By day, Robert Titterton is a lawyer. In his spare time though he goes.

on stage beside pianist Maria Raspopova — not as a musician but as her page turner. “I’m not a trained musician, but I’ve learnt to read music so I can help Maria in her performance.”

Mr Titterton is chairman of the Omega Ensemble but has been the group’s official page turner for the past four years. His job is to sit beside  the pianist and turn the pages of the score so the musician doesn’t have to break the flow of sound by doing it themselves. He said he became just as nervous as those playing instruments on stage.

“A lot of skills are needed for the job. You have to make sure you don’t turn two pages at once and make sure you find the repeats in the music  when you have to go back to the right spot.” Mr Titterton explained.

Being a page turner requires plenty of practice. Some pieces of music can go for 40 minutes and require up to 50 page turns, including back turns for repeat passages. Silent onstage communication is key, and each pianist has their own style of “nodding” to indicate a page turn which they need to practise with their page turner.

But like all performances, there are moments when things go wrong. “I was turning the page to get ready for the next page, but the draft wind from the turn caused the spare pages to fall off the stand,” Mr Titterton said, “Luckily I was able to catch them and put them back.”

Most page turners are piano students or up-and-coming concert pianists, although Ms Raspopova has once asked her husband to  help her out on stage.

“My husband is the worst page turner,” she laughed. “He’s interested in the music, feeling every note, and I have to say: ‘Turn, turn!’ “Robert is the best page turner I’ve had in my entire life.”

24.What should Titterton be able to do to be a page turner?

A、Read music.

B、Play the piano.

C、Sing songs.

D、Fix the instruments.

25.Which of the following best describes Titterton’s job on stage?

A、Boring.

B、Well-paid.

C、Demanding.

D、Dangerous.

26.What does Titterton need to practise?

A、Counting the pages.

B、Recognizing the “nodding”.

C、Catching falling objects.

D、Performing in his own style.

27.Why is Ms Raspopova’s husband “the worse page turner”?

A、He has very poor eyesight.

B、He ignores the audience.

C、He has no interest in music.

D、He forgets to do his job.

答案
ACBD
解析

翻译：

白天，罗伯特·蒂特顿是个律师。尽管他在业余时间去了。

在钢琴家玛丽亚·拉斯波娃旁边的舞台上——不是作为一个音乐家，而是作为她的翻页者。”我不是一个训练有素的音乐家，但我已经学会了阅读音乐，所以我可以帮助玛丽亚表演。”

蒂特顿是欧米茄乐团的主席，但在过去四年里一直是该组织的官方翻页人。他的工作是坐在旁边？钢琴家，翻开乐谱，这样音乐家就不用自己来打破声音的流动。他说他变得和舞台上那些演奏乐器的人一样紧张。

“这份工作需要很多技能。你必须确保你不同时翻开两页，确保你在音乐中找到重复的内容？当你必须回到正确的位置时。”蒂特顿先生解释道。

做一个翻页者需要大量的练习。有些音乐长达40分钟，最多需要翻50页，其中包括重复段落的后转。在台上无声的交流是关键，每个钢琴家都有自己的“点头”风格来表示他们需要用翻页器练习的翻页。

但和所有的表演一样，有时也会出问题。”我正翻过这一页准备下一页，但这一页的气流导致多余的几页从架子上掉下来，”蒂特顿先生说，“幸好我能抓住它们放回去。”

大多数翻页者都是钢琴专业的学生或是有前途的音乐会钢琴家，尽管拉斯波娃女士曾经请她的丈夫在舞台上帮助她。

“我丈夫是最糟糕的翻页者，”她笑道他对音乐很感兴趣，感觉每个音符，我不得不说：‘转，转！’罗伯特是我一生中最棒的翻页者。”