Some years ago, on the windswept Atlantic coast of Ireland, a couple of elder farmers cam

e up to my familys cottage. There was 【M1】______ tea and whiskey and turf was blazing in the grate. Late in evening, 【M2】______ one of them suddenly started to sing. Just his voice in the silence, high and reedy. At moments like that, song becomes the soundtrack of our lives. Man all starts with our first music — our mothers voice. 【M3】______ Around the world, every Saturday in the stands and every Sunday in the pews, people join together in song. Birthdays, marriages and deaths are solemnized until people open their mouths and sing. 【M4】______ When music involves a voice, if you love Callas or Adele or 【M5】______ Queen, all instruments are always the second fiddle. The voice is a 【M6】______ fingerprint, a personal stamp capable of endless variety. Borrowing the plosives and fricatives of speaking language, it imparts a feeling, 【M7】______ a mood or a story. Nearly all music bears the mark of the voice. When you hear the sinuous melody of a Chopin prelude, you are hearing the piano agitate the voice. 【M8】______ Singing is good for us. Exertion and concentration fortifies the mind and invigorates the body. If only you cannot muster the 【M9】______ confidence to join the local choral society, wait until the coast is clear, shut yourself safely behind the bathroom door and get under the shower. Then open your mouth, fill up your lung, and launch into【M10】______ a stonking good tune. The music is there inside you. You just need to find your voice.

【M1】