2 . 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.

3 . Shi lives with her family in Fuxin, a city in Northeast China’s Liaoning Province. Shi and her _________ Li, have devoted themselves to providing _________ education to their students. They encourage their students to attend after-school activities _________ science, technology and innovation.

During the past dozen years, Shi has _________ her students as they have taken part in various contests. Several of Shi’s students have received _________. Given her achievements, Shi has been named the most excellent teacher.

Li has a(n) _________ impressive resume (履历). He is a professor _________ coal mining (开采) in a university. He often goes into the most _________ places in the mines while _________ scientific research. He measures data and collects samples, and then he __________ above ground to complete his __________ and calculations, and to design plans to solve the problem at hand. He __________ to his students in how to concentrate on one’s __________ and overcome difficulties.

Encouraging their students to __________ various contests is one of the ways Shi and her husband have tried to __________ their students. In this way, the students have obtained a sense of achievement, and their __________ has driven them to study harder.

Shi says education is like a __________ one takes in search of “treasures”. She __________ it is important for teachers to discover each student’s interests and advantages, learn to __________ their interests and advantages, and encourage the student to live a __________ life he or she longs for.

4 . A man worked in a post office. His job was to handle(处理)all______ that had unclear addresses. One day he came across a letter which was______ to God. He opened it and it______,“Dear God, I am an 83-year-old woman and I live on a very small pension(养老金). Yesterday someone stole my______. There was a hundred dollars in it, which was all the money I had______ until my next pension comes. Next Thursday is Thanksgiving Day, and I have invited my last two friends for______. Without that money, I have______ to buy food with. I have no family to______, and you are my only______. Can you please help me?” The man was______, and went around showing the letter to all the other workers. Each of them______ their wallets and donated a few dollars. By the time he______his showing, he had collected 96 dollars.______then he sent it to the old woman. Thanksgiving Day came and went. The workers ______forgot about it. Then one day, there came another letter from the old lady to God. All the ______ gathered around when the letter was______. It read, “Dear God, how can I ever thank you enough for what you did for me? Because of your kindness, I was able to ______a lovely dinner for my friends. We had a very ______ day, and I told my friends about your______ gift. Thank you very much!” Seeing this, all the workers felt ______ with the nice thing they had done. They looked into each other’s eyes and smiled.

5 . One day, my three-year-old son decided to build a castle on a beach. Although I warned him that it might be _________, he insisted on building it in the _________ of the waves that would crash on the shore.

I _________, figuring the only way to make him understand was to let him do whatever he liked and _________ what would happen. I only hoped that he wouldn’t be too _________ when the first wave destroyed his _________.

To my _________, when the waves came and destroyed his castle, he even clapped his hands and said cheerfully, “That’s _________! Let’s do it again!”

I couldn’t understand how he could _________ seeing his fruit of labor ruined.

“Was it really fun when the waves destroyed the __________?” I asked when we were on the way home.

“Yes,” he said.

His reply reminded me of my __________. Nothing I did at home ever seemed to __________, too. I cleaned the floor only to see someone make it __________ again. My life was just one never-ending to-do __________. Just like the sand castles my son built, all my __________ were wiped away by a wave called Family Life. Had I even __________ whether the things I had done really __________?

As I recalled(回想) my child digging in the sand __________, I realized that I have been building something __________, something that will last forever: I have been __________ a family.

7 . Once upon a time, there was a poor man. His ________ was also very poor — a small and empty house, which was ________ with spider webs (蜘蛛网). People tried to ________ coming into his house as they didn’t want to come to such a ________ place. And the poor man thought that poverty (贫困) was the ________ for his unlucky life.

Then, the poor man ________ a wise man and told him about his poverty. The man felt sorry for the poor man and gave him a vase (花瓶). “This will save you from ________,” the wise man ________. The poor man took the ________ from the wise man and wanted to ________ it at first and then spend the money on drinking, as usual. Besides, why would he ________ such a beautiful thing? But then he started ________ the vase carefully and decided not to take it to the market. He brought the vase back to his ________, put it on the table and started watching it again. 

“It’s not ________ for such a beautiful thing to be ________,” the poor man thought. So he ________ some flowers and put them into the vase. It became even ________. “Not good that such a beautiful thing stands next to a spider web,” the poor man ________ again.

So the poor man started ________ his house. He cleaned the dust, washed the floor and whitened the walls. And it became clear that his house wasn’t poor, ________ rather warm and comfortable. And the poor man wasn’t a poor man anymore, but a hard-working host, who had no time to think about poverty.

8 . The second Sunday in May is a volunteer day in my neighborhood. Last year, my neighbors and I decided to ________ in the cancer ward (病房) at the Royal Children’s Hospital. As Children’s Day was coming, the hospital wanted us to make some ________ with children.

The day before we went to the hospital, many of us were feeling quite ________. We didn’t know how we would react when seeing those sick ________. As we were preparing morning tea for them, I ________ some neighbors to make chocolate bread and candies at my home.

We arrived early at the hospital and were greeted ________ by the staff—it was ________ to know that they were welcoming us and the brightness we would offer. Our first ________ was to offer morning tea to the children who seemed a bit shy—it seemed that nothing broke the ________ better than candies!

It was then time to start making cards—we brought crayons, glue and shiny things to ________ the children! We talked with them and helped them make cards. It was surprising that our ________ immediately went away. Although they were seriously ill, they were ________. Most of them chose to use bright colors as they believed they would be ________ soon. For a time, we even ________ they were ill.

We left the hospital when it was dark. Although we were tired, we were happy to see ________ on those children’s faces.