Alice was a stubborn girl     1     always wanted to be a singer. Music was the     2     important thing in her life. She took lessons for years and     3     (practice) hard, but in spite of all the efforts she made, her voice didn’t improve. In fact, it didn’t get better, it just got     4     (loud).

Her teacher     5     (final) gave up and stopped the lessons,     6     Alice refused to give in, and one day she decided to give a concert and invited her teacher     7     (attend). The teacher was very worried about     8     to say after the concert. She knew it would be terrible and it was. She didn’t want to tell a lie, but she didn’t want to hurt Alice’s feelings, either. Then she got an idea and went backstage (后台) to greet her pupil.

“Well,” said Alice, “What do you think of     9     (I) singing?”

“My dear,” said the teacher, “you’ll never be better     10     you were tonight.”

Last Friday a storm swept through two villages in the New Territories,     1     (destroy) fourteen homes. Seven others were so badly damaged     2     their owners had to leave them, and fifteen others had broken windows or roofs. One person was killed, several were     3     (serious) hurt and taken to hospital. Altogether over two hundred people were homeless after the storm.

“I     4     (eat) with my wife and children,” a farmer, Mr. Tan, said, “when we heard     5     loud noise. A few minutes later our house fell down on top of us. We tried our best     6     (climb) out but then I saw that one of my children was missing. I went back inside and found him, safe but very     7    . (frighten)”

Mrs. Woo Mei Fong said that her husband had just left for work when she felt that her house was moving. She ran outside at once     8     her children. Later,     9     (rescue) helped to take people out of the flooded area and the welfare department brought     10     (they) food, clothes and shelter.