【明報專訊】I'll tell you a secret! Sometimes I think I am too timid. I hope I will be as brave as the nutcracker. He fights the Mouse King and its subjects so courageously that he deserves true love in the end!

German writer Hoffmann's The Nutcracker and The Mouse King is a story about battles between dolls, mice and a nutcracker which a mysterious old man gives Marie, his goddaughter. The Russian composer Tchaikovsky (柴可夫斯基) adapted the story into a ballet classic.

English highway - words and collocations

as + adjective + as

We use "as + adj + as" to say two things or persons have the same quality.

e.g. Tom is as tall as Lee.

(=Tom and Lee are of the same height.)

■Glossary

timid (adj) 膽小

deserve (v) 值得

mysterious (adj) 神秘的

composer (n) 作曲家