The number of people invited_______ fifty, but a number of them_______ absent for different reasons.

All possible means ______. However, nothing can _____ his wife dying of lung cancer.

Swimming in the pool with the children ________ very interesting.

Such poets as Shakespeare _____ widely read, of whose works, however, some _____ difficult to understand.

He always dreams of ______ a chance for him to go abroad for further study．