Encouragements can serve as a ray of hope during difficult times. The best ones to encourage a depressed soul are our friends and our parents.

It happened three years ago, when I was just admitted to high school. For the first time, I failed in an English exam, though English had been my favourite. You can’t imagine how depressed I was at the time. My best friend Lily saw this and tried to comfort me, offering her emotional support. She listened to me carefully and told me some inspiring stories about how some famous people reacted in front of failure. Eventually, with her patient encouragement, I overcame depression and was determined to try hard again. In the next exam, I made it.

Encouragement is the best means to help someone feel better. It can give the courage to fight difficulties and motivate someone to move on.

题目分析：鼓励可以激起人的希望，催人奋进。本篇书面表达要求结合事例谈谈“鼓励”在我们生活、学习中的作用。文章不限文体，所以写作时可以根据自己的擅长或者写成抒情性散文或者写成加叙加议的文章，但是按照要求必须补充事例。在谋篇布局上，写作时应该首先提出“鼓励”对我们的影响和激励作用，然后再结合事例进行论证。而在语言方面则要尽量使用多种句式结构以增加文章的亮点，比如倒装句、强调句等。此外，为了让文章上下文连贯、语言流畅自然、还要注意适当使用连接词，比如表示转折的however、表示递进关系的besides、what’s more等。

【亮点说明】本篇范文采用经典的三段式，在文章开头开门见山提出文章中心话题：Encouragements can serve as a ray of hope during difficult times，第二段采用事例来进行论证，最后做出总结，呼应主题，这种布局安排使得文章结构紧凑、脉络清晰。在文中作者使用了a ray of hope、a depressed soul、motivate、Eventually、inspiring等高级词汇，显示了作者丰富的词汇知识。短语For the first time、with her patient encouragement和副词eventually的使用不仅使文章的语言衔接自然，而且也使文章的段落层次更为分明。此外，感叹句how depressed I was at the time、状语从句though English had been my favourite以及非谓语offering her emotional support的使用也给文章增添了亮点，提升了档次。