It was time to go home. “Remember to work on your class speeches for homework,” Miss Walker said as everyone started talking and packing their school bags. Jenny felt sick. She hated having to read aloud in class. She was sure everyone would get really bored with listening to her. Once, when Jenny was reading out her holiday diary, Lee was even looking at his watch, a silver and blue one which seemed just magical.

Jenny watched Lee walk ahead of her as they left school. He seemed so clever, and he had a certain sort of shining confidence. He was just one of those people who were good at everything. Jenny sighed. As she turned the corner, she saw Lee’s watch lying right in the middle of the path.

Jenny picked it up and wanted to return it to Lee, but she couldn’t catch up with him. When she arrived home, Jenny put it on, thinking about the magic. She was surprised that it fitted so well. She walked to the mirror and started practicing her speech. Words just flooded out of her. “I’m going to talk about swimming. I have been lucky. I’ve won lots of competitions. But when I’m in a race, I’m not really thinking about winning. I’m just loving the feeling of being in the water…” Jenny laughed with excitement. She walked across the room. She suddenly seemed to have a certain sort of confidence. Turning back to the minor, Jenny saw a flash of light from the watch in the glass. The flashes of silver seemed almost magical. So maybe Lee’s watch really did have something magical.

The next day, as the lesson began, Miss Walker ask cd who was going to be brave and go first. Nobody moved, Jenny slowly raised her arm. Before Miss Walker could say something, there was a shout “She’s stolen in y watch!” Lee said angrily. “It went missing at school yesterday.”

Everybody was fixing their eyes on Jenny, waiting for an explanation,

Miss Walker smiled and asked the class lo listen lo Jenny’s speech first.

It is said that the best time of playing the piano is when he or she is a kid. But when Max came to his first piano lesson in his mother’s car, he was already 11 years old. I preferred students begin at an earlier age, but due to his insistence (坚持), I took him as a student. As much as Max tried, he lacked the sense of tone and basic rhythm. At the end of each lesson, he’d say, “My mom’s going to hear me play someday.” But it seemed hopeless. I only knew his mother from a distance as she waited in her aged car, but never stepped in.

After 2 months, one day Max didn’t come to our lessons any more. I thought about calling him but assumed, because of his lack of ability, that he had decided to quit. I also was glad that he stopped coming — he was a bad advertisement for my teaching!

Later, in order to celebrate the New Year, I mailed to the students’ homes a letter on the upcoming concert. Surprisingly, Jackie received and asked me if he could be in the concert. I told him that the concert was not for dropouts (辍学者), but for current pupils. He said that his mom had been sick and unable to take him to piano lessons but he was still practicing. I didn’t know what led me to agree eventually.

At the concert night, the hall was packed with parents and friends. I put up Max last in the program. I thought that any damage he would do would come at the end of the program and the negative effect would reduce to the least.

Surprisingly, the concert went off successfully. Then Max came up on stage. His clothes were wrinkled and his hair looked messy. “Why didn’t his mother at least make him comb his hair for this special night?” I thought.

Unexpectedly, Max chose Beethoven’s works.

Immediately, I rushed to the stage, and held Max firmly with delight, asking “How did you do it?

3 . Sometimes you may find that you are not happy in your life. Most of the time you have to _________ this kind of unhappy life, since it is really hard to make _________ and move on to a new business. My father, _________ , was quite a different example. From him I learned a great lesson on the value of doing one’s _________ .

My father got into the insurance (保险) industry when he was very young. He was very _________ . Soon he became one of the first independent insurance salesmen in our state. However, he decided to _________ his successful career. The reason is that he liked to do something _________ , something that tested his strength and ability, _________ in a way that is interesting. After leaving the insurance company, he worked in social media and then in IT industry, which really _________ him. Of course he wasn’t successful in everything he __________ but he told me __________ that he did something he liked.

Leaving one’s __________ life is not easy. I’ve learned this from my father, and I can say whether the __________ is good or bad, it is worth doing one’s favourite. When we do something we __________ , it gives us extra motivation (动机) to meet our __________ .

5 . After my doctor’s appointment (约定), I took a seat in the hallway, waiting for my mom to pick me up. Sitting beside me was a _________ gray-haired woman. And as I _________ my library book to read, I could feel her eyes carefully looking in my direction. My thoughts kept moving from the beautiful woman to thoughts of _________. My classmates had been _________ presents to buy for each other upon graduation. I had never _________ that kids bought presents for graduation. I had no money. And I couldn’t ask my parents: they had no money either.

I was still in thought when _________ I heard some noise at the entrance. There was an elderly woman in a wheelchair and another older woman trying to _________ her along. People coming into the lobby were too busy to help them, _________them struggle alone. I jumped to help them. I helped them by opening both sets of doors and rode with them in the _________. Then I made sure they found the right office. They thanked me. I told them it was my __________ I was on my way down in the elevator when I realized that I had left my backpack on the lobby chair. There was nothing of value in it. But then I __________ that my library book was also on the chair.

Luckily they were both safely on the chair, just as I had left them. As I sat down, I could feel the beautiful gray-haired woman’s __________ eyes on me. She seemed proud for some reason. Then her taxi arrived, and, without a word, she was __________. I opened my backpack. To my surprise, __________ inside it was a fifty-dollar bill!

The beautiful with the __________ look in her eyes suddenly came into my mind. I had been kind to a stranger, and in turn, a stranger had been kind to me.

8 . There is nothing more comforting than the sound of the Singer, a sewing (缝纫) machine. It ______so many memories of my grandmother and mother. The______of turning different materials into something fashionable always______me.

I began sewing as a child alongside my grandmother, a loving woman who taught me how to use a machine and how to sew my first______. It was a simple pullover blouse (衬衫) made from an old pink and white pillowcase. I wore that with such______because wearing something you______yourself just makes you smile. Then, one day I made a mistake, sewing the inside out, and had to start again. This taught me to be______and focused on details.

Later I received the old Singer from my mom, but it was left to gather dust in the corner.Once Covid-19______, I had too much time on my hands and in my head.I got the Singer ______ and began sewing again.

“Measure twice, cut once" is a Sewer’s proverb. We all hear it and I rarely use it, just like road maps, but it is______. It’s a way of life.

In a time when tomorrow is ______,I found a sense of hope and creativity through rediscovery. Relearning how to sew has______my boredom and made me more patient with myself. It also helps build an emotional______with my older generations through this one thing that we______.That brings me joy. And I’ll______that joy for as long as possible.

10 . When I was a boy, I spent much time playing alone. I didn’t ______ it too much, though. I lived outside town, next to a forest where oaks (橡树) were my ______. I would sit in their shade and enjoy their peace.

Therefore it was so ______ for me when I was in employment in a ______ processing factory. It wasn’t just the ______ work, long hours, and low pay. It was also seeing trees being cut. The red oak trees were ______ influenced because they made the prettiest hardwood flooring.

One afternoon after a long day’s work, I decided to take a walk in the ______. As I wandered, I was filled with ______ for childhood days. Feeling so down, I dropped my head and that was when I ______ it: a red oak acorn (橡子) that had somehow ______ hungry animals all winter long. Something I’d read once ______ me at that moment — “An acorn ______ a forest eventually if it wants!” I smiled, bent down, dug up a handful of dirt and carefully ______ that little acorn. Then I headed home, no longer ______, for I also realized in our life we all ______ as an acorn, but whether our future is a forest or not is up to us.