My Way to Success

From the day I signed up for the Naumburg Competition, everything changed. I had made a decision to start again, to save my life, and that meant a 360-degree turnaround.
I kept on practicing. An enormous amount of work had to be done in two months. I went from not practicing at all to thirteen hours a day.
I spent two weeks just playing scales. If I thought I sounded bad before, now I sounded worse than awful.
At the time I lived on 72nd Street, close to West End Avenue. I had an apartment with a window the size of a shoebox. I didn't do mylaundry. I left my apartment only to walk to Juilliard─and not onBroadway like everyone else. I walked up Amsterdam Avenue because I didn't want to see anybody, didn't want to run into anybody, didn't want anyone to ask what I was doing.
I stopped going to classes and became a hermit. I even talked Miss DeLay into giving my lesson at night.
My eating habits were awful. I lived on fried sausages, a pint of peanut butter/chocolate ice cream, and a gallon of Coca-Cola every day. That's all I ate for eight weeks.
I was nuts. I was completely obsessed with getting back into shape, with doing well in this competition. If I could, people would know I was still on earth. Not to count me out; to stop asking, “Whatever happened to Nadja?”
The last week before the Naumburg auditions, I couldn't touch the violin. I had worked and worked and worked and worked and then I just couldn't work anymore.
I certainly could have used it. I wasn't as prepared as I should have been. But I simply had to say, “Nadja, you've dedicated yourself to this thing. Ready or not, do your best.”
Fifty violinists from around the world auditioned for the competition on May 25, 26, and 27, 1981. Those that made it past thepreliminaries would go on to the semifinals. Those that passed that stage would go to the finals. In years past, one violinist was chosen as winner and two received second and third place.
On May 26, the day of my audition, I went to the Merkin Concert Hall at 67th Street and Broadway. I waited, played for twenty minutes, and went home. I couldn't tell whether the preliminary judges were impressed or not. I'd find out the next evening.
Maybe subconsciously I was trying to keep busy; that night, when I fried the sausages, I accidentally set my apartment on fire. I grabbed my cat and my violin, and ran out the door. The fire was put out, but everything in my place was wrecked.
Fortunately, the phone was okay and on the evening of May 27, I had the news from Lucy Rowan Mann of Naumburg. Thirteen of us had made it.
Talk about mixed emotions. I was thrilled to be among the thirteen; a group that included established violinists, some of whom had already made records. But it also meant I had to play the next day in the semifinals of the competition.
Everyone entering the competition had been given two lists of concertos. One was a list of standard repertory pieces. The other list was twentieth-century repertory. For our big competition piece, we were to choose from each list and play a movement from one in the semifinals, and a movement from the other in the finals─if we made it that far.
From the standard repertory list, I chose the Tchaikovsky Concerto. I had been playing the Tchaik for three years, so it was a good piece for me.
From the twentieth-century list, I chose the Prokofiev G minor Concerto. I had never played it onstage before.
My goal had been just passing the auditions, but now my thought pattern began to change. If I wanted a sliver of a chance of advancing again, my brain said, “Play your strong piece first.”
Logically, I should play the Tchaikovsky in the semifinals just to make it to the next stage. Who cared if that left me with a piece I probably wouldn't play as well in the finals of the competition? It'd be a miracle to get that far.
There wouldn't be more than seven violinists chosen for the final round, and if I were in the top seven of an international group, that was plenty good enough.
The semifinals were held on May 28 in Merkin Concert Hall. You were to play for thirty minutes: your big piece first, then the judges would ask to hear another.
There was a panel of eight judges. They had a piece of paper with my choices of the Tchaikovsky and the Prokofiev in front of them. “Which would you like to play?” they asked.
I said meekly, “Prokofiev.”
My brain and all the logic in the world had said, “Play your strong piece.” My heart said, “Go for it all. Play your weak piece now, save Tchaikovsky for the finals.”
Maybe I don't listen to logic so easily after all.
My good friend, the pianist Sandra Rivers, had been chosen as accompanist for the competition. She knew I was nervous. There had been a very short time to prepare; I was sure there'd be memory slips, that I'd blank out in the middle and the judges would throw me out. My hands were like ice.
The first eight measures of the Prokofiev don't have accompaniment. The violin starts the piece alone. So I started playing.
I got through the first movement and Sandra said later my face was as white as snow. She said I was so tense, I was beyond shaking. Just a solid brick.
It was the best I'd ever played it. No memory slips at all. Technically, musically, it was there.
I finished it thinking, “Have I sold my soul for this? Is the devil going to visit me at midnight? How come it went so well?”
I didn't know why, but often I do my best under the worst of circumstances. I don't know if it's guts or a determination not to disappoint people. Who knows what it is, but it came through for me, and I thank God for that.
As the first movement ended, the judges said, “Thank you.” Then they asked for the Carmen Fantasy.
I turned and asked Sandy for an A, to retune, and later she said the blood was just rushing back into my face.
I whispered, “Sandy, I made it. I did it.”
“Yeah,” she whispered back, kiddingly, “too bad you didn't screw up. Maybe next time.”
At that point I didn't care if I did make the finals because I had played the Prokofiev so well. I was so proud of myself for coming through.
I needed a shot in the arm; that afternoon I got evicted. While I was at Merkin, my moped had blown up. For my landlord, that was the last straw.
What good news. I was completely broke and didn't have the next month's rent anyway. The landlord wanted me out that day. I said, “Please, can I have two days. I might get into the finals, can I please go through this first?”
I talked him into it, and got back to my place in time for the phone call. “Congratulations, Nadja,”“they said. “You have made the finals.”
I had achieved the ridiculously unlikely, and I had saved my best piece. Yet part of me was sorry. I wanted it to be over already. In the three days from the preliminaries to the semifinals, I lost eight pounds. I was so tired of the pressure.
There was a fellow who advanced to the finals with me, an old, good friend since Pre-College. Competition against friends is inevitable in music, but I never saw competition push a friendship out the window so quickly. By the day of the finals, I hated him and he hated me. Pressure was that intense.
The finals were held on May 29 at Carnegie Hall and open to the public. I was the fourth violinist of the morning, then there was a lunch break, and three more violinists in the afternoon.
I played my Tchaikovsky, Saint-Sa‘ns’s Havanaise, and Ravel's Tzigane for the judges: managers, famous violinists, teachers, and critics. I went on stage at five past eleven and finished at noon. Those fifty-five minutes seemed like three days.
I was so relieved when I finished playing; I was finished! It's impossible to say how happy I was to see the dressing room. I went out for lunch with my friends. It was like coming back from the grave. We laughed and joked and watched TV.
As I returned to Carnegie Hall to hear the other violinists, I realized I'd made a big mistake: they might ask for recalls. A recall is when they can't decide between two people and they want you to play again. It's been done; it's done all the time in competitions. No way was I in shape to go onstage and play again.
In the late afternoon, the competition was over. Everybody had finished playing. Quite luckily─no recalls.
The judges deliberated for an hour. The tension in the air was unbelievable. All the violinists were sitting with their little circle of friends. I had my few friends around me, but no one was saying much now.
Finally, the Naumburg Foundation president Robert Mann came on stage.
“It's always so difficult to choose ...” he began.
“Every year we hold this competition,” Robert Mann said. “And in the past, we've awarded three prizes. This year we've elected to only have one prize, the first prize.”
My heart sank. Nothing for me. Not even Miss Congeniality.
“We have found,” Mann went on, “that second place usually brings great dismay to the artist because they feel like a loser. We don't want anyone here to feel like a loser. Every finalist will receive five hundred dollars except the winner, who will receive three thousand dollars.”
And then he repeated how difficult it was to choose, how well everyone had played ...dah, dah, dah.
I was looking down at the floor.  
“The winner is ...”
And he said my name.
A friend next to me said, “Nadja, I think you won!”
I went numb. My friends pulled me up and pointed me toward the stage. It was a long walk because I had slipped into a seat in the back. Sitting up in front was my old friend. I would have to walk right past him and I was dreading it, but before I could, he got up and stopped me.
He threw his arms around me and I threw my arms around him. I kept telling him how sorry I was. I was holding him and started to cry, saying, “I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.” I didn't want to lose, but I really didn't want him to lose either. And he was holding me and saying, “Don't be sorry. I'm so proud of you.” It was over, and we would be friends again.
I took my bow, then ran to Juilliard. Ten blocks uptown, one block west, to give Miss DeLay the news. She could be proud of me now, too.
Suddenly, everything was clear. Playing the violin is what I'd do with my life. Heaven handed me a prize: “You've been through a lot, kid. Here's an international competition.”
Everything had changed when I prepared for the Naumburg, and now everything changed again. I made my first recording. Between September 1981 and May 1982, I played a hundred concerts in America, made one trip to Europe, then two months of summer festivals. And people asked me back.
There was a great deal of anxiety playing in Europe for the first time. But I was able to rely on my self-confidence to pull me through.
Self-confidence onstage doesn't mean a lack of nerves backstage. The stakes had increased. This wasn't practice anymore, this was my life. I'd stare into a dressing-room mirror and say, “Nadja, people have bought tickets, hired baby-sitters, you've got to calm down; go out there and prove yourself.”
Every night I'd prove myself again. My life work had truly begun

  1. 1.

    In a gesture to prepare for the competition, Nadja did all the following except _________

    1. A.
      preoccupying herself in practice
    2. B.
      trying to carry out her deeds secretly
    3. C.
      abandoning going to school for classes
    4. D.
      consuming the best food to get enough energy
  2. 2.

    How many violinists does the passage mention advanced to the finals?

    1. A.
      Four
    2. B.
      Five
    3. C.
      Six
    4. D.
      Seven
  3. 3.

    After Nadja finished playing at the finals, she went out for a while and when she came back to hear the other violinists she realized she had made a mistake because _________

    1. A.
      she forgot that there was going to be a recall
    2. B.
      she didn’t get hold of the permission to leave
    3. C.
      chances were that she had to replay and she was off guard
    4. D.
      there was another play she had to take part in in the afternoon

April 11, 2003 12:44 a. m. PST, Associated Press
The respiratory(呼吸系统) virus known as SARS has appeared to spread in the United States only to family members of health workers with close contact to a sick person.
On Thursday, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there might be a case of severe acute respiratory syndrome(综合症) spreading through the workplace.
Dr. Julie Gerberding said a suspected SARS virus patient who became ill after traveling to Asia might have infected a co-worker in Florida, which made her “very worried”.
So far, a dozen people—nine family members and three health workers—were infected after coming into close contact with the person with SARS. The rest of the 166 suspected American cases have something to do with people who were infected while traveling in Asia.
In the Gainesville, Fla. area, a 47-year-old woman was believed to have been infected at work by a 60-year-old woman who was the nation’s first suspected SARS case, said Tom Belcuore, director of the Alachua County health department.
Since the World Health Organization announced a worldwide warning last month about SARS, the United States has started infection control in hospitals and among families of suspected cases.
Florida officials said a school in Okaloosa County went through a cleaning after a 6-year-old boy suspected of having SARS appeared at school with slight symptoms. “Health officials are watching the boys’ contacts at school to make sure no one else is infected,” said Rob Hayes, health department spokesman, “The boy may have been infected from a family member,” Hayes said, “We immediately became aware of it and had the child sent home. He’s staying at home with his family until 10 days after symptoms disappear.”
The researchers guessed that the virus might have come from animals. However, the scientists have not ruled out the possibility that some other microbe might also help make SARS more serious or easier to catch

  1. 1.

    The best title for this text is _______

    1. A.
      A Worldwide Warning
    2. B.
      Suspected SARS Cases
    3. C.
      What Is SARS
    4. D.
      Possible Spread of SARS in the USA
  2. 2.

    The writer wrote this text mainly to _______

    1. A.
      discuss the danger of SARS
    2. B.
      report research result about SARS
    3. C.
      inform people of the spread of SARS
    4. D.
      explain to the readers what SARS is
  3. 3.

    How many cases of suspected SARS are there in the U.S

    1. A.
      according to the text?
      A. 166
    2. B.
      178
    3. C.
      12
    4. D.
      181

I am Sergey Brin! I was born in Moscow. In 1979, when I was 5, my family immigrated to the United States. I remember that on my 9th birthday I got my first computer “Commodore 64”.
Later I graduated with honors in the University of Maryland in Mathematics and IT. The main field of my science research was the technologies used to collect data from unsystematic sources as well as large quantities of texts and science data. I was the author of dozens of articles in leading American academic magazines.
The greatest event in my life happened when in 1998 I was preparing for the defense(论文答辩)of my Doctor’s degree in Stanford University. There the fate made me meet Larry Page—a young computer genius. Larry belonged to the intellectual society. Larry and I quickly became friends when we worked together.
We were searching day and night on the Internet. We were finding a lot of information but with the feeling we still couldn’t find enough of what we were looking for. Naturally the idea for a search engine that would allow specific information to be found in the endless pool of data was born like it came to us. It wasn’t our plans but we gave up the education at the university. You know the next part, maybe we managed to turn an ordinary garage in Meplo Park, California, the U. S. A. into our first office, in which Google was born. With excitement we typed the name of the thing which we created with love on September 14th 1998—www. google.com. Now, after those years we bought this garage. As a symbol it will always remind us that everything is possible

  1. 1.

    Sergey Brin actually graduated from ___

    1. A.
      the University of Maryland
    2. B.
      the University of Moscow
    3. C.
      the University of California
    4. D.
      Stanford University
  2. 2.

    From the passage we know that Larry Page ______

    1. A.
      was Brin’s important partner in starting Google
    2. B.
      was born in a rich merchant family
    3. C.
      was once a student in the University of Maryland
    4. D.
      was a professor from Stanford University
  3. 3.

    Which is the right order of what happened?
    a. My family moved from Russia to the U. S

    1. A.
      b. I met Larry Page.
      c. I was given a computer as a present on my 9th birthday.
      d. Google was born in an ordinary garage in California.
      A. c-a-b-d
    2. B.
      c-b-a-d
    3. C.
      a-c-b-d
    4. D.
      a-c-d-b
  4. 4.

    Which of the following would be the best title for this passage?

    1. A.
      The History of Google
    2. B.
      The Great Contribution of Google
    3. C.
      The Great Success of Google
    4. D.
      The Birth of Google
  5. 5.

    Which of the following statements is TRUE?

    1. A.
      The main field of my science research was computer
    2. B.
      I wrote many articles in leading American magazines
    3. C.
      Larry is one of my classmates
    4. D.
      When I was 5, I got my first computer “Commodore 64”

 

做题时,先将答案标在试卷上。录音内容结束后,你将有两分钟的时间将试卷上的答案转涂到答题卡上。

第一节   (共5小题;每小题1.5分,满分7.5分)

听下面5段对话。第段对话后有一个小题,从题中所给的A、B、C三个选项中选出最佳选项,并标在试卷的相应位置。听完每段对话后,你都有10秒钟的时间来回答有关小题和阅读下一小题。每段对话仅读一遍。

例:How much is the ehirt?

A.£ 19.15                B. £ 9.15                   C. £ 9.18

答案是B。

1.What is the weather like?

A.It’s raining.         B.It’s cloudy.             C.It’s sunny.

2.Who will go to China next month?

   A.Lucy.                   B.Alice.                    C.Ricberd.

3.What are the spenkers talking about?

A.The man’s sister.       B.A film.                    C.An actor.

4.Where will the spenkers meet?

A.In Room 340.             B.In Room 314.                C.In Room 223.

5.Where does the converaation moet probably take place?

A.In a restaurant.          B.In an office.                C.At home.

第二节(共15小题;每小题1.5分,满分22.5分)

听下面5段对话或独白。每段对话或独白后有几个小题,从题中所给的A、B、C三个选项中选出最佳选项,并标在试卷的相应位置。听每段对话或独白前,你将有时间阅读各个小题,每小题5秒种,各小题将给出5秒种的作答时间。每段对话或独白读两遍。

听第6段材料,回答第6至8题。

6.Why did the woman go to New York?

A.To spend come time with the hahy.    B.To look after her sister.

C.To find a new job.

7.How old was the baby when the woman left New York?

A.Two months.      B.Five months.    C.Seven months.

8.What did the woman like doing mst with the baby?

A.Holding him.        B.Playing with him.     C.Fceding him.

听第7段材料,回答第9至11题。

9.What are the speaking about?

A.A way to impreve air quality.         B.A problem with traffic rules.

C.A suggestion for city planning.

10.What does the man suggest?

A.Limiting the use of cars.             B.Encouraging people to-wall.

C.Waming drivers of air pollution.

11.What does the woman think about the man’s idea?

A.It’s interesting.     B.It’s worth trying.      C.It’s impractical.

听第8段材料,回答第12至14题。

12.How long will the man pmbably stay in New Zealand?

A.One week.           B.Two weeks.           C.Three weeks.

13.What advice does the woman give to the man ?

A. Go to New Zealand after Christmas.   B.Book his flight sa soon sa possible.

B. Save more money for his trip.

14.What can we learn about flights to New Zealand at Christmas time?

A.They require early booking.    B.They can be twice as expensive.

C. Thay are on special offer.

听第9段材料,回答第15至17题。

15.Why did Jane call Mike?

A.To ask him to meet her.       B.To tell him about Tom.     C.To burrow his car.

16.Where will Jane be in about one bour?

A.At Mike’s place.     B.At the airport.        C.At a garage.

17.What can we infer from the conversation?

A. Jane has just learned to drive.    B.Jane’s car is in bad condition.

C.Mike will go to the airport.

听第10段材料,回答第18至20题。

18.What did the speaker ask the stuents to do the week before?

A.Write a short story.    B.Prepare for the lesson. C.Learn more about the writer.

19.Why does the speaker ask the questions?

A. To chesk the students’ understanding of the story.

B. To draw the students’ attention to reading skills.

C. To let the students discuss father-son relationships.

20.What will the students do in 10 minutes?

A. Ask more qucations.   B.Discuss in groups.   C.Give their anawers.

 

For millions of Chinese Internet users, the penguin is more than a flightless bird from the Antarctic. To them it is the symbol of QQ, the instant-messaging service marking its 10th anniversary.

QQ’s creator, Ma Huateng, 38, is a lover of stargazing, and describes himself as a combination of idealist and realist. “ I’m introverted. My friends believed I was too shy to find a girlfriend,” Ma said. He found a girlfriend, now his wife, through chatting online on QQ. Born in Hainan province, Ma loved watching stars and dreamed of becoming an astronomer. He moved to Shenzhen, along with his parents, in southern Guangdong province when he was in his teens. Ma was impressed by the slogan “ Time is money, efficiency is life” found all over the city. It was the most famous slogan born in Shenzhen, representing China’s reform and opening. The pioneering city provided chances for Ma to watch burgeoning reforms. He saw people carry big bags of cash to buy stocks after China launched a capital market in Shenzhen and Shanghai in the late 1980s. When he graduated from Shenzhen University in 1993, Ma designed a stock exchange software system and sold it for 50,000 yuan ($ 7,3000). He then worked as an IT engineer for five years.

It was in 1998 that Ma realized Internet would transform China and the world, and launched his own company, Shenzhen Tencent Inc. A unit of Tencent, Tencent Holdings Ltd, went public on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2004. “ China’s reform and opening provided me with a chance to grow the company,” Ma said. The country had only 3 million Internet users when QQ made its debut in 1999, but now China has around 300 million Internet users, Ma said. Hu Qiheng, chairwomen of the Internet Society of China(ISC), said reform and opening not only improved people’s living standards, but also gave them a chance to explore the outside world and a chance for the Internet to boom in the country.

It was in the late 1990s that China’s major Web portals mushroomed, including Sina, Sohu, 163, Tencent and Alibaba. That boom came to sa sudden halt when the internet bubble burst in 2000. “We were under great pressure when the Internet bubble burst. Things have only recovered since 2005,” Ma said. The IT sector was among the first batch of industries in China to experience zero-tariff treatment, meaning that the nation’s Internet sector had to face challenges from international peers.

QQ, with around 450 million users, provides services such as chatting, music, games and QQ currency-an indispensable currency in china’s virtual community. “ Chinese websites have survived the competition with foreign peers over the past ten years, but it will be the next ten years that decide Chinese Internet enterprises’ fate,” Ma said. Domestic enterprises have to compete with international companies on services, innovation and core technology, he said. One of Ma’s favorite films is March of the Penguins-a French documentary directed by Luc Jacquet. He said: “Penguin is a lovely animal to me. It is a combination of love, courage and adventurism.”

1.Which of the following is true about the founder of QQ?

A.Creating an IT company of his own had always been his dream since childhood.

B.He constantly moved from place to place when he was in his teens.

C.The instant-messaging service he created brought him not only money but also a family.

D.He worked for the Shenzhen Stock Exchange after graduation.

2.China’s reform and opening led to the following results EXCEPT_________.

A.a rise in the living standards of Chinese people

B.an opportunity for IT companies to grow

C.potential industrial competition from other countries

D.a chance for people to invest in overseas stock market

3.Which of the following events did actually take place?

A.QQ suffered from a sudden decrease in  the number of users when the Internet bubble burst in 2000.

B.QQ heped China’s Internet take flight.

C.QQ was equipped with the most advanced technology in the world when it made its debut in 1999.

D.QQ went public on the main board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in the late 1980s.

4.What can be inferred from the passage?

A.Sina and Sohu will develop services like chatting, music and games in order to survive the future international competition.

B.For the sake of domestic enterprises, the tariff needs to be adjusted to a higher value.

C.Ma Huateng views penguin as a lovely animal because it processes the characteristics that he does not.

D.The 50,000 yuan Ma earned from selling the stock exchange software system might be a part of his initial investment in Tencent.

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