1 . How similar are language and music?
Language is part of our daily lives, no matter where we live in the world.
Both language and music have a writing system.
In English we record language using the alphabet, which is a collection of letters. Similarly, we use notes (音符) to keep a record of music. Musicians read notes and create meaning in the form of music.
You can make a good guess at where someone is from by listening to the language he uses. In the same way, we know that styles of music are different around the world, giving us the opportunity to explore many different cultures through their music and providing us with music for every situation.
Both share emotion.
| A．Both are expressive. |
| B．Both vary with culture. |
| C．How do you know that I am angry? |
| D．We use language to express our thoughts. |
| E．Similarly, music is part of many people’s lives. |
| F．So just as you read English, you can read music. |
| G．In contrast, you probably also listen to sad music when you are feeling down. |
Hip hop is getting its very own museum in its birthplace in New York State. The Bronx, the permanent home of the Universal Hip Hop Museum, set to open in 2023, is
Rocky Bucano is the museum's director. He noted that until now there hasn't been a physical place that is devoted to
When the museum
The exhibits will include hip pop
| A．A jazz concert. | B．A new theater. | C．A plane ticket. |
4 . To me, life without music would not be exciting. I realize that this is not true for everybody. Many people get along quite well without going to the concert, and listening to the record. But music plays an important part in everyone's life, whether he realizes it or not. Try to imagine, for example, what films or TV plays would be like without music. Would the feelings, the moving plot, and the greatest interests, be so exciting or dramatic? I'm not sure about it.
Now, we have been speaking of music in its more common meaning----the kind of music we hear in the concert hall. But if we look at some parts of music more closely, we discover them in our everyday life too----in the rhythm of the sea, the melody of a bird in the woods and so on. So music surely has meaning for everyone, in some way or other. And, of course, it has special meaning for those who have spent all their lives working on playing or writing music.
It is well said, “Through music a child enters into a world of beauty, expresses himself from his heart, feels the joy of doing things alone, learns to take care of others, develops his mind and makes his body strong.”
1. What does the writer say more about in the text?| A．Life full of music. | B．The importance of music. |
| C．Life without music. | D．The development of music. |
| A．go to the concert instead of enjoying music |
| B．get along quite well without music |
| C．don't realize the importance of music |
| D．think music would be less exciting than films |
| A．flying | B．living |
| C．looking | D．singing |
| A．is very necessary for our everyday life |
| B．is very important, especially for children |
| C．can make our life exciting and dramatic |
| D．can enter another beautiful world |
The study shows that musical harmony can be learnt, and it is a matter of training the brain to hear the sounds. So if you thought that the music of some foreign culture (or Jazz) sounded like the crying of cats, it’s simply because you haven’t learnt to listen by their rules.
The researchers used 66 volunteers with a range of (一系列的) musical training and tested their ability to hear combinations (组合) of notes (音符) to determine if they found the combinations familiar or pleasing. They found that people needed to be familiar with combinations of notes. If they couldn’t recognize the notes, they found the notes dissonant. This finding put an end to centuries of theories claiming (声称) that physical functions of the ear determine what we find attractive.
The study found that trained musicians were much more sensitive (敏感的) to unpleasant notes than non-musicians. When they couldn’t find the note, the musicians reported that the sounds were unpleasant, while non-musicians were much less sensitive. This shows the importance of training or nurturing (培养) the brain to like particular sound of combinations of notes, like those found in jazz or rock.
Depending on their training, a strange chord (和弦) sound was pleasant to some musicians, but very unpleasant to others. This showed us that even the ability to hear a musical note is learnt.
To confirm (证实) this finding, they trained 19 non-musicians to find the notes of a random (随机的) selection of western chords. Not only did the participants’ ability to hear notes improve rapidly; the chords they had learnt sounded more pleasant—regardless of (不论) how the chords were played.
The question of why some combinations of musical notes are heard as pleasant or unpleasant has long been debated. “ We have shown in this study that for music, beauty is in the brain of the beholder(观看者),” a researcher said.
1. According to the passage, why do people sometimes find foreign music quite unpleasant?
| A．Because they don’t like the person playing the music. |
| B．Because they have no talent for music at all. |
| C．Because they have no idea about how to listen. |
| D．Because they hear music too often. |
| A．informal | B．unpleasant |
| C．inspiring | D．unfamiliar |
| A．find the beauty of chords without training |
| B．enjoy the beauty of music when played by musicians |
| C．be trained to like particular music |
| D．make friends with real musicians |
| A．Improve Your Brain By Listening to Music |
| B．You Can Be a Musician Without Being Trained |
| C．Music Can’t be Taught |
| D．Love of Music Is Not Natural But Nurture |
