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 didn’t have talent.

I was better at my _________. My teacher had told my parents that I had great potential. So my parents found the best piano teacher in the area to _________ me. But the only time when he was available was Saturday at 3 pm. Back then, I was _________ by the British TV show . The Avengers, which was _________ every Saturday at 3 pm. 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 changed her career. She went back to college, got a __________ 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 (音乐演奏会). A big crowd of friends and family __________ for her. As she played, I looked around at the __________. Everyone was obviously 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 __________. But enthusiasm is even more important.

Robbie Pruitt visited a local bicycle store one day only to find there were very few bikes available to buy. That’s when a(n) ______ hit him. Bikes were in ______ supply. What if people needed bikes? Pruitt wanted to ______ those people.

Pruitt posted on a private Loudoun County Facebook page that he would ______ anyone’s bicycle free. In the post, he also said he was accepting ______ bikes, which he would fix and donate to people ______. That day, he received about 30 bicycles. After his next ______, about 500 people expressed ______ in either donating bikes or having Pruitt fix them.

He ______ a goal of fixing 100 bikes before the end of 2020. He surpassed (超过) that, repairing more than 140 bicycles — donating about 60 percent of them and ______ the rest to their owners. He gives bikes to anyone who ______ but tries to support children and families who are ______. Most requests come in on Facebook. But perhaps more importantly, he has taught all the neighborhood kids to mend (修理) their own bikes.

Pruitt’s favorite part of his bike project is creating ______. He said after he fixes bikes, the owners will sometimes ______ his backyard just to chat. Some people will bring him ______, including a family that dropped off baked fish on Christmas Eve.

My name is Austin, a textile professional from Britain. I _________ the Teaching in Rural Thailand program as a volunteer. Everything _________ so smoothly.

My host family was amazing. I really found a second family in Thailand and we _________ so well even without speaking the same language.

Teaching was great fun but quite _________ because I was teaching many different classes and all different levels of English. So I always had to first check and then quickly _________ to the level of English they had.

But _________ I could check in _________ what kind of games or exercises they had been doing with the help of a teacher’s diary. Students love the competition and teaming up _________ each other. It sometimes takes a bit of time to _________ them to act because often they are very shy. But __________ they warmed up, it was so much fun.

On Sundays I went to temple schools to teach the little ones (5—8 years) together with other teachers from Prangku who teach __________ on Sundays. All the teachers are kind and __________ so much of their free time to the school and the students. And the students are so nice and polite and really __________ to learn English. I can only __________ this experience with everyone who enjoys being with children and with everyone who is interested in getting to know about a new __________. It’s really wonderful and unforgettable.