When a typical kid hums a tune, it’s usually something like “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”, not Finnish composer Jean Sibelius’s Violin Concerto in D Minor.
So when Nygel Witherspoon began to hum the very difficult concerto, his family guessed that he should have music lessons. He was, however, just 3 years old.
“He was calm, with an ability to focus,” recalled David Holmes, Witherspoon’s cello teacher from age 3 to 16.
Witherspoon is a household name in his hometown. He has inherited his talent from both sides of his family, including his aunt, the late jazz vocalist Shirley Witherspoon.
The 17-year-old doesn’t see himself as competitive. “I think it’s more important for students to have a supportive environment than a competitive one,” he said. “It’s great to have a support system, where you can be yourself and improve right along with others doing the same thing.”
Witherspoon’s love of music blossomed as he attended viola lessons with older siblings. Their teacher, David France, noticed that the little boy was a sponge (海绵).
“He’d absorb everything they did.” France said. Witherspoon was given a box violin, but he wanted to play the big one-the cello. He loved its size and tone. That’s when he was matched with his teacher Holmes.
Witherspoon’s drive is inspired by the connection music provides. He recalled that he and his siblings performed as a chamber trio (室内乐三重奏) at their grandmother’s nursing home. The positive reaction from residents gave him motivation. “It’s so important, whether it’s hip-hop or classical,” he said, “Music is the universal language. It connects all of us. ”
His mother runs an in-home day care centre where lucky children can hear Witherspoon’s concertos as background music. Witherspoon finds the noisy environment helpful in terms of learning to focus and play with distractions. As he practices in the kitchen, sometimes children toddle (蹒跚学步) up to listen.
Despite years of performing, Witherspoon said he still gets nervous sometimes. “But once I’m on stage, I connect with my instrument and try to tell a story with my music.”
1. How was Witherspoon different from other kids when he was 3?| A．He began to teach himself music. |
| B．He was able to hum very difficult tunes. |
| C．He had already made up his mind to learn violin. |
| D．He could already play the songs to which he’d listened. |
| A．Practicing hard. | B．Being competitive. |
| C．Being backed up by actions. | D．Having a good teacher from an early age. |
| A．He is diligent. | B．He is a creative player. |
| C．He is open-minded. | D．He is a fast learner. |
| A．To stress how music bonds with people. |
| B．To compare Witherspoon’s performance with his siblings’. |
| C．To show that motivation plays a big role in music studies. |
| D．To show how studying music helped Witherspoon overcome difficulties. |
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At the same time, the “Fringe” appeared as a challenge to the official festival.Eight theater groups turned up uninvited in 1947,in the belief that everyone should have the right to perform,and they did so in a public house disused for years.
Soon,groups of students firstly from Edinburgh University, and later from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge,Durham and Birmingham were making the journey to the Scottish capital each summer to perform theater by little-known writers of plays in small church halls to the people of Edinburgh.
Today the “Fringe”,once less recognized, has far outgrown the festival with around 1,500 performances of theater,music and dance on every one of the 21 days it lasts. And yet as early as 1959,with only 19 theater groups performing,some said it was getting too big.
A paid administrator was first employed only in 1971, and today there are eight administrators working all year round and the number rises to 150 during August itself. In 2004 there were 200 places housing 1,695 shows by over 600 different groups from 50 different countries. More than 1,25 million tickets were sold.
1. What was the purpose of Edinburgh Festival at he beginning?
| A．To bring Europe together again. |
| B．To honor heroes of World War 11. |
| C．To introduce young theater groups. |
| D．To attract great artists from Europe. |
| A．They owned a public house there. |
| B．They came to take up a challenge. |
| C．They thought they were also famous. |
| D．They wanted to take part in the festival. |
| A．Popular writers. |
| B．University students. |
| C．Artists from around the world. |
| D．Performers of music and dance. |
| A．has become a non-official event |
| B．has gone beyond an art festival |
| C．gives shows all year round |
| D．keeps growing rapidly |
【推荐2】Playing a rhythm-based game for eight weeks helps non-musicians become better at remembering recently seen faces. This suggests that learning to play an instrument could improve short-term memory for non-musical tasks.
There have been several studies showing that musicians tend to have better short-term memory than non-musicians when it comes to music-related tasks, such as remembering musical sequences. It is less clear whether these benefits carry over to non-musical tasks or to non-musicians who are learning to play an instrument, and how these changes might actually be seen in the brain.
Theodore Zanto at the University of California, San Francisco, and his colleagues, randomly assigned a group of 47 non-musicians, aged between 60 and 79, to play either a tablet-based musical rhythm training game, which emulates (模仿) learning to hit a drum in time with a teacher, or a word game for eight weeks.
At the start and end of the eight weeks, participants took a short-term memory test to measure their ability to remember a face they saw seconds before. Only the group who played the rhythm training game showed an improvement on their initial scores of around 4 percent. This suggests, says Zanto, that the rhythm training is improving the brain’s ability to focus attention on a task to get it ready for transforming what you are doing into memory.
The ability to remember and recognise faces tends to decline as we age, so any possible mechanism to turn that the opposite way is important, says Josh Davis at the University of Greenwich, UK. However, the effect demonstrated in this study needs to be shown in real-world facial recognition scenarios as well as in lab-based tests to be completely convincing, says Davis. Theodore Zanto hopes that extending training period beyond eight weeks may lead to a stronger effect on memory recall.
1. What can we know in the first two paragraphs?| A．Musicians are good at remembering tasks. |
| B．Musicians can easily change their memory. |
| C．Musicians are more likely to memorize musical tasks. |
| D．Musicians have better memories than non-musicians. |
| A．The control of attentional aspect of memory. |
| B．The enhancement of the brain’s ability to focus on a task. |
| C．The increase of the ability to remember and recognize face. |
| D．The transformation of what people do into memory. |
| A．The rhythm games are sure to boost memory. |
| B．Measures have been taken to avoid memory loss. |
| C．The effect of playing instruments remains to be seen. |
| D．The extending training can certainly affect memory. |
| A．Playing musical games improves the memory. |
| B．Playing musical games stops memory decline. |
| C．Playing an instrument benefits face recognition. |
| D．Playing an instrument boosts short-term memory. |
【推荐3】Can you think of a day without music? We can hear music everywhere: in the streets and at home, over the radio and on TV, in the shops and in the parks. People all over the world are fond of music. They listen to music, they dance to music, and they learn to play musical instruments.
Music isn’t only a combination of pleasant sounds. It is an art which reflects life. There are a lot of different kinds of music. Some of them appeared long ago, and some are modern. Folk music appeared long ago, but it is still alive. Folk songs are very pleasant to listen to. Classical music is often associated with the music of the past. Rap is a modern musical style where the singer speaks or shouts the words in time to music with a steady beat.
Great Britain has produced more popular music stars than any other country. British groups often set new trends in music. New styles, groups and singers continue to appear. Many of the new bands have been able to use changes in technology to develop their music such as computerised drum machines, synthesisers and other electronic instruments.
Tastes differ. So people’s musical interests range from pop and rock music to classical music and opera. My favourite style of music is pop music, because it is full of energy. When I listen to pop music it makes me remember happy times and forget the problems of everyday life. I also enjoy listening to classical music. The music I hate is heavy metal. I find it noisy. When I listen to this style of music it presents to my mind pictures of dark days. My mother and father agree with my tastes in music. Though they prefer to listen to classical, they think that modern music is not too bad.
Music appeals to our hearts. It comforts our souls and enriches (充实) our minds. Music is beauty in sounds; it is our magic source of inspiration.
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?| A．Several types of music. | B．Different musical tastes. |
| C．The development of musical styles. | D．The importance of music in our lives. |
| A．By describing courses. | B．By analysing reasons. |
| C．By giving examples. | D．By making comparisons. |
| A．It has produced many popular music stars in the world. |
| B．It fails to apply new technology in the performances. |
| C．Many new bands insist on traditional instruments. |
| D．British groups fall behind the new trends now. |
| A．It is played with electronic instruments. |
| B．It is characterised by a steady beat. |
| C．It is loud and strong. |
| D．It sounds energetic. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Supportive. | C．Dissatisfied. | D．Unconcerned. |
【推荐1】Another person’s enthusiasm(热情)was what set me moving toward the success I have achieved. That person was my stepmother.
I was nine years old when she entered our home in the countryside of Virginia. My father introduced me to her with these words: “I would like you to meet the fellow who is well known for being the worst boy in this county and will probably start throwing rocks at you no later than tomorrow morning.”
My stepmother walked over to me, raised my head slightly upward, and looked at me right into my eyes. Then she looked at my father and replied, “You are wrong. This is not the worst boy at all, but the smartest one who hasn’t yet found a way to give out his enthusiasm.”
That statement began a friendship between us. No one had ever called me smart, My family and neighbors had built me up in my mind as a bad boy. My stepmother changed all that.
She changed many things. She persuaded my father to go to a dental school, from which he graduated with honors. She moved our family into the county seat, where my father’s career could be more successful and my brother and I could be better educated.
When I turned fourteen, she bought me a secondhand typewriter and told me that she believed that I could become a writer. I knew her enthusiasm, and I saw how it had already improved our lives. I accepted her belief and began to write for local newspapers and finally reached the goal she set for me. I wasn’t the only beneficiary. My father became the wealthiest man in town. My brother and stepbrothers became a physician, a dentist, a lawyer, and a college president.
1. According to the author, ________ before his stepmother came into his life.| A．his father had been away from home for a long time |
| B．people had noticed his cleverness |
| C．he knew how to release (释放) his enthusiasm properly |
| D．he was considered a rude boy with wild behaviors |
| A．praising him from the bottom of her heart |
| B．giving some writing lessons to him at home |
| C．moving the family into the centre of the county |
| D．planning the future for each family member |
| A．There were other boys who behaved as badly as he did. |
| B．His stepmother bought typewriters for other family members, too. |
| C．Not only he but also his family gained from his stepmother’s enthusiasm. |
| D．Other family members’ enthusiasm has great effects on his stepmother. |
| A．Enthusiasm, a Power for Success | B．Enthusiasm, a Challenge for All |
| C．Enthusiasm, a Gift from my Father | D．Enthusiasm, a Tradition in Families |
【推荐2】When Jaimeson Pleasants was born, the delivery room turned into chaos. Now 20, Jaimeson, who was born without cheekbones, a jaw, and parts of both ears, has Treacher Collins syndrome (特雷彻·柯林斯综合症), a condition that affects facial development. His facial differences badly affected him — mainly, in relation to bullying. Jaimeson reveals that he dealt with some pretty serious bullying growing up, and often felt isolated or like he didn’t fully belong.
Luckily, Jaimeson has his brother, Anderson, by his side. And that’s all thanks to a phone call their mother Lisa got when Jaimeson was just 2 years old. One day, Lisa got a call from an adoption agency. They told her they had a newborn baby they thought also had TCS, and wondered if Lisa would be interested in adding him to her family. She said yes.
Anderson quickly bonded with Jaimeson over their shared struggles. But Lisa began to suspect that Anderson didn’t actually have TCS, so she brought both kids to a doctor to get a better diagnosis. It turned out Lisa was right — Anderson was diagnosed with Goldenhar syndrome (唐氏综合征), a similar condition that affects Anderson’s face, as well as his lungs, neck, and spine (脊柱).
Regardless of their health struggles, Jaimeson and Anderson are a team. They understand each other better than anyone, and they’ll head to college together soon. Although adopting a second child with a serious health condition was likely a risk for Lisa, there’s no doubt that it worked out for the best.
1. What happened when Jaimeson Pleasants was born?| A．He lost his ears. | B．He had a twin brother. |
| C．People were shocked. | D．His mother abandoned him. |
| A．Jaimeson used to be bullied by his brother. |
| B．Anderson has gone to college together with Jaimeson. |
| C．Anderson has the same disease as Jaimeson. |
| D．Jaimeson is senior to Anderson by two years. |
| A．Selfless and responsible. | B．Intelligent and strict. |
| C．Caring and humorous. | D．Enthusiastic and energetic. |
| A．Fashion. | B．Travel. | C．Life. | D．Science. |
【推荐3】I am a self-taught maker of gingerbread (姜饼) houses. It wasn’t something I ever did growing up. In fact, gingerbread houses struck me as an awful lot of work for little return, a baking project that would eat up the time I could spend doing something more productive.
But, five years ago, I saw a sign at the library announcing (宣告) a gingerbread house contest (比赛). I went home and told my kids and we made a house from the start. It took all day and we were covered in icing, but I was blown away by the final product. It was so satisfying to see a little house, decorated with colorful candy. I sent the house to the library, where it won first place in the family group, and we got a $100 in gift certificates (礼券) for local businesses.
Every year since then, my kids and I have attended the gingerbread house contest, and every year we’ve won the family group. Our houses are not very beautiful; the only thing that sets them apart is the fact that we make the gingerbread from the start. Everyone else uses store-bought ready-made pieces, which makes the houses look the same. Ours, however, is misshapen and leans; my husband refers to it jokingly as “the slanty shanty (倾斜的小屋).”
If you haven’t made a gingerbread house before, I highly recommend you give it a try. What better way to use that time than making something great with your kids? What I hope, too, is that this tradition will give my kids a way to make it feel like Christmas, no matter where they go in life. My hope is that they’ll make gingerbread houses wherever they go in life and always think of home.
1. How did the author learn the making of gingerbread houses?| A．Her mother taught her. | B．She took a cooking course. |
| C．She learned by herself. | D．She learned from her children. |
| A．It needed talent to learn. | B．It was relaxing and interesting |
| C．It made her family connected. | D．It was time-wasting and unproductive |
| A．Her kids’ encouragement. |
| B．A gingerbread house contest. |
| C．The meaning behind gingerbread houses. |
| D．Competition among gingerbread businesses. |
| A．It had a surprising taste. | B．It had a store-bought style. |
| C．It was made with the best shape. | D．It was completely made by her family. |
| A．To remind her kids of the meaning of different festivals. |
| B．To make her kids keep family in their minds. |
| C．To encourage her kids to be creative. |
| D．To teach her kids to be unique. |
