1 . The Music Educator Award, this year, went to Annie Ray, an orchestra(管弦乐队)director at Annandale High School.She was recognized for her efforts to make music accessible to all students, particularly those with disabilities.Ray got to attend the awards ceremony in Los Angeles and bring home a $10,000 prize.

Ray created the Crescendo Orchestra for students with severe intellectual and developmental disabilities, as well as a parent orchestra that teaches nearly 200 caregivers a year to play the same instrument as their child.Ray also works with a local charity to give damaged instruments a second life in her classroom.

The orchestra is about much more than just making music.The most important is to give students a chance to develop their cooperation skills, make mistakes and learn the art of refining something.Ray pushes her students to be brave, go outside their comfort zone and realize they have to learn how to make bad sounds before learning how to make good sounds.And they teach her a lot in return.” They changed my educational philosophy.I understand what it truly means to meet a student where they’re at and apply that elsewhere,” she said.

The warm reception on the ceremony was meaningful.Actually, not many people understand what exactly music educators do or how much their work matters.While her administration is supportive, that lack of understanding is a problem facing the profession in general.Another is resources.She says her school “desperately” needs new instruments.She will use some of her prize money to buy more.

Ray also plans to put some of the money towards an ongoing scholarship for students who want to pursue music when they graduate.She knows of several, those particularly interested in music, and aims to offer financial support needed to realize their musical dreams” It is hard but truly satisfying,” Ray said.“And there’s nothing else like it for them.”

2 . Minor Cold: A sugary feast to get through the freezing winter

Minor Cold, or “Xiaohan” in Chinese, is the 23rd of the 24 solar terms in the Chinese lunar calendar     1       We’ve outlined below how people deal with the Minor Cold and its significance in Chinese culture.

Eight treasures rice pudding or “babaofan” in Mandarin is a special sweet rice dish enjoyed during Minor Cold and Chinese New Year dinner. In Chinese, the number eight is pronounced as “ba”, which is similar to another Chinese word “fa”.     2    . Because of its pronunciation, this traditional Chinese dim sum is regarded as a symbol of wealth and health.

    3    . Different regions in China have different eating habits. People in Nanjing and Shanghai usually cook vegetable rice while in Guangzhou, it is a tradition to eat sticky rice on the morning of Minor Cold.

For Chinese people, this time of year also sees preparation for the most important festival of the year: the Spring Festival.     4    . In the old days, Chinese families would usually start to purchase the necessities for the Spring Festival, write couplets and make paper cuts by themselves.

The ancient Chinese noticed the slight changes in seasons by observing the movements of the birds. Wild geese would usually start to fly back to the north while the magpies (喜鹊) make their nests. These animals remind people of the beginning of the suitable farming and life for Minor Cold.     5    . Therefore, more attention should be paid to domestic animals’ warmth.

The very ancient poetry that     1     (write) a thousand or more years ago was simpler and about common things like love, romance and nature that people appreciate. Though much poetry was created in the eras following the Song dynasty, it is thought that the poets became increasingly     2     (academy) and hard to understand so that modern Chinese can’t appreciate the style and meaning.

For foreigners, ancient Chinese poetry     3     (be) more difficult     4     (comprehend). One of the reasons is the nature of Chinese characters     5     (they).Often one character has many meanings,     6     makes the translation of Chinese into English a key part of reading and understanding Chinese poetry. Put simply, good translation is essential to     7     (full) understand Chinese poems.

Another point worth     8     (notice) about ancient Chinese poetry is that itis influenced by Confucian and Taoist thinking. Ancient Chinese poetry has a focus of friendship besides love or being     9     lover. Friendships, to the village, the community, the country or your drinking friends are dominant themes. The poets’ main task seems to be just writing poetry, because a life as a poet is an important thing. In this respect, Chinese poetry is all     10     the poet, the “meaning” for the poet and not what is happening around the poet.

5 . Instead of being a pacing-up time, winter is a locking-down time. Winter frees us in all sorts of ways.

I once had a neighbor named Earl. An old-timer and a self-made man, he _________ told me stories about Maine winters in the past. He suggested he had _________ the ice age. He backed up his old stories with _________ of old black-and-white photographs of heavy snowstorms that piled up to second-floor windows and completely _________ cars.

And I’ll never _________ what he said as an end to one of his stories, “A man couldn’t get much done once the snow came.” So what did he do once the snow came? He spent a great deal of time _________ to home and hearth, where he _________ the wood stove, sat with his wife, made pots of coffee, and read by the fire.

As I write these words I occasionally raise my head to _________ the window at the woodpile stacked (堆), the garden harvested, the apple tree _________, the lawn mowed, and the bicycle shed newly roofed.

As I tended to all those things, when did I have time to __________?

Some years ago a friend sent me a quote by Socrates that I try to be mindful of: Beware the fruitlessness of a __________ life.

The advice __________ me to look forward to the coming of winter, because I’ve finally learned that it is a slowing-down time, a gift of rest, a (n) __________ to acknowledge that most of the outdoor work that could be done has been done.

A friend of mine who lives in the Southeast recently called. In the course of our __________ he celebrated the climate where he lives, which __________ him to work outside year-round. “I’m always on the go.” he told me.

But I think I need a good time of winter.

7 . A 15-year-old student has been praised a hero after it was found out that he had saved the life of a man who had suffered a heart attack. Sheng Xiaohan hadn’t told students and teachers the story until the man _________ at the school to thank him.

Sheng recalled he was _________ home at around 9 p.m. after working late at school when he saw a group of people surrounding a man on the ground _________, with a man patting on his back and others calling his name.

When he saw the man was unresponsive, he _________ his pulse and found it was weak and his body _________ “I had learned first aid several times since primary school and the _________ time was during military training,” he said.

He first tried the Heimlich maneuver, but then thought the old man might have _________ a heart attack. He asked people around to give him some _________ and tried cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). He _________ down on the man’s chest regularly, while asking another man to help with artificial respiration. Someone else called the emergency __________. Sheng kept doing CPR for about six minutes until the ambulance arrived and __________ the man to the hospital.

“I didn’t dare stop or ask others to replace me in case of any __________,” he added. “During the process, he started to breathe again, which gave me the confidence and __________ to go on.”

Sheng said he didn’t feel tired during the process, but afterwards his arms were __________. After the experience, he didn’t treat it as anything out of the __________ as he was a warm-hearted young man always ready to help others.

Saturday afternoon at the Main Media Center, six front-line workers of the Hangzhou Asian Games     1     (invite) to talk about their work experience during the event.

The spotlight may not shine as     2     (bright)on them as it does on the     3     (compete) in the race course, but most of them have been offering support and help to the 12,000 athletes, nearly 5,000 technical officials and thousands of media personnel, making     4     (they) own extraordinary contributions (贡献) to the Games.

At the conference, Asiad Daily’s very own Shi Futian, a sports reporter and new media personality at English-language newspaper China Daily, shared the inspiration     5     he had drawn from people he had interviewed, including Uzbekistan’s artistic gymnast Oksana Chusovitina and Chinese swimmer Wang Shun. “I feel very lucky     6     (take) part in such a huge event as a reporter,” he said. “I also hope that through our media coverage,     7     (many) people will get to know the athletes and understand their stories.”

Lyu Shuyi, a security staff member at Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport, has been responsible     8     the protection of rifle and pistol ammunition for events such as     9     (shoot) and modern pentathlon (五项运动). As of Friday, the security team had ensured the safety of ammunition in 139 batches, and not a single piece was lost or damaged. “Due to the varied gun control policies in different countries, we worried that athletes might not understand the local rules     10    , those concerns were reduced when everyone showed understanding and cooperation.”