1 . I suffered a stroke (中风) in March 2013, then mostly recovered (康复) and realized I had been very
I learned slowly with my first teacher. Then after two years, I started with a man. He seemed
“I won’t be doing that,” he said. “I expect you to learn the
Our class lasted three months. However, in our last lesson before Christmas, he strongly criticized (批评) me, saying that I played with the
When I saw him again, I played the same
There was silence. Then, surprisingly, he said he could see I had put
From that day, he changed. He became kind and warm. He
It is the piano that helps me get over the stroke and find my confidence again.
1.| A．free | B．tired | C．lucky | D．cold |
| A．young | B．clever | C．famous | D．healthy |
| A．feeling | B．chance | C．worry | D．trouble |
| A．surprise | B．attract | C．save | D．discourage |
| A．strict | B．mad | C．satisfied | D．funny |
| A．asked | B．described | C．learned | D．considered |
| A．benefits | B．stories | C．notes | D．letters |
| A．teacher | B．student | C．doctor | D．family |
| A．strong | B．common | C．different | D．wrong |
| A．fear | B．peace | C．sadness | D．excitement |
| A．song | B．trick | C．match | D．sport |
| A．interest | B．pressure | C．money | D．effort |
| A．angrily | B．patiently | C．secretly | D．probably |
| A．challenge | B．limit | C．develop | D．copy |
| A．painting | B．literature | C．running | D．music |
1. What does the woman say about jazz dancing?
| A．It is tiring. | B．It is difficult. | C．It is interesting. |
| A．$80. | B．$100. | C．$160. |
| A．Keep practicing at home. |
| B．Wear comfortable shoes. |
| C．Contact the teacher in advance. |
3 . Singer-songwriters write songs, but how do they do it? Where do musicians get their inspiration from? What comes first — the music or the lyrics (歌词)? It turns out that everyone has their own way of writing which works for them.
Bob Dylan
He is a musician with a unique musical style, which has been described as folk rock, gospel, country and jazz. He told the BBC that he gets a lot of his writing inspiration from novels like Don Quixote and Robinson Crusoe. He said “They give you a way of looking at life and understanding of human nature and a standard to measure things by.” He has had a career spanning six decades and has won many songwriting awards.
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim, a musical theatre composer who died in 2021, said in an interview with The New Yorker that, when it comes to songwriting, the stress in a phrase is very important for him. “You can start writing a lyric, and then the inflection (变音) of the lyric suggests a tune.” Therefore, in his way of writing, the music and lyrics come at roughly the same time.
Taylor Swift
In 2022, Taylor Swift won a Songwriter-Artist of the Decade Award. In her speech, she said lyrics are her favourite part of songwriting. She describes the majority of her songs as having a “modern storyline or references, with a poetic twist” and commonly uses real life experiences and conversations as influence.
John Denver
Denver earned international reputation as a songwriter, performer, actor, environmentalist and humanitarian. John said, “I obtain endless muse from my experiences in environmental and humanitarian work.” John was one of the first artists to share an environmental message through his music.
1. What type of music does Stephen Sondheim compose?| A．Folk rock. | B．Musical play. | C．Country music. | D．Jazz. |
| A．Bob Dylan’s. | B．Stephen Sondheim’s. | C．John Denver’s. | D．Taylor Swift’s. |
| A．Culture. | B．Art. | C．Literature. | D．Language. |
4 . As is a very common phenomenon, students are listening to music while studying or doing homework. In libraries, many choose to isolate themselves from the outside wearing headphones, and the same is true of some offices. Whether or not there is isolation, however, what these people have in common is that they see music as a tool that can improve concentration and productivity in general.
But is it true? Does music really help us focus better on what we’re doing, whether it’s memorizing text, studying complex topics, or writing projects?
Scientific studies have been carried out on this subject for many decades among other things, because if music can be used to improve the performance of students or workers, this information can be very useful for organizations able to finance this type of study.
For example, the results of a study were published in 1972 and it was designed to try to better understand the relationship between listening to melodies and changes in productivity. Through a series of observations, there was an increase in the performance of workers when listening to music from loudspeakers.
However, this study was the daughter of its time, and was only used to study a very specific and representative working context of the time: that of factories. Workforce tasks were repetitive, predictable and boring, and the music acted as a stimulant of mental activity. As the work was more rewarding and enjoyable, the productivity results were also better.
Other research that took place later served to reinforce (加强) the idea that music improves the performance of routine tasks. This was good news, but what about the most complex and creative jobs — those which cannot be carried out by machines? What about studying complex academic programs, which cannot be memorized literally but need to be understood and mentally worked on?
1. How does the author find the idea that music can improve concentration?| A．Curious. | B．Opposed. | C．Supportive. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．It didn’t make any difference. | B．It improved workers’ efficiency. |
| C．It held back the creative workers. | D．It made workforce tasks more boring. |
| A．The lack of researchers. | B．The short time of research. |
| C．The limitation of times. | D．The small number of participants. |
| A．How listening to music affects creative jobs. |
| B．Whether listening to music helps routine tasks. |
| C．Why people like listening to music when working. |
| D．What kind of music helps people improve their performance. |
1. What did the speakers see?
| A．A ballet. | B．A concert. | C．A film. |
| A．The hot weather. | B．The boring performance. | C．The quiet music. |
6 . Chinese traditional painting and dance are two vital parts of the art world. But what about when they meet each other?
This year, a dance drama titled Poetic Dance: The Journey of a Legendary Landscape Painting (《只此青绿》) was staged on CCTV’ Spring Festival Gala and went viral.
According to CCTV, this poetic dance programme was inspired by the about 900-year-old Chinese painting A Panorama of Rivers and Mountains(《千里江山图》). Created by Song Dynasty painter Wang Ximeng at the age of 18, the painting is amazing in its marvellous size, rich coloration and the expressive details, reported CCTV. It shows a Chinese blue-green landscape: mountains and groupings of infinite rise and fall between cloudless sky and rippling water.
When the dancers moved elegantly, audiences seemed to be looking at the moving mountains and rivers. “It brings me a pure experience of beauty. It is not only dance but also an ‘exhibition’. Vast mountains and rivers are coming to life!” An Internet user Mo Weisha wrote in a review, “About a thousand years later, green mountains and rivers still wow people as they did long ago.
Some people even decided to watch the dance again when it was staged in the theaters later. In fact, in recent years, more and more modern shows highlight Chinese traditional culture and have received warm welcome. As for why, it is due to people’s great love for traditional culture.
“The younger generations have grown up with a more open mindset. They embrace Chinese culture and are proud of it. ”Yao Wei, director of Henan TV Station’s Innovation Center, told China Daily.
1. What is the function of Paragraph 1 in the text?| A．To present a common phenomenon. | B．To compare painting with dance. |
| C．To describe the art world. | D．To introduce the topic. |
| A．It was painted in several bright colors. |
| B．It shows natural beauty vividly. |
| C．It was created over thousand years ago. |
| D．It is of small size but includes great details. |
| A．People are more open to traditional culture. |
| B．People are happy to see new forms of art. |
| C．Chinese culture has been spreading around the world. |
| D．People have gained more access to traditional culture. |
| A．Passion for Chinese Traditional Painting |
| B．Art Coming Alive Through Poetic Dance |
| C．Connection Between Painting and Dance |
| D．Highlights in Traditional Chinese Culture |
7 . Twenty-five young musicians from around the world have come to California to train and perform this month. They will take part in an international program called iPalpiti. The name comes from the Italian word for heartbeats. Eduard Schmieder is the program's conductor and musical director. Schmieder and his wife started the program in 1997 with help from the great violinist Yehudi Menuhin.
This year, the festival concentrates on music from the 1600s to the 1900s and the musicians come from 19 countries, including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Israel and Italy, Schmieder notes some of the musicians are from countries that are at war with each other. And they are sitting next to each other, and they become friends. He says through their music and friendship, they are making the world more peaceful. Also, cello (大提琴) player Francisco Vila from Ecuador said, “Music is our common language, having no geographic boundaries.” Vila added that the musicians get to know more about each other as they perform great music. “It’s interesting to see where we intersect (相交) and how many things we have in common. And also the music world is quite small, so you’re only one person away from knowing everyone else.”
The musicians taking part in the program are of ages from their late teens to their 30s. Schmieder said they include winners of major music competitions. Peter Rainer is a violin player from Germany. He serves as concertmaster, the link between the musicians and conductor.
“The experience is a cultural as well as a musical exchange,” said Russian violinist Semyo Promoe, “and everyone has their own opinion of music, knowing how to play every composition. It’s very interesting to interact with everybody and play together.”
1. What do we know about iPalpiti?| A．It aims to train young musicians only. |
| B．It concentrates on classical music. |
| C．It’s an international musical festival. |
| D．It was started by an Italian musician. |
| A．Dividing lines. | B．Cultural differences. |
| C．Travelling problems. | D．National connections. |
| A．The program concentrates more on culture than on music. |
| B．Musicians from different cultures can play well together. |
| C．Cultural differences affect musicians’ performance a lot. |
| D．Different people have the same understanding of music. |
| A．Two. | B．Three. | C．Four. | D．Five. |
8 . Briefly, music puts you in high spirits, which makes you better at studying - but it also distracts you, which makes you worse at studying. So if you want to study effectively with music on, you can try to reduce how distracting music can be, and increase the level to which music keeps you cheerful.
You may have heard of the Mozart effect -- the idea that listening to Mozart makes you “smarter”, which is based on research that found listening to complex classical music like Mozart improved test scores in mathematics. However, further research eventually debunked the Mozart effect theory: it had not really anything to do with maths; it was really just music that puts you in high spirits.
However, music can be a distraction under certain circumstances. When you study, you’re using your “working memory”--- that means you’re holding and handling several bits of information in your head immediately. The research is fairly clear that when there’s music in the background, especially music with vocals (歌唱 部分)，your working memory gets worse. Likely as a result, the reading comprehension ability is reduced when people listen to music with lyrics. Music also appears to be more distracting for people who are introverts (内向的人)than for people who are extroverts, perhaps because introverts are more easily overexcited.
Aiming to figure out the relative effect of these two competing factors — spirits and distraction, researchers had participants do a fairly demanding comprehension task, and listen to classical music which was either slow or fast, and which was either soft or loud. They found poor performances only occurred when people were listening to music that was both fast and loud.
To sum up, research suggests it’s probably fine to listen to music while you’re studying. But you’d better consider if the music puts you in high spirits, if it’s neither too fast nor too loud, if it’s less wordy, and if you’re not too introverted.
1. What does the underlined word “debunked” in Paragraph 2 mean ?| A．Disapproved. | B．Developed. | C．Examined. | D．Proposed. |
| A．Rapid rap music. | B．Background music. |
| C．Fast piano music. | D．Soft absolute music. |
| A．Spirits are vital to task performances. |
| B．Slow music can easily lead to distraction. |
| C．Fast and loud music isn’t fit for comprehension tasks. |
| D．Soft music is more suitable to introverts than extroverts. |
| A．The right choices of music while studying. |
| B．The benefits of listening to music while studying. |
| C．The main ways of enjoying music while studying. |
| D．The influences of listening to music while studying. |
China is a
Once, he took a boat trip to the state of Chu.
Now, the phrase “high mountains and flowing water”
