2 . Yesterday was Mother’s Day. Unfortunately, my mother was not among the many happy mothers, as I couldn’t visit her this year. I made a________on the phone that I would go to see her as soon as possible. 

My mother always says that kids don’t need to________a national day to say they love their mums. However, I remember one year I________calling her on that very day, and the next morning she rang up to complain about it. 

If you________Thailand, you could hear the sentimental (伤感的) songs about mothers’ greatest love playing in public places a week before the holiday. Schools, especially, take this day very________. Back in my teenage years, I ________ there was once a Mother’s Day singing competition and my friend represented the school. She was so emotional while singing the famous song on Mother’s Day________ “Kah Nam Nom” that she almost didn’t finish the song. 

However, her deep connection to the song helped her to________third prize. After the contest, I asked her why she was so emotional________the song. She told me that while she was singing, suddenly she had the________that one day her mother would no longer be with her and every word in the song became heartbreaking. Every time I hear this song, it’s not my mother who________to my mind but a picture of my friend crying with a microphone in her hand. The image________vivid today. 

Last week, a colleague________an experience with me—every year on Mother’s Day, she has to attend a________ceremony at her daughter’s school. Every year the teachers invite mothers to the school for a big gathering in which students pay________with flower garlands (花环).

6 . I thought I knew a lot about Hamlet. I had been always full of ________ about it before I saw The Revenge of Prince Zidan-the Peking Opera version of Hamlet. ________ an orchestra playing traditional Chinese instruments, the opera brought a ________ new sound to my Western ears. At first, I thought what I ________ was a violin, ________ later I learnt that it was an instrument with two strings called jinghu. Then, I was ________ when the main characters came on ________. The costumes and masks were amazing. Although the performers sang in Chinese, the music, exaggerated movements and mime helped get the ________ across to the audience. The voices sounded really ________. So ________ were some of the female voices that I was sure they could break glass! And the stage was really ________: a decorated whip represented a horse, and a screen with Chinese character, a study. Using such techniques, the opera had transformed a small stage into the whole universe. What I liked most was how the characters moved on stage. It was so dazzling and ________ that I wasn’t sure if the characters were performers or athletes! Everyone was ________. Feeling the strong emotions of love, anger, fear and grief in the ________, I could easily ________ the theme of Hamlet.

8 . It was the night of the full moon, a time which always drives Java’s young people mad with excitement.

Fireworks were lit long before the moon _________. The big noise brought people out into the warm night to enjoy the interesting scene. Everywhere, there were the paper remains of _________ fireworks lying on the ground. Little boys _________ more and covered their ears as they waited _________ for the explosions.

The moon appeared above the horizon (地平线): huge, _________ ball high above the city, and the _________ filled with people, as Java began to enjoy one of the year’s greatest _________: “the Night of the Full Moon”, a festival (节日) that is especially popular with young people.

More and more young Javanese _________ together and walked slowly through the _________. Joking and chatting, they moved towards the mountain __________ the city. They continued to climb until they reached the old temple (寺庙) at the __________ of the mountain.

After they were inside the temple, they drank their water and ate their mooncakes — delicious homemade ones, __________ of dried fruit and nuts. Outside, on the mountain, young people __________ cross-legged in circles, chatting and telling each other jokes. And still, in their hundreds, more young people continued to make their way up the mountain to __________ the brightly shining moon.

By midnight, the fireworks had stopped __________ up from the gray city in the valley below them. But during the night, the sound continued to be heard from the distance.

9 . April Fool’s Day

April Fool’s Day is a western festival. No one _______ exactly when and how April Fool’s Day began. However, there are some stories about _______ it came into being. One story _______ like this: in the sixteenth century France, the start of the new year was on April first. It was celebrated in much the same way _______ it is today with parties and dancing into the late hours of the night.

Then in 1562, Pope (教皇) Gregory introduced a new calendar for the Christian world, and the new year fell on January first. There were some people, _______， who hadn’t heard or didn’t believe the _______ in the date, so they _______ to celebrate New Year’s Day on April first. Others played tricks on them and called them “April fools”. They tried to make them believe that something false was _______. In France today, April first is called “April Fish”. French children fool their friends by taping a paper fish to their friends’ _______. When the “young fool” ________ this trick, the prankster (恶作剧者) shouts “April Fish!”

Today Americans play small tricks on friends and strangers alike on the first of April. One ________ trick on April Fool’s Day is pointing down to a friend’s shoe and saying, “Your shoelace is untied.” School children might tell a classmate that school has been canceled (取消). ________ the trick is, if you fail for the joke the prankster shouts “April Fool!”

In Britain today, on the first of April, even ________ newspapers, radio and TV programs tell big lies. You might read a science ________ showing that doctors have found a way to cure (治愈) AIDS, or you would probably listen to a piece of news about a UFO ________ on an island.

10 . In the 1950s, the Egyptian government wanted to build a new dam across the Nile in order to control __________, produce electricity, and supply water to more farmers. But the proposal led to __________. Water from the dam would ___________ damage temples and destroy important cultural relics. After listening to the scientists and citizens who lived near the ___________, the government turned to the United Nations for help.   

A committee was established to ___________ damage to the Egyptian buildings and prevent the ___________ of cultural relics. The group asked for contributions from different departments and raised funds within the international community. Experts ___________ the issue, conducted several tests, and then made a proposal for how the buildings could be saved. ___________, a document was signed, and the work began in 1960.

Temples and other cultural sites were ___________ piece by piece, and then moved and put back together again in a place where they were ___________ from the water. In 1961 German engineers moved the first temple. Over the next 20 years, thousands of engineers and workers ___________ 22 temples and countless cultural relics. Fifty countries donated nearly $80 million to the ___________.

When the project was ___________ in 1980, it was considered a great success. Not only had the countries found a path to the future that did not ___________ the relics of the past, but they had also learnt that it was ___________for countries to work together to build a better tomorrow.