1 . Is there a friend of yours who always sings out of tune (曲调) but never realizes it? Don’t be so hard on them — they may have amusia — the inability to tell the difference in tunes.
Apart from singing out of tune, people with amusia may also find it hard to recognize music they’ve heard before without the help of song lyrics. Besides, people who suffer from Amusia can have difficulty in recognizing melodies and a total inability to tell between different musical sounds, according to Live Science. However, people with amusia can recognize common environmental sounds as well as the high and lows sounds in human voices, meaning that this inability can be specially related to music.
In many cases, people who have amusia are born with it, as 46 percent of these individuals’ family members were found to have similar conditions, according to a 2017 study. Brain imaging shows that their brains receive and respond to music pitch (音高) information, but it is not reaching conscious awareness, meaning that the mind can’t understand the information.
Scientists at the University of Otago in New Zealand also think that amusia is related to people’s special processing skills. They invited people with amusia, musicians and students from non-musical backgrounds to perform a task related to spacial imagination. They were asked to decide whether pairs of images are the same object moving around or mirror images.
The result showed that the amusia group made more mistakes than the other two groups. Amusia might be related to the way brain stores information about the high and low sounds in songs, according to the study.
Although those who aren’t confident about their singing skills often say they’re “tune-deaf”, people with amusia only make up about 1.5 percent of the population, as shown in the 2017 study. “Like dyslexics (诵读困难者) can learn how to read, those with amusia should be able to better their ability to recognize tunes if they start early enough,” Isabelle Peretz, a professor of psychology from the University of Montreal in Canada, told Live Science.
1. According to the article, what is the main difficulty faced by people with amusia?A.Recognizing tunes. | B.Identifying human voices. |
C.Understanding song lyrics. | D.Noticing common sounds in nature. |
A.Amusia is common among children. |
B.Amusia is a result of brain damage. |
C.Many individuals with amusia are born with it. |
D.Those who are tune-deaf often suffer from amusia. |
A.People with amusia have strong spa cial imagination skills. |
B.People with amusia struggle to decide the shape of images. |
C.Amusia may be affected by one’s level of music education. |
D.Amusia may be related to how the brain stores sound information. |
A.Go for medical treatment. | B.Sing frequently with friends. |
C.Learn how to read earlier in life. | D.Start to explore and learn music early. |
2 . The 2024 “Chinese Bridge” Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreigners across the Globe — Calligraphy and Painting Challenge has been officially announced (宣布), which will start on April 1, 2024.
This competition invites painting, calligraphy, and Chinese language lovers from all around the world to take part in this exciting event.
Here we are calling on those who have interest to turn in their creative topics for the competition, with the topic selection process being decided by the public.
If you’re interested, feel free to turn in the topic that you believe fits the requirements of the competition.
Here are what you should follow:
Who can take part
The call for creative topics for the Calligraphy and Painting Challenge is open to any Chinese language lovers worldwide, with no limitations on age or nationality.
When to turn in
If you’d like to take part, you’d better hand in between Jan. 15, 2024 and Mar. 30, 2024 (Beijing Time).
Announcement date
The selected topic for the Calligraphy and Painting Challenge will be announced on Mar. 31, 2024, which also marks the official start for handing in calligraphy and painting works under the selected topic next day.
Methods to hand in
Participants (参与者) can send their topics and related information to Chinesebridge@chineseplus.net. “Chinese Bridge” also accepts direct messages on its official account on Facebook, Instagram, We Chat, and Weibo.
1. Which of the following statements is correct?A.Participants must be more than 18 years old. |
B.The nationality of the participants must be Chinese. |
C.Participants can turn in the topic online or to the office. |
D.Participants can hand in whatever topic suitable for the competition. |
A.June 20, 2024. | B.February 12, 2024. |
C.March 25, 2024. | D.January 28, 2024. |
A.To set up a competition organization. |
B.To announce the opening of a competition. |
C.To collect creative topics for a competition. |
D.To provide some information about a competition. |
1.活动时间和地点;
2.展会内容。
注意:
1.词数80 左右;
2.可适当增加细节以使行文连贯。
Dear Sam,
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
4 . “I was captivated by weightlifting during the London 2012 Olympic Games,” says Fiona Clements, a software developer working in London. “I think it’s partly because the effort is so obvious—you can see every flash of doubt, pain and happiness of success on the athletes’ faces.”
Clements was 48 at the time. She thought she’d left it far too late to even consider trying it, but then she kept thinking about it. “It took until September 2022, but I finally went for it.” Clements signed up for a beginner’s class with Sally Moss, a strength coach who is an expert in Olympic lifting, and loved it from her first class. Now 58, Clements can lift 50kg and push 21kg overhead. She says she has never felt stronger.
Resistance training, to use the term for any type of exercise where you’re working against weight, whether it’s using dumbbells(哑铃), exercise bands or just your own body weight, is extremely beneficial.
“I just thought that it would be impossible to make a difference to my body as an older woman,” says Joann a Blacker, a small business owner, who took up strength training at 53. “I’d gained weight and felt awful. I certainly didn’t think that weightlifting would be the way I would change my body.”
Blacker can now lift 40kg for 10 repetitions and feels more than ready to deal with training alone. Clements, at the same time, has already signed up with her local gym, for the days she’s not training with Moss. “I can feel these bands of hard muscle when I move my arms and legs that I’m pretty sure weren’t there before,” she says. “But the best part is that I’m actually able to understand the sport I love. It still feels like magic when that bar goes overhead.”
1. What does the underlined word “captivated” in Paragraph 1 mean?A.Uninterested. | B.Attracted. | C.Upset. | D.Satisfied. |
A.She was fearful of the pain. | B.She found it hard to get a top coach. |
C.She was doubtful about its lasting effects. | D.She thought she was too old to have a go. |
A.She increased her willpower. | B.She improved her body shape. |
C.She found a part-time job in this field. | D.She had her busy daily life changed. |
A.She has a deeper understanding of it. | B.She suggests starting it at a local gym. |
C.She enjoys muscle-building most of all. | D.She finds it more magic than hard work. |
Since the age of seven, I had always dreamed of being one of the student leaders who we looked up to. They took responsibility for us, gave instructions, organized school activities, and proudly wore their badges(徽章) while carrying our school flag and walking on the playground. They represented us and gave speeches on school issues, becoming our role models.
As I grew older, I finally can take part in the school elections. I prepared my election speech and on the day of the speeches, everyone voted. I was hopeful and prayed for a victory. However, the following morning when we gathered on the school grounds for the head-teacher’s announcement of the results, reality hit me hard. I realized that I had no chance of winning—was neither well known nor too pretty. I became depressed and felt as though I had no friends supporting me.
Later that day, as I cried in my room, I took a deep breath and decided to change my attitude. I refused to see myself as a failure and made a determination to run for the school elections again the following year—this time, with a plan to win. I sat down at my study table and wrote down my thoughts.
Although my competitors had certain advantages such as their stylish personalities, I recognized my own advantages—good grades, friendliness, helpfulness, and most importantly, my faith in myself to be a great leader. With a whole year ahead, I began to plan my election strategies that evening.
To gain recognition(认可) and show my ability to represent my fellow students, I started making new friends and helping them at school. Besides, I attended a public speaking course to learn how to give a great election speech. By the time the elections came around, I was well-prepared, and I gave a passionate speech on the stage.
注意: 1.续写词数应为 150 左右;2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
The following day, I anxiously waited for the results.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Later, I realized that I had achieved far more than what I had expected.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Have you ever eaten a “painting”? Here it is, the
As is said, Chen Zi’ang, a great poet in the seventh century (Tang Dynasty), liked to eat brown sugar. But he ate it in
The sugar painting
7 . Bill Samuel was having a tough Friday. The 71-year-old, who was struggling with kidney (肾) failure, found himself at a medical center 30 miles from home for the second time in 24 hours. Samuel was on the transplant (移植) list, but no
Taxi driver Timothy Letts took Samuel as his
As they neared Samuel’s home, Letts
On Dec 7, 2021, they had their operations. It was a
A.patients | B.matches | C.doctors | D.families |
A.cheap | B.effective | C.convenient | D.voluntary |
A.arrangement | B.operation | C.recovery | D.hospital |
A.partner | B.friend | C.passenger | D.neighbour |
A.attention | B.guide | C.delivery | D.aid |
A.needs | B.treatments | C.adventures | D.distance |
A.confused | B.inspired | C.annoyed | D.surprised |
A.kept | B.offered | C.exchanged | D.collected |
A.anxious | B.optimistic | C.frightened | D.curious |
A.offer | B.suggestion | C.contribution | D.request |
A.heartfelt | B.awkward | C.unforgettable | D.emotional |
A.word | B.name | C.action | D.saying |
A.organized | B.conducted | C.contacted | D.accepted |
A.unique | B.perfect | C.strong | D.weak |
A.success | B.challenge | C.failure | D.test |
8 . Whenever we are planning to buy something online, most of us prefer to look at the reviews first. We imagine that they have been left by shoppers like us who want to share their knowledge with others, so the reviews would be of great value to us.
A careful study of thousands of reviews on a popular shopping website showed that a surprisingly large number of reviewers gave either four-or five-star ratings to the product. Two-or three-star ratings both accounted for less than ten percent of the total, which looked suspicious (可疑的).
It seems that anyone who writes a large number of good review s is given a special treat by the shopping website.
A.So why are most reviews positive? |
B.Reviews differ from person to person. |
C.However, not all reviewers are like this. |
D.So how can we tell true review s from false ones? |
E.These “top” reviewers are then given free products. |
F.Shoppers need protection from misleading reviews. |
G.If those reviews were true, a broader spread of ratings would be given. |
9 . A team of scientists is studying the sound of the forest in Ecuador to learn how artificial intelligence (AI) could follow animal life in recovering environments.
When scientists want to measure new forest growth, they can study large areas of land with tools like satellites. But understanding how fast and in what number wildlife is returning to an area is more difficult. Sometimes it requires an expert to listen through sound recordings and pick out animal calls.
Jorg Muller, an expert on birds, wondered if there was a different way. So, he turned to bioacoustics (生物声学), which uses sound to learn more about animal life and their living environments. Muller and his team recorded wildlife sounds in Ecuador. They first had experts listen to the recordings and list the sounds of different animals. Then, they examined the sound quality to measure the environment. Finally, they ran two weeks of recordings through an AI computer program trained to understand 75 different bird calls.
The program was able to pick out the calls on which it was trained. However, scientists wondered if the program could correctly identify the number of different kinds of plants and animals in each environment. To see if the program could do that, the team used two different controls. One was from the experts who listened to the recordings, and the second was based on examples from each environment, which can be used to understand biodiversity (生物多样性).
Since the number of sounds that are found to be used to train is limited, the AI program could only identify one-fourth of the bird calls experts could. But it was still able to correctly measure biodiversity levels in each environment, the study said. It also said the results show the AI program is a powerful tool to measure the recovery of animal societies in some forests. The study showed that biodiversity found from recordings can be measured in a cost-effective and complete way and measure environments.
There are still areas for improvement, including the lack of animal sounds on which to train AI models. And the method can only catch animals that use sound to communicate.
1. What does the study focus on?A.Studying plant growth. | B.Observing birds’ behavior. |
C.Understanding AI’s effect on wildlife. | D.Measuring wildlife recovery. |
A.Bioacoustics. | B.Satellite recording. |
C.Sound recording by AI. | D.Direct observation by experts. |
A.Identifying plant species. | B.Tracking weather change. |
C.Measuring biodiversity levels. | D.Identifying all the bird calls. |
A.Measuring more bird environments. |
B.Catching animals that use sound to communicate. |
C.Training the program on a wider variety of sounds. |
D.Having experts study more and understand bird calls. |
Tanghulu, a conventional Chinese snack
The sweet treat arose in China during the Song dynasty,
Because of its glassy texture and marble like appearance, it is so visually
Tanghulu’s recent surge in various countries can be attributed to multiple factors, including the social media