Ludwig Van Beethoven is one of the greatest 【小题1】 in the world. He began to practice 【小题2】 the piano at the age of 4. He wrote hundreds of famous symphonies(交响乐). He couldn’t hear 【小题3】 in his 40s, but he never stopped composing(创作). When listening to his music, you may feel like you are having a 【小题4】 with him. You can get all kinds of feelings from his music, such as happiness, sadness, anger, pity and so on. Today, his music still 【小题5】 up many people, because it tells them not to give up(放弃) even in the face of difficulties(困难).

Xian Xinghai was a great musician in China. He wrote many great pieces of music of the 20th century. In his short life, he wrote about 300 【小题1】 and an ópera.

Xian was born in Panyu, Guangzhou, China in 1905. His father died before he was born and Xian had to move from place to place 【小题2】 his mother. He began learning to play the 【小题3】 when he was 20 years old. In the beginning, he could not play it 【小题4】. His friends laughed at him. Xian did not stop 【小题5】 and soon showed his talent (天赋). In 1934, he was the first Chinese student studying in a special music school in Paris. Before he left, Xian became the school’s best student and 【小题6】 some prizes for his talents.

In 1935, he returned to China and helped 【小题7】 against the Japanese army. Later, he came to Yan’an to teach music at a school. There were no pianos in Yan’an at that time, 【小题8】 Xian still wrote many important pieces of music there, like The Yellow River, his most 【小题9】 work.

In May 1940, Xian went to the Soviet Union (苏联) to write music for movies. In the Soviet Union, life was very hard for 【小题10】. Xian was ill and later died of a lung illness on October 30, 1945, aged only 40, but his music lives on in the people’s hearts.

If you travel around China, you’ll find dragons almost everywhere. For thousands of years, the Chinese people have had a deep 【小题1】 to Loong, the Chinese dragon. Many Chinese 【小题2】 have tried their hand at painting the dragon. One of them was Chen Rong, a great painter in Song Dynasty. He is widely considered the best of the dragon painters and his Nine Dragons was regarded as one of 【小题3】 paintings of the Chinese dragon.

Born in Fujian in 1200, he once served for the government in his home province. His career (事业) wasn’t going very 【小题4】. However, he was known for his talent in poetry and painting.

Chen usually painted after drinking wine (酒). After getting drunk, he would shout, take off his scarf, put it in ink and spill (泼出) the ink 【小题5】 on Xuan paper. After that, the painter would use brushes to paint some details 【小题6】 his work.

Nine Dragons shows nine energetic dragons freely 【小题7】 among clouds, fires and mountains. There are both crazy drops of ink and very fine lines. They show both the painter’s feeling of great 【小题8】 with his career life and his great skills in brush work.

Nine Dragons 【小题9】 in the palace in the past. It’s said that Qianlong Emperor 【小题10】 praised it and he liked it so much that he ordered a palace painter to make a copy of it.