【推荐2】Viennese-born composer Frederick Loewe,     1     we remember from his classical musicals including My Fair Lady and Camelot, was not always famous. He studied piano with the great masters of Europe and achieved huge success as a     2    (music) and composer in his early years. But after he immigrated to the United States, he failed as a pianist. For a while he tried other     3    (type) of work including gold mining and boxing.     4     he never gave up his dream and continued to play the piano and write music.

During those difficult years, he could not always afford     5    (make) payments on his piano. One day, bent over the keyboard, he could hear nothing but the music that he played with such rare     6    (inspire). When he finished and looked up, he was astonished to find that he had     7     audience of three moving men who     8    (seat) on the floor.

They said nothing and made no movement toward the piano. Instead, they dug into their pockets, pooled together enough money for the payment, placed     9     on the piano and walked out, empty handed.     10    (move) by the beauty of his music, these men recognized excellence and responded to it.

Johann Strauss was born in Vienna in 1825. Although his father did not want him to become a     1    (music), Strauss Junior studied the violin     2    (secret) as a child. When his father discovered his son practising on a violin one day, he gave him a beating,    3    (say) that he was going to beat the music out of the boy. But that didn’t prevent the boy from becoming one of the     4    (great) composers of all time.

He wrote his first waltz (华尔兹) at the age of six. At nineteen, he decided to devote     5    (he) to music. He formed his own orchestra and made a successful tour of Europe and soon became known     6     the Waltz King. The emperor of Austria was so     7    (please) with his music that he appointed him the conductor at the court balls of Vienna. It was for these occasions     8    he wrote some of his most popular waltzes, among     9    was the well-known favorite The Blue Danube (蓝色多瑙河) in all, the talented Johann Strauss     10    (write) more than 500 masterpieces.