself.

　　How time flies！ It is already two years since I saw Jianjian last time. I miss him very much. I'm really surprised at the progress he has made. He enjoys drawing and his parents have sent him to an art school， in which， he learns [has learned]（4） some basic rules of drawing. Now he is able to talk about painting.

　　The picture is the best of all the presents I have received. I like it very much.

　　浙江省台州市椒江一中高二（8）班 李奚清

　　评 语

　　文章从一封信和一张画着手，较为形象生动地描述了一个爱画画并初有成效的小男孩，读来自然流畅。文章中某些语言上的不足之处点评修改如下：

　　（1）only to do在句子后半部分，一般表示“未曾料到的往往是不如意的结果”，如：He hurried to the station only to see the train had left. 这里似改为was surprised to find为好。

　　（2）原文时态有误。

　　（3）表示在一张纸的下部，应该用at the bottom of the paper.

　　（4）根据上下文，这里用现在完成时为好。