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Ye Xiaogang is known as one of the most famous modern Chinese composers.

He learned to play the piano at the age of four. His father was a composer who wrote a lot of music for films. But when his father was sent to a farm to work. Ye was only 11 at that time.

Ye had to work on another farm for a year before entering a factory. He worked in the factory for six years until he was 22.

The workers in the factory were friendly and helped him a lot, but he could not play the piano any more. No matter how hard he worked on the farm or in the factory, he never left music. He just waited for chances. He dreamed of becoming a pianist.

When Ye could play the piano again, he practiced hard every day in order to go to the Central Conservatory of Music in 1978, but the school would not recruit（招收）piano students that year. In the end, Ye chose composition as his major（专业）although he was not familiar with it.

In 1980, he studied at Cambridge University. Then he went to a famous school of music in the US in 1987 to take more courses.

As a famous composer in China, Ye worked for many organizations. He wrote many symphonies（交响乐）. He also wrote film and TV music which traditional composers hardly ever worked on.

Gina was surprised to find that it was not raining in London. She stepped down from the train that had brought her from Dover to Victoria Station and put her heavy suitcase on the platform（站台）. People were hurrying everywhere: through the entrances and exits, up and down the steps, along the other platforms and over to the ticket counters（柜台）where there were already queues forming. The porters（行李员）seemed to be busy helping other passengers. In Milan everyone told her that it was always raining in England. Today, however, they were wrong. It was warm and dusty just like at home. She could even hear someone speaking her native language somewhere near the station bookstore. She walked slowly towards the gate at the end of the platform where a railway official was collecting the tickets. She handed him her tickets and walked through. She looked up the station clock. Its hands were pointing to 3:15 p.m.

A young woman was sitting on a bench reading an English magazine. She looked friendly so Gina went up to her.

“Excuse me.” she said. The young woman looked up with a smile. “Can you tell me the way to circus?”

“The circus?” The young woman looked puzzled. “What circus do you mean?”

Gina shook her head. “I’m sorry. I have just arrived from Italy to attend a school for foreign students in London. It is near the circus.”

“Do you have a letter with the school’s address on it?”

“Oh, yes. Now I remember.” Gina opened her handbag and found a postcard with a British stamp on it. “Ah,” said the young woman. “It’s Oxford Circus that you want. It’s the name of an area in the middle of London. You must go down these steps and take the underground. Follow the colors. That’s the easiest way. “She showed Gina on the colored map of the underground railway the route from Victoria to Oxford Circus. “Good luck,” she said. “And by the way, I come from Italy, too.”

India is the land of festivals. However, none are as fun as Holi, the festival of colors.

Holi is held on the day after the full moon in March every year. It celebrates the end of winter, the beginning of spring and the victory of good over evil. It’s also a great chance for people to play and laugh.

What’s so interesting about this day? During the festival, people can enjoy many dance performances. The best part about the festival is that people can throw colored powder and colored water at friends or even strangers.

At about midday, the festival comes to an end. In areas close to the ocean, most people end the fun by taking a bath in the water. What a fun and colorful festival!

Here are a few does and don’ts on Holi:

☆ Keep your mouth shut and protect your eyes as much as possible when somebody throws colored powder or colored water at you.

☆ Before you go out to play with colors, grease（为……涂油）your body and hair well with cold cream and coconut oil. It will make sure that the colors don’t go deep into your skin and will come off easily later.

☆ Wear long trousers and a long-sleeved shirt to protect your skin.

59. 假如你叫王华, 你校将开展“最美青年”评选活动, 你班决定推选Sandy参加本次评选, 你草拟了介绍Sandy的思维导图, 请根据下图用英文写一封推荐信。

We are writing to recommend Sandy in our class as “The Most Beautiful Youth” in our school._____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

We think Sandy is the most suitable person for this award. We hope that you agree with us.

Yours sincerely,

Wang Hua