Question

    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.

 

63. 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

64. The underlined phrase “mess up” in Paragraph 3 probably means ________.

    A. put into disorder        B. forget about            C. stop halfway             D. do well in

65. 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

66. 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.

Answer 1

63.D。从第1段可知，这是作者首次在观众面前演出，再结合第3、4段便知作者紧张的原因。

64.A。从前面的内容推知：在父母面前演奏无妨，即使messed up(弄得一团糟)他们也会说“很好”。

65.C。9、10、11三段都对此作了描述。

66.B。最后两段无疑是在告诉读者，作者成功了。此外前八段都是对作者紧张、不安的描述。所以只有B项能恰当反映作者对此次表演的感受。D显然错误；同时因为作者演奏时曾弹错了一个音符，所以C的说法错误。