【推荐1】Twenty years ago, Mark Thatcher, the son of Mrs. Thatcher, was reported missing in the Sahara Desert while competing in Grand Prix motorcycle racing from Paris to Dakar. The sad news, which was so unexpected, shook the unusually _____ and unhurried politician. Though she did her best to _____ as if nothing had happened and made her public appearance as usual, people could not fail to notice that she was no longer the old self－ assured prime minister who always had everything under _____ . Instead she had become a very sad mother who was unable to _____ from her shock.

One day when she was to speak at a lunch party, a reporter caught her off guard by bringing up the _____ of her missing son again. She was _____ mentally unprepared for the question and lost control. Tears rolled down her cheeks _____ she sobbingly told the reporter there was still no news of Mark and that she was very worried about him. She said that all the countries concerned had _____ to do their best to help her find her son. With that she _____ down completely and sobbed silently for quite a while. Gradually she calmed down and started to speak as ______. It was a very moving scene which exposed a new side of Mrs. Thatcher ______ the public do not usually see. People began to talk about the Iron Lady's ______ love, a feeling that is common to the human race.

Later Mark returned ______ to his mother's side, good-humored and all smiles as usual ______ nothing unusual had ever happened. The Iron Lady, ______, broke down again and was seen sobbing for a second time.

【推荐2】My grandson Ty has always been very quiet and reserved. __ a chronic illness that has kept him mostly housebound(不能外出的）for the past three years has made him even more so. On Christmas,in ___of Ty's 16th birthday coming up in April, his parents gave him a truck. Driving around town with a learner's permit ___by his dad was such a huge deal to Ty! He couldn't wait to __ 16 and get his license. Our large extended family___ a party to celebrate, but of course, by the time his birthday __,the driver's license bureau was __ due to the Covid-19 crisis.

What a big___ that was for everyone. Then I had an idea: if we couldn't all be in the same room to give Ty a ___ , we'd give him a birthday parade！When the day arrived, Ty felt depressed about both his license and the __ party until his mom got him outside. Three SUVs and a truck __ with 16 grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins honked and hollered in the street. Ty was surprised___ words, and grinning from ear to ear.

We kept a six-foot __ between us and sang “Happy Birthday,” led by Ty's grandfather Jerry on the trumpet.We took a family picture and laid Ty's___ out on the glass,then loaded back up to finish our little birthday parade.

You never know when and how the Lord is going to bless you, but the most __ blessing of all was how much our unusual celebration brought Ty out of his shell.

【推荐1】Today I am working with Sim on for starting a mobile repairing shop. His ________ made me think of the day he joined us as a participant under Naya Savera, a skill-building program for different backgrounds.

My memory stretches back very ________. When I first looked at him during selection interview we ________ for taking on the participants, I wondered how I was going to help this person who could not even ________.

Simon has a ________ problem in both his legs. And to reach from one place to another he has to ________ a wheelchair. I didn’t take him seriously at first, but something changed when we ________ talking with him.

He made us ________ with all his funny stories. And made us cry by sharing his ________ to live normally. It is a pity that people underestimate him and look down on his ________ to become a successful person. By the time interview was over, we were all looking at him with awe and wondered who ________ whom, as most of the time he was the one posing questions.

Needless to say, he was selected for the training program and also ________ the program with ease. He was one of the ________ who never missed even a single day of training. He was one of the highest scorers in exams ________ on the last day of the training program. He touched everyone with his positivity and ________.

【推荐2】Love Is Blind: The Magic of Tabby

In October, 2019, I started my work at a local animal shelter. Tabby was a 14-year-old dog. What’s more, she was blind and deaf. Tabby’s adoption (收养) seemed impossible. After all, we didn’t have many adopters coming in asking, “Can you show me all of your really old dogs who are also _________?” We had all thought that Tabby would live out the rest of her life at the _________.

One day a woman named Loretta came to the shelter. Her son, Gary, had _________ Tabby’s picture and stories on the shelter’s website at home. They were interested in meeting her! It was the only _________ we ever received about Tabby. What could a young child possibly see in a 14-year-old dog who was both blind and deaf? Most boys would want a dog who could grow with them and _________ through grassy fields on summer days. Tabby would _________ be able to do that. But after meeting her, Loretta and Gary decided that she was the right dog for their family. They adopted Tabby!

If Tabby’s story had simply ended with her _________ adoption, it would still have been something very special indeed. _________, it was what happened after her adoption that people might regard as “magic”. Gary _________ seizures (癫痫). Since Gary and Tabby met they became __________. They did everything together. Besides, Tabby could be aware of the coming of Gary’s seizures __________ they happened, giving his family a(n) __________ that one was about to strike. What’s more, Gary seemed to be having fewer and fewer seizures since Tabby’s __________.

How could it be? Nobody could explain __________ Tabby did it. But those of us who were fortunate enough to know her and her family had witnessed (见证) the magic, the kind that has its roots in __________.

【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 laid off. She said a polite “no”.

That didn’t _________ 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 _________ a real piano. As my mum found I was _________ 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 _________ 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 was 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 __________ 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 challenging and I felt overwhelmed. To my amazement, I was offered a __________.

I had been told I had started playing too __________ 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 __________: 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 unlocks key areas of the mind that are less readily accessed by piano playing alone. The paper piano helped stimulate my __________ about how music works.