1 . From my second grade on, there was one event I feared every year: the piano recital(独奏会). A recital _________I had to practice a boring piece of music and perform before strangers. Each year I would ask my father if I could skip the recital “just this once”. And each year he’d shake his head, saying something about building self-confidence and working toward a(n)_________So it was with really great_________that I stood in church one recent Sunday, video camera in hand, and watching my 68-year-old father sweating in his shirt before_________to play the piano in his very first recital

My father has had a(n)_________to play music since childhood, but his family was poor and couldn’t afford lessons. He could have gone on regretting it, as too many of us do. But though he was rooted in his past, he wasn’t _________there. When he retired three years ago, he_________his church music director to take him as a student.

For a moment after my father sat down at the keyboard, he simply stared down at his fingers. Has he forgotten the_________? I worried, remembering those split seconds _________ago when my mind   would go blank (空白的) and my fingers would__________ .But then came the beautiful melody(旋律), from the__________fingers that once baited(装饵于)my fishing lines. And I__________ he had been doing what music teachers always stress:__________the music and pretend the others aren’t there.

“I’m__________of him for starting something new at his age,” I said to my son Jeff. “Yeah, and doing it so __________,” Jeff added.

With his first recital, my father taught me more about courage and determination than all the words he used those 30-plus years ago.

3 . Zhao Yuan, who was a dance teacher, lost one leg in an accident at the age of 24.______she had to use a wheelchair, and leave her______ position and started to make a living in business. She opened a hotel in her hometown and used some of her earnings to help_____for the college cost of 13 poor students.

In 2020, she set up an offline sales platform called Good and Fresh, which mainly sold goods produced by Zhao’s disabled friends. ______ the pandemic (疫情), however, Good and Fresh   _______making money, so Zhao ______ online sales instead.

She became a livestream host on social media platforms, ______ the sales of goods like brown sugar, sweet potato flour and honey that her friends made. Although Zhao Yuan, who only had one____ , had to deal with her own disability, she had made her business succeed in creating a______ in e-commerce (电子商务) and had helped more than 2,000 other_______ people sell agricultural products. Everything she sold came from 55 agricultural centers around the province_______ by the disabled. She had also trained 57 hosts, all of whom were disabled.

With the_______ of her business, Zhao has set up the Good and Fresh Agricultural Science and Technology Development Co., of which she is______ . She is planning to______ another 1,000 hosts, and hopes that they will also be able to achieve their personal and social______ through work, just as the way she is doing.

5 . I was riding my special motorbike this past weekend and stopped at a store. As I was getting my wheelchair off the back, a man watched me from his car and I noticed a wheelchair in his back seat. We spoke for a moment and I asked him about the wheelchair. He answered that it was for his daughter. “Well, do you think she would like to go for a ride on my motorbike with me?” I asked. He seemed amazed that a total stranger would ask him this. He thought about it for a second and said, “OK, as long as I can follow you.”

He introduced me to Amy and he sat her on my back seat. Her father followed me for a few miles and she talked non-stop about what she wanted for Christmas.

As we came back to the store she said, “This ride is the best Christmas present I could ever receive. I have been in a wheelchair my whole life and didn’t know I could do this.” Then she turned to him and said, “Oh Daddy, I’m going to be OK. Mr. Bryant does all kinds of things — and I will, too.” Her father hugged me and said, “I was sitting here praying for a gift for Amy that would encourage her. She often felt that her life was boring compared to other children. God answered my prayer (祷告) just now. Now I pray that God will bless you for your gift to Amy today.” Being kind and thoughtful to others, we can be an answer to prayer.

7 . A well-dressed man came to a famous jewelry shop. He explained that he wished to buy a pearl for his wife’s birthday. The price didn’t matter, since business had been very good for him that year. After examining a nice black one that cost $ 5,000, he paid for the pearl in cash, shook hands with the jeweler and left.

A few days later the man returned and said that his wife liked the pearl so much that she wanted another one just like it. It had to be exactly the same size and quality, because she wanted a pair of earrings made. “Could you give me any advice on how to get such a pearl?” said the man. The jeweler regretfully replied, “I would say it’s exactly impossible to find one exactly like that pearl.”

The rich man insisted that the jeweler advertise in the newspapers, offering $ 25,000 for the matching pearl. Many people answered the advertisement but nobody had a pearl that was just right.

Just when the jeweler had given up hope, a little old lady came into his store. To his great surprise, she pulled the perfect pearl from her purse. “I don’t like to part with it,” she said sadly, “I got it from my mother, and my mother from hers. But I really need the money.”

The jeweler was quick to pay her before she changed her mind. Then he called the rich man’s hotel to tell him the good news. The man, however, was nowhere to be found.

I am a proud mother of three children. My last little baby was born in the middle of August and her name is Aida.

Shortly after having Aida, my mother-in-law Ann showed me something she learned from her friend’s mother in an art class she attended weekly. She had a loom (织布机) and showed me how to knit (编织) a scarf. After, I learned some skills, she gave me a small loom with her half done project.

I realized the homeless population in my town really needed some more warm clothes. I started to give away my hats to the people asking for food outside the food shop down the street I live in.

My oldest son Siddhartha got involved in the project and made a hat as well. I found that there was a non-profit organization on the way home, which made masks for farm workers and was asking for winter warm clothing donations. I made a lot of woolen hats and gave them to the organization which would hand them out to farm workers.

Then I, together with my son, made woolen hats for everyone in my family as Christmas gifts, and gave woolen hats to all my neighbors I was close to, There was a new family that moved in down the street. I did not know them very well but why not break the ice with some handmade gifts? So I made hats for the mom and one-year-old baby. I knocked on the door and handed the gifts over and my neighbor was so happy to receive them. We talked happily and I learned she worked in a hospital.

The new neighbor had limited knitting skills so she asked me to create sweaters for kids in hospital together.

Later, my new neighbor wanted to learn my knitting skills to serve the elderly in the nursing home.

9 . A thief dropped a winning lottery ticket (彩票) at the scene of his crime, but he has been given a lesson in _______. The man whom he robbed _______ the ticket and won the ￡25,000 prize. But the man managed to find the thief, and handed over the _______.

The robbery happened when Professor Sabbatucci was changing a tyre on a highway. Another motorist, who stopped “to_______”, stole a suitcase from his car and drove off. The professor found the _______ ticket and brought it home.

The next day, the professor saw the lottery _______ on TV and realised it was a winner. He _______ the ￡25,000 prize, but he decided not to keep the money. He made an announcement on the radio, _______, “I’m trying to find the man who robbed me. I have ￡25,000 for him — a lottery _______. Please meet me.”

The professor received hundreds of ________ from people who were hoping to ________ him into handing them the money. But there was one voice he ________ and he arranged to meet the man in a park.

The robber gave back the ________ and burst into tears. He could not ________ what was happening.“Why didn’t you keep the money?” he asked. The professor replied, “Because it’s not mine.” Then he walked off, turning down the thief’s ________ to share the prize.

10 . Many years ago, my dad was diagnosed with a terminal illness.He was unable to work at _________ job. He would be fine for quite a while, but would then fall suddenly_________ and have to be admitted to the hospital.

He wanted to do something to keep himself _________, so he decided to volunteer at the local children hospital. My dad loved kids. He would talk to them and play with them. Sometimes, he would _________ one of his kids. In certain instances, he would give comfort to the sad parents of these children.

One of his kids was a girl who had been admitted with a_________ disease that paralyzed (使……瘫痪) her from the neck down. I don’t know the _________ of the disease, but I do know that it was very sad for a little girl. My dad decided to try to help her. He started _________ her in her room, bringing paints, brushes and paper. He stood the paper up _________ a backing, put the paintbrush in his mouth and began to paint. He didn’t use his hands at all. Only his head would move. He would visit her _________ he could and paint for her. All the while he would tell her, ―see, you can do __________ you set your mind to.

Eventually, she began to paint using her mouth, and she and my dad became friends. Soon after, the little girl was discharged (允许出院). My dad also __________ the children hospital for a little while because he became ill. Sometime later after my dad had recovered and __________ to work, he was at the volunteer counter one day and __________ the front door open. In came the little girl who had been paralyzed, but this time she was walking.She ran straight to my dad and hugged him really tight. She gave my dad a picture she had done using her __________. At the bottom it read, －thank you for helping me walk.

Sometimes love is more__________ than doctors, and my dad who died just a few months after the little girl gave him the pictureloved every single child in that hospital.