The stage lights dimmed, and I took a quick look from behind the heavy black curtains into the audience. Blinded by the lights, I quickly______. It seems that a great number of eyes were looking at me. I took a deep ______as the music of my dance began to play. I entered the stage and began my______, the graduation test of the classical Indian dance.

After a decade of learning this art form, I had______been considered ready to take on the most difficult act. The test is the most important event in a dancer's life, as it pays______to all the factors in one's life that______the dance form: one's culture and family.

The performance is undertaken only by the most______and determined students. It is a difficult process that requires much______. For more than six months, I spent two to three hours every day______these dances. Many times, I______myself to my physical and mental breaking point, but still I would not stop. I could not give up. There was always so much more to do and so much more to______.

I______a lot about myself in those tiring hours. I learned that I was far too______to give up, and I was too proud to prove myself______after I had set an unrealistic goal. Even with physical pain and mental______,   I forced myself to meet my______. Even when I was at the end of my______,     there was always something driving me on, forcing me not to give up.

Fortunately, I made it. What I had done______the success. It was in those hours that I learned what a dancer______is. Those time was evidence that I could______something I set out to do.

Zu Wenbao is a 23-year-old Chinese with autism (孤独症). That means it can be _______ for him to find a job or make friends. But he is doing better now because he is learning _______ and spending time with other young people at a _______ called Chen’s Studio in Beijing. Zu’s mother, Zhao Guorong, _______ her son to the school every Sunday so he can _______ with the teacher, Chen Shensi. It takes them two hours on three different buses to get to the _______ from their home outside of Beijing.

At the Beijing studio, Zu learned how to play the keyboards and _______ in a band called “Star Kids”. “Without music and these _______ , he wouldn’t have anything,” Zhao said. She said her son would not have any people to _______ if it were not for the music school.

Chen knows the young people with autism have trouble getting jobs, so he hopes music will help them make a ________ . The Star Kids band has already given some ________ . He did not know much about autism before he started teaching a bass player with the ________ in 2020. At the start, it was hard. Chen became ________ when he had trouble communicating with his students. However, it ________ became easier. He said, “I know it is hard for them to communicate. However, ________ , I think music might be their language.”

Pedicab(三轮车)operator Sarah Grant and street violinist Anna Roznowska live in the same community. When they realized in March that their livelihoods and lifestyles were _________ by New Orleans’s stay-at-home order to_________ the spread of COVID-19,they were at a loss at first. Then they decided to take their_________ on the road.

The two have named their_________ the Mobile Music Box. Grant rides the pedicab that carries Roznowska as she_________,and the performance winds its way through New Orleans neighbourhoods.

Strict limits on gatherings have_________ concerts, parades and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, which would have brought hundreds of thousands of people_________ late April.

Now Roznowska’s freestyle melodies(旋律)on her_________ run through the New Orleans streets.

“It’s_________ and uplifting. Live__________ is what we miss most right now, and it brings everyone out and makes everyone feel like it’s a__________ day,”said resident Elsa Kern, who stopped to__________ as the women rolled past.

Based on their performances so far, it certainly puts smiles on the faces of the residents they pass.“Fantastic, it is something to__________ the neighbourhood,” said resident Willie Anderson.

Roznowska and Grant don’t have a regular schedule or route(路线).“We don’t make money. It is something that was definitely born out of__________ and probably has a bit of a life of its own,”Grant said. “So there’s no real__________ except just to keep doing it.”