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 would ask my father if I could skip the recital “just this once”. And each year he would shake his head, saying something about building      and working toward a goal.
One recent Sunday I stood in church, video camera in hand, and       my 68-year-old father 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 he wasn’t stuck in the past. When he retired three years ago, he       his church music director to take him as       .
For a moment after my father sat down at the keyboard, he stared down at his fingers. Has he forgotten the      ? I worried. But then came the beautiful melody (旋律). And I       he had been doing what music teachers always stress:     the notes 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 self-confidence and the life goal than all the words he used those 30-plus years ago.

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

A．self-confidence B．self-control C．self-defense D．self-discipline

A．kept B．sent C．watched D．felt

A．miss B．afford C．select D．understand

A．as B．once C．if D．while

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

A．a teacher B．an old man C．a student D．a singer

A．words B．videos C．notes D．lessons

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

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

A．ashamed B．aware C．tired D．proud

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