As the saying goes, “Without music, life would be a mistake.” Music is very important in our lives and here are four of the greatest musicians in history.

    Ludwig van Beethoven(1770-1827)

    Born in Bonn, Germany, Beethoven never held an official position in Vienna. He supported himself by giving concerts, teaching piano, and the sale of his compositions(作曲). The last 30 years of Beethoven's life were filled with a lot of hard times, the first of which was his deafness. Beethoven's music greatly influenced the next generation of musicians.

    Johann Sebastian Bach(1685-1750)

    Bach, “the father of modern music”, was born in Eisenach, Germany. His parents died when he was nine years old, and in 1695 he went to live with his brother Johann Christoph, who was an organist(风琴手) in Ohrdruf. He stayed there until 1700. Seven years later, he moved back to Weimar, where he served as court(宫廷) organist for nine years. His music greatly influenced classical music.

    Frederic Chopin (1810-1849)

    Chopin was born in Zelazowa Wola, Poland. He showed a talent for the piano at a very young age. Chopin began composing when he was still a child, but some of his early works have been lost. He gave his first public concert in 1818. Chopin was considered as the leading musician of his time.

    Franz Schubert(1797-1828)

    Schubert was born and died in Vienna. Unlike most of his predecessors(前辈),Schubert was not a great performer. He never had much money but he was very productive. He wrote his first masterpiece when he was only sixteen. However, he died young, before his talents had even been known.

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。

    There are many useful suggestions that can help one to improve English. Here are some of them to increase one's English language vocabulary.

    Learning English vocabulary is about much more than just learning the right words. It is based on understanding important words and expressions.

    Learning a word will not help very much if you quickly forget it. Researches show that it takes from 10 to 20 repetitions(重复) to really make a word part of your vocabulary. Since most words are learned from how they are used in context (上下文), the more words one is shown, the better vocabulary one will have. Keep a piece of paper close to you. When you read, pay close attention to the word you do not know, write the word down and try to understand its meaning from the context. Then look up the word in a dictionary. 

    Remember that if you do not use English words that you have just learned in conversation or writing, you will forget them very quickly. So the best way to learn new words effectively is just by trying to use them in conversation and writing. Remember also that practice is the key to fluent spoken English.

    Building vocabulary is a life-long task. Remember: ＂In the beginning was the word.＂ Your future could depend on how rich your vocabulary is. It will also determine the quality of your communication.

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    The fence was long and high. He put the brush into the whitewash and moved it along the top of the fence. He repeated the operation. He felt he could not continue and sat down.

    He knew that his friends would arrive soon with all kinds of interesting plans for the day. They would walk past him and laugh. They would make jokes about his having to work on a beautiful summer Saturday. The thought burned him like fire.

    He put his hand into his pockets and took out all that he owned. Perhaps he could find some way to pay someone to do the whitewashing for him. But there was nothing of value in his pockets-nothing that could buy even half an hour of freedom. So he put the bits of toys back into his pockets and gave up the idea.

    At this dark and hopeless moment, a wonderful idea came to him. It filled his mind with a great, bright light. Calmly he picked up the brush and started again to whitewash.

    While Tom was working, Ben Rogers appeared. Ben was eating an apple as he walked along the street. As he walked along it, he was making noises like the sound of a riverboat. First he shouted loudly, like a boat captain. Then he said "Ding—Dong-Dong", "Ding—Dong— Dong" again and again, like the bell of a riverboat. And he made other strange noises. When he came close to Tom, he stopped.

    Tom went on whitewashing. He did not look at Ben. Ben stared a moment and then said: "Hello! I'm going swimming, but you can't go, can you? "

    No answer. Tom moved his brush carefully along the fence and looked at the result with the eye of an artist. Ben came nearer. Tom's mouth watered for the apple, but he kept on working.

    Ben said, "Hello, old fellow, you've got to work, hey?"

    Tom turned suddenly and said, "Why, it's you, Ben! I wasn't noticing."

    "Say—I'm going swimming. Don't you wish you could? But of course you'd rather work—wouldn't you? Of course you would."

    Tom looked at the boy a bit, and said, "What do you call work?"

    "Why, isn't that work?"

    Tom went back to his whitewashing, and answered carelessly.

    "Well, maybe it is, and maybe it isn't. All I know is, it suits Tom Sawyer."

    "Oh come, now, you don't mean to say that you like it?

    The brush continued to move.

    "Like it? Well, I don't see why I shouldn't like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?"

    Ben stopped eating his apple. Tom moved his brush back and forth, stepped back to look at the result, added a touch here and there, and stepped back again. Ben watched every move and got more and more interested. Soon he said, "Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little."

    Tom thought for a moment, and was about to agree, but he changed his mind.

    "No-no-it won't do, Ben. You see, Aunt Polly wants this fence to be perfect. It has got to be done very carefully. I don't think there is one boy in a thousand, maybe two thousand, that can do it well enough."

    "No——is that so? Oh come, now——let me just try. Only just a little."

    "Ben, I'd like to, but if it isn't done right, I'm afraid Aunt Polly …"

    "Oh, I'll be careful. Now let me try. Say—I'll give you the core of my apple."

    "Well, here—No, Ben, now don't. I'm afraid …"

    "I'll give you all of it."

    Tom gave up the brush with unwillingness on his face, but joy in his heart. And while Ben worked at the fence in the hot sun, Tom sat under a tree, eating the apple, and planning how to get more help. There were enough boys. Each one came to laugh, but remained to whitewash. By the time Ben was tired, Tom sold the next chance to Billy for a kite; and when Billy was tired, Johnny bought it for a dead rat——and so on, hour after hour. And when the middle of the afternoon came, Tom had won many treasures.

    And he had not worked. He had had a nice idle time all the time, with plenty of company, and the fence had been whitewashed three times. If he hadn't run out of whitewash, Tom would have owned everything belonging to his friends.

    He had discovered a great law of human action, namely, that in order to make a man or a boy want a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to get.

    About six years ago I was going through a tough time, trying to work two jobs to afford my rent. On a cold Sunday morning, I went to GameStop-a video game retailer（零售商）, to cancel the game I'd booked. A woman in a car parked outside called me when I exited the store. Though it was in broad daylight, I was shy about it and kept some distance when I walked over. She said she couldn't walk and requested me to purchase a Kinect, a popular game, for her as her son's Christmas gift. Because of her leg disease it was painful for her to move around. She called ahead but the employee（雇员）wasn't willing to help. She gave me about $ 100 in cash and her credit card.

    I walked back in and bought the Kinect. Then it occurred to me that this woman, a complete stranger, trusted me. What was it that stopped me from lying about the payment method and just pocket her cash? She couldn't know I wasn't a cheat; and how could she possibly believe in someone so much?

    I handed her the cash back, explaining I had to pay with her card-it was above $ 100 at the time, and handed over the game and her credit card. "This is what my son's been longing for. Thank you! By the way, just from glancing at you, I know you are the one who will be a friend to someone in need. You have a face of an angel!" she said. She gave me $ 10 and refused to take it back. Then she drove away.

    She had no idea how much of a difference even $ 10 made. I was able to buy a few cheap groceries for the week and it really made a hard time in my life a little better. She may think I helped her; however, I truly feel like the one who was being gifted something amazing.

    One day when I was 12, my mother gave me an order: I was to walk to the public library, and borrow at least one book for the summer. This was one more weapon for her to defeat my strange problem—inability to read.

    In the library, I found my way into the "Children's Room." I sat down on the floor and pulled a few books off the shelf at random. The cover of a book caught my eye. It presented a picture of a beagle. I had recently had a beagle, the first and only animal companion I ever had as a child. He was my secret sharer, but one morning, he was gone, given away to someone who had the space and the money to care for him. I never forgot my beagle.

    There on the book's cover was a beagle which looked identical (相同的)to my dog. Iran my fingers over the picture of the dog on the cover. My eyes ran across the title, Amos, the Beagle with a Plan. Unknowingly, I had read the title. Without opening the book, I borrowed it from the library for the summer.

    Under the shade of a bush, I started to read about Amos. I read very, very slowly with difficulty. Though pages were turned slowly, I got the main idea of the story about a dog who, like mine, had been separated from his family and who finally found his way back home. That dog was my dog, and I was the little boy in the book. At the end of the story, my mind continued the final scene of reunion, on and on, until my own lost dog and I were, in my mind, running together.

    My mother's call returned me to the real world. I suddenly realized something: I had read a book, and I had loved reading that book. Everyone knew I could not read. But I had read it. Books could be incredibly wonderful and I was going to read them.

    I never told my mother about my "miraculous" (奇迹般的) experience that summer, but she saw a slow but remarkable improvement in my classroom performance during the next year. And years later, she was proud that her son had read thousands of books, was awarded a PhD in literature, and authored his own books, articles, poetry and fiction. The power of the words has held.