1 . Diana Ross, American pop singer and actress, achieved international popularity, first as the leader singer of the Supremes and later as a solo(独唱的) artist. Diana Ross was born on March 26, 1944, in Detroit, Michigan. She was the second of six children of Fred and Ernestine Ross, who lived in one of Detroit’s poor districts. Because her family were closely connected with each other,Ross almost didn't notice the difficult life as she grew up.

Ross professional career began in 1959, when she joined several neighborhood friends to form the Primettes. The group was renamed the Supremes after signing a recording contract (合同) with Motown late the following year. The group produced many number-one hit singles (热门单曲) on the US Billboard hot 100, including Baby Love, Stop! In The Name of Love and Someday We Will Be Together. In 1967, the group was renamed Diana Ross and the Supremes, foreshadowing（预示） Ross’solo career,which she started in 1970.

Beginning with Ain’t No Mountain High Enough from her first solo album, Ross enjoyed more than ten years of great success with her hit singles. Ross also developed a film-acting career in the 1970s, beginning with a starring role as blues singer Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues and continuing with Mahogany, for which she also recorded the theme song Do You Know Where You’re Going To.

However, in the mid-1980s, Ross saw her career begin to wane. Most of her albums were re-recordings of earlier material. In 2006, she produced I Love Y ou, a collection of love songs by many artists, and she started an energetic concert tour the following year to make the album publicly known. Although you can’t find her songs on the US Billboard Hot 100 now, Ross remains popular as one   of the leading musical performers of all time.

1. According to the passage, the Supremes ____.

A．had to break up in 1967

B．used to be named the Primettes

C．was made up of Ross and her classmates

D．signed a contract with Motown in 1959

2. Which of the following songs is included in Ross’s first solo album?

A．Baby love.

B．Stop! In the name of love.

C．Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.

D．Someday We’ll Be Together.

3. What can we learn about Do You Know Where You’re Going To?

A．It was the theme song of Mahogany.

B．It was one of Ross’No.1 hit singles.

C．It was sung by a blues singer.

D．It was from Ross’first film.

4. What does the underlined word “wane” in the last paragraph probably mean？

A．Develop faster.

B．End quickly.

C．Start again.

D．Become weaker.

2 . 阅读下面短文，根据其内容写一篇60词左右的内容概要。

Many people are fond of listening to music. Whether it’s light music or jazz music, it can improve our moods. Music has been with us since very early times in human history. Have you ever wondered how music might affect our health?

Research shows that having musical training and listening to or playing music at an old age can help keep the brain healthy. Since listening to music is like exercising the brain, one can expect the benefits of better memory and mental sharpness as he or she ages.

Music can make you feel happy, excited or even pumped up. Listening to music that hits you in a special way causes your brain to release dopamine, which is known as a "feel-good" chemical. It causes us to feel happy and excited. Listening to music provides us with the same burst of happiness that we would get from eating a piece of chocolate.

Music can strengthen the heart and shorten the recovery time of patients who are suffering from heart disease. A study found that heart disease patients who listened to music for 30 minutes had lower blood pressure, slower heart rates and less sadness than those who didn’t. Researchers from Drexel University found that cancer patients who either listened to music or worked with a music therapist had better blood pressure levels and improved moods.

Music can reduce levels of the stress hormone, which weakens the immune(免疫) system, increasing risk of heart disease, affecting learning and memory, lowering bone density (密度) and blood pressure, etc. Research found that by listening to just 50 minutes of uplifting music, the levels of antibodies in the human body increase.

Research has found that listening to music promotes better sleep patterns for people and even creates more restful sleep. In some cases, music might even be able to be used to effectively treat sleeplessness. Music can have positive effects on the soul and quality of life as well.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3 . Teach Yourself How to Play a Musical Instrument

If you're low on cash but interested in learning how to play a new musical instrument, consider some of these tips.

Set a goal for yourself.

    1     Is it to form a rock band with your friends, play with an orchestra, write music, or to simply play for your own enjoyment? Be realistic about your goals when you're just starting to learn how to play a new instrument.    2    

Research different instruments.

Choosing an instrument takes more than just picking the one that looks the most impressive.There can be many variations(变化) in range as well as other factors that affect the sound like the number of strings on a guitar or bass.    3     If so, you can see which one you're most comfortable with.

Take lessons.

Consider learning how to play a musical instrument by yourself.There are plenty of books, training videos, and online resources available.They can teach you how to play most instruments.    4     Take your time while learning, but set aside some time at least every week so that you practise good habits and stay motivated.Once you've mastered basic skills, you'll be well on your way to mastering your chosen instrument.

Never stop learning.

Sometimes it might be frustrating to make little progress or tiresome to keep up with practising.    5     Work hard at what you want to do and always keep improving.

A．What's more, many of them are completely free.

B．Consider carefully what kind of lessons you want.

C．Think over what you would like to get out of this experience.

D．Therefore, you have got pleasure from playing the instrument.

E．However, remember you had a goal that you wanted to achieve.

F．Most importantly, before you buy, consider trying them out for a bit first.

G．It can be time－consuming at first, but the results can be even more rewarding.

4 . A study of 500，000 songs released（发行）in the UK between 1985 and 2015 showed that pop music has decreased in happiness and increased in sadness．

In a report published in the journal Royal Society Open Science，researchers at the University of California examined hundreds of thousands of songs and classified them by their mood．"‘Happiness’is going down，‘sadness’ is going up，and at the same time，the songs are becoming more ‘danceable’ and more ‘party-like，’"co-author Natalia L．Komarova told The Associated Press．

The study found songs in 2014 like "Stay With Me"by Sam Smith，"Whispers" by Passenger and "Unmissable" by Gorgon City to have a "low happiness" trend．However，tracks from 1985 like "Glory Days" by Bruce Springsteen，"Would I Lie To You？" by Eurythmics and "Freedom"by Wham had a high "happiness" trend．"The public seems to prefer happier songs， even though more and more unhappy songs are being released each year，" the researchers wrote．

Apart from the emotional trends，researchers discovered that dance and pop were the most successful styles of music and that there was a "clear downward trend"，with the popularity oF rock beginning in the early 2000s．"So it looks like，while the overall mood is becoming less happy，people seem to want to forget it all and dance，" Komarova wrote in an email．

It was also found that the "maleness" of songs——the frequency of male singers in popular music——had decreased during the last 30 years "Successful songs are characterised by a larger percentage of female artists compared to all songs，"they Wrote．

This discovery appears at a time when the conversation around sex equality in the music industry is at its height，with more male artists and songwriters．

1. The researchers examined lots of songs to       ．

A．find songs for dance and party

B．choose songs for a journal

C．release more songs

D．know better about songs

2. Whose music style tends to bring you more happiness？

A．Natalia L．Komarova’s．	B．Sam Smith’s．
C．Gorgon City’s．	D．Bruce Springsteen’s．

3. What do we know about songs over the past three decades？

A．Rock became popular in the early 2000s．

B．Fewer unhappy songs come to light every year．

C．Male singers are better at perrorming pop music．

D．Female artists are less skilled in writing songs．

4. What can be a suitable title for the text？

A．Pop Music Is Getting Sadder

B．Music Calls for Sex Equality

C．Pop Music Has a Long History

D．Music Industry Is Going Down

5 . At first sight, Alma Deutscher, a twelve-year-old girl from England appears to be like any other typical pre-teen. She loves to skip rope, read and play with her younger sister. But this modest youngster, who composed her first musical work at age six, first short opera at age seven, and first full-length opera based on Cinderella at age ten, is anything but average. Though her parents downplay her extraordinary talent, young Alma is being described as “little Mozart” by the music world

Alma's operatic take on the classic fairy tale, which she began writing at age eight, has a slight twist. Her Cinderella is a musician who meets her Prince Charming through a song. “In my Cinderella, she sings the beginning of a ballad — but at midnight she flees. Eventually, the prince finds her after asking all the maidens of the land to sing the end of the ballad.”

The opera was first performed in Vienna, Australia on December 29, 2016, where the then eleven-year-old skillfully switched between the piano and the violin and receives enthusiastic reviews. The young genius has since performed two new piano works, once in Australia and the other in China.

While this may appear to be a lot for someone so young, Alma is not worried. She says, “of course I have to work hard. But all children have to work hard for exams, and at least when I work hard, I work hard for something incredibly exciting, like seeing my whole opera put on stage.”

Alma's musical talent first came to light before she could even talk. Her parents recall that as an 18-month-old toddler, she was able to hum a pitch perfect version of the children’s rhyme

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

However, Alma’s abilities only gained international attention in 2012, after a family friend posted a video online comparing her to Mozart. The family was suddenly swamped with media requested and Alma became an overnight star, dubbed “little Mozart”. This nickname makes her parents unhappy because they believe it puts added pressure on the young girl. They would instead prefer her to be called “a composer and musician”.

Alma does not want to be compared to the famous artist either, saying, “There was only one Mozart, and I prefer to be little Alma.” Regardless of what she calls herself, the twelve-year-old is changing the world of music forever!

1. What do we know about Alma Deutscher?

A．She has shown great musical talent from a young age.

B．She comes from a famous musical family.

C．She regularly performs the classical music of Mozart.

D．She has adapted some famous works of classical music.

2. How did Alma get to be widely known?

A．By performing on television

B．Through an online video

C．By putting on an opera

D．Through her parents’ promotion

3. What is Alma’s attitude towards her success?

A．She is still unsatisfied with her performance.

B．She is modest about her musical achievements

C．She is uncomfortable with so much pressure.

D．She is proud to have become a professional musician.

4. What can we infer about Alma’s parents?

A．They are very well-educated people.

B．They have made a good life plan for Alma.

C．They have pushed Alma to take up music.

D．They are protective of their daughter.

6 . Reasons why people who learn music are more likely to be successful

I myself became a drummer at around the age of 11, and have played ever since.     1     Nowadays, there is a mountain of evidence suggesting that music education is not only good for you, but very important if you want to be successful in life. So why are people who learn music more likely to be successful? Read on.

They are more creative. Recent research has shown that many successful politicians, businessmen, and people in other fields were trained at a young age to be a musician of some kind.     2     What does matter is that these people credit their music education with making them more creative.

They connect with others better.     3     Even when you are unfamiliar with a location, you can always use your ability to play music to get to know those around you, and establish connections that may have been impossible to create otherwise.

They are better at math. I am not sure if this one applies to me, but it has long been known that there is some kind of connection between math and music.     4     If you can get a sense of music and musical language, mathematical concepts should begin to make more sense.

    5     As a drummer, I know how to keep time in a song and play to the beat. In life, I use those same skills to maintain some order in my schedule. Thus, learning how to maintain a steady pace not only makes for a good musician, but a more productive and effective worker as well.

A．They have more self-control.

B．They have a better sense of rhythm.

C．Becoming successful requires that you be a good listener.

D．Whether they were trained to play the piano or the violin, it doesn’t matter.

E．Music is often thought of as a useful way to connect different cultures and ideas.

F．Both deal with analyzing puzzles and finding patterns in order to work out solutions.

G．From my own experiences, I have believed learning how to play an instrument is beneficial.

7 . Learning to play an instrument is something that can give you a lot of pleasure. It is also an achievement and a skill     1    stays with your life. Music has a part to play in everyone’s life, and has    2    (describe)as “a primary language.”

Learning to play an instrument isn’t easy at the beginning and     3    (take)effort and determination. While it is OK to aim for the top, music is    4    (certain)not something to take up because you think you ought to do it.

A lot of adults regret not having learnt to play an instrument when they    5    (be)younger. But it is never too late to learn! And the     6    (advantage)of learning an instrument are far     7    (great)than just the pleasure of producing an enjoyable sound. When you’ve progressed far enough, there are lots of amateur groups that you can join     8    you want to be part of a larger group. Once you’ve reached a good enough standard    9    (join)a band or orchestra(管弦乐队), you add the team skills like those you get from playing sport. There’s also a great social side to playing       10    others, as well as the chance to travel through touring.

8 . Why read, and sometimes even write poetry? That question is not difficult to answer if we change the word poetry to songs.

I sing when I feel good. When I sing my favorite songs, I feel even better. Sometimes when I am listening to music and to the song words, I feel that it was written for me. A good song always makes me feel something. There are songs that I sing in my head between classes and songs that I want to sing when the school bell rings by the end of the day. They help me get through the day.

They are like bright and warm colors in the middle of grays and shades. I like songs about love and friendship. The extraordinary thing is that my feelings are more special when I sing my favorite songs in English.

I also like reading. I used to avoid poetry until an e-friend told me I should recite poems and not look up the meaning of the words. Poetry uses many difficult words and idioms, but the best thing is to just forget about them. In the beginning I felt quite strange. Now I always lock the door. Reading aloud gives you a strange feeling, but when you have some practice and fall into the rhythm, and the sounds of the words, it is really a special experience.

I started with small poems, but now I think I most like long poems. I have different feelings with different poems. When I have had a bad day at school, I read Keats and forget everything. When I am sad I read Wordsworth by the light of a candle. When the poem is finished, I close the book and my sadness is gone.

1. Which of the following statements is closest in meaning to the underlined sentence?

A．Songs are like different colors in different times.

B．Songs can help people better understand colors.

C．Songs can describe a mixture of different colors.

D．Songs can bring people warmth and comfort.

2. What we can infer from the passage is that______.

A．the writer likes singing songs aloud at any time

B．songs and poems can help get over bad emotions

C．the writer’s native language is English

D．the writer like songs better than poems

3. What can we know about the poems of Keats and Wordsworth through the passage?

A．Keats’ poems are full of bad feelings.

B．Wordsworth’s poems contain much sad description.

C．Both of their poetry can create positive feelings.

D．The themes of their poems are not different at all.

9 . Argentina in the late nineteenth century was an exciting place. Around 1870, it was experiencing an economic boom (繁荣), and the capital, Buenos Aires, attracted many people. Farmers, as well as a flood of foreigners from Spain and Italy, came to Buenos Aires seeking jobs. These jobs didn’t pay well, and the people felt lonely and disappointed with their new life in the city, so the dance known as the tango(探戈舞) came into being.

At the beginning the tango was a dance of the lower classes. It was danced in the bars and streets. At that time there were many fewer women than men, so if a man didn’t want to be left out, his only choice was to dance with another man so that he could attract the attention of the few available women. Gradually, the dance spread into the upper classes of Argentinean society.

In Europe at this time, strong interest in dance from around the world was beginning.

The interest in international dance was especially evident in Paris. Every kind of dance from ballet(芭蕾舞) to belly dancing could be found on the stages of the Paris theaters. After arriving in Europe, tango dances began to draw the interest of the public. Though not everyone liked the new dance, saying it was a little too shocking, the dance did find enough supporters to make it popular.

The popularity of the tango continued to grow all over the world. Soldiers who returned to the United States from World War I brought the tango to North America. It reached Japan in 1926, and in 2003 the Argentinean embassy in Seoul hired a local tango dancer to act as a kind of dance ambassador, and made tango dancing spread throughout South Korea.

1. The origin of the tango came from ________.

A．belly dances	B．American soldiers
C．Spanish city	D．the capital of Argentina

2. Which of the following is true about the tango?

A．It first came from Spain and Italy.

B．People of the upper classes loved the tango most

C．It was often danced by two men in the beginning.

D．A dancer in Seoul became the Argentinean ambassador.

3. Before World War I, the tango spread to ________.

A．America	B．Japan
C．France	D．South Korea

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．How to Dance the Tango	B．The History of the Tango
C．How to Promote the Tango	D．The Modern Tango Boom

10 . 书面表达。
假如你是李华，你最喜欢的歌手Justin Bieber（贾斯汀·比伯）下个月将到你市演出。近日你准备和几个朋友成立Justin Bieber的歌迷俱乐部（fan club）。请你给你的加拿大笔友Freddy发一封e­mail，内容要点如下；
1. 喜欢Justin Bieber的理由；
2. 希望Freddy就如何办好歌迷俱乐部提出建议。
注意：
1. 词数100左右；
2. 可适当发挥，以使行文连贯。
Dear Freddy,
I’m more than delighted to tell you that Justin Bieber, my favorite singer…________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua