Although Emily’s singing was very pleasant to hear, lacking of courage, she never dared to sing in front of strangers.
One summer, the neighborhood where she lived would hold a singing competition. Her best friend, Lucy, came to invite her to participate in the competition, but Emily said. “I’m afraid to take part in it.” Her mother said, “It’s okay, just do it bravely.” Emily followed her mama’s advice and decided to give herself a try. The day came. Emily and Lucy went to the competition site. But she was too frightened to walk onto the stage. She had been waiting until others finished singing. She shakily forced herself to stand on the stage. She started to sing, but her voice was so low. What’s worse, she was so nervous that she forgot the lyrics after singing a few words. Being laughed at by others, embarrassed and shy, she ran away from the stage.
Some naughty boys ran after her and said, “Emily, coward (胆小鬼)! Emily, coward!” Emily didn’t argue with them. What she wanted was to go back home as quickly as she could. Finally, she rushed into the house, hugged her mom and cried sadly.
“Well, my poor girl. Don’t cry. Tell me what happened to you,” asked her mom. Emily looked up at her mother and told her what she had experienced.
Listening to her, her mom cupped her face and said, “It doesn’t matter, girl. As long as you practice singing more in front of strangers, you will become braver little by little. So, my girl, don’t be beaten by a failure. You can go out to practice singing every day. No matter who is listening to you, go on singing and never stop. I believe there will be a harvest for you.”
注意：
1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Paragraph 1
Emily followed her mom’s advice and walked into the park where many people were singing and dancing.
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Paragraph 2
The second year, the neighborhood held the singing competition again.
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2 . Music is not just a set of sounds and rhythms. Its influence on brain is much deeper than any other human experience. Keep on reading to know all these amazing power 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 hears 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.
1. How does music affect preterm babies?| A．It helps develop their potential in music. |
| B．It helps reduce their pain. |
| C．It helps improve their hearing systems. |
| D．It helps repair their neurological systems. |
| A．Cause. | B．Increase. |
| C．Prevent. | D．Expand. |
| A．It has a positive effect on human body systems’ work. |
| B．It can encourage people to do sports. |
| C．It helps make a person outgoing. |
| D．It helps patients recover more quickly than medicine does. |
| A．People Who Can Benefit From music. |
| B．The Best Time to Listen to Music. |
| C．The Way to choose Quality Music. |
| D．How Music Affects Our Mind and Body. |
3 . The music industry is highly competitive. It requires you to improve your musical skills continuously for a higher level of artistry.
Music marketing strategies involve one or more marketing techniques. Examples include giving free promotional (促销的) singles, putting advertisements on different media, and getting email addresses at concerts so audience members can get updates about the artist.
In many cases, music marketing strategies are limited by the artist’s funds. Many beginning artists don’t have the money to promote their work heavily and have to rely on techniques that are free or low-cost.
| A．The artist already has a product ready to go |
| B．Music marketing strategies differ from regular ones |
| C．Musical talent alone, however, is not necessarily enough |
| D．No two musicians have to use the same techniques when marketing |
| E．An artist doesn’t need to promote all of his/her songs at the same time |
| F．That’s why most beginning artists dream of being “discovered” by an agency |
| G．Technology makes it cheaper and easier for artists to promote their work themselves |
1.时间和地点；
2.演奏内容；
3.音乐会反响。
注意：词数应为80左右。
A Chinese Classical Music Concert
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5 . The arts, especially music, should be part of every school’s lessons at every grade level. Students would be much smarter if they had some musical experience. They could improve their classroom skills, like paying attention and following directions. People develop all these skills when they learn music. Making music also lets children use their imagination. It provides students with a chance to try out their own ideas.
Music not only makes children better students, but also gives them something positive to do. In a music programme, children can be part of a band instead of joining a gang (团伙). Parents can enjoy listening to their children’s music instead of seeing them glued to a computer or TV screen. In a school band, students get to be part of a team. They can get along well with old friends and make new friends through music.
Music builds self-confidence, too. It gives children a sense of achievement and success. Making music is something for them to be proud of, and it lets kids practise performing in front of the audience. Music gives children an opportunity for self-expression, and that helps develop their self-confidence.
Once again, music is important because it can make children better students, give them something positive to do, and build their character. That is why music lessons should be offered in every single grade in every school.
1. According to the passage, music could make students smarter by________.| A．improving their classroom skills and paying attention |
| B．improving their classroom skills and imagination |
| C．improving their attention and imagination |
| D．letting them make music and try out their own ideas |
| A．Unwilling to turn on. |
| B．Always looking at. |
| C．Unwilling to move. |
| D．Always playing with. |
| A．make children express themselves |
| B．bring children success |
| C．give children something to be proud of |
| D．develop children’s self-confidence |
| A．Music Is a Must as a Course at School |
| B．Music Builds Children’s Self-confidence |
| C．Music Makes Students Much Smarter |
| D．Learning Music and Making Music Build Children’s Character |
6 . From Mozart to pop music, tons of people enjoy listening to different types of music while they paint, write or draw. Many believe that music helps improve creativity. But an international study by a group of psychologists is challenging that viewpoint.
To come to their conclusions, researchers had participants complete verbal (文字的) problems designed to inspire creativity while sitting in a quiet room.
The tasks were simple word games.
Dr. Melatchie and his colleagues conclude that music interferes with (干扰) the verbal working memory of the brain.
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| A．And this in turn holds back creativity. |
| B．It has something to do with the positive reaction. |
| C．They say that their findings indicate music actually blocks creativity. |
| D．Then again, they were tested while music was played in the background. |
| E．Before the experiment, the participants didn’t study the music they would listen. |
| F．For example, participants were given three words, such as dress, dial, and flower. |
| G．To conclude, the findings here challenge the popular view that music builds up creativity. |
7 . In all the world's cultures, people sing, play instruments, and celebrate with music. It plays such an important role in our lives that all fields focus on its study, including one looking at the biology of music. Experts find that because of the way our brains process music, learning to play an instrument or just listening to music can have a wide range of benefits.
Music education has received a lot of attention. Learning to play an instrument can help children improve math, science, and language skills. One study in Canada tracked children's IQ scores for nine months, discovering that children who studied music had the biggest test score improvements. The secret may lie in the way reading music and playing notes use several areas of the brain, increasing our ability to learn school subjects. For example, reading notes improves spatial (空间的) reasoning skills, which are helpful in solving math problems like fractions (分数).
Music is also used for medical purposes, such as the treatment of diseases which affect memories. The secret lies in the way the brain processes music. One area near the forehead, the medial prefrontal cortex(脑前额叶外皮), connects music with memories stored in two other areas: the amygdale(杏仁核) and hippocampus(海马体). That's why an old song can remind you of something that happened years ago. For patients suffering from diseases like Alzheimer's, listening to music can help unlock buried memories by strengthening musical pathways to memories.
With the evidence of music's benefits, it's no wonder some countries make music study a part of their education systems. People are recognizing that more than just a form of entertainment, music is also great for the brain.
1. According to the Canadian study, which children increased IQ scores?| A．Those who already had high IQ scores. |
| B．Those who had always played music. |
| C．Those who could not play any instrument. |
| D．Those who studied music for a period of time. |
| A．Spatial reasoning. |
| B．Alzheimer's. |
| C．The amygdale and hippocampus. |
| D．The medial prefrontal cortex. |
| A．Music and health |
| B．Music and education |
| C．Music and the mind |
| D．Music and instruments |
| A．music can be used for medical treatments |
| B．music plays a very important role in our lives |
| C．our brains can process music in different ways |
| D．music education has received a lot of attention |
The chime-bells of Marquis Yi of the Zeng State(曾侯乙编钟) is
This ancient Chinese
The instrument was usually played for important
9 . During my senior year in college I was still a few credits short of graduating, so I skimmed through the class schedule looking for something to fill the hours. When I came across “Private Voice instruction”, as in singing lessons, I thought, “Why not step outside my comfort zone and give it a try?
I was careful to sign up for private lessons instead of group lessons because I didn’t want to make a fool of myself by singing in front of other students.
Things went fine until the end of the term when my singing professor brought the shocking news. “By the way, Sean, have you decided which song you want to sing at the recital?”
“That would not be a good idea,” I said. The thought of singing in front of a group made me physically sick.
“Courage, Sean,” I kept rehearsing in my mind. “You’ve got to at least try.”
That awesome day finally arrived. As I stood in front of the class, all eyes fell upon me. I couldn’t help but think, “How? How in the world did I get myself into this situation?”
Even before I reached the second line, the expressions of excitement on the students’ faces turned to anguish(痛苦). I was so nervous that my body felt as tight as jeans just pulled from the dryer.
Near the end of the song is a really high note. I don’t recall if I hit that note or missed it. All I remember is that a few students were so embarrassed that they couldn’t even look at me.
I finished and sat down quickly. Silence. No one knew what to say.
But do you know what? Although that experience nearly killed me, when I left that classroom, I was so proud of myself. I felt a great sense of personal accomplishment, and I frankly didn’t care what anyone else thought about my high note. I had survived and I was proud of it.
1. Why did the author choose the private lessons?| A．He didn’t like to be with others. |
| B．He didn’t want to sing in public. |
| C．He wanted to get more attention. |
| D．He wanted better teaching quality. |
| A．Surprised and nervous. |
| B．Moved and thankful. |
| C．Excited and confident. |
| D．Disappointed and worried. |
| A．He didn’t finish it. |
| B．It was a great success. |
| C．Few students watched it. |
| D．It turned out to be a failure. |
| A．He had overcome himself. |
| B．He had hit the high note. |
| C．He had conquered the audience. |
| D．He thought he had sung very well. |
10 . Many of us listen to music while we work, thinking that it will help us to concentrate on the task at hand. And in fact, recent research has found that music can have beneficial effects on creativity. When it comes to other areas of performance, however, the impact of background music is more complicated.
The idea that listening to music when working is beneficial to output probably has its roots in the so-called “Mozart effect”. Put simply, this is the finding that spatial rotation performance(空间旋转能力) is increased immediately after listening to the music of Mozart, compared to no sound at all.
How sound affects performance has been the topic of research for over 40 years, and is observed through a phenomenon called the irrelevant sound effect. To study irrelevant sound effect, participants in the research are asked to complete a simple task which requires them to recall a series of numbers or letters in the exact order in which they saw them. The tricky thing is being able to do this while ignoring any background noise.
Two key characteristics of the irrelevant sound effect are required for its observation. First, the task must require the person to use their rehearsal abilities(复述能力), and second, the sound must contain acoustical variation(声学变化). Where the sound does not vary much acoustically, the performance of the task is much closer to that observed in quiet conditions.
The irrelevant sound effect itself comes from attempting to process two sources of ordered information at the same time—one from the task and one from the sound. Unfortunately, only the former is required to successfully perform the recall task, and the effort in ensuring that irrelevant order information from the sound is not processed actually hinders(阻碍) this ability.
A similar conflict is also seen when reading while in the presence of lyrical music. In this situation, the two sources of words—from the task and the sound—are in conflict. The cost is poorer performance of the task in the presence of music with lyrics.
What this all means is that whether having music playing in the background helps or hinders performance depends on the task and on the type of music, and only understanding this relationship will help people maximize their productivity levels.
1. “Mozart effect” is mentioned to ________.| A．explain how music can relax people |
| B．show music can improve performance |
| C．advise people to listen to Mozart music |
| D．stress Mozart music gains wide attention |
| A．have improved their rehearsal ability |
| B．perform better in the quiet conditions |
| C．ignore the background noise successfully |
| D．prefer the music with great sound variation |
| A．support an idea | B．make a contrast |
| C．introduce a topic | D．describe a fact |
| A．Music shapes your life |
| B．Music develops your creativity |
| C．Choose quiet music for your work |
| D．Does music make you concentrate? |
