Language is part of our daily lives, no matter where we live in the world. Similarly, music is a part of many people’s lives.
Both language and music have a writing system
In English we record language using the alphabet, which is a collection of letters. Similarly, we use notes to keep a record of music. Just as you are reading this collection of letters on the paper and find meaning in it, musicians read notes and create meaning in the form of music which we can hear.
Both vary with culture
Both share emotion
How do you know that I am angry?
| A．Different culture makes different music. |
| B．Both language and music play a huge role in our lives. |
| C．You can guess where someone is from by listening to their language. |
| D．By reading pieces of text or music, we are able to share experiences through time. |
| E．In contrast, you have probably also listened to sad music when you were feeling down. |
| F．Of course, you may be able to see it in my face, but you will know for sure through my words. |
| G．We have all used music to express our emotions, often combining it with language in the form of song lyrics. |
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【推荐1】What do you think of 80s pop music? Do the names George Michael, Madonna and Michael Jackson sound familiar?Well, these are just some of the names that were well-known in the music scene of the 80s and early 90s. The 80s pop music scene was an important step to the popularity (普及) of present-day music. A new wave in the music scene was introduced, which made such music styles as punk rock, rap music and the MTV popular. Al-though it was an end to the old 60s and 70s styles, it was also the beginning of something big. The popularity of music videos meant that artists now replaced their guitar-based music with visual displays. A new wave of artists came on the scene and the entire industry developed quickly.
The most famous 80s pop music video is Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Introduced in 1982, few people can forget the video not only because of its never-be-foreseen images, but also because of the popularity it received. Think of how 80s pop music changed the lives of people who grew up in the 80s. Ask a young man today to tell you the names of the “New Kids on the Block” and he will start talking about the neighbor kids who just moved in. These are not the answers you might have heard in the 80s. Though today’s young men do not recognize how cool 80s pop music was, most people will always remember it for what it was and these are happy memories they will always love.
Some of the 80s pop music legends (传奇人物) include Madonna, U2, AeroSmith and of course the King of Pop Michael Jackson. Let’s not forget Prince, Tina Turner, Phil Collins and Motown’s Lionel Ritchie. Some of these musicians played music that has stood the test of time. Undoubtedly, the 80s pop music scene will live on for many more years to come.
1. 80s pop music mainly includes the following styles EXCEPT________| A．guitar-based music | B．the MTV |
| C．rap music | D．punk rock |
| A．it changed the hobbies of people |
| B．he sang it in a special style |
| C．it received a large popularity |
| D．it gave people a good style |
| A．80s pop music is and will remain popular |
| B．80s pop music has many faults |
| C．80s pop music is now out of date |
| D．we shouldn’t forget the great musicians of the 80s |
| A．The Steps of Pop Music |
| B．The Development of 80s Pop Music |
| C．The Types of 80s Pop Music |
| D．The Characters of Pop Music |
【推荐2】One of the treasures I brought home from my wonderful holiday in England was a CD of harmonica(口琴) music by Larry Adler, recorded for me by my son. I don’t suppose there are many people around who remember Larry Adler. Come to think of it, I haven’t heard anyone play the harmonica for many years. This is a pity because it’s an easy instrument to learn and it’s always pleasant to hear someone play an instrument just for the pleasure of making music.
I suppose everybody now can listen to electronic music 24 hours a day, so nobody needs to produce their own music. I was lucky enough to be brought up before the electronic revolution, so there were many people who played instruments. It might not have been perfect, but it was joyful.
At every party there was somebody who would sit at the piano or pick up a guitar and play for peoples to dance or sing along. My father taught all three of his children to blow a tune(曲调) on the harmonica, “mouth organ”. He started us on the simple Afrikaans tune, and then we learned to play just about anything simply by listening and following.
Every year the neighbours came together for a picnic by the river and after putting all the food and chairs under the trees, the dads would cook and the moms would hand out the food. Then there was a lazy after-lunch time and somebody would softly play a mouth organ until it was time to make coffee before going home.
I suppose if we were to organise a picnic today it would be silent with everybody using their phones.
Meaningful stuff guess, but sometimes look back to the time when we made our own music. It may not have been good music, but it was shared music, home-made and environmentally friendly. Today you could call that kind of music organic. I miss it.
1. What does the author think is a pity?| A．Not hearing the harmonica being played for years. |
| B．People losing the pleasure of making music. |
| C．The harmonica being difficult to learn. |
| D．People not remembering Larry Adler. |
| A．He was taught by his father. | B．He followed his neighbours. |
| C．He was taught by a musician. | D．He played it by listening to a CD. |
| A．It would be disorderly. | B．It would have less joy. |
| C．It would be very meaningful. | D．It would not be properly prepared. |
【推荐3】Sirine Jahangir has been singing, writing and performing music since she was a little girl. She lost all her vision in one eye by the time she turned 5, so now the teen uses her gift “as away to—not escape, but to help me through.” Not only did her passion get her through some difficult times, but when she was 14 it also brought her to the “Britain’s Got Talent” stage, where she impressed everyone with her performance.
Sirine has a rare condition that left her completely blind by the times she was 10 years old. While her parents and doctors have tried to find treatments for her, there isn’t much they can do. So her parents focused on helping her adjust to her new life, which was when her dad said she was first introduced to music “I remember one day, we were driving in the car. This is about when she was getting to the stage where she couldn’t look out the window anymore to see things, and I didn’t know what to do. I just put the music on really loud. She started singing in the car, and she was so happy. And then she just found happiness every time I put it on,” her father said.
It didn’t take long for them to realize Sirine has tremendous talent. When she appeared on “Britain’s Got Talent”, she told everyone just how much her passion means to her. “I guess music i s my vision,” she said. “That’s just what I live by, and music is my thing.” Then she headed over to the piano, where she played the piano and sang beautifully enough to bring the audience to tears! Unsurprisingly to everyone but Sirine, all four judges voted her into the next round of the competition!
Afterward, she said, “I can’t even say it’s a dream come true, because I didn’t even dream of it at any point... I never thought that would be realistic in my life.”
1. What did the “Britain’s Got Talent” stage mean to Sirine?| A．This stage had earned her both fame and fortune. |
| B．This stage was away for her to escape reality. |
| C．She had a stage accident, resulting in blindness. |
| D．She demonstrated her excellent musical talent on the stage. |
| A．By talking to her about music topics. |
| B．By playing music to her while driving. |
| C．By asking famous singers for identification. |
| D．By discovering the lyrics and songs she wrote. |
| A．Everyone was moved by Sirine’s live performance. |
| B．Sirine won the championship of the British Got Talent Show. |
| C．Sirine advanced onstage by selling her tragic experiences. |
| D．Sirine’s performance received votes from everyone present. |
| A．Every road leads to Rome. |
| B．Never give up until you succeed. |
| C．Music inspires a new life for a person. |
| D．There will always be a rainbow after storms. |
Jonathan Harrington, a professor at Germany’s University of Munich, wanted to discover whether accent changes recorded over the past half century would take place within one person. “As far as I know, there just is nobody else for whom there is this sort of broadcast records,” he said.
He said the noble way of pronouncing vowels (元音) had gradually lost ground as the noble upper-class accent over the past years. “Her accent sounds slightly less noble than it did 50 years ago. But these are very, very small and slow changes that we don’t notice from year to year.”
“We may be able to relate it to changes in the social classes,” he told The Daily Telegraph, a British newspaper. “In 1952 she would have been heard saying ‘thet men in the bleck het’. Now it would be ‘that man in the black hat’. Similarly, she would have spoken of ‘the citay’ and ‘dutay’, rather than ‘citee’ and ‘dutee’, and ‘hame’ rather than ‘home’. In the 1950s she would have been ‘lorst’, but by the 1970s ‘lost’.”
The Queen’s broadcast is a personal message to the Commonwealth countries. Each Christmas, the 10-minute broadcast is put on TV at 3 p.m. in Britain as many families are recovering from their traditional turkey lunch.
The results were published in the Journal of Phonetics.
1. What is the text mainly about?
| A．The relationship between accents and social classes. |
| B．The Queen’s Christmas speeches on TV. |
| C．The changes in a person’s accent. |
| D．The recent development of the English language. |
| A．she has been Queen for many years |
| B．she has a less upper-class accent now |
| C．her speeches are familiar to many people |
| D．her speeches have been recorded for 50 years |
| A．speech sounds | B．Christmas customs |
| C．TV broadcasting | D．personal messages |
| A．“dutay” | B．“citee” | C．“hame” | D．“lorst” |
【推荐2】Change is a natural part of language development. The words you like to use are probably a little different from those that your grandparents used when they were young. A study carried out by a British company found that the use of e-mail has had a bad influence on the standard of written English.
According to the research, computer users today are too busy to hit the “shift” buttons on their keyboards — e-mails are often written in lower case, that is to say, with no capital letters (大写字母) for names or the beginning of sentences. Spelling mistakes are generally accepted even in formal e-mails. And nouns are often used as verbs (e.g. Please bookmark this site).
With the development of the Internet, e-mail and mobile phone messages, a new language has developed within just a few years — we call it Weblish. The latest Oxford English Dictionary has included many new words showing the changes in our communication culture.
While some language experts are concerned about the future of English and want to do something, John Simpson, chief editor of the dictionary says,“The standards may be different now but it has certainly encouraged writing and communication, which means a faster development of language change. There are a large number of words that either come from the Internet or have been given new meanings by the Internet.”
1. According to the research, people often write e-mails in lower case to _____.| A．save time | B．show kindness | C．make fun | D．be different |
| A．the mistakes found in English e-mails |
| B．the reason why people use e-mails |
| C．the changes in English used in e-mails |
| D．the side effects of the use of e-mail |
| A．Spelling mistakes are not allowed in today’s e-mails. |
| B．The Internet develops new words as well as new meanings to some old words. |
| C．Weblish is only used in e-mails. |
| D．We cannot find Weblish in a dictionary at present. |
| A．the use of e-mail stops the development of language |
| B．mistakes in e-mails are very important to English |
| C．the Internet has brought great changes to English |
| D．everyone should learn to write e-mails in Weblish |
All this translating is very expensive and time-consuming（花时间的）. It is said that nearly half of all employees of the EU are involved in translating documents and speeches and nearly half of the EU’s administrative（管理方面的）costs are spent on this task. In the near future it is probable that several more countries, most of them having their own languages, will join the EU, thus making the situation even worse.
The problem is just cost; there are practical difficulties as well. With 12 languages, there are 132 possible “translation situations” that might be needed. It is often difficult to find people in the right place at the right time who can translate from, for example, Danish into Greek, or Dutch into Portuguese, at a high professional standard.
As a matter of fact, the problem has been less serious by the use of English in many contacts between EU officials, since almost all of them speak some English. However, any move to reduce the number of official languages (perhaps to four or five) would be a blow to the pride of the smaller countries. Another commonly suggested solution is to make English the official language for all EU business. However, this is strongly resisted by powerful member countries like France and Germany.
1. What’s the main purpose of this passage? _____________.
| A．To give a solution to a problem. |
| B．To find out a problem and show how serious it is. |
| C．To criticize（批评）the European Union for inefficiency. |
| D．To show that the problem cannot be solved. |
| A．angered the officials who don’t speak English. |
| B．reduced the number of official languages. |
| C．lessened the effect of the problem. |
| D．been opposed（反对）by powerful member countries. |
A . a situation that might be difficult to deal with.
| A．a situation that occurs often. | B．one of the 12 situations that requires an interpreter. |
| C．languages easily being interpreted. | |
| A．the EU would not know which official languages to choose. |
| B．countries whose languages were not used officially would be unhappy. |
| C．only languages which are easy to translate would be used officially. |
| D．the smaller member countries would be pleased. |
