1 . Last year, there were 38 student members and a full-time teacher in the school band. But over the summer, the director took another job and the school board had no applicants for the vacant position.
“It was such a downer,” remembers Jadyn Lane. “But we were given a choice — we could sign up for other electives (选修课), or find a way to make the band work.” Most students signed up for other electives, but 10 students decided to stay.
“It wasn’t an option to quit,” says Hailey Fitzgerald. “I’ve been in the band for seven years. I love it! It’s too important for too many reasons.” The students elected Hailey as director, a position she accepted on the condition they would all work together and share responsibilities. They recruited Casey Griffith and Jennifer Nail-Cook to be their official faculty advisors. Casey did the paperwork, and Jennifer helped with the music.
They directed themselves. Front and center on the band room whiteboard are a set of rules which they created themselves. In addition, they made a calendar (日历) of their upcoming events, like football games. It included a daily countdown to each event so they’d be prepared.
Perhaps most importantly, they decided which instruments were necessary to make a band of this size work. Most of them were drummers. How could they play those instruments with the people they had? “Several members switched instruments and some even learnt brand new ones,” Hailey says.
The time came last month for their first public performance. It was a home football game against Richwood. They had no idea what to expect. Would it work? Would the crowd cheer them on? Would they cheer up the football team? To their surprise, a group of students made posters for the band and hung them at the entrance to the football field. “We thought some people didn’t even know we still had a band,” says Jadyn. But their classmates had been paying attention and wanted to make their first game special. And their school won.
1. What do the underlined words “a downer” in paragraph 2 mean?| A．Something rewarding. | B．Something demanding. |
| C．Something frightening. | D．Something disappointing. |
| A．They redefined their roles. | B．They sought help from parents. |
| C．They learnt to beat drums. | D．They joined the football team. |
| A．It drew little attention. | B．It was a huge success. |
| C．It won lots of bonuses. | D．It was a total mess. |
| A．Confident. | B．Sensible. | C．Devoted. | D．Ambitious. |
| A．Their favorite singers. | B．A dance party. | C．A band. |
| A．A book. | B．A movie. | C．A song. |
In early June,2023, Wang Pushi, a young man from Beijing with a background in Kunqu Opera and also the lead singer of a rock band,
Wang’s performance
Wang has been studying the
Wang expressed his hope that through
1. What is the woman doing?
| A．Signing up for a dancing lesson. |
| B．Buying some dancing shoes. |
| C．Practising a dance performance. |
| A．Ballet. | B．Modern dance. | C．Tap dance. |
| A．Shelley. | B．Carl. | C．Jane. |
| A．To improve her dance skill. | B．To teach others to dance. | C．To enjoy the free lessons. |
6 . 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. |
7 . 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 |
8 . Samuel Osmond is a 19-year-old law student from Cornwall, England. He never studied the
Samuel can’t
Recently, Samuel performed a piece during a special event at his college. The
As a teenager, he doesn’t know what he wants to do in the
| A．song | B．piano | C．guitar | D．law |
| A．played | B．acted | C．spotted | D．enjoyed |
| A．worried | B．delighted | C．attracted | D．surprised |
| A．perfectly | B．roughly | C．simply | D．nearly |
| A．studies | B．likes | C．appreciates | D．knows |
| A．wonder | B．understand | C．explain | D．explore |
| A．turned up | B．brought up | C．showed up | D．grew up |
| A．questions | B．advantages | C．lessons | D．plans |
| A．mind | B．heart | C．head | D．soul |
| A．lawyers | B．singers | C．musicians | D．audiences |
| A．Thus | B．Therefore | C．However | D．Instead |
| A．learned | B．heard | C．taught | D．caught |
| A．pieces | B．note | C．story | D．text |
| A．life | B．career | C．way | D．future |
| A．trust | B．realize | C．continue | D．end |
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号(/\)，并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线(\)划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词;
2. 只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起)不计分。
Music was a universal language to all human beings, what has the most powerful magic in the world. First, it can make us to feel relaxed both mentally and physically. Second, music can cheer us up whenever we meet difficulties and feel sadly. In addition, music can be great help to learn another culture.
There are different variety of music, such as popular music, classical music, rock music and so on. Of all the music, I like popular music better. For one thing, with beautiful melody, it is pleasant to hearing. For another, most popular music deal with the topics of love and friendship, which appeal to we young people.
10 . It is difficult for a teacher to decide whether to allow students to listen to music in the classroom. Every time students need to write an essay or work on a problem, they say, “Can I put my headphones on? I think better that way.” But is that really true? Does music help concentrate?
Research offers little to back up the idea that listening to music improves concentration. In one small study, 133 students performed reading tasks while listening to either light music, hip hop, or no music at all. Students who performed the reading tasks in silence scored the highest. Music with a higher intensity (强度) like hip hop was more distracting and had a bad effect on task performance.
Volume (音量) plays a more important role than the type of music. The study found that the louder the music, the worse the performance in concentration. The type of music didn’t matter. Data from the study showed once again that silence was the best environment to improve concentration.
However, music has a positive effect on work performance. Studies have showed that listening to music leads to positive changes in mood, as well as creativity. In fact, in music-listening cultures, which students are certainly part of, there’s actually a change in mood when the music is taken away.
It’s hard to convince my students that music doesn’t help with their concentration. Taj, a senior told me, “I wouldn’t be able to concentrate if I were listening to music and trying to read. However, when I write, I feel like music helps me concentrate deeply. I don’t have writer’s block. It’s easy for me to put my words on paper.”
“Maybe not with reading, but when it comes to math, listening to music certainly helps,” Danela told me. “You could actually be singing along with what you’re listening to and doing well in math.”
1. What does the underlined word “distracting” in paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Making it difficult for someone to concentrate. |
| B．Causing great excitement. |
| C．Making someone want to do something. |
| D．Making someone feel frightened. |
| A．Students do well in reading tasks while listening to music. |
| B．Music can’t improve people’s mood and creativity. |
| C．Different types of music lead to different performances. |
| D．The volume of music affects concentration. |
| A．They believe music doesn’t help concentrate. |
| B．They use music to help with their paper-writing. |
| C．They can’t focus on reading while listening to music. |
| D．They don’t listen to music while doing math problems. |
| A．Should Students Listen to Music? | B．Does Music Help Concentration? |
| C．Is Music Related to Reading? | D．Can Music Change Mood? |
