I used to live in Kobe in Japan. On my way home on the bus every evening I used to look for an old man who often played his saxophone (萨克斯管) near the river. I couldn’t hear his music because the windows were closed on the bus but I imagined it to be loud and clear. I wanted to be like that man. One night I went to Himeji, a city not far from Kobe. As I walked with my family along the river I saw a statue. It was a young man who looked just like me. He was wearing a cap and smiling. Around his neck was a leather strap (皮带) and in his hands was a saxophone. He was lifting the saxophone to his lips and he was just about to play. I stayed there for a long time by the statue dreaming of playing a saxophone on TV. Two weeks later it was my birthday. Imagine my joy when I opened my present from my parents and found that it was a saxophone! I put it to my lips to play, but it wouldn’t make a sound. Then Dad told me to read the instruction book to find out what to do. After about 15 minutes the saxophone was ready to play. I raised it slowly to my lips as my family watched. But still there was no sound. I blew and blew but I couldn’t get the saxophone to play. I was almost crying when suddenly the saxophone made the most beautiful sound—loud and clear like I imagined the music of the man by the river in Kobe. I blew again, I moved my fingers on the saxophone and I made more sounds. I was happy because I was playing very interesting sounds. But I wasn’t playing music yet. Then came the lessons. Night after night, week after week my teacher made me practice. Slowly I started to improve and at last there came the magic day when I started to play music. Now I’m in the TV studio with my saxophone strapped to my neck and my cap on my head. I’m always thinking of the man by the river in Kobe and the statue smiling at me in Himeiji. I’m a happy man. 小题1:On the bus, the writer couldn’t ________.
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