Fall down as you come onstage. That"s an odd trick. Not recommended. But it saved the pianist Vladimir Felts man when he was a teenager back in Moscow. The veteran cellist MstislavRostropovich tripped him purposely to cure him of pre-performance panic, ²Mr. Felts man said," All my fright was gone. I already fell. What else could happen?"

    Today, music schools are addressing the problem of anxiety in classes that deal with performance techniques and career preparation. There are a variety of strategies that musicians can learn to fight stage fright and its symptoms : icy fingers, shaky limbs, racing heart, blank mind 3.

    Teachers and psychologists offer wide-ranging advice, from basics like learning pieces, inside out 4, to mental discipline, such as visualizing a performance and taking steps to relax. Don t deny that your"re jittery, they urge; some excitement is natural, even necessary for dynamic playing. And play in public often, simply for the experience.

    Psychotherapist Diane Nichols suggests some strategies for the moments before performance ,Take two deep abdominal breaths, open up your shoulders, then smile," she says. "And not one of “these" please don"t kill me" smiles. Then choose three friendly faces in the audience, people you would communicate with and make music to, and make eye contact with them. " She doesn"t want to think of the audience as a judge.Extreme demands by mentors or parents are often at the root of stage fright, says Dorothy Delay, a well-known violin teacher. She tells other teachers to demand only what their students are able to achieve.

    When Lynn Harrell was 20,he became the principal cellist of the Cleverl and Orchestra, and he suffered extreme stage fright. "There were times when I got so nervous I was sure the audience could see my chest responding to the throbbing. It was just total panic. I came to a point where I thought, If I have to go through this to play music, I think I"m going to look for another job 5. "

    Recovery, he said, involved developing humility-recognizing that whatever his talent, he was fallible, and that an imperfect concert was not a disaster 6.

    It is not only young artists who suffer, of course. The legendary pianist Vladimir Horowitz"s nerves were famous. The great tenor Franco Corelli is another example. "They had to push him on stage," Soprano Renata Scotto recalled.

    Actually, success can make things worse. "In the beginning of your career, when you"re scared to death, nobody knows who you are, and they don"t, have any expectations," Soprano June Anderson said. "There" s less to lose. Later on, when you re known, people are coming to see you, and they have certain expectations. You have a lot to lose. "

    Anderson added, "I never stop being nervous until I"ve sung my last note. "

词汇：

veteran/ ˈvetərən / adj．经验丰富的

jittery/ ˈdʒɪtəri / adj．紧张不安的

mentor/ ˈmenˌtɔ: / n．指导者

soprano/ səˈprprɑ:nəʊ / n．女高音；女高音歌手

cellist/ˈtʃelɪst / n．大提琴演奏家

abdominal/ æbˈdɔmənəl / adj．腹部的

fallible/ ˈfæləbəl / adj．易犯错误的

tenor/"tenə/ n．男高音

注释：

1．Stage Fright：舞台恐惧

2．The veteran cellist Mstislav Rostropovich tripped him purposely to cure him of pre-performance panic…资深大提琴家Mstislav Rostropovich故意把Vladimir Feltsman绊倒，因而治愈了他的上台前的恐惧症。cure somebody of something (illness, problem)：医治好病（解决问题）

3．… its symptoms：icy fingers, shaky limbs, racing heart, blank mind：舞台恐惧的症状有手冰凉、身体颤抖、心跳加快和大脑一片空白。

4．Teachers and psychologists offer wide-ranging advice, from basics like learning pieces inside out ：老师和心理学家提出了方方面面的建议，一些基础知识，比如将演奏曲目烂熟于心…… inside out： in great detail详细地，从里到外地

5．I came to a point where I thought，“If I have to go through this to play music, I think I’m going to look for another job. ”我曾经一度认为，如果搞音乐就必须经过克服舞台恐惧这一关的话，这项工作不能做。

6．Recovery, he said, involved developing humility-recognizing that whatever his talent, he was fallible, andthat an imperfect concert was not a disaster.不舞台恐惧意味着提高谦卑感，即认识到不管你多有才，你也会出错，一个有瑕疵的音乐会也绝对不是世界末日。

If you have stage fright, it"s helpful to have friendly audience.

A:Right B:Wrong C:Not mentioned

July 21,2007 was a typical English summer’s day—it rained for 24 hours ! As usual, I rushed home from work at midday to check on the house. Nothing was amiss. By the time I left work at 5 pm, however, the road into our village was flooded. Our house had never been flooded, but as I opened the front door, a wave of water greeted me. Thank God the kids weren’t with me, because the house was 5 feet deep in water. We lost everything downstairs. And the plaster of the walls, ceilings pulled down.
At first we tried to push on through. We didn’t want to move the children out of home, so we camped upstairs. We put a sheet of plastic across the floor to protect us from the damp. But after three months, we felt very sick, so we moved to a wooden house in a park. The house was small, but at first we were all just delighted to be in a new place. Unfortunately, things took longer than expected and we were there for 10 months. The life there was inconvenient. What surprised me most was how much I missed being part of a community. We had lived in a friendly village with good neighbors, and I’d never thought how much I’d miss that.
Although our situation was very hard, it’s difficult to feel too sorry for yourself when you look at what’s happening elsewhere. I watched a news report about floods in Northern India and thought, "We didn’t have a straw but that was swept away, and our house is still standing. We’re lucky. "
We moved back home in August. With December coming, there’s still reconstruction work to be done, so it’s difficult to prepare for Christmas. But I can’t wait—I’m going to throw a party for our friends in the village to say thanks for their support. This year, I won’t need any gifts—living away from home for months has made me realize how little we actually need or miss all our possessions. Although we are replacing things, there’s really no rush—we have our home back, and that’s the main thing.

A:disappointment B:friendly C:memorable D:happily

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