1 . Beethoven is undoubtedly one of the greatest musicians. He completed 722 musical works. Unfortunately, the master died while still working on his 10th Symphony (交响曲). Now, a team of musicians and scientists have used artificial intelligence (AI) to complete the artist’s final composition.
Dr. Matthias first came up with the idea to complete the composition in 2019. He thought it was an appropriate way to celebrate Beethoven’s 250th birthday in December 2020. He began by enlisting an international team of music experts to help him with the giant task. They included music composer Walter and Dr. Ahmed, the creator of an innovative AI technology for the art market.
Ahmed and his colleagues started the process by familiarizing the AI software initially with a broad range of classical music, and then, narrowed it to just Beethoven’s work. Meanwhile, Walter and his group tried to interpret the rough drafts and the handful of notes that detailed Beethoven’s plans for the 10th Symphony.
The team then began the slow and careful task of feeding the AI software musical notes from the unfinished composition. To stay true to Beethoven’s original composition, Ahmed’s team sent Walter hundreds of AI-generated musical note variations every evening. Walter would listen to them and then select the one that he thought was closest to what the artist would have written. The AI team would add the music and rerun the software to generate the next suggestions. And piece by piece, the team was able to complete Beethoven’s 10th Symphony!
The composition was firstly released on October 9, 2021. Not surprisingly, it caused some controversy (争议). Critics believe technology should not be used to replicate the human creative process. Ahmed and his team agree with their opinions and say their AI software is not out to replace humans — it is just a tool to help artists to express themselves in new ways.
1. What is the purpose of the writer in writing paragraph 1?| A．To voice his greatest respect for Beethoven. |
| B．To compare traditional music and AI music. |
| C．To present the team of music experts’ hard work. |
| D．To introduce an innovative method to create music. |
| A．Horrible. | B．Steady. | C．Challenging. | D．Boring. |
| A．Question. | B．Copy. | C．Direct. | D．Speed. |
| A．Beethoven’s 10 Symphonies Is Eventually Staged |
| B．AI Helps Complete Beethoven’s Unfinished Symphony |
| C．A Team of Experts Conduct a Mission Impossible |
| D．A Controversial Way Successfully Interprets Beethoven’s Music |
Imagine having the
3 . From Mozart to Metallica, tons of people enjoy listening to various types of music while they paint, write, or draw. Most believe that music helps increase creativity, but an international study conducted by English and Swedish researchers is challenging that view. The study results were echoed by scientists from Lancaster University, and the University of Gavle, saying their findings show music actually weakens creativity.
To reach their conclusions, researchers had volunteers complete verbal problems designed to inspire creativity while sitting in a quiet room, and then again while music played in the background. They found that background music significantly weakened the volunteers’ ability to complete tasks connected with verbal creativity. The team also tested background noises like those commonly heard in a library, but found that such noises had no influence on subjects’ creativity.
The tasks were simple word games. For example, volunteers were given three words, such as dress, rise, and flower. Then, they were asked to find a single word connected with all three that could be combined to form a common phrase or word. The single word, in this case, would be “sun” (sundress, sunrise, sunflower). Volunteers completed the tasks in either a quiet room, or while listening to two different types of music: rock music or light music
“We found strong evidence of weakened performance when playing background music in comparison to quiet background conditions,” says co-author D. Neil McLatchie of Lancaster University. He and his colleagues find that music negatively influences the verbal working memory processes of the brain, preventing creativity. Also, as far as the library background noises having seemingly no effect, the study’s authors believe that was the case because library noises create a “regular state” environment that doesn’t affect concentration.
“To conclude, the findings here challenge the popular view that music increases creativity, and instead show that music, whatever type it is, is always a disadvantage for creative performance in problem solving,” the study reads.
1. The underlined word in Paragraph 1 can be replaced by ________.| A．challenged | B．accepted | C．doubted | D．heard |
| A．To play music. | B．To combine given words. |
| C．To create new words. | D．To connect words with music. |
| A．Quiet background inspires creativity best. | B．Library noise does no harm to creativity. |
| C．Music has a bad effect on language ability. | D．Music types matter in creative performance. |
| A．Quiet Environments Prevent Concentration. | B．Background NoiseAffects Concentration. |
| C．Composing Music Weakens Creativity. | D．Listening to Music Reduces Creativity. |
4 . Listening to music is considered a good thing for adults. Indeed it is. Scientific studies have proved it. Music has so many good effects on our body, mind and mood that this world would certainly not be a good place without music.
First, music is good for children's intelligence. Studies have proved that children who learn music are likely to have higher intelligence than those who have no interest in or dislike music.
Music also has comforting effect on children and helps remove their stress. Today’s children are under a lot of stress from schoolwork. Being under too much stress harms children’s health.
Music is also a universal language that children ought to learn. Our world has become a global village.
Now we can say that music is very important not only to adults but also to children. So children should be encouraged to learn music or listen to music.
| A．Then, is music good for children? |
| B．Music can improve children’s moods. |
| C．Luckily, listening to music can help them feel better. |
| D．Music is shared between every culture and generation. |
| E．Music can help you recognize and remember information better. |
| F．This is because the brain gets inspired by the rhythm (节奏) and tone of music. |
| G．People are getting more and more interested in other cultures and countries. |
5 . Music is just a five letter word. It may only mean to people the sounds that they have
To me, lyrics have the power to play with my
I noticed that music was more than instruments and
One of my favorite songwriters is Demi Lovato.
Without music I will not be the person I am today. It
| A．downloaded | B．absorbed | C．admitted | D．gathered |
| A．beliefs | B．emotions | C．memories | D．faiths |
| A．reflect | B．spot | C．escape | D．reject |
| A．To be honest | B．As a result | C．By accident | D．After all |
| A．eventually | B．immediately | C．normally | D．extremely |
| A．resources | B．words | C．scenes | D．approaches |
| A．cultures | B．functions | C．origins | D．options |
| A．virtues | B．dilemmas | C．stories | D．desires |
| A．entrust | B．judge | C．greet | D．inspire |
| A．through | B．beyond | C．with | D．beneath |
| A．manner | B．principle | C．charm | D．hope |
| A．figure out | B．get over | C．bring about | D．carry on |
| A．Though | B．Once | C．Until | D．Unless |
| A．seek | B．select | C．experience | D．confirm |
| A．pursue | B．face | C．ignore | D．disguise |
| A．open | B．limited | C．typical | D．familiar |
| A．legal | B．moral | C．ordinary | D．personal |
| A．recover | B．reduce | C．rise | D．battle |
| A．lives | B．fades | C．occurs | D．marches |
| A．intention | B．love | C．fortune | D．patience |
| A．She happens to like pop music. |
| B．Only ladies can choose the music. |
| C．She can’t change the music at will. |
Music is one of the most
I believe music has the power
I believe music affects people in many ways. To me, music is
| A．The concert is put off. |
| B．The man got tickets at last. |
| C．The woman should go to the concert as well. |
