【推荐1】Max Vernon Mathews has been called the father of computer music. He created electronic tools so that people could use computers as musical instruments. He had a huge influence on the development of electronic music and how it is written, recorded and played.

In 1957, Max Mathews wrote the first computer program that enabled a computer to create sound and play it back. At the time, he was working as an engineer at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey. His computer program was called Music. It enabled a large IBM computer to play a seventeen-second piece of music that he had written.

The computer was so slow that it would have taken an hour to play the piece of music in seventeen seconds. For that reason, Mathews moved the work to a tape player, which could be sped up to play the music at a normal speed. He later said that the sound quality of the music notes was not great, but the technical importance of the music was huge.

The science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke visited Bell Laboratories in the 1960s. He heard a computer “sing” the song "Daisy Bell" on devices and programs developed by Max Mathews and other engineers. Clarke noted this technology in his book “2001: A Space Odyssey,” which was later made into a movie.

Mathews continued creating other versions of the Music program. He became interested in how computers could help musicians outside recording studios.

Max Mathews had a long and productive career. He worked with composers like John Cage and Edgard Varese. He helped create a center for research in computer music in Paris. And he taught at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics in Stanford University in California.

Mathews believed modern musicians were not making full use of the power of computer music. He said a violin always sounds like a violin, but with a computer, the way a violin sounds is unlimited. He said he did not want computer sounds to replace live music. But he said he hoped laptop computers would one day be considered serious instruments

1. How did the program Music work according to the passage?

A．It made sound and play it on a computer.

B．It helped design a computer program.

C．It could record a seventeen-second piece of music.

D．It enabled a large IBM computer to work faster.

2. Mathews was likely to think that        .

A．the first piece of computer music was too short

B．the first computer music was technically important.

C．the IBM computer was fit for creating slow music

D．the first piece of computer music wasn't music indeed

3. Which of the following is true?

A．Clarke helped develop computer music.

B．Mathews became a character in a movie later on.

C．Computer music was mentioned in Clarke’s book.

D．Clarke saw Mathews operate a singing computer.

4. It is implied in the last paragraph that      .

A．Mathew wanted computers to take the place of live music.

B．a violin does make much better sounds than a computer

C．laptops are more suitable to be used as serious musical instruments

D．a computer can help improve sounds of traditional musical instruments

【推荐3】One night in 1966, Michael Chapman rushed into a folk-music club in Cornwall, England to get out of the rain, and soon found himself onstage playing the guitar.

“They offered me a job to play for the rest of the summer. And I’ve been playing ever since,” Chapman says. “I’ve told that story so many times, but it’s absolutely true. If it hadn’t been raining that night, I wouldn’t be talking to you.”

The British guitar player has spent the 50 years since then on the road. He released some praised albums in the 1970s, but his health went downhill in the 80s and 90s. Like a lot of British artists in the 1960s, Chapman taught himself to play the guitar by listening to American jazz and blues records.

Chapman actually taught photography, but quit when he was 26 to play music full time. When he was starting out, he was often compared to other British acoustic (原声的) guitar heroes of the time, like John Martyn and Bert Jansch.

“The fascinating thing about Michael Chapman is that he doesn’t fit in with those guys of his generation,” says Andrew Male, a music journalist. “He’s always- been an outsider. He never moved to London.”

And while he never became part of the London music scene, Chapman was noticed by those musicians. “The 70s caught up with him in the 80s,” Male says. “He had a huge heart attack at the end of the 80s that nearly finished him off. When he made his way back into the world in the early 90s, people had forgotten about him.”

But not everyone. A younger generation of musicians in America, including Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth and a younger singer and guitarist named Steve Gumi, recently rediscovered Chapman.

“We wanted to capture Michael’s voice and character where he is now. You know, it’s a little road-weary, but he still has it,” Gunn says. “For me, it was really important to get that right,” “He’s the right old musician for present times,” Male says. “I think the music he makes seems quite in tune with where we’re at.”

1. What word can best describe Michael Chapman’s first involvement in music?

A．Untrue.	B．Accidental.
C．Unfortunate.	D．Reasonable.

2. What can we learn about the British guitarist John Martyn from the text?

A．He used to teach photography full time.

B．He cannot get along well with other musicians.

C．He may be very familiar with American jazz and blues.

D．He may be one of the best guitar players in the early 90s.

3. Why did Michael Chapman quit his music career once?

A．He lost his special voice.

B．He suffered from a severe heart attack.

C．He got tired of competing with others.

D．He was almost forgotten by everyone.

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．The Rise and Fall of Guitar Music

B．The Sad Story of a Guitar Musician

C．A New Generation Helps an Old Guitar Musician

D．A Guitar Musician’s Back with the Help of a New Generation

【推荐2】One summer day, as I was heading to the teaching building, I heard someone call my name. I turned around and saw Philip, a counselor at our college, standing with another young man. Philip introduced me to him, Stephen, and reminded me that Stephen would be taking one of my classes.

Stephen looked at me. With a somewhat painful expression, he asked if my class was going to be hard and if he would be able to pass. I introduced all the things that he would be expected to learn. As we talked, I saw Stephen’s eyes getting big with fear.

I told him to do all of his assignments, and to hand them in on time. Rather than being overwhelmed(压倒) by all of the work, I told him the most successful students made a master calendar of all the assignments so they could plan their workload.

As the fall semester went on, I learned more of Stephen’s story. It had taken him longer to finish the assignments than most young people. Family members, including his mother, kept reminding him thathewasafailure.Buthekeptatitanddidn’ttakethemtoheart.Hetoldmethatbeforecomingto our college, no one believed he could manage it.

Stephen didn’t become an A student. However, he managed to pass most of his courses by being in class every day, turning in all of his assignments on time and breaking down his studying into bite-sized parts. By passing course after course, he began to gain a measure of self-confidence.

On his graduation day, he walked up to me, and said,“Thank you.”

1. According to Stephen’s questions to the author, what do we know about Stephen?

A．He had never been an A student.	B．He didn’t want to attend the author’s class.
C．He wasn’t very confident about himself.	D．He couldn’t pass the author’s exam.

2. What can we learn about the author according to the passage?

A．He helped Stephen get an A in his class.

B．He told Stephen how to deal with his studies.

C．He didn’t believe that Stephen could study in college.

D．He wouldn’t have met Stephen without the introduction of Philip.

3. What does the passage mainly tell us about Stephen?

A．He was an average student but hard-working.

B．He was a little stupid and didn’t do well at school.

C．He was far from a top student because of his failure.

D．He was an excellent student, but didn’t have self- confidence.

4. What lesson can we learn from the passage?

A．One bite at a time.	B．Look before you leap.
C．Haste makes waste.	D．A good beginning is half done.