From my second grade on, there was one e...

From my second grade on, there was one event I feared every year: the piano recital(独奏演唱会). A recital _____I had to practice a boring piece of music and perform before strangers. Each year I _____ask my father if I could skip the recital “just this once”. And each year he would shake his head, muttering(嘀咕) _________about build self-confidence and working toward a ________.

So it was with really great______that I stood in church one recent Sunday, video camera in hand, and ______my 68-year-old father sweating in his shirt ______rising to play the piano in his very first recital.

My father had longed to play music since childhood, but his family was poor and couldn’t _________lessons. He could have gone on regretting it, _______too many of us do. But though he was rooted in his past, he wasn’t ________there. When he retired three years ago, he _____ his church music director to take him as a student.

For a moment after my father sat down at the keyboard, he ______stared down at his fingers. Has he forgotten the ______? I worried, remembering those split seconds______ago when my mind would go blank and my fingers would _______. But then came the beautiful melody(旋律)，from the _____fingers that once baited(装饵于) my fishing lines. And I______he had been doing what music teachers always stress:___ _____the music and pretend the others aren’t there.

“I’m ________of him for starting something new at his age,” I said to my son Jeff.

“Yeah, and doing it so______,” Jeff added.

With his first recital, my father taught me more about courage and determination than all the words he used those 30-plus years ago.

1.A. reflected B. explained C. meant D. proved

2.A. would B. could C. might D. should

3.A. nothing B. everything C. anything D. something

4.A. goal B. stage C. journey D. chance

5.A. trouble B. satisfaction C. strength D. disappointment

6.A. kept B. sent C. watched D. felt

7.A. through B. from C. against D. before

8.A. miss B. afford C. select D. understand

9.A. as B. once C. if D. while

10.A. educated B. protected C. stuck D. spoilt

11.A. allowed B. invited C. inspired D. persuaded

12.A. roughly B. simply C. merrily D. curiously

13.A. words B. videos C. notes D. lessons

14.A. decades B. weeks C. hours D. moments

15.A. play B. freeze C. click D. adjust

16.A. same B. warm C. different D. dirty

17.A. predicted B. realized C. imagined D. insisted

18.A. pass over B. turn up C. bring in D. concentrate on

19.A. ashamed B. aware C. tired D. proud

20.A. casually B. anxiously C. nicely D. frequently