When my sister Diane began playing the violin, she was seven. How did she sound? Terrible. But she didn’t ______ . At twelve, she asked our parents if she could ______ a full-time music school. They said no. Actually, everyone agreed that my sister ______ talent.

I was better at my ______ . My teacher had told my parents that I had great ______ . So my parents found the best piano teacher in the area to ______ me. But the only time he was ______ was Saturday afternoons at 3 p. m. Back then, I was ______ about the British TV show The Avengers, which was ______ every Saturday at 3 p. m. I let nothing take up my The Avengers hour. So I ______ this amazing opportunity. Today, I don’t even have a ______ in my house.

My sister became an engineer, but she ______ stopped making music. When she was in her 40s, she switched ______ . She went back to college, got a(n) ______ in music education, and became a music teacher. She starts kids off on their first instrument and gives them all the encouragement and support she never ______ .

Recently, she and a pianist pal put on a recital. A big crowd of friends and families ______ for her. As she played, I looked around at the ______ . Everyone was ______ enjoying the music. It occurred to me that I was the only person who remembered that 7-year-old kid making those ______ sounds and knew how far she had come, despite everything.

Talent is important. But ______ is even more important.

“Once an Arab was traveling in the desert. When the sun went down in the west, he stopped and _________ his tent then, made a fire and have a_________ meal. When night fell, he _________down to sleep.

He had _________fallen asleep when he felt a soft _________on his elbow(手肘). He woke up to find that his camel had put his head inside the tent. The camel said: “Would you please let me keep my head in the tent to get warm? It is so cold outside. I will not take up too much _________.”

The Arab was a _________man, “All right, do as you _________.” he said. Then he turned on his _________and went back to sleep.

It wasn’t long ____________he felt a push on his shoulder. It was the camel again. “Dear master,” the camel said, “my head is quite warm now, but my neck is still cold. Do you mind ____________I keep it inside the tent, too?”

“____________.” the man said. But this time he felt a bit ____________, as camel had such a long neck.

No sooner had he shut his eyes ____________he got a harder push in his side. This time the camel said, “will you please allow me to bring my front legs inside and warm then a little?”

The Arab ____________over to one side of the tent. He made ____________as small as he could. It was not ____________comfortable, and sleep was now   ____________.Soon after ，that the camel gave him a rough push and said, “The tent is too small for the two of us. ____________, my two hind legs are still left in the cold. It is only ____________that you should leave the tent wholly to me.” And with that, the camel kicked the poor man out.

When Dr. Henderson was assigning project mates for his psychology class, I never expected he would assign me to work with the fiercely competitive, extremely serious fellow who always wore _________ clothes and apparently had a _________ to match.

When I went up to him, he looked at me _________ I weren’t there. He wasn’t _________, but he just gave me the impression that he could do better whatever project we dreamed up if he did it _________.

The project required each team to develop a hypothesis (假说), set up an experiment to _________ the hypothesis, do the statistical analysis and _________ the findings. Whatever grade the team received would be _________ by both students.

When we met to discuss our project, I felt _________. He had a reputation for single-mindedness and __________ grades-the exact opposite of me. I was outmatched. I even considered dropping out, but __________ because I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of my __________ out.

After long discussions we somehow agreed to do a study on the __________ well-being of teenagers. We started to meet regularly to draw up our plans. He kept his brain __________ in the project, leaving me standing by as if I were a __________. “What a dull project it is!” I murmured to myself. However, something changed gradually as I knew more. Thanks to the serious fellow, the project went close to the final stage __________.

One day he was __________ to hospital for a disease. Without delay, I packed up my school bag, took all the statistics and __________ to the hospital. Seeing the pale fellow wearing pure white clothes instead of the annoying dark clothes, I felt a sense of __________. With his guidance, I finished the project and presented the findings. It turned out to be such an amazing and persuasive study that we won the best grade. Now, we have been the most reliable cooperative __________ ever since!