"Practice makes perfect"- Short Reading Comprehension Passages

Elara hated the piano. Her twelve-year-old fingers felt like clumsy blocks of wood, constantly tripping over the simple melody of the Moonlight Sonata. Frustrated, she smashed the wrong key for the hundredth time, the discordant sound mocked her. The school recital was only a month away, and she wanted to hide under her bed. “It’s impossible,” she muttered to her grandmother. Grandma just smiled, tapping the piano sheet music. “Practice makes perfect,” she said softly.

Elara committed. For thirty days, she attacked the sonata. Every morning, the house was filled with the hesitant, repeating notes: the B-flat major scale, then the A-minor arpeggios. Her fingertips were sore, and her concentration often wavered, but she forced herself back to the bench. She traded TV time and video games for one more hour of drilling, chasing a fleeting sense of improvement.

On the night of the recital, the stage lights blinded her. She took a deep breath, and her muscle memory took over. Her hands, once clumsy, now moved with liquid grace. The music flowed, effortless and whole. The silence that followed was broken by thunderous applause. She hadn't been born a prodigy; she had become one, one painful practice session at a time.