句子使用过去完成时had improved，准确表达了相对于过去某一时间点（上次见面）的变化。
In his later years, Beethoven once listened to a friend play his "Thirty-two Variations in C minor." After listening for a while, he asked, "Who composed this?"
"You did," his friend replied.
"Me? Could I have written such clumsy music?" Beethoven then added, "Ah, Beethoven used to be a fool!" Goethe's comment on Schiller applies perfectly to Beethoven: "He changes and grows every week." Every time I saw him, I felt his knowledge, learning, and insights had improved since the last time."
There was a period when Beethoven even wanted to destroy the songs "Adelaide" and the "Trio in E-flat Major" (Op. 20) that he had composed in his youth. This was by no means accidental; like Beethoven, one can truly say, "At fifty, I knew the errors of the forty-nine years before."
晚年的贝多芬曾听一位朋友弹奏他的《c小调三十二变奏曲》。听了一会儿，他问道：“这是谁的作品?”
“你的。”朋友回答说。
“我的?这么笨拙的曲子会是我写的?”贝多芬随后补充道：“啊，当年的贝多芬简直是个傻瓜!”歌德评论席勒的话，完全适用于贝多芬：“他每星期都在变化，在成长。”我每次看到他时，总觉得他的知识、学问和见解比上一次进步了。”
有一时期，贝多芬甚至想毁掉他青年时期所作的歌曲《阿黛莱苔》和《降E大调七重奏》(作品20号)。这决不是偶然的，像贝多芬这样，真可以说是“五十而知四十九之非”了。