Paganini was nearing the end of an exquisite piece, with the audience—hundreds of concertgoers or perhaps just one very lucky lady—caught up in its beauty, unaware of anything else, when one of the violin’s four strings snapped...—were made from the intestines of sheep and more likely to give way than today’s strings...the poor string couldn’t stand up to his forceful playing.
Give way
to break, especially when under pressure from strong forces
•Because of an unusually strong current, the bridge's central support gave way, tipping a coach into the river.
It is one of the most enduring and deep-seated of all beliefs about human nature.
deep-seated
UK[ˌdi:p'si:.tɪd]US[-tˌɪd] (alsodeep(ly)-rooted)
adjective
■strongly felt or believed and very difficult to change or get rid of根深蒂固的;笃信的
•a deep-seated faith in God 笃信上帝
concert-goers
2. (also-goer) used after words such as party, church, and theatre to form nouns that refer to people who regularly go to parties, church etc:
NEAR
UK[nɪər]US[nɪr]
■to get close to something in distance, time or state靠近;临近;接近
•I'm pleased to say the project is nearing completion.我很高兴宣布这项工程即将竣工。
•As the wedding day neared, I started to have second thoughts about getting married.随着婚期日益临近,我开始对结婚犹豫起来。
•The captain switched on the seat belt sign as we neared the airport.当我们靠近机场时,机长开启了安全带信号灯。
The dexterity and flexibility required of the fingers on his playing hand were more than(that) the audience imagined was possible for any musician, yet the sound did not suffer.
There are plenty of parents of elementary school children today who get overly involved in their children’s science-fair projects. It would not be at all surprising if something like that happened with young Wolfgang’s compositions—particularly given the fact that Leopold had given up his own career by that time and had hitched his success to that of his son.
翻译:现在有很多小学生的家长过分插手孩子科技汇报的课题作品。如果说类似的事曾经发生在莫扎特身上也不足为奇。尤其考虑到他的父亲那时候放弃了自己的事业,完全寄希望于儿子的成功。
感悟:现在很多家长觉得自己孩子的失败就是自己的失败。孩子遇到很challenging的作业搞不定时,会想办法帮他完成。我很理解家长面对这种情况的frustration,谁都不想让自己孩子被其他同学瞧不起,被老师看成不聪明的小孩。就像摩登家庭里Luke和Manny 的竞争最终变成大人的竞争。As in the case of Mozart, 让小孩子相信自己能做到更好,motivated ,即使得到了一点外界帮助,只要不是习惯性的依赖,也可以是一种effective trick. 那大人呢,当然还是要保持健康的心态,去积极引导孩子,而不是一味的help them out, 该放手时,就放手吧。
There is relatively little in them that is original to Wolfgang.Furthermore, the evidence suggests that even on these reworkings of other people’s compositions, Wolfgang had a great deal of help from his father.
Mario took to the ice like a fish to water, skating from the very beginning as if he had been born to it and showing up older children (make them feel ashamed of themselves) who had been skating for years.
Take to sth喜欢上
1. to start to like someone or something:
Sandra took to it straight away.
独立结构:
Yet Paganini was undaunted. He finished the piece on the one remaining string,his fingers a blur and the audience amazed.
And of course little Wolfgang, his legs dangling from the bench and his hands barely able to reach the keyboard, was the main attraction.
Blur
singular
■something that you cannot see clearly模糊的东西
•If I don't wear my glasses, everything is just a blur.如果不戴眼镜,我看任何东西都是模糊的。
■something that you cannot remember or understand clearly记不清的东西;理解不清楚的东西
•It all happened so long ago that it's just a blur to me now.这件事发生在很久以前,我现在记不清了。
•The last few days seem to have gone by in a blur.过去几天似乎是在恍恍惚惚中度过的。
There is clearly a fascination with this type of story, where someone seems to have come out of nowhere to excel (不及物,突出)as some sort of naturally gifted performer.
There is an entire comicbook industry built on that premise—that sometimes something magical happens, and you suddenly acquire incredible powers.
Third, it’s worth noting that Thomas is six feet two, which is a good, if not ideal, height for high jumping.
good很好了,但是ideal更好,就是强调A,甚至moreA的情况。
feat/fi:t/
noun
• (approving)an action or a piece of work that needs skill, strength or courage
•技艺;武艺;功绩;英勇事迹:
»The tunnel is a brilliant feat of engineering.
这条隧道是工程方面的光辉业绩。
»to perform /attempt / achieve astonishing feats
表演惊人的技艺;争取/取得惊人的功绩
»That was no mean feat(= it was difficult to do).
那是伟大的成就。