学进去

“I hate Tuesdays,” said Finn.

“Wait and see,” said his mother. “You haven’t even met Miss Bea.”

Finn was starting piano lessons. Every Tuesday, at 3:30, right after school. At that time, he wanted to run and jump and he was also excited to build his new Star-Blaster. He had it with him, expecting that Miss Bea wasn’t home.

Finn’s mother knocked on the door. “Maybe she went shopping,” said Finn hopefully. But the door opened, and there was Miss Bea. “Hello there, Finn,” she said with a smile. “Come on in.”

Miss Bea’s piano was black and shiny. Finn sat on the bench. He held on to his Star-Blaster.

“That looks like a special box,” said Miss Bea. “Is it something new?”

“It’s going to be a Star-Blaster,” said Finn.

“You’re a builder,” said Miss Bea. “That’s very good. I’m sure that you can understand how this piano works. Why don’t you start by pressing some keys?”

Finn pressed some white keys. Then he pressed some black keys. Then he pressed a white one and a black one at the same time. It didn’t really make a song, but Miss Bea said she liked it.

Then, she opened the piano.

“I didn’t know it had a lid (盖子),” said Finn. “Every piano does. It has hammers, too,” said Miss Bea. “Stand on the bench and look inside.”

The hammers were pieces of wood with round ends. Some were fat. Some were skinny. There was a row of strings (弦) in front of the hammers.

Then Miss Bea had a question. “If you were going to build a piano, how many pieces would you need?”

“Fifty?” guessed Finn. “More,” said Miss Bea.

“A hundred and forty-two?” guessed Finn. “Many more.”

Finn guessed all the way up to nine hundred and fifty-seven, but it was “More, more, more.”

“Ten thousand pieces,” she finally said.

“Whoa,” said Finn. “My Star-Blaster only has sixty-two. But it’s still going to be hard to put it together.”

“But it will be worth (值得) it,” said Miss Bea. “Piano lessons are like that, too. You work and work to build a song. You use keys and hammers and strings. Your songs can be fast or slow, high or low, soft or loud.”

“I want to build a fast, loud one,” said Finn. “You will, when your fingers learn to run and jump. But for now, our time is up,” said Miss Bea.

On the way home, Finn asked his mother how many songs there were to learn. “There must be thousands,” she said. “Especially if you practice.”

“Then I’d better start soon,” said Finn. He looked at his building fingers. “How many days,” he asked, “till Tuesday?”