1 . Rave-on!
How about learning new skills on the guitar, drums and keyboard by video? Follow the touch-screen instructions to find lessons on each instrument, or search for a song to practise playing along to. Try our Professional Selection, with video clips of band members who will explain the techniques that make their recordings so individual.
Show-in-a-day!
Be a star singer or dancer for the day in a one-time-only special performance! Experts in international music and dance styles will train you, and costumes provided for the performance help create a really special, individual show. Get your friends and family to come and see you perform, as no videoing or photography is allowed.
Archived Images
Want to find out about a new band, or just want more information about an old favourite? Visit our collection to find out facts and figures, or see the actual possessions of famous bands and musicians you are interested in. You can actually get to touch things worn on stage at major rock and pop events, and there are plenty of other concert souvenirs.
Rhythm-studio
Get your body moving in the studio and learn to move to rhythms and sounds from the past to now, including Soul and Disco. Learn your steps from our professional onscreen dance instructor, then watch your performance and become the star in your own video recording which you can take away!
1. Which one can collect information about someone’s favourite bands?| A．Rave-on! | B．Archived Images. |
| C．Show-in-a-day! | D．Rhythm-studio. |
| A．Rhythm-studio offers free gifts from musicians. |
| B．Rhythm-studio has experts to teach face to face. |
| C．Rhythm-studio gets family members to enjoy the shows. |
| D．Rhythm-studio allows people to bring videos home. |
| A．In a report. | B．In a travel brochure. |
| C．In a newspaper. | D．In a science magazine. |
2 . 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. |
3 . Have you ever thought about why malls, restaurants, and even theaters have music? Well, to understand this, you simply just look back at how you felt when you heard music in these places. Music is known to improve the mood of people. Often music helps us pay attention to what we are doing. Music helps patients feel good and helps them recover faster and better.
Depression (沮丧) is a state of mind that most of us experience at some point of time. There are some periods in our life when everything seems difficult. It seems that everything is getting worse and we have no control over our life. Studies have shown that music can be an important mood lifter in such situations. Music also plays a great role in making us feel less nervous or worried. Anxiety can often cause loss of sleep and other illnesses.
Music is often known as an international language. We may not know the language another person is speaking, but most of us respond to music in the same way. Music can often be the best way to connect with someone.
Music is one of the best ways to improve your moods, but this can depend largely on the kind of music you listen to. While happy music can certainly make you feel better, sad music can further lower your spirits. Listening to classical music can often make you feel a lot more powerful, while soft music can be the perfect way to relax at the end of a long way. If you want to use music to change the way how you are feeling, you need to understand the role of it, learn to recognize the kind of music that lifts your mood and helps you feel better. Once you realize the kind of music you can use, you can use it to change the way you feel. The right kind of music can be the perfect way to help us feel happier.
1. The passage is mainly about ________.| A．what meanings music has | B．how we control our moods |
| C．how music affects our moods | D．what kind of music we listen to |
| A．welcome the customers | B．make customers feel good |
| C．make customers dance | D．make customers feel depressed |
| A．most of us suffer depression all the time |
| B．most of us respond to music in different ways |
| C．music can be a good way to connect with others |
| D．any kind of music will help us improve our moods |
| A．Soft music. | B．Classical music. | C．Sad music. | D．Rock music. |
4 . At first sight, Alma Deutscher, a sixteen-year-old girl from England appears to be like any other typical teenager. She loves to skip rope, read and play with her younger sister. But this modest youngster, who composed her first musical work at age six, first short opera at age seven, and first full-length opera based on Cinderella at age ten, is anything but average. Though her parents downplayed(淡化)her extraordinary talent, young Alma is being described as “little Mozart” by the music world.
Alma’s opera based on the classic fairy tale, which she began writing at age eight, has a slight twist. Her Cinderella is a musician who meets her Prince Charming, a poet through a song. “In my Cinderella, she sings the beginning of a ballad—but at midnight she flees. Eventually, the prince finds her after asking all the girls of the country to sing the end of the ballad.”
The opera was first performed in Vienna, Austria on December 29, 2016, where the then eleven-year-old skillfully switched between the piano and the violin and received enthusiastic reviews. The young genius has since performed two new piano works, one in Australia and the other in China.
While this may appear to be a lot for someone so young, Alma is not worried. She says, “Of course I have to work hard. But all children have to work hard for exams, and at least when I work hard, I work hard for something incredibly exciting, like seeing my whole opera put on.”
Alma’s musical talent first came to light before she could even talk. Her parents recall that as an 18-month-old toddler, she was able to hum a perfect version of the children’s rhyme Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
However, Alma’s abilities only gained international attention in 2012, after a family friend posted a video online comparing her to Mozart. The family was suddenly swamped with media and Alma became an overnight star, dubbed “little Mozart”. This nickname makes her parents unhappy because they believe it puts added pressure on the young girl. They would instead prefer her to be called “a composer and musician”.
Alma does not want to be compared to the famous artist either, saying “There was only one Mozart, and I prefer to be little Alma.” Regardless of what she calls herself, the sixteen-year-old is changing the world of music forever!
1. Which of the following statement about Alma is WRONG?| A．She can play the piano and the violin skillfully. |
| B．She can write operas and compose music as well. |
| C．Her talent goes far beyond that of Mozart. |
| D．She displayed her talent for music at an early age. |
| A．Disadvantage. | B．Change. | C．Improvement. | D．Error. |
| A．Cinderella meets her Mr. Right through a song. |
| B．It is a short opera based on the classic fairy tale. |
| C．The prince finds her with the help of a crystal shoe. |
| D．It enjoys a great success and has been performed in China. |
| A．Overexcited. | B．Concerned. | C．Happy. | D．Shocked. |
1. What’s the relationship between the speakers?
| A．A couple. | B．Mother and son. | C．Grandma and grandson. |
| A．Music videos. | B．A concert. | C．A movie. |
| A．Pleasant. | B．Noisy. | C．Inspiring. |
| A．Holding a stick. | B．Driving a car. | C．Playing his guitar. |
6 . Researchers at Georgia Tech have been working to improve a musical robot called Shimon. Shimon is a four-armed robot with a ball-like head. He holds small mallets (tools like hammers) in his “hands” to play a kind of xylophone. As Shimon plays, his head moves around in time to the music.
Shimon has been around for quite a while as a musical robot. Even back in 2015, he played with other musicians at the Kennedy Center in New York. What Shimon could do back then was already pretty cool.
Shimon was taught to write his own music by using “deep learning”. Deep learning, also known as Artificial Intelligence (AI), means that computer programs sort deeply through huge amounts of information. This allows them to find patterns humans may not have noticed. The programs can then use those patterns in new and surprising ways. For Shimon, that meant he could not only make up his own music, but also do it in real time while playing with other musicians. This is called “improvising”.
Now Shimon is back with a whole bunch of new tricks. He can write the words to his own songs, and sing them. Shimon learned to write the words for the songs in the same way he learned to write music.
Professor Gil Weinberg in Georgia Tech, who leads the Shimon project, gets Shimon going with a starting idea. Shimon then writes the lyrics based around that idea.
To give Shimon a voice, the Georgia Tech team worked with experts at Pompeu Fabra University in Spain. The voice was created by AI and sounds like a man very much. Shimon’s face has also gotten new features. Shimon’s mouth now moves smoothly in time as he sings. He also has eyebrows, which allow his face to show more emotions. For Mr. Weinberg, that’s the main goal behind the Shimon project — not to have robots take over, but to have robots and humans make something beautiful together.
1. What do we know about Shimon from the first two paragraphs?| A．He is no stranger to the music field. |
| B．He has trouble recognizing different tunes. |
| C．He can play different kinds of musical instruments. |
| D．He often gives performances on international stages. |
| A．Making up his own music. | B．Improving the music he created. |
| C．Sorting out different music patterns. | D．Creating music without any preparation. |
| A．Listening to much live music. | B．Being fed with a lot of examples. |
| C．Being instructed by a musician face to face. | D．Cooperating with other musicians many times. |
| A．Musical Robots in the Music Field | B．The Making of a Great Musician |
| C．Shimon: An All-round Musical Robot | D．The Role of AI in the Music Development |
7 . In a 1993 experiment, researchers reported that college students who listened to a Mozart sonata (奏鸣曲) for a few minutes just before taking a test did better on the test than students listening to relaxation instructions or sitting in silence. Music of Mozart, the investigators concluded, seemed to cause changes in the brain that "warm up" neural (神经) connections, thereby improving thinking. But the gain in performance--widely publicized as the "Mozart effect"--lasted only 15 minutes and proved difficult to repeat. Rather than causing a real change in ability, Mozart seemed to improve excitement and mood, producing better concentration on the test.
Research suggests that to produce lasting gains in intelligence-test scores, involvement must be long-lasting and involve children's active participation. Consequently, Glenn Schellenberg, psychologist from University of Toronto, wondered, can music lessons enhance intelligence?
Schellenberg recruited 132 six-year-old children for formal lessons. First, the children took an intelligence test and were rated for social maturity. Next, the children were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions. Two were music groups; one received piano lessons and the other voice lessons. The third group took drama lessons--a condition that shed light on whether intellectual gains were unique to musical experiences. The fourth group--a no-lessons control--was offered music lessons the following year. After 36 weeks of lessons, the children's intelligence and social maturity were assessed again.
All four groups showed gains in intelligence-test performance, probably because the participants had just entered grade school, which usually leads to an increase in intelligence test scores. But the two music groups consistently gained more than the control groups. Their advantage, though just a few points, extended across many mental abilities, including verbal and spatial skills and speed of thinking. At the same time, only the drama group improved in social maturity.
In sum, active, sustained musical experiences can lead to small increases in intelligence among 6-year-olds. But other enrichment activities, such as reading, science, math, and chess programs, may have similar benefits. All demand that children invest far more time and effort than they would in listening to a Mozart sonata.
1. What did the 1993 experiment show?| A．Mozart effect will change students' ability to study. | B．Music of Mozart improves students' concentration. |
| C．Listening to Mozart will produce lasting gains in test scores. | D．Brief exposure to Mozart results in lifelong intellectual gains. |
| A．To rate the children for social maturity. |
| B．To give 132 six-year-olds formal music lessons. |
| C．To see if music lessons can improve children's intelligence. |
| D．To test the Mozart effect on children's intelligence and social maturity. |
| A．confuse | B．clarify | C．conceal | D．compare |
| A．What is the Mozart Effect? |
| B．Tune Your Brain with Mozart |
| C．Mozart for Newborns: A Bright Beginning |
| D．Can Musical Experiences Enhance Intelligence? |
| A．On the net. | B．On the CD. | C．On the radio. |
9 .
Moab Music Festival Where: Moab, Utah When: Aug. 29-Sept. 9
This area is better known for mountain biking than for music. But since 1992, it has hosted a private festival that brings classical, jazz, Latin and other types of music to the land. This year there will be 16 concerts, including three "Grotto Concerts", where guests take a 45-minute boat ride down the Colorado River to performances. Events start at 25. moabmusicfest. org.
Cheyenne Frontier Days Where: Cheyenne, Wyoming When: July 19-28
There's something for everyone at this 117-year-old festival, from an "Indian village" and Old West museum to country concerts. But the competition is still the main attraction, with cowboys(牛仔) and cowgirls competing for major money in the world's largest outdoor stage. Competition tickets start at $18, and concert tickets at 23. cfdrodeo. com.
The Glimmerglass Festival Where: Cooperstown, New York When: July 6-Aug. 24
Each summer, opera lovers from around the country (and the world) travel to upstate New York to watch productions that include stars like Nathan Gunn and Ginger Costa-Jackson. This year's performances include Wagner's" The Flying Dutchman" and Verdi's "King for a Day", in honor of the 200th birthdays of both composers (作曲家). Tickets start at 26. Glimmerglass.org.
1. If you want to enjoy a "Grotto Concert", which date suits you best?| A．June 15. | B．July 19. |
| C．August 24. | D．September 4. |
| A．18. | B．22. | C．36. | D．41. |
| A．Education. | B．Art. | C．Business. | D．Literature. |
10 . To learn an instrument(乐器) such as the violin or accordion(手风琴)takes years. There are fewer job opportunities and greater competition. Then why are more people than ever before paying a lot of good money to get their children the best music teaching they can afford?
The secret lies in the effect of music on the whole person. It has been found that learning a musical instrument actually increases a person’s IQ over time. Different instruments and different types of music have varying effect, with classical music and the string(弦乐) family coming out on top, potentially increasing your IQ by up to 12 points!
When is a good time to start learning music? Experts have found that even the fetus(胎儿)can benefit from listening to classical music. Surround yourself and your family with good music from the first. The Suzuki Piano Method teaches children from the age of 3 years piano, with two lessons per week. From preschool, children can learn to read music and play from sheet music. Progress in learning your instrument is directly proportional(成比例的)to the amount of practicing.
Is there such a thing as an unmusical child? Shinichi Suzuki says that music is the native home language of all human beings and therefore nobody can be “unmusical”. Of course there are exceptional talents, compared to which others may seem to be slower learners.
Is there any benefit for adults in starting an instrument? Apart from the purely relaxing aspect, yes. Learning an instrument can earn even adults additional IQ points, and as an added benefit in improves your health by reducing your stress levels. Your social life may benefit too, if you are prepared to come out of your box and join occasions such as Ceilidhs (musical get-togethers) or arrange house concerts. It is believed that people who play instruments tend to be more emotionally balanced(平衡) and more patient with themselves, others and life in general.
So go ahead, sign up for that amateur orchestra(业余乐队), dust off your old trombone(长号)or take your first real six-string down from the attic(阁楼); get out there and play!
1. Playing which of the following musical instruments can help increase a person’s IQ most?| A．The piano | B．The violin |
| C．The trombone | D．The accordion |
| A．The progress in learning an instrument depends on natural gifts |
| B．It is too late for an adult to start an instrument |
| C．Every child has a natural talent for music. |
| D．All people can understand and read music. |
| A．Music can balance our life. |
| B．Music can improve our living conditions. |
| C．Playing instruments can make adults keep their IQ points. |
| D．Playing instruments can help us get along well with others. |
| A．persuade us to send our children to music schools |
| B．express his great interest in musical instruments |
| C．tell us the importance of Music in Development |
| D．invite us to attend Ceilidhs |
