【推荐1】The Bridge We Were Meant to Cross

My brother and I were driving home together, buried in a conversation. For lack of attention, my brother took a _______ turn towards a bridge and we had no way to turn back.

_______, he paid the bridge toll (费用) and _______. He was clearly frustrated by the mistake and the needless _______ of $ 4.

We eventually reached an exit and, as we took it, my brother _______ a black Mustang pulled over to the side of the road. A young guy was standing nearby trying to phone someone. I was busy _______ which way we went next but my brother pulled over and asked the guy if he needed any help. And he did. He had a _______ tire and needed a wrench (扳手) to get it _______.

My brother gave him a wrench, then _______ to help him change the flat. We started getting to know the young man who was from a rough neighborhood nearby. He said that this had been a ______________ week for him: earlier he had gotten into a minor car accident, and now this flat on his way home from work. But he called us “A ______________ of fresh air”, and kept thanking us because he would have been ______________ if we hadn’t ______________. After we had finished the job, he thanked us again and ______________ $ 20 and tried to give it to us. “No,” I said. “We were ______________ supposed to even get on that bridge. We took a wrong turn. But now we know why we did it. It was to help you. Thank you for turning our mistake into a(n) ______________ to serve.”

What I loved most was watching my brother throughout this ______________. He was able to turn his ______________ for the mistake into positive energy. He was able to see a chance to help (which I totally missed!) even in an otherwise ______________ situation, which can only come from a ______________ mind and an open heart.

【推荐2】The day I received my letter of acceptance to NewYork university，I was extremely excited. It was my dream university. And my___ were pleased for me. But they also hadn’t___ me to get into such   a competitive   school. In   fact, the best thing   they ever did   for me was to ___   me from doing things___ - indeed, when I was in elementary school, they offered to buy me a present____I got a C.

It ___ when I was in   the third   grade. An   only child in   an Asian family, I had just ____     with my family to Los Angeles. Months into the third grade, I developed a strong feeling of___ about getting bad grades. Seeing my anxiety, Dad said, “Kate, tell you what. If you get a C or __ ，I'll buy you a present. If you score higher than that, I won't buy you anything，because you won't___ it.”

Clearly dad wasn't the   _______Asian tiger parent， pressuring me to work tirelessly for the best_______, and neither was my mom. They didn't want to push me. They wanted me to be___ and   healthy.   Dad's   ________       of   a   “failing grade”   gift amazingly___ my worries and ressure.What’s more, I______getting A's and B' s throughout high school, but without the added stress and fear of failing . I think it was my parents' lack of stress on grades that gaveme _____        to encourage my own desire for achievements. I now realize I was __ when I thought I didn’t receive a prese-nt from my dad that day. He gave me two invaluable___ : the spa-ce to develop my own desire for excellence ,and the healthy mind   to _____it.

【推荐3】When I was about 12, I had an enemy, a girl who liked to point out my _________. Week by week her list grew: I was very thin; I wasn’t a _________student; I talked too much; I was too_________ , always feeling superior to (胜过) others, and so on. I tried to hear all this as long as I could. _________, I became very angry. I ran to my father with _________in my eyes.

He _________ to me quietly, and then he asked. “Are the things she says true or not? Janet, didn’t you ever _________ what you’re really like? Well, you now have that girl’s _________. Go and_________a list of everything she said and mark the points that are____________. Pay no attention to the other things she said.”

I did____________ he told me. To my great____________, I discovered that about half the things were true. Some of them I couldn’t ____________ (like being very thin), but a good number I could – and suddenly I wanted to change. For the first time I went to a fairly ____________picture of myself.

I brought the list back to Daddy. He____________to take it. “That’s just for you,” he said. “You know____________than anyone else the truth about yourself. But you have to learn to____________, not just close your ears in ____________, feeling hurt when something said about you is true, you’ll find it of help to you. Our world is full of people who think they know your affairs. Don’t ____________your ears. Listen to them all, but hear the truth and do what you know is the right thing to do.”

Daddy’s advice has always ____________ me at many important moments. In my life, I’ve never had a better piece of advice.

【推荐1】Robin was 12 years old when his mother sent him to me for his first piano lesson. I preferred that students begin at an earlier _______. I explained to Robin that he was too old, but he said it had always been his mother’s _______to hear him play the piano, so I took him as a student.

_______Robin tried very hard, he didn’t seem to have the basic sense of music. However, he _______and at the end of each lesson he never forgot to say, “My mom’s going to hear me play someday.” But it seemed impossible, and I was _______by his slow progress. One day, he _______me that his mother was very sick and that he couldn’t come to my class any longer.

Several months later when I was preparing my students for a music show, Robin came to my home and said he had to _______the show. I didn’t know what led me to _______him to do that. Maybe it was the _______in his eyes or maybe it was something inside of me saying that it would be all right. I was even more ________when Robin announced that he had chosen one of the most difficult pieces of Mozart. I was not prepared for what would happen next.

However, on the show his fingers danced ________on the keys. He played so well that everyone________excitedly when he was leaving the stage. In excitement, I ________up to the stage to congratulate him.

“How could you do it?” I could not help asking him. “Well, I kept practising at home. My mom just passed away the day I went to your ________to ask for your permission to take part in the show. It was the first time that she had heard me play on stage. I wanted to make it ________,” he said.

【推荐3】I was 11 when I asked my mum for piano lessons. We were in an economic crisis and she’d recently been _______ off. She said a polite “no”.

That didn’t discourage me. I drew a keyboard onto a piece of paper and stuck it on my desk. I would _______ notes on an online keyboard and “play” them back on my paper one—keeping the sound they made on the computer in my head. I spent six months playing without touching a real piano. As my mum found I was serious about it, she bought me 10 lessons with borrowed money.

I still remember the first one. I was _______ by how organic the sound of the piano was, as I had become familiar with the artificial electronic sound. The teacher was trying to explain where middle C was, but I could _______ play all the major and minor scales.

I sat my grade one after eight lessons and got distinction. By the time I started secondary school, we couldn’t _______ lessons again, so I returned to my paper keyboard. I passed grade three, then grade five, practising only on my piece of paper.

For the grades above that, there’s an expectation that you add a certain sensitivity into your playing. The music teacher at my school said I could practise on the school’s grand piano. I would wake up at 5:30 am to get there in time and play until lessons started. I’d _______ lunch and then practise after school until the caretaker kicked me out. At home, I’d have dinner, do three hours of revision, and then mental practice until 1:00 am.

My school didn’t offer music A-level. I found the Purcell School for young musicians. The audition (试镜) was extremely _______ , and I felt overwhelmed. To my amazement, I was offered a place.

I had been told I had started playing too late to reach conservatoire (音乐学院) level, but when I left Purcell, I was awarded the senior piano prize. That was the point when I realized I wasn’t behind everyone else. I am now at the Guildhall School in London, where I was offered a scholarship. I feel proud: it’s been 10 years since I drew my paper piano and I’m at one of the world’s _______ conservatoires.

The irony is that I continue to do a lot of my practice away from the piano — what we call mental practice. It _______ key areas of the mind that are less readily accessed by piano playing alone. The paper piano helped stimulate my __________ about how music works.

【推荐3】I first heard about several cases of coronavirus infection(冠状病毒感染) in January, but I did not expect the outbreak to affect the rest of the world. Starting in March, it was _______that we should take all the final exams online. It was unexpected, and all university staff and students were _______ .

Due to the disease, most of the school events have been _______ to be held online. I have had a lot more _______ time than before. To _______ time, I learned to follow recipes(食谱) to make _______ dishes. The period of quarantine (隔离) has become a _______ when I can learn some new life skills. Besides cooking, I have been _______ a new hobby—playing puzzles. At first, solving a puzzle was just a way for me to _______ endurance(忍耐) and patience. Then I realized that I learned much more than that. When I ________ 1,000 pieces of a puzzle on the table, I ________ not buying a simpler one. I suddenly realized how ________ I was that I couldn’t even focus on such a simple task.

However, during that time, playing puzzles ________ me how to enjoy simple tasks while staying away from electronic devices(设备)and how to solve problems with shortcuts(捷径).________, I slowly forgot all the madness and boredom of the daily life. Every time I got one piece in the right place, I was mentally awarded by such a minor ________ and I was________ to keep on solving. The touch from my fingertips made me extremely ________. It was surprising and unexpected for me to receive so much ________ from focusing on solving puzzles. I ________ you to put your devices away when you want to improve your mood and relieve stress, and try ________ instead!