1 . Paul Barton is now living in Thailand. He is _______ British musician who likes shooting videos. In his online videos, he plays the piano for elephants. He _______ nearly 700 thousand followers on YouTube so far. In his most watched video, a nearly-blind elephant named Ampan _______ listens to him playing classical music.

Ampan is 80 years old and lives at Elephants World, which is an organization _______ elephants. There live 35 elephants like Ampan. Before they were rescued, they _______ to perform for tourists. Now Elephants World provides these beautiful animals _______ a comfortable sanctuary (庇护所). So for the rest of their lives, they _______ live a happy and peaceful life there.

Paul started to play the piano for elephants there from _______ fiftieth birthday. He talked with the manager there into allowing him to bring a piano into the sanctuary. However, carrying a heavy piano was _______ than he expected. It _______ him almost two hours to get the piano deep into the sanctuary in the wild.

“These elephants have worked for humans all their life and many are blind or disabled, so I wanted to carry ________ heavy for them,” Paul said. “I saw that the elephants were ________ hungry that they were eating all the time. ________ whenever I started playing, I found a special thing. One blind elephant would always stop to listen while ________ in the sanctuary were still eating.We realized ________ this elephant, even in a world of darkness, loved music.”

2 . Jenny is my best friend in junior high school. On my first day of junior high school, I _________ to her beautiful, shining eyes. Later, when she was seated in front of me, I _________ her long black hair. “She is such a beautiful girl!” I thought.

We have many things in common, such as sharing the same idea, _________ together and reading novels. Jenny often tries _________ best to help me. I am a careless person who often forgets important things. One day, I forgot _________ my ruler for a maths exam and I was very worried. At that moment, Jenny came along and said, “I guessed this _________ happen, so I brought two.” With her help, I didn’t feel _________ and got excellent grades in that exam.

What impressed me most was _________ that happened during our military training (军训). One cold night, I ate too many potato chips and got a painful stomachache. I was uncomfortable and couldn’t help crying. _________ my great surprise, Jenny put me on her back. Before I said no to her, she held me __________ and started to rush to the doctor’s. The doctor checked me and gave me __________ medicine. If she didn’t help me, I wouldn’t have been able to sleep that night.

Whenever I want to buy clothes, Jenny goes with me and patiently helps me choose clothes __________ look best on me. She has a good taste for fashion.

It’s __________ pity that we are not in the same school now. __________, we often communicate with each other online. I sincerely hope __________ our friendship will last forever.

Mr. Kim couldn’t take it any more. He needed peace and quiet. But his two neighbors, Ms. Abrams and Mr. Green, were _________ people he had ever known!

In the house on the left, Ms. Abrams _________ tuba (大号) lessons. In the house on the right, Mr. Green worked on cuckoo clocks (布谷鸟钟). And _________ the middle was Mr. Kim—sad and tired. Then he had _________ idea. He would pay his neighbors _________!

“Oh, great!” Ms. Abrams said when Kim offered _________ $200 to move away.

“Sure!” said Mr. Green when Mr. Kim offered him the same deal.

The next day, he saw Mr. Green carrying his clocks to Ms. Abrams’ house _________ Ms. Abrams carrying her tuba to Mr. Green’s house.

“I thought _________ you were both moving,” Mr. Kim said.

“We have!” Mr. Green said, “Ms. Abrams has moved into my old place, and I already into hers.” Mr. Kim nearly fainted (晕). What could he do?

The next day, Mr. Green and Ms. Abrams visited Mr. Kim. “We know why we _________ to move, so we got you this.” And they gave Mr. Kim a very nice set of earmuffs (耳塞). Finally, __________ peaceful world!

4 . During the Song Dynasty (960-1279), there was an official named Zhang Guaiya ________ worked in Chongyang county (县), in today’s Hubei. Theft was common–even money from the county’s vault (钱库) ________.

One day, Zhang saw a low-ranking official (小吏) ________ out of the vault in a panic (慌张). Zhang stopped him and asked, “Why are you ________ such a hurry?”   

“No reason,” said the official.

Zhang remembered the things stolen from the vault. So he asked the guards to search the official ________. They found a copper coin (铜钱) in ________ headband (头巾).

Zhang asked him how much more money he had stolen. The official refused to admit (承认) that he stole   ________ . Zhang ordered the guards to beat him.

The official didn’t ________. He said, “I only stole a copper coin. You ________ kill me just because of that!”

Zhang was very angry. He wrote with a red pen, “If you steal a coin every day, there ________ a thousand coins after a thousand days. Constant dripping wears away a stone (水滴石穿).”

“Constant dripping wears away a stone.” This saying ________ us that small things done over time can make a big ________ . On the one hand, it reminds us ________ small bad things. On the other hand, it tells us to persevere (坚持不懈).

Take learning a language, for example. There is no shortcut (捷径) to success. You have to persist, learning new words, reading and writing. Within a short period, you might not see progress. But ________ you stick to it for months or years, you will make breakthroughs (突破).

President Xi Jinping once mentioned (提到) this saying in a 1990 speech he made in Ningde, Fujian. Believing in it, Xi led local people to work hard ________ get rid of poverty (摆脱贫困). He often used it to encourage officials to fight against poverty.

It was a fine day. The sun was shining and the wind was gentle.

The kids _______ in their backyard. Suddenly a little cat got stuck (卡住) under the fence. The kids tried to free the cat, _______ they couldn’t. So they asked their mother for help. The mother freed the cat. The cat looked so cute that the kids asked their mother _______ they could keep it. The mother said, “I don’t mind _______, but you must ask your father, too.”

The kids waited anxiously for their dad back from work. When they heard their father _______ the door, they both shouted loudly _______ the same time, “Hi, daddy!”

“You are surely _______ than usual to see me today. What’s up?” her father said.

“_______, daddy. We just love you so much,” the girl replied. Then their mother said, “Go ahead. Ask your dad.”

The girl told her dad _______ had happened and asked to keep the cat. The father said, “No, you can’t. We _______ five cats up till now. Your mommy and I have no time _______ care of any more.” Hearing this, the kids looked unhappy.

Seeing _______ sad looks on the kids’ faces, the father changed his mind. He said, “All right. Since you love it so much, you _______ keep it.”

“Hooray! Thank you, daddy!” However, the father added that they must promise to look after the cat on their own.

The kids were so happy to have _______ pet friend. Then the cat _______ the name “Lucky” by the kids. So the cat had a place to call home.

7 . Since 2008, the program called “First Class Begins” has been put on the TV screen. The year 2023 was no exception. That _______ theme was “Building a Strong Country with Me”. The program was shown to viewers of all ages _______ the evening of September 1st as usual.

Guests from all walks of life, such as “Baiyi Medal” receivers, astronauts, scientists, model workers _______ to the show. They shared lessons with students across the country. For example, the Shenzhou-16 astronauts _______ were still working in the Tiangong space station, sent a special gift to students. _______ was made up of these three words “upward-mobility”, “curiosity”, and “original aspiration (初心)”. “Now I _______ a real astronaut, looking at the beautiful earth from our Chinese space station,” said one of the astronauts, Zhu Yangzhu. “Never give up, and our efforts will be paid off.”

_______ program also stressed the importance of developing a strong character. It told students that the _______ their characters are, the closer they are to success. Through _______ forms, the program aimed to improve young people’s self-confidence as Chinese. It encouraged the young ________ widely, practice hard and take active part in the new journey of making our country a powerful nation. The future is bright, and we should be ready to take on the challenges ahead.