1 . On the bustling streets of Sydney, Australia, Dong Min, a young Chinese woman, dressed in elegant Chinese traditional clothing — hanfu, gracefully holds a dizi, the bamboo flute of China, fascinating passersby with the melodies of traditional Chinese music.
Dong Min, a talented musician was born in 1990. Seeing a female performer playing the bamboo flute on TV fired her interest in this Chinese traditional instrument at the age of 8. Soon her interest blossomed into talent. At the age of 10, winning a provincial-level Chinese musical instrument competition earned her one of only four spots for further studies in Beijing. After graduating from Minzu University of China with a major in Chinese bamboo flute in 2015, she enrolled at the University of New South Wales in Australia to study cultural leadership where she initiated street performances, featuring Chinese traditional instruments. One year later, she formed a band and founded the Sydney Meya Institute of Chinese Music to teach various Chinese traditional instruments to more people.
Apart from street performances and her institution, Dong also offers online dizi lessons to a global audience and organizes online exchange concerts for her students worldwide. “Our students range from 4-year-olds to 80-year-olds, reflecting the timeless appeal of Chinese music across generations,” Dong said.
Her effort paid off eventually. Her performances grew in popularity. Many audiences traveled all the way from cities like Melbourne and Brisbane to Sydney just to attend her performances.” Many music schools now offer courses on Chinese instruments. I hope to create a platform for music enthusiasts to connect and cultivate friendships through their shared love for music. Thus, we can not only raise awareness of Chinese traditional music in Australia but also share the richness of Chinese culture through music with the international audience.” Dong Min said.
1. Which of the following is true?| A．Dong Min founded the institution at 26. |
| B．Dong Min taught dizi through street performances. |
| C．Dong Min majored in Chinese bamboo flute in Australia. |
| D．Dong Min wished to gain popularity through her performances. |
| A．By analyzing reasons. | B．By providing examples. |
| C．By making comparisons. | D．By following time order. |
| A．Brave and humorous. | B．Gifted and passionate. |
| C．Creative and stubborn. | D．Patient and experienced. |
| A．Chinese Traditional Music: From China to Australia. |
| B．Bamboo Flute: Chinese Instrument Shared in Australia. |
| C．Dong Min: A Culture Messenger Bridging Cultures through Music. |
| D．Dong Min: A Talented Chinese Girl Spreading Chinese Instruments. |
2 . The music world lost a rock and roll superstar this week when guitarist Eddie Van Halen passed away. He was only 65 years old.
Eddie Van Halen was a founding member of the band Van Halen. He formed the group in 1974 with his brother Alex, who played the drums. Van Halen released (发行) its most popular single, the song Jump, in 1983. Jump rose to the top of Billboard Magazıne’s list of Hot 100 songs and stayed there for five weeks. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio lists Jump among its “500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll”. Eddie Van Halen released at least 15 record albums with his band over the years, selling more than 80 million around the world. In 2007, Van Halen entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The Van Halen brothers were born in the Netherlands. Their father was a professional musician. Their mother was from Indonesia. In the 1950s, some Netherlanders did not support the mixed-race (混种族) marriage, so the family moved to the United States. They settled in southern California. Eddie and Alex Van Halen had to learn English in their new land. Both brothers studied piano for years before getting interested in rock and roll.
As a child, Eddie was considered musically gifted. Eddie told a reporter he did not learn to read music. He said he would watch his teacher play and memorize his moves. He also said that he never took a class on playing the guitar, although he studied under Eric Clapton for a time. His father was among the first to recognize Eddie’s guitar skill. “You’ve got it, kid,” Eddie’s father said to him early on.
Eddie’s guitar playing was hard and fast. He was energetic while performing, often jumping like an acrobat (杂技演员) as he played. He was known for the way he tapped on the guitar strings with both hands. It influenced many musicians that followed.
1. What’s Paragraph 2 mainly about?| A．Eddie’s band. | B．Eddie’s Jump. |
| C．Eddie’s life story. | D．Eddie’s achievements. |
| A．To make a good living. | B．To escape racial prejudice. |
| C．To receive better education. | D．To experience different cultures. |
| A．Determined. | B．Energetic.. | C．Intelligent. | D．Hardworking. |
| A．To remember a famous musician. |
| B．To express sadness for a superstar’s death. |
| C．To praise Eddie Van Halen for his contributions. |
| D．To show the excellence of Eddie Van Halen. |
3 . I remember that it was a fall morning when the orchestra (管弦乐队) teachers came into Miss Newell’s third-grade classroom. “You have hands for the viola (中提琴),” Miss Ciano told me. I was excited because my hands were finally good for something. I told my parents I wanted to play, and naturally, they agreed.
Since I first touched the viola, I haven’t been able to put it down. Ignoring the difficulty, I am pulled closer to it each day.
Classical music is truly my best friend. It is the trusted friend of every man, woman and child. Various feelings are expressed in classical music. I discovered that when I was eleven and played a cello concerto (大提琴协奏曲) of Bach in a competition, the first movement was joyful, but the second movement was mysterious and full of pain. From the piece, I learned that music expresses not only feelings, but also sudden mood changes. By listening to classical music, I know that someone else shares these feelings. Since I am lucky enough to be able to play classical music, I am comforted by it when I am upset. It gives me a way to escape from my problems for a short period. Classical music can express my joy, sadness and anger.
Now look back at that fall day in the third grade and think how gullible I was for believing that anyone, even music teachers, could tell whether hands were perfect for a certain instrument I’m certain they told me I had “viola hands” not because they were fortune-tellers (算命师), but because there was a lack of violists in our district. Classical music is one of the best things that ever happened to mankind. If you get introduced to it in the right way, it will become your friend for life.
1. According to the passage, in what way does classical music help the author?| A．By developing social skills. | B．By improving mental health. |
| C．By broadening life experience. | D．By building close relationship. |
| A．Easily tricked. | B．Firmly loved. |
| C．Greatly challenged. | D．Secretly hidden. |
| A．Special event, sweet memory. | B．Classical music, endless friendship |
| C．Lifetime dream, great effort. | D．Happy childhood, unforgotten experience. |
4 . It is universally believed that playing an instrument or singing in a choir may boost your brain. Generations of parents have told their children to practice their musical instruments. Parents have good reason to keep on top of their children’s musical education, since learning an instrument is not only associated with better educational achievement but also cognition (认知) and even intelligence scores in children. But does this musicality contribute to better cognition later in life?
A new study in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry investigated this question by asking middle-aged and older people to complete a questionnaire on their lifetime musical experience before completing cognitive tests. The results showed that musical people had better memory and ability to stay focused on tasks and plans than those with less or no musicality.
But how about being musical without playing an instrument? According to the study findings, singing can result in better executive (决策的) function but not memory, suggesting that playing an instrument has additional brain health benefits. Why singing would help us with our executive function is not clear and requires further investigation. However, singing has a strong social benefit when done in choirs, and there is good evidence that being involved in social activity is good for our brain health.
Playing an instrument or singing seems to have benefits to our brain health in ageing, according to the study. What is yet to be established is whether this would also help prevent future cognitive decline (下降) or dementia. The study provides no evidence for this yet and it is also not clear how the findings apply to the general population, since most people in the study were female, well-educated and well-off.
1. What does the new study center on?| A．The cognition improvement by singing in a choir. |
| B．Musical people’s ability of keeping focused on tasks. |
| C．Academic progress of children playing an instrument. |
| D．Musicality’s effect upon better cognition later in life. |
| A．Catherine who sings in a choir. | B．Sam who was born in a music family. |
| C．Mary who played the piano for years. | D．Jack who is eager to get music education. |
| A．Proved. | B．Started. | C．Announced. | D．Admitted. |
| A．Objective. | B．Opposed. | C．Unclear. | D．Supportive. |
5 . I remember that it was a fall morning when the orchestra (管弦乐队) teachers came into Miss Newell’s third-grade classroom. “You have hands for the viola (中提琴),” Miss Ciano told me. I was excited because my hands were finally good for something. I told my parents I wanted to play, and naturally, they agreed.
Since I first touched the viola, I haven’t been able to put it down. Ignoring the difficulty, I am pulled closer to it each day.
Classical music is truly my best friend. It is the trusted friend of every man, woman and child. Various feelings are expressed in classical music. I discovered that when I was eleven and played a cello concerto (大提琴协奏曲) of Bach in a competition, the first movement was joyful, but the second movement was mysterious and full of pain. From the piece, I learned that music expresses not only feelings, but also sudden mood changes. By listening to classical music, I know that someone else shares these feelings. Since I am lucky enough to be able to play classical music, I am comforted by it when I am upset. It gives me a way to escape from my problems for a short period. Classical music can express my joy, sadness and anger.
Now look back at that fall day in the third grade and think how gullible I was for believing that anyone, even music teachers, could tell whether hands were perfect for a certain instrument. I’m certain they told me I had “viola hands” not because they were fortune-tellers, but because there was a lack of violists in our district. Classical music is one of the best things that ever happened to mankind. If you get introduced to it in the right way, it will become your friend for life.
1. What’s the main cause of the author’s interest in playing the viola?| A．Interesting musical classes. | B．Beautiful viola sound. |
| C．Teachers’ proper guidance. | D．Parents’ strong support. |
| A．By developing social skills. | B．By giving emotional comfort. |
| C．By broadening life experience. | D．By building close relationship. |
| A．Easily tricked. | B．Firmly loved. | C．Greatly challenged. | D．Secretly hidden. |
| A．Special Event, Sweet Memory. | B．Classical Music, Endless Friendship. |
| C．Lifetime Dream, Great effort. | D．Happy Childhood, Unforgotten Experience. |
6 . The ability of music to evoke (唤起) specific, often powerful feelings is no secret to anyone who has listened to Gustav Mahler’s “Symphony No.5”, Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child”, the Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated”, Lizzo’s “Good as Hell” or any of the other countless compositions that have found their way onto Western playlists in the past few centuries.
The emotional effects of music are the point, of course. They are also the subject of a fast-growing field of research around the world in which scientists are exploring the nature of the many “subjective experiences” — such as joy, sadness, anxiety and calmness — that music evokes.
In a recent set of experiments, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and their colleagues sought to determine if the feelings that people experience when listening to music “show evidence of universality”. They compared and analyzed how more than 2,800 U. S. and Chinese study participants responded to 2,168 (mostly Western) samples of instrumental music. The team identified 13 distinct and very specific feelings that the Chinese and U. S. subjects shared when listening to music, despite their cultural differences.
The music used in the research, described in the paper as “the richest set of Western music samples ever studied,” included classical, pop, rock, indie, hip-hop, R&B, country, film soundtracks, and more. An additional 189 sample of traditional Chinese music was also used. In all, the researchers gathered 375,230 judgments of the samples from the study participants.
In the first experiment, subjects listened to Western music samples (each of which was just five seconds long) and reported on the specific feelings they evoked, choosing responses from a list of 28 “categories of subjective experience” provided by the researchers. Terms on the list included “victorious/heroic”, “sad/depressing”, “joyful/cheerful”, “awe-inspiring/amazing” and “dreamy”. The team then used data-driven statistical modeling to identify the 13 shared experiences. The second experiment, which included the Chinese music, involved broad evaluations of the samples by participants—such as whether the subjects liked or disliked them or found them exciting or not. A central finding of the study, the researchers write, is that specific feelings “drive the experience of music” more than the broader features.
1. Why does the author mention these songs in the first paragraph?| A．Because they all have strong musical emotional effects. |
| B．Because their loop playback rates are very high. |
| C．Because they have all become world-renowned songs. |
| D．Because they have won countless awards. |
| A．Music can directly express people’s true emotions. |
| B．Music should have a variety of styles. |
| C．Music will easily ease people’s various emotions. |
| D．Music can produce significant emotional effects. |
| A．People’s taste in music. |
| B．Differences in Chinese and Western Music. |
| C．The universal feelings of different music. |
| D．The great influence of music on people. |
| A．In the first experiment, people shared their experiences with each other. |
| B．In the first experiment, people chose how they felt from a list provided by the researchers. |
| C．In the second experiment, people need to write down the types of songs. |
| D．In the second experiment, people need to sing the songs. |
7 . Depending on your view, the recorder (竖笛) is an instrument of “incredible functions” or a tool of annoyance that has bothered primary schools for too many generations. But now, it faces extinction, with one of the UK’s top music schools reporting an 80% decline in the number of young people playing it in the last 10 years.
The instrument’s future is so imperilled that the European Recorder Teachers Association is trying to bring it back to life again so it does not go the way of the lute. The ERTA argues that if the recorder was good enough for the Beatles, it has a place in modern music today. Tom Redmond, the principal of Chetham’s school of music in Manchester, said only three of its pupils practised the recorder, compared with 15 a decade ago. “More pupils were taking up the piano or other instruments,” said Redmond. “The ones that became really popular are the ones students spend more time playing alone. With the instruments being more socially or orchestral based, there has been a decline.”
Redmond also said that this problem extended “beyond the recorder itself” and was a mirror of the future of music. “Like removing any plant or animal from an ecosystem, removing the recorder has a huge ripple effect (连锁反应) beyond just the instrument. You need these instruments to create the inspiration for music, and without that, there is less excitement for it and to learn music,” he said. Chris Orton, a recorder tutor and chair of the ERTA, is leading the fight against the instrument’s extinction. He said, “The recorder is increasingly overlooked by students, and yet it has a rich history and incredible attractions. As well as making beautiful sounds, it’s an accessible instrument in that it is low-cost compared to other woodwind instruments, and it’s light and easy to carry.”
1. What does the underlined word “imperilled” in paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Bright. | B．Distant. | C．Confusing. | D．Endangered. |
| A．The piano is easier to learn than the recorder. |
| B．Music education is necessary for all students. |
| C．The recorder plays an important role in music. |
| D．Nature is a rich source of inspiration for musicians. |
| A．It needs to be improved. | B．It is very difficult to play. |
| C．It deserves more attention. | D．It is a top choice for students. |
| A．The Recorder is Heading for Extinction | B．Music is Increasingly Influencing the Youth |
| C．Technology Brings New Life to Instruments | D．The UK Fights Against the Recorder’s Fate |
8 . This is a song millions of Americans will hear this New Year’s Eve. It is called Auld Lang Syne (《友谊地久天长》). It is the traditional music played during the New Year’s celebration. Auld Lang Syne is an old Scottish poem. It tells about the need to remember old friends.
The words “auld lang syne” mean “old long since”. No one knows who wrote the poem first. However, a version by Scottish poet Robert Bums was published (出版) in 1796. The words and music we know today first appeared in a songbook three years later.
The song is played in the United States mainly on New Year’s Eve. The version (译文) you are hearing today is by the Washington Saxophone Quartet. As we end our program with Auld Lang Syne. I would like to wish all of our radio friends a very Happy New Year! This is Buddy Thomas. (from www.zkenglish.com)
1. Where is this passage from?| A．A newspaper. | B．A magazine. |
| C．A TV program. | D．A radio program. |
| A．Robert Bums. | B．The Washington Saxophone Quartet. |
| C．Buddy Thomas. | D．The passage doesn’t tell us. |
| A．In 1790. | B．In 1793. | C．In 1796. | D．In 1799. |
Can a Robot Really Freestyle?
Engineers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, led by Gil Weinberg, have designed the first musical robot capable of not only playing music, but creating it. His name is Shimon. Weinberg, who is a musician, engineer, and professor of musical technology, found himself in a creative rut (俗套) and decided to create a robot that could inspire him with new musical ideas. Shimon was trained on a vast data set of everything from progressive rock to jazz to rap. His works really surprise human listeners.
Up until recent advancements, applications of AI (artificial intelligence) have mostly consisted of well-defined tasks, but many are concerned that new technology like Shimon could result in lost jobs for millions of people, even those in creative industry.
While the concern of an offing future in which humans are entirely replaced by robots certainly isn’t unfounded, a much more likely future is one in which robots work alongside humans to improve their work. Experts say that AI will actually create jobs for humans, not des troy them. The Guardian recently reported that by 2037, AI will create more than 7 million new jobs in the healthcare, education, and science fields in the UK.
Shimon is showing us what can happen when robots don’t just work for us, but with us. Instead of putting any of our favorite musicians out of work, robots will certainly be challenging and inspiring them in new ways. The cooperation between humans and robots can produce new and attractive music, leading to novel musical outcomes. Thanks to the innovation of Weinberg and his team, rap battles, Jam sessions, and symphony orchestras alike may begin to look and act considerably different.
1. What can Shimon do?2. Why did Gil Weinberg create Shimon?
3. How do many people like the applications of AI in the field of work?
4. According to the writer, what effect will the applications of AI have on creative industry?
10 . Music is a proof to human creativity and expression in a language that goes beyond barriers (障碍). Let’s explore the world of music.
Classical music is a large type that includes music from the Middle Ages to the present day. Known for its rich harmonies, classical music requires a high level of skill and understanding to perform. It’s often seen as the start of many other music types.
Rock music started from rock and roll, and quickly became a force of its own. It’s known for strong and driving rhythms (节奏). Rock music has always been connected with a fight and social comments, and it’s often praised for its raw sound.
Country music is from rural American folk and Western music. Known for its storytelling, country music often features themes of love, heartbreak and everyday life. It’s characterized by its unique style, making use of instruments like the guitar, piano, banjo and fiddle.
Indie music, short for “independent (独立)”, is characterized by its being away from mainstream music rules. It often features nontraditional song structures. The indie spirits of valuing personal creativity over business success and supporting the DIY approach to recording and publishing give this type a unique and different sound.
1. Which music covers from the Middle Ages to the present day?| A．Rock music. | B．Country music. | C．Classical music. | D．Indie music. |
| A．It is the start of music. | B．It is themed with love. |
| C．It focuses on business success. | D．It stresses personal creativity. |
| A．Its development. | B．Its types. | C．Its instruments. | D．Its birthplace. |
