3 . The Grammy’s Music Educator Award recognizes those who have made a significant contribution to music education.

This year, the award ________ Annie Ray, the orchestra (管弦乐队) director at Annandale High School in Fairfax County, Virginia. With the creation of the Crescendo Orchestra, she works to make ________ accessible to all students, particularly those with severe intellectual and developmental disabilities. Ray says the focus of the program is on teaching students how to play a(n) ________, through one-on-one instruction tailored to their special ________. She also works with a local charity to give damaged instruments a second ________ in her classroom.

Ray took home both a $10,000 ________ and a matching grant for her school’s music program. In an interview, Ray ________ her pupils for this recognition. “This is the students’ ________. I am just ________ enough to have been a part of their journey and to have been ________ by them,” she said. “They completely changed my educational philosophy and ________ of what it truly means to meet a student where they’re at and ________ that elsewhere.”

Now, Ray will use the prize money to buy instruments—something the school had ________ to do. “We’ve been trying to ________ money all year for new cellos. And now the problem is solved.” She also plans to create an ongoing scholarship for students who want to ________ music when they graduate, in any capacity.

Tai Hang, a modern-looking neighborhood in Hong Kong, is home to the Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance,a folk art form that    1    (perform)during the Mid-Autumn Festival for over 100 years.    2    started as a way to rid this fishing village of bad luck has become a cultural treasure.

The dragon is about 70 meters long and weighs more than 200 pounds,with its body     3     (wrap) with pearl grass.More than 70,000 incense sticks(香柱)are lit and strung along the dragon’s back and head to make the“fire”of the fire dragon.At the festival,hundreds of people work    4    turn to parade the burning dragon through the streets of Tai Hang.The     5    (strong)man among the group has    6    honor of supporting the 30-kilogram head. Dozens of performers    7    (move)the dragon smoothly up and down through the air attract rounds of cheers and    8    (applaud)from surrounding crowds.

The inheritors of the dragon dance have set up workshops to demonstrate various aspects of the traditional art from the making techniques to    9    (base)dance skills.In June, 2022,the Hong Kong Tai Hang Fire Dragon Museum was opened    10    (inspire)more people to learn more about this traditional dance culture.

8 . The Best Music Apps for Your Mobile Phones

The following are some of the best music apps for your mobile phones that are both user-friendly and updated regularly. I bet they can make your music experience much better.

M Player

If you are looking for an app with a collection of almost all songs, you should definitely give M Player a try. Both the audio and video modes are accessible here to suit your needs.

• It provides over 22 different types of music styles.

• It supports Bluetooth control, and you can also shake your phone to go to the next song.

D Music

D Music lets you download songs at high speeds and play them while being offline. It’s also a good tool for discovering new songs based on your preferences.

Important Features:

• It provides amazing background themes for customization (定制).

• It lets you create playlists and share them with friends.

P Player

P Player provides users with access to millions of songs, both classic and latest. Its clean and decent layouts (布局) make it simple to use, and you can customize your background themes anytime.

Important Features:

• It offers 25 background themes, along with the coolest 3D effects.

• The Sleep Timing feature stops music after you fall asleep and saves your phone’s battery.

J Music

J Music serves both as a music player and as an online community. It is the perfect tool for you to find song reviews, latest concert information, and a good deal of unique user-generated music.

Important Features:

• It offers attractive sound quality with lots of effects.

• The Playlist Exchange feature allows you to meet people with similar tastes.

10 . I started playing the piano when I was around four years old—that was 15 years ago!—and since then, the longest I haven’t touched piano keys was probably two months. This was an enormous amount of devotion to something that I wasn’t even planning to make money off of—so there must have been something worth holding on to, right?

The easy guess is that I was always so purely in love with music and piano that I couldn’t bear to let them go. However, it’s a bit more complicated than that. I struggled a lot with piano. I felt pressure to improve, innovate, and be the best in order to prove something to others. The seed of my musical interest was grown with competition and doubt.

It’s difficult to learn to love something that you didn’t choose in the first place. But somehow, sometime, love grew. And by high school, it was strong enough that I found the strength to hold on tighter, dig further, and find something of my own to grow. In a way, I had to start over.

And so, I took a pause. I switched teachers, and got incredibly lucky with one who encouraged me and helped me tunnel into what I loved, not what I was told I should learn. Anything I had was good enough to be loved.

This summer, I started learning the guitar. I deliberately wanted to learn on my own—this was just for me, to form a new relationship to music. Even though my guitar skills are miles lower than my piano skills, I feel I can express myself even more wholly through strings than keys. There’s just something about doing it all for myself that has helped me heal the damages to my relationship to music.

The love and hate I’ve had for the piano were both planted and grown. If you too have learned to hate something you once loved—or something you never chose—remember that with dedication, it can be uprooted, and love can make a home in its place. There is always time. There is always room.