1 . Robin was 12 years old when his mother sent him to me for his first piano lesson. I preferred that students begin at an earlier _______ . I explained it to Robin that he was too old, but he said it had always been his mother's _______ to hear him play the piano. So I took him as a student.

_______ Robin tried very hard, he didn't seem to have the basic sense of music. However, he _______ and at the end of each lesson he never forgot to say, “My mom's going to hear me play someday. "   But it seemed impossible, and I was _______ by his slow progress. One day, he _______ me that his mother was sick and he couldn't come to my class any longer. I was glad that he stopped coming, since he was really a bad advertisement for my teaching!

Several months later when I was preparing my students for a music show, Robin came to my home and said he had to _______ the show. I don't know what led me to _______ him to do that. Maybe it was the _______ in his eyes or maybe it was something inside of me saying that it would be all right. I was even more ________ when Robin announced that he had chosen one of the most difficult pieces of Mozart. I was not prepared for what happened next.

However, on the show his fingers danced ________ on the keys. He played so well that everyone ________excitedly when he was leaving the stage. In excitement, I ________ up to stage to congratulate him.

“How could you do it?” I could not help asking him a few days later.

“Well, I kept practising at home. My mom had cancer and just passed away the day I went to your ________ to ask for your permission to take part in the show. It was the first time she could hear me play on the stage. 1 wanted to make it ________ . ”

2 . Last summer, we went to Hawaii for holiday. During my _______ trip with my husband, we spent most of our time _______ during the day in the sea, and then enjoying walks along the beach in the evenings.

We didn’t take any _______ because we had enough. We had visited the island many times _______. On our way to the _______ we joked that other than our sunburnt skin, we had no way to show that we had _______ there!

As we stood in line at the check-in, we noticed the _______ who had been on our plane the week before. _______, they all had tear-filled eyes this day. On the plane, we sat directly behind them: a mother and her four children without Dad’s _______. We learned that the father had been ____________ in a jet-skiing accident that week, and his wife and children had to ____________ make their way home without him.

We watched the children become ____________ while they were playing cards. But the mother stared at her knees, ____________ to believe her husband’s death. We could ____________ feel her pain as we realized that this could have happened to any of us. ____________ we were laughing and playing in the water, this poor family had been ____________ the sufferings. The vacation they had dreamed about had ____________ the terrible dream they would never forget.

I suddenly ____________ that we had no pictures for this vacation together. I closed my eyes, ____________ that my mind had recorded all the wonderful moments that I had ____________ with my husband that week. What a trip!

3 . Sare Niccoli, the 17-year-old daughter of a rich textile owner was freed by her kidnappers(绑匪)after 118 days. She said she ______ most of the time in a tent in the woods ______ one foot tied to a tree. ______ was freed late on Friday ______ her family paid a ______ of $1.8 million, the largest ransom(赎金) ever paid in Italy.

“I was ______ well,” the girl told the ______ during the interview, “Biscuits, cakes, often hot food and ______ stewed beef.” She said her nearly four months in trouble was spent in a tent pitched(set up) in a ______ area.

“I never ______ their faces and when they ______, they changed their voices in nasal tones(speaking through nose passage) on ______,” she said. “They kept ______ that the only thing they wanted was the money and that they didn’t want to have anything to do with me or my family.”

The high ______ student, who was seized by three face-covered and armed men on July 2, 1983 from her family’s country villa(别墅) in Tuscany, said she still had no idea ______ on earth she had been held.

4 . One rainy afternoon I was sitting at home feeling so bored. _________feeling sorry for myself, I wanted to meet people and have new _________. So I decided to start volunteering. I found a website where I could volunteer on a farm in France.

Volunteering offers so many opportunities to have fun and share _______ stories. It was the first time for me to work on a farm. It was almost a free holiday as food and accommodation were provided. It was not one _______holiday, however, as I had to _______fifteen horses and sheep! I soon discovered that I was a(n) _______   farmer but it did not matter because I made some great friends and also improved my French.

However, you do not _______ go abroad to volunteer. I have had plenty of adventures at home as volunteering can become a _______. For example, I love singing so I had a good laugh waving my arms in order to _______ my local choir (合唱团). At university, I organized a concert for charity with my friends. It was really ________ to find bands and raise money for a cause.

It is true that you feel good volunteering but there are also other________. I once volunteered as a steward (干事) at a charity sports event where the organizers generously gave me cupcakes from an expensive London bakery to thank me for my ________. I also volunteered in a charity shop so I found loads of nice cheap clothes to ________my wardrobe (衣柜).

While this is all fun, my favorite aspect of volunteering is ________and sharing stories. My terrible ________at farming has given me funny stories to tell!