At the opening ceremony (开幕典礼) of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, 44 children from the Malan Flower Choir sang the Olympic anthem (颂歌) in Greek. They are Deng Xiaolan’s students. She ______ to teach music in a village in Hebei for 18 years.

Deng began to learn music when she was young ______ both of her parents were music lovers. Deng loved music so much that she joined the school band after getting into Tsinghua University. In 2003, Deng went to the Malan village for a ceremony for the ______ time. She wanted to sing a song ______ the children. However, ______ of the children knew the well-known songs she named. Even when she asked if they could sing the national anthem (国歌), only two children ______ their hands.

“I felt so ______ that the children here couldn’t sing,” said Deng. “I like music a lot. It’s like my friend who’s ______ there when I’m happy or sad. If they couldn’t sing, then they wouldn’t know ______ to enjoy music.” She travelled between Beijing and the ______ to teach the children music.

She started the Malan Band two years later, the first ______ were six children from the village. Later, she ______ money to build a house called the “Music Castle” for children to study music. Deng said, “It is my only ______ that they could sing and find some happiness from music.”

______, Deng died on March 21, 2022. During her lifetime, she taught over 200 students. Many of them left the mountainous village to ______ university education.

In June last year, a video of a deliveryman (快递员) caught lots of attention online. He was     1     off a high bridge to save a woman in the water.

In the video, a man with a black T-shirt and black trousers was at Xixing Bridge. It is a 12-meter-high bridge     2     Qiantang River. A woman fell into the river and he swam to the woman     3     and tried to keep her mouth out of water. Luckily, a while later, a boat came to pick them up successfully.

Peng Qinglin was doing his job when he heard someone call for help. He took off (脱下) his     4     and put down his phone. The bridge was so high that he was quite     5     at first, but he had to help the woman. Sadly, he hurt     6     foot badly. So he needed to stay in the     7     for a week to get well. In the hospital, Peng said he was worried about being late with the delivery. However, the customer (顾客) didn’t feel angry     8     she knew what happened. His delivery company (公司)     9     him 50,000 yuan and a chance to study in college for free.

We     10     learn from the man and get ready to help out.

4 . Every Thursday morning, the 89-year-old grandma Wu Pinxian, plays beautiful piano music for people to relieve (缓解) their stress at Panyu Central Hospital in Guangzhou, CCTV News reported.

Wu started to be a volunteer piano performer at the end of 2023. The hospital holds a piano performance every Thursday to make relaxing environment and cheer up patients (病人) .

Wu’s music is effective: many patients and their friends sing along with her piano and some even become her fans (迷) . They don’t feel so nervous or scared in this way. Wu performs there every Thursday for one and a half hours with just a short break.

Though Wu help others feel better through her music, she herself feels sad because her husband died in December. But life has to go on. She finds that it’s meaningful to work as a volunteer in the hospital. It brings back the old memories (回忆). ______

Wu spends three to four hours practicing the piano every day. After taking up the piano as a hobby, she wants to realize her dream even if she is already 89.

“I believe playing the piano allows the patients to enjoy the music. Although I had not played the piano for a long time, it is good to play for others. I will do my best,” Wu wrote down in her diary.

5 . Yang Weiyun is 74 years old. She comes from Huainan, Anhui Province and has much experience in teaching. She had been a Chinese teacher in a school for 30 years and a kindergarten headteacher for another 20 years.

After she retired (退休), Yang still wanted to do something meaningful. She got the idea of teaching by livestreaming (直播) online. Yang started in 2021 and offered free pinyin lessons to kindergarten students. However, after several weeks she found lots of adults can’t read or write.

Yang said she found that many illiterate (文盲的) adults are afraid to go to new places. They also worried that they couldn’t teach their children or finish work well. “Many illiterate adults didn’t have the chance to go to school when they were young. Now they really need to learn to read and write. So I wanted to teach them.” Yang said.

Most of Yang’s adult students are busy at work. They have to make the time to learn the lessons, so Yang has two livestream lessons every day, starting at 8:30 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. Yang’s livestream lessons offer an easy way for adults to learn to read and write. Now she has nearly 300,000 fans on Douyin. Her biggest wish now is to see these students graduate (毕业) from her classes.

Yang Weiyun’s teaching experiences

Grace is an eight-year-old American girl. When she heard many     1     in Texas lost everything because of Hurricane (飓风) Harvey, she made a     2    .

Her parents experienced (经历) a hurricane twelve years ago, so they knew people in Texas had     3     rebuilding (重建) their homes after Hurricane Harvey. They had a     4     about how to help the people and Grace heard it. She wanted to play a part in     5     those people. She decided to give away some toys to a child. “If the child has toys to play with, she will     6     feel less lonely,” Grace said to     7    .

Then she started putting her toys in a bag. Grace     8     something on a piece of paper and put it into the bag. “Dear little girl, are you     9     about getting these toys? I hope they can be your close friends. Have fun with them and take good care of them.”

Grace’s mom was very moved by her daughter. She said Grace could feel what the people in Texas were experiencing though the little girl didn’t experience a hurricane. “She     10     more than an eight-year-old child really does.” said the mom.

10 . I really love volunteering, for example, volunteering at free public schools and old people’s homes. It’s one of my favorite hobbies.

At my old school, I used to help my classmates. It was really fun to help with their studies. I wasn’t really a top student who always got the highest grades, but I could explain to them clearly.

Now, when I’m free, I often volunteer on my town’s main street. Every weekend, other volunteers and I make a lot of dishes to feed everyone who passes by the street. There are always about 400~550 people. The long day makes me tired, but it also brings me great joy. The looks of joy on those people’s faces would make my weary day into a good day.

From my volunteering, I learned that helping others doesn’t only make others happy but makes myself happy too. It creates great memories(回忆). And maybe one day, people once you helped would help you back.