About 20 years ago, Daniel Hoffman, a classically trained violinist met a young musician playing in the town square in Marrakech, an ancient city in Morocco. They communicated in the little French they both knew, but their main common language was music. On the back of a motorbike of the fellow violinist, Hoffman weaved through the back streets of the city and then learned his first lessons in Andalusian music, the classical music of North Africa.
That experience gave birth to an idea: What would it be like to try to learn how to play different violin styles around the world in just one week? Oh, yes, and at the end of that week, play a concert. He even got a name for the concept “musical extreme sports”.
It took him almost two decades to launch that dream with a friend. Up to now, the dream has taken the form of a new documentary currently airing on American public television stations called “Otherwise, It’s Just Firewood.”
In the documentary (纪录片), Hoffman travels to County Clare, Ireland, where he takes lessons with James Kelly, a master Irish violin player, for less than a week and then performs together with him in front of an audience, many of whom are star Irish musicians.
The film is what Hoffman hopes will be the first of an eventual series of short documentaries, showing him learning to play the violin in a variety of styles, including the folk music of south India, Sweden, Greece, Romania, and West Virginia.
That would add to his extensive repertoire (全部曲目)，which already includes Balkan, Middle Eastern and Turkish styles. “The big joke is what’s the difference between the fiddle and the violin? It’s the person who plays it,”says Niall Keegan, a traditional flute player. “It’s the music you make on it that makes it Irish or English or French or classical or jazz or whatever else. It’s how we imagine it and how we create through it that make it and give it character.” “Otherwise, it’s just firewood,” he says—words that became the film’s title.
1. Where does Hoffman’s idea of musical extreme sports come from?| A．His exploration of the local music. |
| B．His cooperation with the young violinist. |
| C．His sightseeing tour on a motorbike. |
| D．His constantly changing taste in violin styles. |
| A．Happening. | B．Broadcasting. |
| C．Existing. | D．Disappearing. |
| A．They help Hoffman to become a master violin player. |
| B．They are funded by American public television stations. |
| C．They introduce different styles of musicians around the world. |
| D．They record Hoffman’s experience in learning various violin styles. |
| A．The importance of famous artists. | B．The technique of instrument playing. |
| C．The pleasure in learning traditional music. | D．The power of diversified artistic expression. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】When students and parents are asked to rate subjects according to their importance，the arts are unavoidably at the bottom of the list. Music is nice, people seem to say, but not important. Too often it is viewed as entertainment, but certainly not an education priority（优先）. This view is shortsighted. In fact, music education is beneficial and important for all students
Music tells us who we are. Because music is an expression of the beings who create it, it reflects their thinking and values, as well as the social environment it came from. Rock music represents a lifestyle just as surely as does a Schubert song. The jazz influence that George Gershwin and other musicians introduced into their music is obviously American because it came from American musical traditions. Music expresses our character and values. It gives us identity as a society.
Music provides a kind of perception(视角) that cannot be acquired any other way. Science can explain how the sun rises and sets. The arts explore the emotive（情感的）meaning of the same phenomenon. We need every possible way to discover and respond to our world for one simple but powerful reason: No one way can get it all.
The arts are forms of thought as powerful in what they communicate as mathematical and scientific symbols. They are ways we human beings “talk” to each other. They are the language of civilization through which we express our fears, our curiosities our hungers, our discoveries, our hopes. The arts are ways we give form to our ideas and imagination so that they can be shared with others. When we do not give children access to an important way of expressing themselves such as music, we take away from them the meanings that music expresses.
So music education is far more necessary than people seem to realize.
1. According to paragraph 1, students ________.| A．regard music as a way of entertainment |
| B．disagree with their parents on education |
| C．view music as an overlooked subject |
| D．prefer the arts to science |
| A．compare it with rock music |
| B．show music identifies a society |
| C．introduce American musical traditions |
| D．prove music influences people’s lifestyles |
| A．approach the world from different angles |
| B．explore different phenomena of the world |
| C．express people’s feeling in different ways |
| D．explain what it means to be human differently |
| A．Music education deserves more attention. |
| B．Music should be of top education priority. |
| C．Music is an effective communication tool. |
| D．Music education makes students more imaginative. |
【推荐2】Jamey Turner often performs to large crowds in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. You can find him playing an unusual musical instrument, the glass harp, near Alexandria's historic waterfront.
A glass harp is made up of different-sized drinking glasses, each filled with water. Turner makes music by running his fingers over the tops of the glasses. By doing so, each glass makes a different musical sound.
Turner is 78 years old now. He became interested in playing the glass harp at the age of six, when he heard his father playing with a glass of water at the dinner table. He has been playing it for 50 years.
Today Turner puts together his instrument by placing 60 different glasses on a wooden soundboard. He holds the glasses in place with rubber bands, which keeps them from breaking. He then adds different amounts of water to each one to create different musical notes. Adding or taking away just a little water will change the sound. Adding water to a glass will make a lower sound. The smaller bowls of water produce a higher sound, while the larger ones produce a lower, deeper sound.
Turner always uses low-priced glass because it sounds better than costly crystal and he has more control over the sound. Before buying new glasses, he will test them in stores.
The glass harp was popular 300 years ago when composers like Wolfgang Mozart wrote music for the instrument. There have been about 400 pieces of music written just for the glass harp. But Turner plays all kinds of music, even popular music from China. Few people play the glass harp these days, but Turner says he sees videos of people experimenting with the instrument on YouTube. He hopes the next generation will continue making their music.
1. What do we know about Turner?| A．He began playing the glass harp at six. | B．He often teaches glass harp lessons online. |
| C．He is a great master of the Chinese language. | D．He was inspired by his father to learn the glass harp. |
| A．Its inventor is Wolfgang Mozart. | B．It is made up of glasses of the same size. |
| C．It appears to be gaining in popularity today. | D．Its sounds are affected by the water in the glasses. |
| A．To save money. | B．To produce better sounds. |
| C．To help recycle drinking glasses. | D．To increase difficulty in performing. |
| A．Musician Pleases Crowds by Playing Glasses | B．Playing the Glass Harp: a New Trend |
| C．Jamey Turner's Dream Coming True | D．Wonderful Music Has No Borders |
【推荐3】Music is one of the greatest creations of humans.
Music can be described according to one’s feelings towards it.
Music really matters in life. It touches the soul and also helps people express their unspoken desires and beliefs.
Music has unlimited powers. It has calming and healing power. Music helps us to relax. Music can relax tense muscles.
Music brings people together and gives them more hope emotionally. For that reason, music can easily be used as an instrument of peace.
| A．Music never grows old. |
| B．This is the origin of music. |
| C．It is a very powerful tool in our lives. |
| D．Nowadays music has become part of life. |
| E．It can also help the mental state of a person. |
| F．Love for music is not a tendency of human beings only. |
| G．Music can also be regarded as sounds in different patterns. |
What is the hottest topic at your school recently? In Hangzhou Yongjin Middle School, it’s money.
The school held an activity called “Making Money” last weekend. About 200 Junior 1 and Junior 2 students were divided into 30 teams. They went out to make money by selling things. What did they choose to sell? Some sold newspapers; some chose bottled water; some sold environmentally-friendly shopping bags and bamboo baskets.
Hu Qing’s team decided to sell some useful books in front of the Children Activity Center. They thought parents would like to buy the books for their children. But unfortunately, they met urban management officers. The officers asked them to leave. “We played hide-and-seek with the officers for the whole morning,” said Hu. “Finally we had to give up.”
Wang Bing and her team sold ice cream in a square. They didn’t meet any officers. But few people were interested in what they were selling. The team then put up a board saying “For Country Kids”. It worked. More people came to their stall (小摊). A foreigner even gave them 100 yuan. “He didn’t want any change. He said he wanted to help the children,” said Wang. “We were touched.” Later that day they gave the 100 yuan and more to the Project Hope office.
Meng Zhaoxiang and his team were luckier. They sold all their cakes in four hours, spending 39.5 yuan and getting back 80 yuan. They made 40.5 yuan “It was not easy to make money,” said Meng. “Some people just looked. Others just tasted but didn’t buy. Now I know how hard it is for our parents to make money we need to lead happy lives.”
1. What is the best title of the text? (No more than 8 words)2. What happened when Hu Qing’s team sold books? (No more than 10 words)
3. What is the meaning of the underlined word “worked” in Paragraph 4? (No more than 5 words)
4. What does Meng Zhaoxiang know from his experience? (No more than 15 words)
5. What do you think of the school’s activity of “Making Money”? And why? (No more than 25 words)
【推荐2】My best friend travelled to stay with my family last weekend. When she arrived, she went straight to the kitchen and, without asking, ate some dried fruit. I knew she would do this. We’ve known each other for almost 20 years. She can eat anything she wants from my kitchen.
Our long weekend together was simple. I was recovering from surgery and couldn’t go to shopping malls. We passed the time running errands (差事), but there was never a quiet moment. We’ve lived in different cities for almost a decade. Reunions (相聚) need conversation.
Our personalities are matched and a shared history is extremely valuable. We were competitors at high school before bonding. Then we discovered the many interests that we had in common. Our friendship developed itself quickly. What I like most about our friendship is that we don’t have to “do”, but we simply have to “be”. We drop the act, the performance, the public version (版本) of ourselves.
There is something special about friends who know everything about you. They are rare. They have seen your bright lights of achievements and the depths of desperation. I’m lucky to have found this friend, and to see a future where her companionship remains. Being together is perfection.
1. Why did the author mention what her friend have done in the kitchen?| A．To show her friend was rude. | B．To introduce her best friend. |
| C．To show the close bond between them. | D．To prove the author was generous. |
| A．Going on shopping. | B．Talking about their lives. |
| C．Running in malls. | D．Quarreling about errands. |
| A．Having the same interest. |
| B．Competing to be the best. |
| C．Being comfortable just being themselves. |
| D．Supporting each other. |
| A．One good friend in life is enough. |
| B．A friend is easier lost than found. |
| C．A friend to all is a friend to none. |
| D．A friend in need is a friend indeed. |
【推荐3】To the people who came to Christopher Morley Park in Roslyn, he had no name. to them, he was “the ice cream man”. He was just two hands and a smile handing back ice cream from the van（面包车）window. To me, he was my older brother, Andrew.
Once, he worked on Wall Street. But later he spent his days selling ice cream to an endless line of kids, moms and dads in swimming suits, perhaps daydreaming of a beach faraway.
All day long, while he sold bags of potato chips, cans of soda, and all types of ice cream, he would do this sort of robotic motion—turn to the right, stoop down, hand the item out of the window and collect the money.
His drinking days were over now. They neared their end one night after he took a severe beating when someone followed him home and robbed him when he was drunk. It left him memories of pain and misery. He was determined he would never take another drink again.
One day years later, I went to look for him. I slipped into the high driver’s seat and sat quietly watching him work. Occasionally, he would ask me to hand him a diet root beer or a bag of chips for sale, all the time bending over as he worked the long line.
As I watched him sell ice cream from a van window, he taught me something about living this life that we all pass through too quickly. It was a lesson about trying to live it with grace and dignity and style, no matter what.
He died in March 1999. He had served in the Army for two years in Europe in the 1950s. They gave him a soldier’s funeral with a folded flag.
1. Where was Andrew likely to sell the ice cream?| A．On a train. | B．In a park. |
| C．On Wall Street. | D．In a supermarket. |
| A．Busy and hard. | B．Challenging but time-consuming. |
| C．Honorable and well-paid. | D．Busy but badly-paid. |
| A．The robbers. | B．The painful memories. |
| C．The consumers. | D．The drinking days. |
| A．To remember his brother. | B．To tell a regrettable story. |
| C．To share a sad life lesson. | D．To state his attitude towards life. |
