1 . Why do people listen to music? The answer may seem simple: Music is pleasant to make and to hear. But music touches our lives in many other ways, too.

My brother doesn’t choose music based on what he wants to hear. Instead, he decides what he wants to feel and picks music with that mood in mind. Upbeat, bright-sounding music generally makes people feel happy. But some people enjoy listening to sad music, too. It can be like talking with a friend who understands your suffering. But for some people, sad music can make them feel even sadder.

Do you ever listen to music while you work? I do, and I find that it sometimes helps me concentrate. According to one expert, music can help you pay attention to boring or repeated tasks. But when you are doing tasks that require more thought, music can disturb (打扰) you, making them harder.

My mom, a preschool teacher, uses music to manage her class. When she wants to call a child, instead of yelling the child’s name, she sings it. This creates a more positive environment, while still getting the child’s attention.

Music can also bring people closer to each other. This is especially true of music played live. Live music often features a group of people playing different instruments, which makes it a shared experience. Listeners can share in the emotions the song expresses. They also create memories together.

And speaking of memories, lots of people connect music with specific places, people or events. Whenever they hear a certain song, they are transported back to some points in the past. Thus music can connect people not only to present people but also to people from their past.

Music is far more than just entertainment; it is a powerful force that affects us in many ways.

2 . Music is said to be a universal language. But for Chase Burton, a deaf filmmaker, music has always been a different experience.

“When I was a kid, I used to lie on the floor above our garage so that I could feel the vibrations (震动) from my brother’s band rocking out below my body. That was one of the first times I began building a relationship with music,” said Burton.

In 2016, his ability to experience music changed completely, thanks to the California-based technology company Not Impossible Labs. It designed a vibrating suit. The suit enables deaf people to “feel” music through their skin. It can translate audio into a range of vibrating pulses that are felt at 24 points of contact. Burton has been wearing the suit for four years. “The sound drubs different parts of my body,” said Burton. “It strikes me on my ankles first. And then I start to feel the vibrations on my back and wrists.”

The creators want to extend the musical experience beyond the deaf community. In 2018, they gave out 150 vibrating suits at a rock concert where half the audience members were deaf and half could hear. From then on, the creators worked to improve the technology and wanted the suit to become a consumer product accessible to all, which would be used in live sports broadcasts or video games.

As a writer and director, Burton has been working to make the movie world more inclusive. For his latest movie he hired all-deaf staff and actors. Burton hopes that the vibrating suits will be available to his film audiences in the future. He believes that the suits can improve emotions while people are watching a movie for normal people as well as the deaf. “I see the tech as a real opportunity to help people understand that music or movies don’t always need to be enjoyed through the ears,” said Burton.

3 . Since the age of three, Chelsie Hill had dreamed of becoming a dancer. However, her _______ nearly ended in 2010. A car accident left her paralyzed (使瘫痪) from the waist down.

For most people, that would have _______ any hope of a dancer’s dancing career. For Hill, it was the beginning.

_______ Hill did it, rolling her wheelchair right alongside her high school dance team. “It feels as if half of my body were _______ from me, and I have to move it with my hands,” Hill said. “But it’s not easy to do it. It definitely took a lot of _______ and patience.”

After graduation, Hill wanted to _______ her dance network to include women like her. She began to meet people online who had suffered similar injuries. Then in 2014, Hill moved to Los Angeles and formed a team of dancers with disabilities called the Rollettes. “I want to _______ the stereotype (刻板印象) of wheelchair users and show dance is dance, whether you’re walking or you’re _______.”

In disabled dance competitions, her team danced to the popular tunes, _______ their upper bodies, shaking their heads to the special beats and __________ their wheelchairs in well-timed, highly designed routines. They were having fun, and as the audience’ exuberant (热情洋溢的) reactions showed, the fun was __________.

Hill has attained what many of us never will obtain: her childhood __________. She’s a dancer. And the Rollettes have helped her find something else just as __________. Every year she holds a dance camp for other wheelchair users to help them find their inner __________. For participants, it was the first time they’d felt __________.