Music is not just a set of sounds and rhythms. Its influence on brain is much deeper than any other human experience. Keep on reading to know all these amazing power of music.
A recent study suggests that preterm (早产的) babies appear to experience less pain and feed more when listening to music. Experts led by Dr. Manoj Kumar of the University of Alberta,Canada,found that music had a beneficial effect on reducing pain for preterm babies experiencing painful medical tests. It also appeared to benefit full-term babies during operations.
Many people experiencing brain damage have speech and movement-related problems. Music can help recover from brain injuries. As a different and effective treatment, doctors often advise such patients to listen to good music to improve the parts of the brain responsible for these two functions. When people with neurological (神经的) disorders hear a musical beat, it helps them to regain a balanced walk.
Though music cannot make deafness disappear, it really can stave off the loss of hearing. There was an experiment involving 163 people where 74 were musicians. Participants were asked to pass some listening tests. Musicians heard the sounds better than non-musicians, and this difference gets clearer with age. This means that a 70-year-old musician hears better than a 50-year-old non-musician, even in a noisy environment.
Besides, music mends a broken heart. It is not about a thrown-away love, but about a heart attack. The matter is that music can help people recover from a heart attack or heart operation by reducing blood pressure, slowing down the heartbeat rate, and reducing anxiety. Listening to the quality music produces positive emotions, improves the movement of blood, and expands blood vessels, thus, promoting quick recovery of the whole cardiovascular (心血管的) system.
1. How does music affect preterm babies?| A．It helps develop their potential in music. |
| B．It helps reduce their pain. |
| C．It helps improve their hearing systems. |
| D．It helps repair their neurological systems. |
| A．Cause. | B．Increase. |
| C．Prevent. | D．Expand. |
| A．It has a positive effect on human body systems’ work. |
| B．It can encourage people to do sports. |
| C．It helps make a person outgoing. |
| D．It helps patients recover more quickly than medicine does. |
| A．People Who Can Benefit From music. |
| B．The Best Time to Listen to Music. |
| C．The Way to choose Quality Music. |
| D．How Music Affects Our Mind and Body. |
相似题推荐
1. In this passage "band" means "group of persons ________."
| A．who play games on the sports ground |
| B．who play music together |
| C．living in the same neighborhood |
| D．doing things together under a leader and with a common purpose |
| A．cassette tape with only music |
| B．cassette tape recorder |
| C．band from Japan |
| D．voice recording equipment |
| A．to have a good time |
| B．to have something to drink |
| C．to get something to eat |
| D．to buy the equipment |
| A．all persons like to play Karaoke |
| B．to introduce Karaoke to the people |
| C．Karaoke is a wonderful equipment |
| D．Karaoke is used everywhere including snack bars |
【推荐2】"If music is the medicine of the soul(灵魂), let it play on," said a famous person. I think he said so probably because he got some help from music. Music has some strange abilities. Medical scientists have found that a person that feels stressed can actually listen to some kind of music and become well.
The researchers said that since stress comes as a result of life events such as starting a new family, starting a new business, and starting a new job, one can actually listen to good music and feel good because good music touches the human mind in a positive way. Music helps you to forget the life events that make you worried and remember the important events that once happened in your life.
Depression(抑郁症)is a disease caused by stress, smoking, social problems and so on. Depression is also caused by problems such as failure in business. Depression may bring us weakness, headaches, and loss of concentration. Good music makes one remember happy moments or good days. If you play music about love, it makes you feel like falling in love again though you may have had several upset experiences. And such good feeling makes you healthy.
Anxiety(焦虑)is another health problem that can be controlled by music. Anxiety is a side effect of some major health problems such as liver cancer and breast cancer. Good music makes you feel relaxed and removes the pains from these diseases and you feel all right.
Good music can send you to sleep. And you need to know that sleep puts your body in a healthy condition. Sleep takes away the effects of stress, depression and anxiety from a person.
1. According to the words of the famous person in Paragraph 1, music can ______.| A．treat many kinds of diseases |
| B．help you keep healthy in your mind |
| C．take the place of medicine in treating illnesses |
| D．make you remember things that happened in the past |
| A．letting people have a good sleep |
| B．making people think positively |
| C．showing something new to people |
| D．making people concentrate only on important things |
| A．stress | B．depression |
| C．anxiety | D．upset |
| A．The health benefits of listening to music |
| B．Stress can bring us many kinds of diseases |
| C．Some diseases have something to do with music |
| D．Tips for us to live a healthy and comfortable life |
Justin Drew Bieber was born in 1994 in Stratford, Ontario and was raised by his single mother. Bieber learned to play musical instruments when he was very young. In 2007, he took part in a local singing competition in his hometown, and he did it just for fun. He never took singing lessons before but surprisingly he placed second in the competition. Then, with the help of his mother, he uploaded (上传) videos of him singing on a website and they successfully attracted the attention of thousands of viewers. His videos got popular through word of mouth and some of them have received up to 10,000,000 views.
Justin Bieber would have never gotten a career in the music business without his videos. Scooter Braun, a former marketing executive (主管) of So So Def Recordings, had watched Bieber’s videos and he was impressed by the boy’s talent. Braun then contacted Bieber and he flew the boy into Atlanta seven months after the first video was posted. Bieber showed his talent in singing as well as his ability in playing musical instruments. He then got a record deal.
In 2009, Justin Bieber released (发行) his first single “One Time” while he was recording the debut album (首张专辑). The single “One Time” tells a story about love. This song had success not only in Canada and the US, but also in the international market. Then he released his debut album “My World 2.0” in 2010 and the song “Baby” became the lead single. This album successfully entered the Top Ten Charts in seven countries. In June 2010, he started his first world tour in Hartford, Connecticut. One month later, he started recording his second album.
1. Justin Bieber’s career in music began to take off when _____.
| A．he met with Scooter Braun |
| B．he released his debut album |
| C．he won second place in a competition |
| D．his singing videos were uploaded to a website |
| A．owed his success to good luck |
| B．showed a gift for music when he was young |
| C．is the youngest superstar ever in the music industry |
| D．released his debut album with the help of Scooter Braun |
| A．It is about love and was released in 2010. |
| B．It attracted the world’s attention after released. |
| C．It successfully entered the Top Ten Charts in seven countries. |
| D．It is the lead single of his debut album “My World 2.0”. |
| A．Justin Bieber’s journey to success |
| B．Lucky boy — Justin Bieber |
| C．What made Justin Bieber a singer? |
| D．Secrets of Justin Bieber’s success |
【推荐1】Have you ever spent half an hour searching the Internet which, as you find out afterwards, lasted three hours, or opened a book shortly after breakfast and a little while later noticed that the room was getting darker?
Most people can remember experiencing such a state. Your mind wasn’t wandering; you were totally focused and concentrated on that activity, to such an extent that you were not even aware of yourself. Psychologists call these fully absorbing (引人入胜的) experiences flow states, which were discovered and named by a world-famous psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. His book Flow: The Psychology of Happiness became an ins tant best-seller, making its way to the top self-help classics.
The state of flow happens under very specific conditions —when we encounter a challenge that is testing for our skills, and yet our skills and capacities are just about possible to meet this challenge. So both the challenge and the skills are at high levels, stretching us almost to the limit. If challenges exceed(超过) skills, one can become anxious. If skills exceed challenges, we usually become bored. Neither of these two cases results in flow.
What is also interesting in flow is the almost total absence of emotions during the actual process. One seems to be almost beyond experiencing emotions, most likely because the awareness of self is not present. Mihaly himself is also very much aware of the potential negative impact of the flow. One philosopher once described his own experience of flow: “When I get totally involved in the conversation, I am not aware of myself, the world around or the passage of time. Sometimes, I may become addictive to that existence, unwilling to cope with other daily routines of life, like forgetting dinner, and saying goodbye to my children.”
1. Why does the writer describe the phenomenon at the beginning?| A．To offer a background of the topic. |
| B．To clarify the definition of the topic. |
| C．To make a summary for the passage. |
| D．To introduce the topic of the passage. |
| A．Adopting a dog. | B．Watching a film. | C．Going to a party. | D．Playing the chess. |
| A．The state of flow is little conditional. |
| B．Skills are the most important in flow. |
| C．Geniuses at normal schools may get bored. |
| D．Challenges at high levels push us to the limit. |
| A．The “flow state” can have its drawbacks. |
| B．We must make plans for our daily life. |
| C．Spending time with family is necessary. |
| D．Enjoying flow is difficult for most of us. |
【推荐2】Parents and educators can teach kids to change their fixed mindsets and see more potential in themselves and other people. Do you agree with this statement? If your answer is yes, here’s something you might consider. Research suggests that believing in the human ability to change is linked to less depression, better health and greater achievement. This is the “growth mindset”, an idea pioneered by Stanford researcher Carol Dweck.
According to this research, when we practice a growth mindset, the difficulties we’re facing seem more likely to be surmounted. It’s important for us to realize we aren’t helpless; we can grow and adapt. Just as important as seeing ourselves as capable of growth, this reduces some of the pressure we might feel, and helps us think more in terms of challenges than threats.
According to studies, developing a growth mindset is of importance. For example, a simple belief in the possibility of change may have a powerful effect on our thinking—potentially freeing us to actually see our way through anxiety and a sense of failure among peer conflicts and peer exclusion. Research also indicates that believing personalities can change an lower aggression and better navigate social relationships. Additionally, if we believe personalities are changeable and that situation and change, we can also apply this thinking to groups, resulting in an increased cooperation.
A growth mindset isn’t a personal state of being; instead, it’s a way of thinking or a strategy we can apply in a given situation. It isn’t something you simply have or you don’t. However, sometimes it’s really challenging to access a growth mindset. Something like feeling threatened, compared or criticized can make us feel unsafe so that it can be difficult to believe in the ability for change. Fortunately, there’s always something you can do to develop a growth mindset.
1. According to Carol Dweck, a growth mindset is the belief that our abilities .| A．are stable | B．aren’t fixed | C．are for growth | D．are linked to health |
| A．Overcome. | B．Strengthened. | C．Predicted. | D．Approved. |
| A．behave more bravely | B．be strict with themselves |
| C．do something on their own | D．get along better with others |
| A．A growth mindset is difficult to develop. |
| B．People with growth mindsets will not be criticized. |
| C．The sense of insecurity can be a barrier to a growth mindset. |
| D．Growth mindsets are challenging if people don't have good states. |
【推荐3】Next time you raise an eyebrow at the views of your partner, friend, sibling or colleague, remember they could be helping to make you smarter. New research shows that intelligence is not fixed but can be improved throughout adulthood by family members, bright mates and intellectually challenging careers. The study challenges the commonly held belief that intelligence is fixed by the age of about 18.
Scientific consensus suggests that intelligence is controlled by genes, with environmental factors such as schooling and nutrition playing a partial role up to this age. After this point, IQ scores become steady. But James Flynn, professor of political studies and psychology at the University of Otago in New Zealand, argues that people can "upgrade" their own intelligence throughout their lives. He believes intellectual stimulation from others is important as the "brain seems to be rather like a muscle—the more you use it, the stronger it gets". However, the opposite is also true—so people sharing a home or workplace with those who are intellectually challenged risk seeing their IQ levels nosedive as a result.
Professor Flynn analyzed US intelligence tests from the last 65 years and created new IQ "age tables". He found a bright ten-year-old with brothers and sisters of average intelligence will suffer a five to ten point IQ disadvantage compared to a similar child with equally bright brothers and sisters and special educational treatment to help pull them up.
Professor Flynn also concluded that although genetics and early life experiences determine about 80% of intelligence, the remaining 20% is linked to lifestyle. This means that people can raise their IQ, or allow it to fall, by ten points or more. He suggested the best way to improve IQ levels is to mix with bright friends, find an intellectually challenging job and marry someone cleverer.
1. According to the text, it is commonly believed that ______ .| A．people' s IQ level falls as they age |
| B．it is wise to share family members' views |
| C．people cannot improve their intelligence during adulthood |
| D．doing something challenging is good for one's intelligence |
| A．vary | B．develop | C．change | D．fall |
| A．Making many friends. | B．Staying with smart people. |
| C．Doing exercise every day. | D．Learning from brothers or sisters |
| A．inform | B．advertise | C．entertain | D．persuade |
【推荐1】The Olympic Games are the greatest festival of sport in the world. Every four years, a hundred or more countries send their best sportsmen to compete for the highest honors of the sport. As many as 6000 people take part in over 20 sports. For the winners, there are gold medals and glory. But there is honor, too, for all who compete, win or lose. That is the spirit of the Olympics — to take part is what matters.
The Olympic Games always start in bright color and action. The teams of all the nations parade in the opening ceremony and march round the track. The custom is for the Greek team to march in first. For it was in Greece that the Olympics began. The team of the country where the Games are being held — the host country — marches in last.
The runner with the Olympic torch then enters the stadium and lights the flame. A sportsman from the host country takes the Olympic oath on behalf of all the competitors. The judges and officials also take an oath. After the sportsmen march out of the stadium, the host country puts on a wonderful display.
The competition begins the next day. There are usually more than twenty sports in the Games. The rule is that there must be at least fifteen. The main events are in track and field, but it is a few days before these sports start. Each day the competitors take part in a different sport — riding, shooting, swimming, and cross-country running. Points are gained for each event. Medals are awarded for the individual winners and for national teams.
More and more women are taking part in the games. They first competed in 1900, in tennis and golf, which are no longer held in the Olympics. Women’s swimming events were introduced in 1912, but it was not until 1928 that there were any track and field events for women. Now, they compete in all but half a dozen of the sports. In horse riding, shooting, and boat racing, they may compete in the same events as the men.
1. The spirit of the Olympics is to _________.| A．win a gold medal | B．be equal |
| C．gain glory | D．participate |
| A．the first team to march in the opening ceremony is the most important one |
| B．a sportsman represents all the athletes to take an oath after a wonderful display |
| C．the track and field events do not start until a few days after the Olympics begin |
| D．women were allowed to take part in track and field events in 1912 |
| A．Tennis. | B．Shooting. |
| C．Riding | D．Swimming |
| A．Olympic Spirit. |
| B．Opening ceremony of the Olympics. |
| C．Rules for all Olympic events. |
| D．The birthplace of the Olympic Games. |
【推荐2】Outdoor lighting in general poses a deadly threat to insects. That’s according to a study published online in November 2019 in the journal Biological Conservation, entitled “Light Pollution Is a Driver of Insect Declines”.
The article notes that sudden drops in insect numbers around the world have happened over the past couple of decades in what amounts to an insect destruction. The blame is usually assigned to “habitat loss, chemical pollution, invasive species, and climate change”. But the authors argue that the forces of lightness have not gotten their due.
A longtime preference among ecologists for studying daytime phenomena, and a preference for sleeping at night has led insect conservationists to overlook another widespread habitat disturbance, pollutant, and method of insect control: artificial light at night(ALAN).
ALAN’s influence occurs through its interference with the development, movement, foraging, and reproductive success of diverse insect species. Another factor is light’s positive effect on insectivore predation. That is, birds, bats, amphibians and arachnids aren’t stupid-if a lot of insects start swirling around lights in the night, predators will also show up.
Sadly, ALAN increases sharply after Thanksgiving, as many people add festive illumination(照明) to the exterior of their houses to celebrate the approach of Christmas. Many neighborhoods have a particular house that embraces the spirit of the season in such an outsized way as to produce a radiant haze perhaps visible to hunters in other star systems.
The task then must be to lessen the ecological consequences of ALAN on insects while still maintaining sufficient levels of nighttime illumination for human safety and enjoyment.
“Monochromatic LEDs can be engineered to produce light of any desired spectral composition,” the investigators write. “Therefore, once we know the specific wavelength affinities of insects, we can in theory design lights with minimal output in the wavelengths that most affect insect fitness.”
Turning some of the lights off might also help. In many cases, it is far easier, quicker, and cheaper to block, dim, or turn off a light source than it is to find the particular bulb type or narrow bandpass filter(滤波器) that makes its emissions visible to humans alone. Help end the war on insects. It is better to blow out one candle than to curse the planet.
1. We can know from Paragraph 2 that ________.| A．lights are to blame for insect decrease |
| B．lightness hasn’t got the attention it deserves |
| C．lightness hasn’t caused environmental problems |
| D．the dying out of insects is too slow to be noticed |
| A．Most insects enjoy the lights at night. |
| B．Birds and bats cannot hunt without light. |
| C．Lights in the night make insects easily caught. |
| D．Lights in the night has positive effect on insects. |
| A．To make lights only visible to human. |
| B．To use candles instead of light bulbs at night. |
| C．To reduce light resource by turning off some lights. |
| D．To change the light bulbs into ones with special light. |
| A．The importance of light to insects |
| B．The main causes of insects’ decrease |
| C．To light, or to candle, that is the question |
| D．Too much illumination is killing vital insects |
It’s very difficult for the scientists to reach an agreement because different results can be got from the same fossils. Many fossils of the same kind of dinosaurs have been dug out from one place. They might have formed when an entire group of dinosaurs got stuck (陷入) all at once, or they might have been the result of dinosaurs getting stuck one after another over a course of a few centuries. Thus we can say that dinosaurs might have in the first case lived in big groups and in the second lived alone.
Though there are two different results, dinosaur scientists now generally agree that at least some kinds of dinosaurs lived in big groups. “That’s pretty much settled at this point,” says Paul Sereno. A kind of dinosaurs called Sauropods left behind tracks in the western United States that appear to run north and south, suggesting that they even moved long distances together.
As to whether dinosaurs cared for their young, dinosaur scientists have turned to the closest living relatives of dinosaurs-birds and crocodiles-for possible models. Birds give a lot of care to their young, while crocodiles just help their young to the water. The discovered fossils of dinosaurs sitting on their eggs and staying with their young suggest the parents were taking care of their babies, but we still cannot say that all dinosaurs did the same.
There is still a long way to go before the above questions could be answered. Dinosaur scientists, will have to find more proof to reach an agreement.
1. Dinosaur scientists can get information directly by .
| A．studying dinosaur fossils |
| B．examining modern animals |
| C．watching dinosaurs |
| D．using telescopes |
| A．Half of the dinosaurs lived alone. |
| B．Most dinosaurs moved long distances. |
| C．Many dinosaurs settled in the north. |
| D．Some dinosaurs lived in big groups. |
| A．watching many kinds of animals |
| B．studying dinosaurs’ living relatives |
| C．following the tracks left behind |
| D．working on dug-out dinosaur eggs |
| A．Birds hardly pay attention to their young. |
| B．Baby crocodiles can look after themselves well. |
| C．Some dinosaurs took care of their young. |
| D．Birds and crocodiles take good care of their young. |
