was a little girl. My grandmother had a piano in her house.But she gave it away to my aunt when I was still little.After I got married, someone offered a piano to us for $280.We bought it immediately, even though it meant that we had to live off our food storage for a couple of months.

　　Paying a teacher was out of the question, so I set out to teach myself the piano.First, I set out to learn to read music.I got any music I could find and played songs by looking at notes.The problem was that I couldn't play any piece of music if I didn't look at notes.

　　I had always thought that playing the piano by ear was reserved for a few select pianists who were born with the gift.However, one day, what a pianist told me changed my opinion.One day, I went to a concert.Luckily，after the concert, I could talk with the pianist for a while.He told me that everyone could play the piano by ear if he or she tried hard enough.He meant that to learn to play the piano by ear, I would have to practice it.

　　So I started playing jingles (短曲) from advertisements.Before long, I was able to pick out simple tunes of songs that were very familiar to me, and even to add accompaniments (伴奏)．When I started practicing playing by ear, I also realized that my sight of reading skills improved greatly.It's because rather than reading every note, I was able to put my fingers where they should be according to the feel of the music.

　　Remember, you can learn to play the piano by ear, too.

　　【语篇解读】　作者讲述了她学习弹钢琴的经历。

　　1．After the author got married, she ．

　　A．bought a new piano

　　B．lived a very rich life

　　C．still longed to play the piano

　　D．had no time for her hobbies

　　C　[推理判断题。根据第一段的最后一句可推断，作者结婚后仍然想学习弹钢琴。]

2．What was the problem when the author played the piano at the beginning?