1 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. criticize       B. desperately       C. establish       D. feature       E. focus       F. gratitude G. heartfelt       H. humanity       I. influence       J. present       K. touch

Letters Brought Back to Life

Letters as a way of communication have long given way to phone calls and WeChat messages. But a TV show, Letters Alive, is helping bring this old way to keep in touch back into the     1    .

Letters Alive took its idea from a UK program with a similar name, Letters Live. Both shows     2     famous actors and actresses, but there is no gossip, no eye-catching visual effects. Instead, it’s just one person walking up to a microphone and reading a letter.

But these are not just any letters. They vary greatly in time and subjects. There is, for example, a passionate letter that famous painter Huang Yongyu wrote to playwright Cao Yu 30 years ago to     3     his lack of creativity. There is also a(n)     4     note from Spring and Autumn Period written by two ordinary young soldiers to their elder brother to report their lives in the war zone.

Compared to published texts, letters also come with a personal     5    .

One example from Letters Live was a note of     6     from the mother of a dying child to JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books. It read: “Mrs Rowling, cancer threatened to take everything from my daughter, and your books turned out to be the castle we so     7     needed to hide in.”

According to Guan Zhengwen, the director of Letters Alive, it is this kind of     8     behind every letter that strikes a harmony with the audience. “It’s a thing of the past that entertainment shows     9     themselves only with pretty faces,” Guan told Sohu News. “Entertainment industry is starting to switch to a(n)     10     on wisdom and intelligence.”