you will listen to an interview of Rachel Barton Pine on Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEzBq4xyIRM). Ms. Pine is a star violinist and a happy, energetic person. Then you will write answers to the questions below. You can listen to the interview as many times as you need to. Try to answer the questions in correct English. I will make corrections for grammar and spelling in your response. You can have as much time as you need to complete this exercise.
This is not a test, so try to relax and do the best you can.
Questions:
1. How old was Rachel Barton Pine when she played her first concert with a major symphony orchestra?. What was the orchestra?
2. She had a serious accident with a train. Describe the accident.
3. A near death experience is an experience in which a person dies or nearly dies but returns to life. Rachel Barton Pine had a near death experience. Why did she choose to come back to life?
4. At the very end of the interview, she talks about her dream come true. What is that dream?
Replies
1. By 10, Rachel was already performing with world's one of the most acclaimed orchestras. The exact age at which she started playing with a major symphony orchestra isn't mentioned in the video. The Orchestra was "The Chicago Symphony".
2. One January morning in 1995, while getting off from a train near Chicago, 20year old Rachel's violin's strap was caught in doors. She was pulled underneath, her one leg was amputated and the other was severely damaged/injured.
3. She chose to come back to life because according to her she knew that there were so many things she still wanted to accomplish in her life.
4. She always dreamed of someday being able to help other students who might be in similar circumstances.
OR...
She's playing the music she loves and is traveling around the world, sharing music with people and learning newer music everyday. In the video, she said "more new music"; I doubt if that's grammatically correct.
Nida, that's a very good response, and you did it really quickly.
1. There was a strong implication that she started playing violin with a major symphony orchestra at age 10. If you have heard or read similar statements, you would know what it means: She started at the age of 10.
You wrote "performing with world's one of the most acclaimed orchestras." Correction: "performing with one of the world's most acclaimed orchestras."
2. Your answer was very good, but you made a few mistakes in grammar. "20year old" should be "20 year old." I think that this is probably a typing error.
3. Excellent! No errors.
4. The order of the sentences shows the answer. She says, "My dreams have come true. I'm playing the music I love..." The second answer you gave for question 4 is correct.
She did not make a mistake when she said "more new music." "More" describes "music" not "new." She is not saying that she wants music that was written more recently. She is saying that she wants more of the new music.
Your mistakes are small, and you probably made these mistakes because you haven't listened to spoken English enough. Overall, you did a very good job.