1 . Every Saturday morning Phoenix Young would take piano lessons with a family friend when he was a child. “At that time we would_______around and take all morning just to have a lesson,” Phoenix_______. “And I loved it.”

But when Phoenix was 12, his teacher proposed that he need better_______.So his mother took him to a music school in the Bronx, and signed him up for classes with a teacher named Bade Simon, experienced bit known for being _______. And she quickly lived up to that _______.Phoenix found the stressful life was_______like his lighthearted Saturday mornings with his former teacher, so it wasn’t long before he_______that he would quit.

One day, however, Bade_______him and said something surprising: “I have_______in you. Keep going. Then the reluctant (不情愿的) student did something surprising ________: he said, “Okay.”

“It was as if all I wanted was just a________from her that she cared about me,” Phoenix said.

That moment________their relationship. Within a few weeks, they were having________during lessons. And within a few months, she was teaching him things about music that he’d never known before. It was the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship.

“I went into________and became a piano teacher, a career I have been doing for 50 years,” Phoenix said. “And I ________it all to that precious moment with my unsung hero, Bade Simon.”

4 . With Christmas approaching, I often reflect upon one particular evening in the early 1960s. Back then, we decided to go carolling (唱圣诞颂歌) to spread the Christmas spirit which might ________ someone else’s life. So we needed to take ________ new members, for whom the only ________ was warmth of spirit.

Soon we discovered that carolling brought various ________. Sometimes we were greeted with open doors and open hearts, while other times, folks remained in the safety and cosiness of their homes, watching ________ through their windows.

One stop on our journey particularly ________ our memory. That night, after a couple of songs, one door swung open. A gentleman, gray haired, tenderly ________we go upstairs to sing for his bedridden wife. He added ________, “She loves music and used to be an opera singer.”

We stepped briskly upward into the couple’s ________ apartment. Books, records, and antique furniture whispered stories to us. I reminded myself not to stare ________ showing disrespect to them.

Sitting beside his wife, the gentleman gave us a ________. Then our voices rose and lingered around their small home. Had our voices been given extra ________ and beauty for this occasion? Perhaps they had.

A smile flickered on the woman’s ________, yet beautiful face. She snuggled her head against her husband’s shoulder and both of them heartily enjoyed our performance. Witnessing such a heartwarming scene, we felt it was a holy night, for we were in the ________ of love that was gentle and mild.

At that moment, we found, and maybe even _______, the Christmas spirit.

5 . That cold January night, I was growing sick of my life in San Francisco. There I was, walking home at one o’clock in the morning after a tiring practice at the _________. With opening night only a week away, I was still learning my _________. I was having trouble dealing with my part-time job at the bank and my acting at night at the same time. As I walked, I thought seriously about _________ both acting and San Francisco. City life had become too much for me.

As I walked down empty streets under tall buildings, I felt very small and cold. I began _________, both to keep warm and to keep away from any possible _________. Very few people were still out except a few sad-looking _________ people under blankets.

About a block from my apartment, I heard a sound behind me. I turned quickly, half _________ to see someone with a knife or a gun. The street was empty. All I saw was a shining streetlight. _________, the noise had made me nervous, so I started to run faster. Not until I reached my apartment building and unlocked the door did I realize what the noise had been. It had been my _________ falling to the sidewalk.

Suddenly I wasn’t cold or tired anymore. I ran out of the door and back to __________I’d heard the noise. Although I searched the sidewalk anxiously for fifteen minutes, my wallet was nowhere to be found.

Just as I was about to give up the search, I heard the garbage truck pull up to the sidewalk next to me. When a voice called from the inside, “Alisa Camacho?” I thought I was __________. How could this man know my name? The door opened, and out __________a small red-haired man with an amused look in his eyes. “Is this what you’re looking for?” he asked, __________ up a small square shape.

It was nearly 3 A.M. by the time I got into bed. I wouldn’t get much sleep that night, but I had gotten my wallet back. I also had gotten back some __________ of city life. I realized that the city couldn’t be a bad place as long as people were __________ to help each other.

8 . I don’t know why I came to the decision to become a loser, but I know I made the _______at a young age. Sometime in the middle of fourth grade, I _______ trying. By the time I was in seventh grade, I was _______, disrespectful and rebellious.

It wasn’t long after that I dropped out of school. Hard physical labor was the _______ for the choices I made as an adolescent. At the age of 21, I was _______ lost, and using drugs as a way to deal with the fact that I had no education and was _______ in a dead-end job carrying heavy construction materials up a ladder all day.

_______, now I believe in do-overs, in the chance to do it all again. And I believe that do-overs can be made at any point in your life, if you have the right _______. Mine came from a surprising source.

It was September 21, 2002, when my son Blake was born. It’s funny that after a life of _______ responsibility, now I was in charge of something so ________. Over the years, as I grew into the ________ of Dad, I began to learn something about myself. In a way, Blake and I were both learning to walk, talk, work and play for the first time. I began my do-over.

It took me almost three years to learn how to read. I started with my son’s books. ________, I practiced reading books to him until I remembered all the words in every one of them. I knew I wanted to be a good role model, so after a year-and-a-half and a lot of hard work, I ________ my GED test on my son’s fourth birthday. This may not sound like much, and I’m surely not trying to get praise for doing something that should have been done ________.            

It’s funny, growing up I always heard these great turn-around stories of triumph over shortcomings. But I never thought they ________ to me. Now I believe it’s a choice anyone can make: to do it all over again.

9 . It was a cold, rainy day, and I had no desire to drive up the winding mountain road to my daughter Carolyn’s house. But she_______that I come to see something at the top of the mountain.

So here I was,_______ making the two-hour journey through thick fog. Nothing could be worth this,I thought as I_______ along the dangerous highway.

Turning down a narrow track, we___________and got out. We walked along a path that was thick with old pine needles. Huge black-green evergreens (常青树)_________over us.Gradually,the peace and silence of the place began to_________ my mind.

Then we turned a corner and stopped at the top of the mountain and I was entirely held in_______. There across fields and valleys were rivers of fully-opened yellow flowers from the light one to the most brilliant. It looked as though the sun had tipped over and_______ the mountainside in gold.

_______ occurred to my mind.Who created such beauty? How? When? As we approached the house that stood in the center of the property, we saw a________ that read: “Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking.” The first answer was: “One Woman-Two Hands, Two Feet and Very Little Brain.”   The second was:“____________at a Time.” The third: “Started in 1958.”

As we drove home, I was so moved by what we had seen that I could________ speak.“She changed the world,” I finally said, “one small plant at a time. She started almost 40 years ago, probably just the ________ of an idea, but she kept at it.”

The wonder of it would not let me go. “Imagine,” I said, “if I’d had a dream and________it, just a little bit every day, what might I have accomplished?” Carolyn looked at me sideways, smiling. “Start tomorrow,” she said, “______________yet, start today.”