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4 BOOKWORMS

4 BOOKWORMS
4

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T HE PI A NO

Where does music come from? Is it something that you

learn? Or is it simply given to you – and nobody knows
where it comes from?

The young boy in this story is not good at school. He

is not good at learning words or numbers. He likes to
sing with the other boys and girls; but he is not good at
singing. He does not get the first job that he tries to get.
He is a nice boy, but he is not good at anything special.

And then he finds a piano. He also finds that he can play

the piano. So, perhaps we can say that he does not find
music, but that music finds him.

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o x f or d b ook w or m s l i b r a r y
Human Interest

The Piano
Stage 2 (700 headwords)

Series Editor: Jennifer Bassett

Founder Editor: Tricia Hedge
Activities Editors: Jennifer Bassett and Alison Baxter

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rosemary border

The Piano

oxford university press

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1
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide in
Oxford New York
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With offices in
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oxford and oxford english are registered trade marks of
Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries
This edition © Oxford University Press 2008
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
Database right Oxford University Press (maker)
First published in Oxford Bookworms 1989
2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1
No unauthorized photocopying
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press,
or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate
reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction
outside the scope of the above should be sent to the ELT Rights Department,
Oxford University Press, at the address above
You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
Any websites referred to in this publication are in the public domain and
their addresses are provided by Oxford University Press for information only.
Oxford University Press disclaims any responsibility for the content
isbn 978 0 19 479068 0
A complete recording of this Bookworms edition of
The Piano is available on audio CD isbn 978 0 19 478991 2
Printed in Hong Kong
Illustrated by: Julie Joubinaux

Word count (main text): 6070 words

For more information on the Oxford Bookworms Library,

visit www.oup.com/elt/bookworms

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C ONT E NT S

story introduction i

1 In the Dressing-room 1
2 A Poor Boy 4
3 A Farmer’s Boy 8
4 An Old Piano 12
5 The Village School 20
6 Mr Gordon finds a Musician 27
7 The Music Competition 32
8 The End of the Story 38

glossary 40
activities: Before Reading 44
activities: While Reading 45
activities: After Reading 48
about the author 52
about the bookworms library 53

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Chapter 1
In the Dressing-room

SIR ANTHONY EVANS PLAYS LISZT. The words

above the door of the theatre were a metre high. On
the wall there was a big picture of Sir Anthony at the
piano. Hundreds of people were waiting outside the
ticket office. It was Sir Anthony’s eightieth birthday
concert and everybody wanted a ticket. I had a special
ticket, because I was a newspaper reporter. I wanted to
talk to the famous pianist before his concert. I showed
my ticket to the doorman and went into the theatre.
Then I walked upstairs to the dressing-rooms.
On my way upstairs I thought about the famous
pianist. I was a little afraid. My mouth was dry and
my hands were shaking.
I arrived outside the dressing-room.
There was a big gold star on the door.
I knocked, and a tall man opened it. He was very
old, but his eyes were blue and bright. He was wearing
black trousers and a beautiful white shirt. He had a lot
of straight, silvery hair. He looked just like his picture
on the wall of the theatre.
‘My name’s Sally Hill,’ I began. ‘I . . .’
1

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The Piano

Hundreds of people were waiting outside the ticket office.

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In the Dressing-room

The old man saw my notebook and smiled at me.

‘Don’t tell me. You’re a reporter. Which newspaper
do you work for?’
‘The Sunday Times, sir.’
‘A very good newspaper. Come in and sit down.
Ask your questions. We were young once, weren’t we,
Linda? But of course that was a long time ago.’
He turned to a tall woman, who was standing in the
corner. She smiled at me with friendly brown eyes. ‘So
this is Lady Evans,’ I thought. ‘What a nice face she
has! She looks like a farmer’s wife.’
I was not afraid any more. I sat down and opened
my notebook.
‘Tell me about yourself, please, Sir Anthony. Did
you come from a musical family? Did you start to learn
the piano when you were three, like Mozart?’
The famous pianist smiled. ‘No, no, my dear. I am
the first musician in my family. And I was fourteen
years old before I touched a piano for the first time.’
He saw the surprise on my face. ‘We have a little time
before my concert. I’ll tell you my story. It’s a strange
story, but every word of it is true. You see, I left school
when I was thirteen. Everybody called me Tony in
those days. I worked on a farm . . .’

It was an exciting story and he told it well. At first I

3

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The Piano

tried to write everything down in my notebook. Then

the pen fell from my hand and I just listened. I was lost
in Sir Anthony’s wonderful story. He told me about an
old school behind a high wall in a dirty street. There
was broken glass on top of the wall. The school yard
was very small. As he spoke, pictures came into my
mind. I saw a little boy called Tony Evans, playing
football with an old tin . . .

Chapter 2
A Poor Boy
The teacher’s name was Mr Grey. He was grey, like his
name: he was old and grey and tired. Everything about
him was grey: grey suit, grey shirt, grey hair and a
long, thin, grey face. When he smiled the children saw
his long, grey teeth. But he did not often smile. Mr Grey
did not enjoy his job. He did not like children.
‘Why does he work here?’ one of the children asked
one day. ‘He doesn’t like us.’
‘But he likes the long school holidays!’ said Tony.
The other children laughed. They thought that was a
very clever answer.
But Tony was not a clever boy. He was big and slow
and silent. He did not enjoy his lessons. Usually he just
4

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A Poor Boy

sat at his desk and waited quietly for four o’clock to

come, when he could go home.
But Tuesday mornings were different, because Tues-
day was music day. Every Tuesday morning an old
lady called Mrs Lark came to the school. Mrs Lark
played the piano and the children sang. She was not
a very good pianist, but she liked children and she
enjoyed her work. She knew a lot of songs too. Every
Tuesday her fat little fingers flew like birds up and
down the keys of the piano. The children sang like
birds, too. Then twelve o’clock came. Mrs Lark said
‘goodbye’ and locked up the piano for another week.

The children sang like birds.

YOU HAVE REACHED THE END OF THE SAMPLE.

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