1 . The Sydney Opera House has become, with the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Sydney’s best-known landmark and international symbol.

The base for the building was started in 1959 — years before the designs were finished. It took four years to design by Danish architect Jorn Utzon and by 1962 the designs were finalized and construction began. In total, it took 14 years to build and was officially opened on the 20th of October 1973 by Queen Elizabeth II.

The Sydney Opera House is a fascinating building and heart of the city’s cultural scene. It opened with a concert hall, an opera theatre, a drama theatre and a recital (音乐演奏会) hall, as well as restaurants and bars. A fifth theatre was added within the structure in 1998.

The Sydney Opera House cost some $160 million to build and was paid for by the public who bought $10 tickets in a series of lotteries with a first prize of $1million.

More information about the Sydney Opera House:

Conducts 3,000 events each year

Provides guided tours to 200,000 people each year

Has an annual audience of 2 million for its performances

includes 1,000 rooms

Is 185 metres long and 120 metres wide

Has 2.194 pre-cast concrete sections as its roof

Has roof sections weighing up to 15 tons

Has roof sections held together by 350 kms of tensioned steel cable

Has over 1 million tiles on the roof

Uses 6,225 square metres of glass and 645 kilometres of electric cable

    1     February 10, the first day of the Year of the Dragon, the crowd in a public square in London burst into cheers. Sixteen dancers performed the Chaoshan Yingge dance, a traditional Chinese folk dance     2     (celebrate) Chinese New Year. In the Chaoshan region of Guangdong province,     3     the dance originated, people believe it brings good luck for new year. This performance     4     (attract) millions of tourists since 2023.

4 . 语法填空

The "Subject Three” dance     1     (originate)from lively wedding celebrations in southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. The tradition evolved into a     2     (culture) phenomenon, suggesting that in a Guangxi native’s life, there are three essential     3     (experience), or ‘subjects’: singing folk songs, slurping rice noodles, and dancing.

6 . To Their Own Beat

When Los Lobos perform in concert today, audiences in the thousands cheer them on. It’s hard to believe that the group started out as just another garage band playing popular rock-and-roll tunes from the radio, In 1974 four high school friends from East Los Angeles formed Los Lobos ( Spanish for “The Wolves” ) .

Like many garage bands, these friends might have simply gone their separate ways after high school. But the members of Los Lobos wanted to keep making music together. They decided to change their musical style and began focusing on traditional Mexican music that showed their tradition.

“We pulled out all those records we used to beg our parents not to play around our friends and found an incredible wealth of music,” says Perez. “These guys (on the records) were doing amazing things with their instruments, and we started trying to pick up on it. ”

The group put aside its electric guitars for the acoustic ones used in traditional Mexican music. For several years Los Lobos played at weddings or parties—any event that needed live music. They also landed a regular engagement (合同)   at a Mexican restaurant.

By 1978 Los Lobos had made enough money to record their first album   (唱片) , and they sold copies of it wherever they performed. They also returned to their electric guitars to get closer to a Tex-Mex sound, which is a mixture of traditional Mexican music, rock and roll, country music, and the blues. This new, louder sound produced one unexpected result: the group was fired from the restaurant.

But it didn’t matter that Los Lobos had lost their one steady job, because they had found a position that no other group took up. They had combined electric and acoustic instruments and blended (混合) musical styles in their own way. Steve Berlin joined the band in 1983 as the saxophone and keyboard player, adding to the band’s unusual sound.

“We didn’t so much want to recycle the music we’d grown up with as much as find the common links between it and all the other styles and sounds that were all around us,” Perez explains.   “It became a mission ...   bringing music together to bring people together. ”

In the 1980s Los Lobos gained the attention of several record companies. They were hired to perform on the soundtrack to the film La Bamba, which earned them a Golden Eagle Award. They have since earned many awards, including two Grammys and an MTV Video Music Award. Their many records have been very successful, and they have toured the world.

Even after 30 years of making music together, Los Lobos continues to experiment with their sound. They never moved far away from their Mexican roots, however.   They still include traditional music in their live performances, sharing their history—and their culture—with their fans.

7 . Getting older often involves a series of challenges, such as cognitive (认知的) decline, late-life depression and social isolation. In a society that is aging fast, it has become important to find ways to promote successful aging to prevent and limit cognitive and emotional disorders. Music is a promising tool for improving cognition and promoting well-being.

Cognitive reserve (储备) is the mind’s power to stop age-related brain damage. Research has shown that stimulating (令人兴奋的) life experiences are linked with higher power to prevent age-related brain diseases. Music is known to be cognitively stimulating and it could contribute to building such reserve throughout the life course. Music makes unique demands on our nervous system, like cognitive control. For example, lifelong musical expert knowledge and skills seem to reduce cognitive decline. However, it is not necessary to be a professional musician to benefit from musical training. Research shows that even short-term musical training strengthens cognition in the elderly.

The brain is built to change over our lifetime, which can be shaped by experience. Importantly, this happens over time and in response to a specific new skill. Research studies have identified structural and functional differences between the brains of musicians and non-musicians, especially in regions related to motor control and auditory processing. Evidence shows that even short-term musical interventions (干预) can promote brain plasticity and increase grey matter volume. Even passive music listening can result in improved cognitive abilities.

Music can open forgotten doors to our memories — such as weddings, school dances, and parties — with little cognitive effort. Music helps to recall all the memories that you have connected with a song. The “reminiscence bump” is used to describe enhanced memory for events that occur during adolescence (青春期) and early adulthood that are often sharp. A song becomes a soundtrack for a particular time, such as during a summer hanging out with a specific group of friends.

Music has a great power to bring strong emotions and intense pleasure into your mind, thus changing mood. Music can be used as an aid for escaping from everyday life through imagination of your own memories. Moreover, musical activities often involve social functions promoting social contact, cooperation, and a sense of belonging with others.

In sum, music is a powerful tool to fight against aging-related emotional and cognitive disorders. Music is also considered as a social activity, accessible to anyone regardless of background. So, this intervention should become a major policy priority for health y aging.

As I walked through the square, I     1     (invite) to join a dance at the Malaysian booth. In no time, I found     2     (I) in the midst of a large dance circle. People from     3     (difference) backgrounds celebrated together with energetic movements and joyful laughter. Beside me were a girl from Inner Mongolia, China, and a girl from Russia     4     were excited to discover that their hometowns were right next to each other, despite being in different countries.

9 . When you go to concerts, you expect your favorite musician to perform amazingly on stage. But you may have noticed something curious that most musicians don’t just play with their fingers. They also involve body movements that fit the song’s beat or dance following the music.     1     The facial expressions musicians show when playing may seem strange or crazy to an outsider, but all that pulling faces might actually serve a purpose.

Firstly, playing a musical instrument usually requires intense focus and concentration.     2     Their facial expressions can be a demonstration of the intense emotions and physical effort that go hand-in-hand with musical performance. They’re often subconscious-in fact, many of us will pull strange faces when we’re deeply involved in an activity we care about.

    3    Musicians have a strong emotional connection with the music they perform. They often use their facial expressions to express the mood and interpretation of the music, which creates a more engaging musical experience. While facial expressions may not directly make someone a better musician, they might contribute to the overall artistry of the music.

Performing live music is a rather stressful experience, so it could be that the performer is expressing those nerves through their face-biting the bottom lip, for example. Luckily, nerves will often go away soon after a musician starts performing.     4    

The facial expressions obviously to some extent express the performer’s inner world. Another interesting thing is that making facial expressions can have a physiological impact on the musician’s performance. Some research suggests that certain facial movements can activate specific muscles and improve muscle harmonization.     5    However, it’s important to note that this relationship is still not well understood, and the extent to which facial expressions directly impact musical competence is a subject of ongoing investigation.