2 . 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 it 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 sick and he couldn't come to my class any longer. I was glad that he stopped coming, since he was really a bad advertisement for my teaching!

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 don'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 happened 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 stage to congratulate him.

“How could you do it?” I could not help asking him a few days later.

“Well, I kept practising at home. My mom had cancer and 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 she could hear me play on the stage. 1 wanted to make it ________ . ”

3 . One morning when I was visiting a poor woman, I noticed her dog was suffering from a terrible case of mange (癞疥). I asked why she didn’t _________him and she told me there was nothing she could do about it for being short of _______ .

My heart broke as I watched him slowly trying to stand his _________from the illness. I asked her if she would mind if I tried to   _______ him. I told her I would try to get some _________ to make him feel comfortable. Instead of going to a _______chemist’s shop, I went to the local animal doctor and told him what the dog _________like and he told me what I needed. When I _________ to the woman’s home I asked her if she would be sure to_________the dog in the medicine liquid every day until it was__________ .

Two weeks later when I returned to the house, this __________ little ball of dog with red fur ________ me at the door. It was him, shaking his tail__________. I smiled and told the woman she did a great__________ .I called the dog Firecracker because his fur was so red and lively. Every time I went to her home, Firecracker always greeted me with a wave of his tail.

That was the best $16 I____________spent.