【推荐1】By day, Robert Titterton is a lawyer. In his spare time though he goes on __________ beside pianist Maria Raspopova — not as a musician but as her ____________. “I’m not a trained musician, but I’ve learnt to ____________ 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 ____________ beside the pianist and turn the pages of the score so the musician doesn’t have to ____________ 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 ____________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 _________ plenty of practice. Some pieces of music can ____________ for 40minutes and require up to 50 page turns, including back turns for repeat passages. Silent onstage communication is ____________, and each pianist has their own style of “nodding” to____________ a page turn which they need to practice with their page turner.

But ___________ 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 ____________,” 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 ____________page turner,” she laughed. “He’s ____________ in the music, feeling every ____________, and I have to say: ‘Turn, turn!’ Robert is the best page turner I’ve had in my entire life.”

【推荐2】Popular Music

Popular music is also called pop. It is any type of music that a large number of people _______. It is different from folk (民间的) music, which is the _______ music and songs of common people. It’s _______ different from classical (古典的) music, which is often more formal or artistic.

There are many types of popular music, _______ rock, country, rap, rhythm and blues (or R&B), the blues and jazz.

It is very _______ for popular music to be popular for only a short time. New songs regularly _______ hit songs. Even _______ of popular music lose popularity. The styles of big band, soul, and disco are no longer as popular as they once were. _______, some songs and styles have remained popular for _______.

Popular music developed out of many styles of religious (宗教的), folk, and classical music. In the 1800s concert bands and traveling musical groups brought ________ music to more and more people.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s the United States became a(n) ________ center of popular music. Songwriters in New York City wrote many popular songs, ________ African Americans created jazz and other new forms of popular music.

In the early 1900s phonograph records (留声机唱片) appeared, so people could ________ music in their homes. ________the first radio stations began playing popular songs.

Rock and roll, a mixture of country and blues music, ________ in the 1950s. It became wildly popular with young people. Rock is ________ the best­known form of popular music.

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, radio, television, movies, and the Internet ________ popular music to grow and to change. These ________ made it possible for millions of people to hear a single ________ at the same time. They also helped to ________ popular music into the huge business that it is today.

【推荐3】We all know that music is a powerful influencer. A movie without a soundtrack doesn’t arouse the same________ journey. A workout without a pump-up anthem can feel like a drag. But is there a way to________ these reactions? If so, could they be reverse-engineered and put to use?

In a paper, researchers at the University of Southern California mapped out how things like rhythm cause different types of brain activity, ________ reactions, and emotions, and how machine learning could use those relationships to predict people’s response to a new piece of music.

The research is part of the lab’s broader goal to understand how different forms of media, such as films and________ as well as music, affect people’s bodies and brains. “Once we understand how media can affect various emotions, then we can try to productively use it for actually supporting or ________ human experiences,” says Shrikanth, a professor at USC and the principal investigator.

The researchers first combed music streaming sites for songs with very few________, tagged either “happy” or “sad”. (They wanted to avoid familiar songs to minimize any confusing variables.) Through a series of human testers,   pieces for each emotion were narrowed down to a final list of three: two that reliably caused sadness and one that reliably caused happiness. One hundred participants who hadn’t heard the songs before________ two groups, listened to all three pieces, and either took an fMRI scan or wore pulse, heat, and electricity sensors on their skin and rated the ________ of their emotions on a scale of 0 to 10.

The researchers then________ the data, along with 74 features for each song, such as harmony, into several machine-learning algorithms and examined which ones were the strongest predictors of responses. They found,________, that the brightness of a song and the strength of its beat were both among the best predictors of how a song would affect a listener’s heart rate and brain activity.

The result is still in very early stages, and it will be a while before more powerful machine- learning models will be able to predict the mental and physical reaction to a song with any________. But the researchers are excited about how such models could be applied: to design music for specific individuals, or to help patients with mental health challenges stimulate specific parts of their brain. The lab is already working with________ treatment clinics to see how other forms of media could   help patients. They want to start incorporating________ therapies as well.

More simply, the research could be used to________ playlists. “You wouldn’t want to listen to a song that’s gonna to make your heart rate shoot up right before bedtime, but maybe you do if you’re going on a long________ and you haven’t had much coffee,” says Greer.

【推荐1】A 99-year-old war veteran (老兵) in the United Kingdom has been considered as a hero for his fundraising efforts during the coronavirus pandemic. Captain Tom Moore has _________ over £12 million for the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) by walking around his garden 100 times with the aid of a walking frame.

Captain Tom Moore, who _________ with his family in Bedfordshire. When he completed the 100^th circle, he was _________. Just by then the fundraising _________ for NHS Charities Together had hit£ 12 million. His achievements, which initially started at a _________ target of£1,000 before his 100^th birthday, were _________ by the Health Secretary—Matt Hancock during the press conference. In his opening _________, he said: “Captain Tom, you’re a(n) _________ to us all, and we thank you.”

Mr. Moore told reporters: “our _________ nurses and doctors are frontline in this case.” He __________: “In the Second World war we had our soldiers in uniform, __________, but this time our army are in doctors’ and nurses’ uniforms and they’re doing such a __________ job regardless of their own __________.

Earlier, he said: “At no time when we started off with this __________ did we expect we’d get anything near that sort of money. It __________ shows that people have such high regard for matters of our NHS and it’s really __________ that people have paid so much money.”

His daughters, Hannah Ingram-Moore, said that the amount raised was “beyond our wildest __________”.

Actor and singer Michael Ball recorded a congratulations __________ for Mr. Moore. The broadcaster told ITV News that Mr. Moore was __________ “true Great British Spirit” Comedian David Williams wrote online: “No words can express our __________ to the British public for getting behind Tom, for making this into a heartfelt story. Once a hero always a hero.”

【推荐2】Derlin Newey, an 89-year-old pizza delivery driver was in disbelief when the Valdez Family visited him. The local TV station was there to ________ the moment. “I don’t know what to say,” said Newey as he ________ tears of joy. Newey delivers ________ for others, about 30 hours a week. He said he couldn’t live merely on social security.

________ being a delivery driver, Newey is also a rising TikTok star thanks to some loyal ________ inspired by his kindness.

The Valdez Family always ask for him when ________ pizza and started recording his deliveries as TikTok videos on their channel@vendingheads. “It’s unbelievable. Everybody ________ him,” said Carlos Valdez. The Valdez Family claimed his signature phrase with each ________ was, “Hello, are you looking for some pizza?”

With more than 53,000 followers, they often got comments asking why Newey was delivering pizzas at his ________. The Valdez Family decided to use their platform for some good. They asked their followers to make a ________ to help Newey, and they were quickly able to raise $12,000. They presented a signed check to him as a gift from his “TikTok Family.”

Newey didn’t even know what TikTok was, but was ________ for the unexpected blessing. The Valdez Family said that the ________ couldn’t have gone any better. “We just need to treat people with ________ and respect the way he does. He ________ our heart,” said Valdez.

And if the cash wasn’t enough, the Valdez Family ________ the surprise with a T-shirt that read, “Hello, are you looking for some pizza?”

【推荐3】Many families usually take their children to travel during school breaks. But Julie and Tim Rivenbark planned a(n)_______vacation with their two children―a one-year trip around the world. They plan to_________30 countries in all.

Right now, the four travellers are about halfway through their _________. Ms. Rivenbark says they are trying to see as much of the_______as they can.

Mr. Rivenbark says the family has_______on ostrich (鸵鸟) birds, elephants, and camels. But, he says, one of the most_________experiences of the trip has been meeting new people.

“People have been_______friendly and welcoming and love our kids―and it’s lovely to see them interacting (互动) with new people and their_________to see our kids enjoying themselves in their country.”

Eleven-year-old Tyler says he has enjoyed_______about the people they have met. “I learned in Africa that people have very________lifestyles to those in America.” His sister Kara__________that she liked Thai food.

Ms. Rivenbark says that the trip is__________the children a lot more than short visits would have. “I think that the longer we travel, the more__________it has on how they see the world. I can see them__________more than they can see themselves,” she said.

It took the family a year to________for the trip. They had to sell their house and cars. Ms. Rivenbark__________her job and her husband is using unpaid leave. They carry small bags________lightweight clothing and whatever else they need. Ms. Rivenbark says she__________being able to carry everything she needs on her back.

Tyler and Kara each have iPads so they can communicate with teachers to stay__________with their schoolwork. Tyler is also__________a 365-day video blog.