3 . Music is not just a set of sounds and rhythms. Its influence on the brain is much deeper than any other human experience. Keep on reading to know all those amazing powers of music.

A recent study suggests that preterm (早产的) babies appear to experience less pain and feed more when listening to music. Experts led by Dr. Manoj Kumar of the University of Alberta, Canada, found that music had a beneficial effect on reducing pain for preterm babies experiencing painful medical tests. It also appeared to benefit full-term babies during operations.

Many people experiencing brain damage have speech and movement-related problems. Music can help recover from brain injuries. As a different and effective treatment, doctors often advise such patients to listen to good music to improve the parts of the brain responsible for these two functions. When people with neurological (神经系统的) disorders hear a musical beat, it helps them to regain a balanced walk.

Though music cannot make deafness disappear, it really can stave off the loss of hearing. There was an experiment involving 163 people where 74 were musicians. Participants were asked to pass some listening tests. Musicians heard the sounds better than non-musicians, and this difference gets clearer with age. This means that a 70-year-old musician bears better than a 50-year-old non-musician, even in a noisy environment.

Besides, music mends a broken heart. It is not about a thrown-away love, but about a heart attack. The matter is that music can help people recover from a heart attack or heart operation by reducing blood pressure, slowing down the heartbeat rate, and reducing anxiety. Listening to the quality music produces positive emotions, improves the movement of blood, and expands blood vessels, thus, promoting quick recovery of the whole cardiovascular (心血管的) system.

5 . A group of middle-aged dads formed a dance team to perform at their kids’ school but unexpectedly gained popularity on social media, having over 300,000 followers—one of them is famous actor Hugh Jackman. The “Outta” Puff Daddys first came together in 2012 in Brighton for a surprise performance at their children’s annual dance show.

Having never danced professionally before and ranging in age from 42 to 60, the dads were taught by their kids’ street dance teacher for the surprise performance. They received a good reception, so they decided to carry on permanently.

Paul Jukes, 48, said dancing together has enabled the members to get through unemployment and anxiety. “Even though I’m the leader and artistic director of the team, I’m not normally the most confident guy.” said Jukes, whose team name is Jukebox. “If we’re in a party situation, we’re off at the side, but when we’re together those inhibitions (拘束感) are lost, and we just accept life to the fullest.”

The dance team members remember the moment when they surprised their kids at the dance show. “We performed at the Brighton Dome which seats 2,000 people, so for our first live dance performance, it was quite something. We took the roof off,” Jukes said. “The noise was crazy and of course, the kids in the audience were blown away. They were shouting, ”Hang on a second; that’s your dad.“ Most people might think our kids would be embarrassed by us but none of them had that feeling. All our families and kids were really supportive and really loved it. And it has been considered cool by them to have such a large following on Instagram.”

The team has to adapt to its members’ changing bodies as they get older, but that has not stopped them from continuing to dream big. “We take care of and support each other to make sure what we do is achievable,” said Jukes. “One of our members is 60 years old now and he’s just excellent.”

In ancient times, Quzhou, a city in the western part of Zhejiang province,     1     (know) as a center for spreading Confucianism. However, with time it lost its     2     (significant), and some people cannot even pronounce the city's name     3     (correct), as the first character, qu, is written in a complicated way.

Quzhou, boasting a population of about 2.27 million, has become one of the most popular tour destinations for young Chinese this year, thanks to the     4     (power) impact of a number of pop stars, who have added the city to their performance schedules.

In March 2023, singer-songwriter Xue Zhiqian held two concerts at the Quzhou Sports Center, which was designed by architect Ma Yansong     5     has a capacity of more than 30,000. Hotels in the city reported record-setting occupancy levels, even though they raised their room rates due to the surging demand.

The nation's booming performing arts scene has also helped promote tourism, a report     6     (release) by the China Association of Performing Arts said. Large cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, are no strangers     7     pop stars drawing up tour plans. However,     8     handful of third-tier and lower-tier cities were also included in artists' schedules.

Since March, Quzhou     9     (stage) concerts by other pop stars, including Jeff Chang and Alex To along with music festivals and galas     10     (feature) singers such as Li Yuchun and Pu Shu.

Yours sincerely,

Li Hua

10 . In the middle of a hot July afternoon, I became a thief of some sort—a thief of music. For the first time, I created a(n) _________ piano arrangement of one of my favorite songs. Using only my ears and iPad, I _________ a mix of sounds and melodies into the tones of a single instrument; I created complex harmonies and voices into something I could _________ with only two hands. No help, no guide—I did it _________.

I’ve been a pianist since my hands grew big enough to touch the _________. For many years, my musical identity was _________ by the notes that others had written in the past centuries. I valued classical music, but I felt such performances were shallow (肤浅的). I had nothing of my own to _________ the great compositions (乐曲) of Bach. This was why, when I put the finishing touches to my piano version of a modern song, my _________ was glorious: this arrangement was mine. What I’d done seemed magical: an ability to take what had already existed—to “steal” a song from my favorite band—and to change it into something _________ all on my own.

In music, as in other aspects of life, I believe that true originality __________ exists. Almost everything has been done before. The most passionate romance novel may be a slightly __________ version of a play written by Shakespeare, which in turn was __________ from the writers of Ancient Gréece.

The gift of __________ is just like what I did on the piano: to find out something beautiful, to analyze and change it and __________ yourself in the mystery of its composition, and then to make it new. Such an act is not copying; it is finding __________ and use it as fuel for your own masterpiece.