【推荐1】When I was a young student, none of my friends listened to classical music. Few studied a(n) _________ for more than a year or two. They were listening to the big bands. But Dad _________ me to study to play the piano for three years. And later, you know, I gave it up. But one day one thing changed me _________.

One Saturday, I went to a(n) _________ birthday party of one of my classmates and there was quite a crowd of people of my _________. And some of the kids were fooling around at the piano while the parents are _________ us a big meal. Then one of the girls _________ stopped talking, looked at me and said, “Robert, you took piano lessons. _________, play something!”

“No..., I’m not going to play the piano.” I _________ that no one in that room show __________ in the kind of music that I could play. But though I was __________ objecting, I was pushed by my friends towards the piano. I was “__________” to sit down. And there I was face-to-face with eighty- eight black and white __________.

What to play? The only thing that came to my __________ was Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. So, I began with the slow __________. And after two measures, I became aware that there was a __________ in the room. “After the next two measures, I felt people __________ towards me, and then the parents came out of the kitchen __________. I played the whole first movement and when I was through, the applause and cheers were __________ to believe.

If I had known that this would have happened, I never would have given up __________ playing the piano.

【推荐2】I was 11 years old when I asked my mom for piano lessons in 2010. We were badly off in the recession (经济衰退). She said a_______“no”.

That didn’t stop me. I Googled the_______for a keyboard, drew the keys on a piece of paper and ________it on my desk. I would click _______on an online keyboard and “play” them back on my paper one – keeping the_______we they made on the computer in my _______. I spend six months playing without______a real piano. Once my mom saw that I was_______, she got into debt to buy me ten lessons.

In the first lesson I was_______by how real the sound of the piano was. I sat my grade one after eight lessons.________we couldn’t afford lessons again. I________grade three, then grade five,_______only on my piece of paper. When I was about 13, my mom said she had a_______for me: it was an electronic keyboard, bought with more______money.

My school didn’t offer music A-level. I found the Purcell School for young_______. The tryouts (选拔) were________. Some of the questions involved a judgment on the composer (作曲家) or when it was written. I felt stuck. To my amazement I was offered a_____. There, I worked as hard as I could to improve my performance and save enough money to buy my _______piano.

I feel proud: it’s been 10 years since I drew my paper piano, and now I’m at one of the world’s leading music schools. However, the irony is that I________doing a lot of my practice away from the piano: what we call________practice. The paper piano helped spark my curiosity about how music works, the building blocks that form the pieces.

【推荐1】I was leaving for a new job in Europe and my younger brother would be leaving for college. We only had a few precious months left as a family living under the same _______. Everything would change in the _______. A family of magpies (喜鹊) _______ in our maple tree. This family seemed to be extraordinarily lively. One early morning, the noise was so _______ that my dad went out to see what the birds were doing. He found a young magpie _______ around the yard, flapping (拍打) his little wings and yelling.

Dad looked up in the tree to find Mommy and Daddy Magpie sitting on a branch and glaring _______ at him. He had to do something for the poor little thing. Dad called the zoo for _______. They told him not to _______ it and assured him the baby would learn to fly on its own. Dad no longer _______ the magpie around the yard. He did, however, watch him ________ from the living room window, just to make sure a cat didn’t turn him into ________.

The next day I got a ________ at my summer job. It was from my father. He never called me ________. He asked me if I saw Morey before I left home — he named the bird Morey.

Driving home from work, I ________ it wasn’t only about the magpie but also about his own little fledglings (幼鸟) who were ________ the nest. It was about my brother and me. Dad felt as helpless as the Mommy and Daddy bird watching in the tree. He couldn’t make us fly nor could he ________ cats once we left the nest.

I got home and found him looking out of the kitchen window with ________ in his eyes. I ________ him by saying Morey might have learnt to fly with very good parents raising him.

Soon it was the end of August. Bags were ________ and it was time for my brother and me to leave the nest. In the end, Dad had nothing to worry about. He ________ his little fledglings well. And we flew...

【推荐3】We had a tornado touch down near the school and as expected, we went into our emergency tornado procedures. It was a day we never wanted to happen, but _________ prepared for throughout the school year. I wasn't even in the _________ when it happened. I had taken a student with me to the workroom to help _________ items for a project. When the alarm started _________ I immediately grabbed my student's hand and run as fast as I could back to the classroom.

Never did I imagine needing to put our tornado _________ to use. I never imagined actually needing to _________ my students up against the wall, have them crouch（蹲）down with their knees and heads _________ the ground, hands on the backs of their heads. Their hearts were beating so fast they couldn't catch their breath, and the _________ filled their eyes looking up at me as they ask if their family and friends were going to be okay.

I was so proud and surprised at how my students _________ themselves then. In the midst of the very __________ and dangerous situation, my students faced it with the attitudes and mindset of children much __________ than them. Never in my life have I seen my students follow directions so quickly precisely, and without hesitation. __________ some tears were shed（掉落）, and some hearts were beating fast, my students were brave. They had such a firm __________ in my assistant and myself that they were able to be 100% calm. They were brave beyond their years and today I am very __________ for that.

Right now, I __________ the day and am thankful for our safety, courage and bravery.

【推荐1】It was late in the afternoon. Several hundred villagers left their houses and gathered in the open air outside the village. They were staring_______at the mountain top in the distance. It was covered with_______—beautiful and dangerous.

The huge mountain is called Matterhorn. Mountain climbers had_______the top, using the southern route. But no one had_______dared to try a winter climbing up the northern side. But now one man was daring to try the_______route— the northern route, which was more difficult. He was Walter Bonatti, a great mountain climber from Italy.

For two days he had climbed. The village people had watched him_______Now they were waiting to see his ____. If he planned to_______the next day, he would light a green signal. A red light would mean that he was_______A tiny green light_______high on the mountain side. Bonatti was not giving up! The people________

The next day he continued his way upward. He was so lonely and so________! But he would not give up. Again that night he lit the________light.

In the morning, Bonatti________He could not see the top, but he knew he was________there. Though the climb was painful, he moved up.

Bonatti had spent months________for the climb. Was the training enough? Did he have the strength and ____ to climb to the top?

He was finally at the top! News about his________was radioed to the world.

The trip________the southern route was easy. He was warmly welcomed in the village. He had done the “________”, and would be well remembered as a climber of all time.