2 . A Welcome Gift

Dario and his mother loved their new apartment. The living room was large enough for their piano. That night, the two of them _______ side by side at the piano, playing jazz music to celebrate their new home happily.

However, their happiness disappeared the next morning. Someone had left a _______ under their door during the night. One of their neighbors complained about the sound of the piano. Later that morning, Dario suggested that they write a letter to their _______ and apologize.

“Maybe we could go and _______ everyone in person.” his mother said. “What if we invited them to come here for a party instead? Dario asked. They both loved the _______. Then they started to prepare for it.

Finally, the day of the party arrived. Some guests brought presents. Others brought flowers. One woman, Mrs. Gilbert, _______ Dario's mother with a book of piano music by Chopin.

“I heard you playing the other night,” she said. “The sounds woke me out of bed. I _______ that you might play like this every night. So I wrote a short note I hope you don't think I disliked the playing.”

Dario's mother smiled at Mrs. Gilbert. “We should apologize to you.” she said. “I didn't _______ how late it was when we were playing.”

“You play, you play!” Mrs. Gilbert pointed to the book she had given them and said, “These songs are not such _______ music.”

“These songs are beautiful music. And we won't play so loud or late!” Dario said. The big smile on his mother's face gave him a feeling of ________ and made him feel that they were home at last.

3 . For a long time Gabriel didn’t want to be involved in music at all. In his first years of high school, Gabriel would look pityingly at the music students,_______across the campus with their heavy instrument cases,_______at school for practice hours before       anyone else had to be there. He swore to himself to_______music, as he hated getting to school extra early.

_______, one day, in the music class that was _______of his school’s standard curriculum, he was playing idly(随意地) on the piano and found it easy to pick out tunes. With a sinking feeling, he realized that he actually_______doing it. He tried to hide his_______pleasure from the music teacher, who had wandered over to listen. He might not have done this particularly well, _______the teacher told Gabriel that he had a good _______and suggested that Gabriel go into the music store-room to see if any of the instruments there ________him. There he decided to give the cello(大提琴) a ________. When he began practicing, he took it very casually. But he quickly found that he loved playing this instrument, and was committed to practicing it so that within a couple of months he was playing reasonably well.

This ________, of course, that he arrived at school early in the morning, ________his heavy instrument case across the campus to the ________looks of the non-musicians he had left________.

4 . I was 11 when I asked my mum for piano lessons. We were in an economic crisis and she'd recently been _______ off. She said a polite “no”.

That didn't _______ me. I drew a keyboard onto a piece of paper and stuck it on my desk. I would _______ notes on an online keyboard and “play” them back on my paper one — keeping the sound they made on the computer in my head. I spent six months playing without _______ a real piano. As my mum found I was _______ about it, she bought me 10 lessons with borrowed money.

I still remember the first one. I was _______ by how organic the sound of the piano was, as I had become familiar with the _______ electronic sound. The teacher was trying to explain where middle C was, but I could _______ play all the major and minor scales.

I _______ my grade one after eight lessons and got distinction. By the time I started secondary school, we couldn't ________ lessons again, so I returned to my paper keyboard. I passed grade three, then grade five, practising only on my piece of paper.

For the grades above that, there was an ________ that you add a certain sensitivity into your playing. The music teacher at my school said I could practise on the school's grand piano. I would wake up at 5:30 am to get there in time and play until lessons started. I'd ________ lunch and then practise after school until the caretaker kicked me out. At home, I'd have dinner, do three hours of revision, and then ________ practice until 1:00 am.

My school didn't offer music A-level. I found the Purcell School for young musicians. The audition （试镜）was extremely ________ , and I felt overwhelmed. To my amazement, I was offered a ________.

I had been told I had started playing too ________ to reach conservatoire （音乐学院）level, but when I left Purcell, I was awarded the senior piano prize. That was the point when I realized I wasn't behind everyone else. I am now at the Guildhall School in London, where I was offered a scholarship. I feel ________: it’s been 10 years since I drew my paper piano and I'm at one of the world's ________ conservatoires.

The irony is that I continue to do a lot of my practice away from the piano: what we call mental practice. It ________ key areas of the mind that are less readily accessed by piano playing alone. The paper piano helped stimulate my ________ about how music works.

5 . Inspiration

“Mama, when I grow up, I’m going to be one of those!” I said this after seeing the Capital Dancing Company perform when I was three. It was the first time that my _______took on a vivid form and acted as something important to start my training. As I grew older and was________to more, my interests in the world of dance________varied but that little girl’s dream of someday becoming a________in the company never left me. In the summer of 2005 when I was 18, I received the phone call which made that dream a_______; I became a member of the company________back to 1925.

As I look back on that day now, it surely________any sense of reality. I believe I stayed in a state of pleasant disbelief     _____I was halfway through rehearsals (排练) on my first day. I never actually________to get the job. After being offered the position, I was completely_______. I remember shaking with excitement.

Though I was absolutely thrilled with the change, it did not come without its fair share of_______. Through the strict rehearsal period of dancing six days a week, I found it vital to________up the material fast with every last bit of concentration. It is that extreme________to detail (细节) and stress on practice that set us_______. To then follow those high-energy rehearsals________a busy show schedule of up to five performances a day, I discovered a new________of the words “hard work.” What I thought were my physical________were pushed much further than I thought_______. I learned to make each performance better than the last.

Today, when I look at the unbelievable company that I have the great________of being a part of, not only as a member, but as a dance captain, I see a________that has inspired not only generations of little girls but a splendid company that continues to develop and grow-and inspires people every day to follow their dreams.