1 . MUSICAL HERITAGES FROM ANCIENT CHINA
Since remote antiquity, Chinese people have used music to record their lives and describe the ideals in their hearts. Catchy tunes are not only played on precious instruments, but also visualized in carvings, paintings, and buildings. Feel free to explore here!
Han Dynasty (202 BC — AD 220)
This period marked the significant development of the manufacturing of guqin and its music. The example unearthed from the Mawangdui Han Dynasty Tomb in Changsha, Hunan province, proves that guqin had developed into the form known today during that period.
Northern Wei Dynasty (386 — 534)
Buddhism (佛教) and its musical culture spread extensively during this period. Buddhist temples provided places for musical activities, which were recorded in many of the-existing stone carvings. Located in Gongyi, Henan province, the Grotto Temple is famous for its reliefs (浮雕) representing musical events. They are precious historical materials reflecting the music characteristics of the dynasty.
Song Dynasty (960 — 1279)
With economic development, a variety of musical cultures emerged to meet the entertainment needs of different social classes. Part of the painting “Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival” vividly reveals a storytelling performance. The painter adopted delicate techniques to truly record a street performer, whose superb skills are reflected by each listener’s show of appreciation.
Ming Dynasty (1368 — 1644)
At this time, traditional Chinese operas developed rapidly, promoting the formation of many singing styles. People began to enjoy operas and drama stages were built. Covering a construction area of more than 160 square meters, the Fancun village drama stage in Shanxi province provides rich materials for the study of the local folk culture.
1. Which heritage would a fan of classical instruments explore?| A．The Ming Dynasty drama stage. | B．The Song Dynasty painting. |
| C．The Northern Wei Dynasty temple. | D．The Han Dynasty tomb. |
| A．Religion. | B．Economy. | C．Politics. | D．Technology. |
| A．Ming Dynasty witnessed the boom of traditional Chinese operas. |
| B．Most of the drama stages were built during the Northern Wei Dynasty. |
| C．The musical culture of Buddhism was developed during the Han Dynasty. |
| D．Buddhist temples were the main places for music al activities in the Song Dynasty. |
2 . Music can really affect your well-being, learning, quality of life, and even happiness. The fact that music can make a difficult task more tolerable may be why students often choose to listen to it while doing their homework. But is listening to music the smart choice for students who want to improve their learning? A new study suggests that for some students, listening to music is a wise strategy, but for others, it isn’t. The effect of music on cognitive (认知的) function appears to depend partly on your personality — specifically, on your need for external stimulation (刺激).
Researchers not only assessed listeners’ personality but also changed the difficulty of the task and the complexity of the music. Participants first completed a personality test used to determine the need for external stimulation. Then, they engaged in an easy cognitive task (searching for the letter A in lists of words) and a more challenging one (remembering word pairs) in order. Participants finished both tasks under one of two sound conditions: (1) no music, (2) with music.
The data suggests that for those with a high need of external stimulation, on the simple task of finding A’s, the scores for the music condition were significantly worse than those for the silent condition. On the complex task of learning word pairs, their performance was worse whenever music was played. For those with a low need of external stimulation, however, on the simple task, such participants’ scores for the music condition were much better than those for the silent condition. On the complex task of learning word pairs, the participants showed a small but reliable benefit when listening to music.
According to the study, there are individual differences in the impact of music on cognitive function. Students who are easily bored and who seek out stimulation should be cautious of adding music to the mix. On the other hand, students with a low need for stimulation may benefit significantly from the presence of music.
With the right personality, the right music and the right task, the presence of music may significantly improve cognitive functioning. Given the benefits of music, subscription to Spotify will be rewarding!
1. What is the function of the first paragraph?| A．To explain what is stimulation. | B．To lead into the topic. |
| C．To make a prediction. | D．To offer some advice. |
| A．It is done under one and only sound condition. |
| B．Participants only need to complete a personality test. |
| C．The difficulty of the two tasks decreased in the experiment. |
| D．Participants were grouped by their needs for external stimulation. |
| A．The complexity of tasks might reduce the benefit of music. |
| B．Students should listen to music when performing complex tasks. |
| C．Students with less external stimulation perform badly with music. |
| D．The presence of music benefits students who seek for external stimulation. |
| A．A dictionary. |
| B．A psychology journal. |
| C．A music platform. |
| D．A personality test. |
1. 个人经历事例；2. 个人感受；3. 祝愿。
注意：1. 词数100左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
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Emily White was born seventeen years ago with many physical issues affecting her tiny body. Some of her organs, bones and muscles were out of shape. Though no one expected her to survive, she did make it. But she had a strange figure that everyone could recognize, even from a distance.
In Emily’s hometown, there was a yearly outdoor performance in the school hall at Christmas. It had been performed for so many years that it had become one of the most important events for many of the townsfolk. Each year, many people tried out for the show, but most were turned down. Only the best performers could be included.
Emily had a most beautiful singing voice. Last year, she asked Mrs. Owens, her music teacher, if she could join in the performance. Mrs. Owens took a look at her body and said, “Child, you just don’t fit. Everyone would stare at you and that would make you uncomfortable. It would make them uncomfortable too.”
Without singing a single note, Mrs. Owens sent Emily back through the door of the choral room (合唱室). Hurt and upset, Emily decided never to try out again. But things changed as the following school year, Mrs. Owens retired and a new music teacher arrived—Mr. Butler.
He had heard about Emily and suggested that she give it a try again. Emily didn’t want to be rejected again, so she hesitated about it. But finally her love for singing and strong desire to join in the performance outweighed her hesitation. She tried out again and learnt the result would be posted the next day on the door of the choral room.
Emily couldn’t sleep that night, having turned in bed back and forth thousand times as she was worried that she would be rejected again and would never fit in.
Paragraph 1:The nex tday, Emily hurried to school and anxiously glanced at the list of the result.
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Finally, the day of the performance came.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The lion dance is a
Two dancers dress up as the lion. One dancer holds the large head of the brightly colored costume and the other dancer is the body. The dancers have to be very fit as they perform lots of moves. They dance to music
People will often hang the head of a lettuce (生菜) from ceilings or doorways. The lion will go in search
6 . I recently went to a jam session (即兴演奏) with some other musicians in town. When I used to jam with other musicians, I spent more time in my head
Because of this, our
Afterwards, the musicians I played with told me they felt like our hearts were
I believe that the best musicians in the world have this in
| A．talking | B．setting | C．thinking | D．learning |
| A．actually | B．obviously | C．curiously | D．gracefully |
| A．official | B．attractive | C．fluent | D．attentive |
| A．plan | B．music | C．dance | D．purpose |
| A．enjoying | B．playing | C．reviewing | D．comparing |
| A．no doubt | B．no longer | C．in fact | D．in particular |
| A．confusing | B．foreign | C．native | D．global |
| A．lost | B．connected | C．touched | D．broken |
| A．variety | B．length | C．level | D．factor |
| A．begging | B．burying | C．believing | D．sharing |
| A．common | B．order | C．practice | D．future |
| A．audience | B．families | C．readers | D．group |
| A．demanded | B．doubted | C．realized | D．decided |
| A．honour | B．luck | C．news | D．joy |
| A．look | B．listen | C．recover | D．compete |
| A．Their favorite singers. | B．A dance party. | C．A band. |
8 . We’re all familiar (熟悉的) with songs getting stuck in our head (挥之不去) while we’re awake, but it turns out this can happen during sleep as well. A new study shows that earworms getting into our brains at night could cause problems in getting to sleep and staying asleep.
Neuroscientist Michael Scullin from Baylor University and his coworkers used surveys of 199 people, as well as a sleep lab test involving 50 volunteers, to measure the influence of listening to music before bedtime on sleep.
In the survey part of the study, those who regularly listened to music during the day were more likely to report lasting nighttime earworms, which then had a negative effect on sleep quality through the night. For the lab test, individuals were played instrumental or standard versions (版本) of Shake It Off by Taylor Swift, Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen, and Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey. Tests were used to measure their sleep quality.
Earworms were reported throughout the night by the people surveyed, with those taking longer to fall asleep, spending more time in the light stages of sleep, and waking up more times during the night. Surprisingly, the instrumental versions of the songs caused about twice as many earworms and more sleep problems than the standard ones.
Past studies have connected late-night music listening with better sleep in those with insomnia, perhaps because it can relax the body. The researchers behind the new study suggest that actually it might be worse for our sleep - even after the tunes (歌曲) stop, our brains continue to process them for several hours.
Scullin suggests avoiding listening to music right before bed to limit the chance of catching earworms. Doing some other cognitive (认知的) activity before sleeping, like making a list of jobs for the next day, might also help clear the mind, Scullin says.
1. Which description best explains earworms?| A．Worms entering one’s ears. | B．Worms stuck in one’s brain. |
| C．Problems caused by sleeplessness. | D．Tunes repeating in one’s mind. |
| A．Different music has the same effect on sleep at night. |
| B．Our brain stops processing music when we are asleep. |
| C．Daytime music listening has a negative effect on sleep. |
| D．Late-night music listening contributes to sleep at night. |
| A．Unfamiliarity. | B．Annoyance. |
| C．Confusion. | D．Sleeplessness. |
| A．By working out a schedule for tomorrow. | B．By doing exercise to relax the body. |
| C．By listening to music right before bed. | D．By doing nothing to clear the mind. |
There was a girl named Emily. Although her singing was pleasant to hear, lacking of courage, she never sings in front of strangers.
One summer, the neighborhood would hold a singing competition. Her best friend, Lucy, came to invite her to participate in the competition, but Emily said, “I’m afraid to take part in it.” Her mother said, “It’s okay; just do it bravely.” Emily followed her mom’s ad vice and decided to have a try. The day came. Emily and Lucy went to the competition site. But she was too timid (胆小的) to walk onto the stage. She had been waiting until others finished singing. She shakily forced herself to stand on the stage. She started to sing, but her voice was so low. What’s worse, she was so nervous that she forgot the lyrics (歌词) after singing a few words. Being laughed at by others, embarrassed and shy, she ran away from the stage.
Some boys ran after her and said, “Emily, coward (胆小鬼)! Emily, coward!” Emily didn’t argue with them. What she wanted was to go back home as quickly as she could. Finally, she rushed into the house, hugged her mom and cried sadly.
“Well, my poor girl, don’t cry. Tell me what happened to you,” asked her mom. Emily told her mother what she had experienced.
Listening to her, her mom cupped her face and said, “It doesn’t matter, girl. As long as you practice singing more in front of strangers, you will become braver little by little. So, my girl, don’t be beaten by a failure. You can go out to practice singing every day. No matter who is listening to you, go on singing and never stop. I believe there will be a harvest for you.”
注意：1. 续写的短文词数应为100 左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Emily listened to her mother carefully and followed her mom’s suggestion.
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Going on singing, she walked into the park.
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10 . My parents always told me that I couldn’t dance, because it was a girl’s sport. But I never gave up my dream of becoming a dancer, I practised secretly, learning from books, movies, and shows. However, without my parents’ support, that
One summer, my little sister Maggie was going to dance lessons. I immediately asked my parents for permission(允许) to take her to the lessons. What a
One afternoon, I was
“What’s the matter, Maggie?” I stopped
“Denis, you are a great dancer! Can you help me?”
“What is it?” I wondered.
“There’ll be a dancing performance in my school,
“You can be a good dancer!” I
In the following months, we practised every evening,
Finally came the big day. I became
My heart was beating wildly when I saw my father coming towards me. He put his hand on my shoulder. “Well done, son. Though it is hard for me to
I’d been waiting for this moment for so long. I knew that the road ahead wasn’t going to be easy, but I wouldn’t
| A．line | B．dream | C．answer | D．message |
| A．similar | B．funny | C．good | D．strange |
| A．playing | B．struggling | C．achieving | D．practising |
| A．drawing | B．dancing | C．singing | D．writing |
| A．but | B．or | C．so | D．if |
| A．happily | B．anxiously | C．slowly | D．angrily |
| A．asked | B．believed | C．encouraged | D．informed |
| A．sad | B．lazy | C．sorry | D．wrong |
| A．chatting | B．resting | C．sleeping | D．hiding |
| A．shy | B．bored | C．nervous | D．angry |
| A．music | B．lesson | C．meeting | D．party |
| A．arrived | B．finished | C．succeeded | D．regretted |
| A．admit | B．catch | C．cause | D．agree |
| A．took away | B．paid for | C．fell into | D．belonged to |
| A．give up | B．give in | C．give out | D．give away |
