My first performance in front of an audience was coming up soon.
I tried as hard as I could to remain calm, but my heart was racing. I stared down at my sweat-covered, shaking hands.
I looked up again at the audience, realizing that these were real people. They were not just my mum and dad, who would say, “Good job!” even if I messed up the entire piece.
What if I had the wrong music? What if I played the wrong notes?
As it turned out, I was never able to answer these questions because the spotlight (聚光灯) was waiting for me. I grasped my hands tightly together, drying off the sweat.
Slowly I walked to the mud-brown piano in the center of the room. It contained 88 demanding keys, which were waiting impatiently to be played.I swallowed the golf-ball-sized lump (隆起部分) in my throat and sat down. Slowly, I opened the music.Next, I rested my still shaking hands on the ivory (象牙色的) keys.
As my fingers played across the keys, I was becoming more unsure of my preparation for this moment. But the memory of my years of training came flooding back. I knew that I had practiced this piece so many times that I could play it backwards if requested.
Although at one point I accidentally played two keys instead of the intended one, I continued to move my fingers automatically (自动地).
My eyes burned holes into (were fixed on) the pages in front of me.
There was no way that I was going to lose my concentration. To keep this to myself, I leaned forward and focused carefully on the music.
When l came to the end of the page, a warning went off inside my head: DON’T MAKE A MISTAKE WHEN YOU TURN THE PAGE!
Needless to say, 1 obeyed myself with all my heart and mind.And, proud of my “page-turning” feat (技艺), I finished the rest of the piece without making a single mistake.
After the final note died away, a celebration went into action inside my head.I had finished.I had mastered the impossible.
1.The author was nervous before the performance because _______.
A.his or her mother and father weren’t present
B.the strong spotlight was shining onto the stage
C.he or she hadn’t mastered the entire piece
D.he or she had never performed in public before
2.The underlined phrase “mess up” in Paragraph 3 probably means ________.
A.put into disorder B.forget about
C.stop halfway D.do well in
3.The author __ _______.
A.didn’t make any mistake in the performance
B.felt better at the beginning of the performance
C.paid all attention to nothing but his / her performance
D.lost his / her concentration sometimes during the performance
4.What did the author feel about his / her performance?
A.He / She thought it was comfortable and successful.
B.He / She thought it was very difficult but successful.
C.He / She thought he / she had never made a mistake during the performance.
D.He / She thought he / she played through the piece carefully but light-heartedly.
DACB
A. Profits enlarging B. Technology developing C. Education investing D. Benefits transferring E. Dominance disappearing F. A nation rising |
The following is an imaginary diary entry written by US president. This diary is part of Global Trends 2025, which was written by the US National Intelligence Council
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The
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The
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Global wealth and economic power will shift from West to East.
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The transition from old fuels to new will be slow, as will the development of new technologies that present feasible alternatives to fossil fuels or help eliminate food and water problems. All current technologies are inadequate, and new ones will probably not be commercially possible by 2025