1 . The journey of learning Beijing Opera has been a meaningful one for me.

When I first stepped into the practice room, the sounds of instruments filled the air. The _________ performers moved with grace and their voices were full of power. As a beginner, I found it hard to _________ the movements and vocal techniques. It seemed impossible to _________. But with each practice period, I found the determination to keep _________. Repeating the steps and vocal exercises over and over again, I practiced _________. My teachers and classmates were very _________. They encouraged me during moments of doubt and told me that _________ was not given but earned.

As time went on, I began to see _________ in my performance. My voice became more _________ and my movements more graceful. I started to feel a connection with the __________ understanding the feelings they had through their movements and expressions.

Finally, the day arrived for my first __________. I stepped onto the stage and the music started. I put my heart into the performance. The cheers that filled the theater at the end of the show were __________. The journey was __________, but learning Beijing Opera taught me a valuable lesson: never __________. I will carry with me the lesson learned from Beijing Opera that will __________ me on the road to success, both in the world of Beijing Opera and life.

4 . When I was young, Dad often asked me to watch _________ games with him. Slowly, I became interested in the sport. Then Dad started to teach me _________ to hit the ball. Quickly, I became a pretty good hitter （击球手） and began _________ games.

Every time Dad came to my game, I would try very _________ to impress him. I spent too much energy making him happy and paid too much attention to his feelings. _________, I would perform poorly sometimes. Dad also realized he had influenced me negatively. Then one day, he told me that he was _________ with work and couldn’t come to any more games that year. Though I was disappointed, I respected his _________.

In the following games, I managed to perform well. But Dad never got to see them in person. In the final game of the year, I still did well. _________, when there were only ten minutes left in the game, I saw Dad secretly looking out from behind the stand （看台）. _________ after I made a perfect shot and looked for him, he was already gone.

After the game, Dad came up to me and asked me how I did. “Dad,” I said, “I saw you behind the stand.” “Wow, did you?” he said. “What a good shot （击球） you hit! That was the best one you’ve hit.” At that moment, I __________ Dad had been there every time. He secretly watched me and gave me the best chance that I could ever have to do my best.

7 . On a Friday evening in December, I lost my job. That was _________. I was excited about the weekend, when my daughter Kristil and I _________ to get our Christmas tree. Then I listened to my voicemail: “We are sorry, but we decided to _________ you.” I was a single mother and my income was survival. The next day, I struggled to be _________ as I eyed the Christmas tree prices.

Over the next week, I applied for _________ like crazy as my bank account grew smaller. On a weekend afternoon, I dropped Kristil in a _________ community for a birthday party surrounded by all the nice things that we couldn’t _________. I drove home feeling sad.

Back at home, I looked out the window at the heavy snow and _________ a woman opening her car door against the strong wind. As she _________, I realized it was my old teacher, Sister Esther. I rushed out and asked, “What are you doing out in this ____________?” She said, “I looked for you at your ____________ and it was said that you had left, so I thought I would ____________.” I made her tea and we talked. Before leaving, she handed me a Christmas card.

Later on when I opened her card, I was ____________. There was a lot of money inside. Tears of gratitude filled my eyes as I ____________. Sister Esther had given me $1,000. In 2020, at age of 91, Sister Esther died, but the ____________ she gave during her life lives on in my heart.

8 . Do you think you are too old to do something? Just go online and ________ the video of John Harrison doing the 50m backstroke in 2014.

He ________ the 100-104 years world record by 15 seconds! Yes, you read that ________. The 100-104 years group! A time of 1:29.78. The first ever British man to set records in that age group. The applause (掌声) is long-lasting and heartfelt from all the crowd. A(n) ________ moment.

John loved swimming. He still tried to keep ________ by swimming in his last years before he passed away at the age of 105 in January 2020. Many of John’s friends speak ________ of him saying he was a “wonderful man”.

John was born in Farnborough on 25 July, 1914. And his ________ in swimming was unusual. “When I was five years old, on the way home from school, I came across a small pond,” he said ________, “so I went swimming. It taught me two things. One, to swim; and two, not to drink the water.”

“My parents ________ two years later that I was still doing it. They were ______ at first. But their anger soon ________” when I said, “I didn’t get asthma (哮喘病) last winter. They then bought me a costume and ________ me swimming skills.”

However, John didn’t start swimming ________ until his wife told him to stop teaching swimming and life-saving classes and ________ the sport for himself at the age of 79. From then on, he didn’t look back and was full of praise for everyone who ________ him during his successes.

9 . Henry remembers the day well. It was a day that would change his life. He was sitting at the kitchen table, watching his ten-year-old granddaughter, Sophia, do her homework. She had asked him a question about history and was now _________ him with big brown eyes, waiting for an answer. Henry looked at the kettle and then out of the kitchen window. Henry can still hear himself say, “I’m sorry, my dear. I don’t know.”

Henry had spent forty years working as a librarian in a school. He was now _________ and spent his days looking after Sophia. However, he felt that he should be doing more with his life, though he was in his seventies with grey hair and _________ wrinkles in his forehead (额头). As Sophia continued her homework, he read an article in the newspaper about the health _________ of older people going back to university. The article said that it kept the brain _________ and helped prevent loneliness. He made the _________ there and then. The next morning, he would go to Birkbeck, University of London and take a _________ in history.

After four years, Henry got his degree in history. “_________ the course has given me such a sense of achievement,” he says. “It has also made me _________ about doing all the other things that I’ve never had the courage to try before. It’s __________ too old to learn.”

10 . In 2005, Rachel O’Neill, of Rockwood, Michigan, was working full-time as an assistant in an engineering company. While _______ in a local charity, she’d never done any global volunteering. But after a travel in Africa for her fiftieth birthday, followed by a trip to Malawi, she said, “I felt I had to do something more.”

She was struck by the heavy work done by girls to _______ their families. “I wanted a way to honor them,” she says. She _______ a few women at her local church to make 1,000 simple _______, which were _______ to girls in Malawi.

Rachel _______ her goal that first year. As word spread, donations _______ in. “Dresses started coming every day from all over the country!” Rachel says. In 2008, without any _______ , she started a nonprofit organization called Little Dresses for Africa, with a goal of getting simple homemade dresses for girls(and pants for boys)in _______ communities, where people hardly change their ________ for a year.

So far, more than 10 million dresses have been donated to children in 97 countries, including the United States, though Africa remains a focus. The nonprofit runs a distribution center in Malawi and works ________ with community leaders there to distribute donated dresses and pants, which have proven the key to keeping girls in school.

“Nearly half of Malawi’s population is under age 14,” Rachel says, “We are ________ meeting their needs. For dress designs and donating information, go to littledressesforafrica.org. We only ask people to make high-quality, colorful clothes. ” She also asks for money to ________ shipping costs, estimated at $2 a dress. ________ donations have allowed Little Dresses for Africa to address other needs, including building more than 85 wells and two primary schools. “I couldn’t have done any of this on my own,” Rachel says, “But when you step out in ________ , miracles(奇迹)may happen.”