Reading Comprehension-5a

A Musical Prodigy                         Week 10 Day 5

            Imagine knowing at age two what you want to do for the rest of your life. Jay Greenberg, nicknamed “Bluejay” because these birds make a lot of noise for their size, did just that. He has been called the greatest musical talent to come along in 200 years. And all of this praise was said about a teenager!

            When Greenberg was just two years old, he started drawing pictures of musical instruments and wrote the word cello. His parents got him a cello, and by age three, he was composing music . In 2001, at age ten, he began attending the Julliard School, one of the world’s best music conservatories, in New York City. Within two years, he had composed five symphonies. And by 2009, he had written more than 70 musical compositions for such groups as the New Haven Symphony and the London Symphony Orchestra.

            Greenberg is a musical prodigy, or extremely gifted young person. Unlike most kids, he doesn’t download music from the internet; he downloads it from his own mind! When he composes works, he hears them in his head complete, as if an orchestra were playing them. His hero is Beethoven, and fro fun, he fools around with classical music compositions, changing and rewriting them. He is completely devoted to his calling, once telling his mother that he would die if he could not compose music.

Strategy Practice: Think about: What information in the passage helps you understand why Jay Greenberg is called a prodigy?

Skill Practice: Read each question. Fill in the bubble next to the correct answer.