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2 . Some of the world’s most famous musicians recently gathered in Paris and New Orleans to celebrate the first annual International Jazz Day. UNESCO( United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) recently set April 30 as a day to raise awareness of jazz music, its significance, and its potential as a unifying (联合) voice across cultures.
Despite the celebrations, though, in the U.S. the jazz audience continues to shrink and grow older, and the music has failed to connect with younger generations.
It’s Jason Moran’s job to help change that. As the Kennedy Center’s artistic adviser for jazz, Moran hopes to widen the audience for jazz, make the music more accessible, and preserve its history and culture.
“Jazz seems like it’s not really a part of the American appetite,” Moran tells National Public
Radio’s reporter Neal Conan “What I’m hoping to accomplish is that my generation and younger start to reconsider and understand that jazz is not black and write anymore. It’s actually colorful, and it’s actually digital.”
Moran says one of the problems with jazz today is that the entertainment aspect of the music has been lost. “The music can’t be presented today the way it was in 1908 or 1958. It has to continue to move, because the way the world works is not the same,” says Moran.
Last year, Moran worked on a project that arranged Fats Waller’s music for a dance party, “Just to kind of put it back in the mind that Waller is dance music as much as it is concert music,” says Moran. “For me, it’s the recontextualization. In music, where does the emotion (情感) lie? Are we, as abstract as a Charlie Parker record gets us into a dialogue about our emotions and our thoughts? Sometimes we lose sight that the music has a wider context,” says Moran, “So I want to continue those dialogue. Those are the things I want to foster.”
1. What does the underlined word “that” in paragraph 3 refer to?| A．Jazz becoming more accessible. |
| B．The production of jazz growing faster. |
| C．Jazz being less popular with the young. |
| D．The jazz audience becoming larger. |
| A．It will disappear gradually. |
| B．It remains black and white. |
| C．It should keep up with the times. |
| D．It changes every 50 years. |
| A．Exploring the Future of Jazz |
| B．The Rise and Fall of Jazz |
| C．The Story of a Jazz Musician |
| D．Celebrating the Jazz Day |
Alexis and Zoe were sitting at the kitchen table doing homework. They were having a hard time concentrating on their assignment because the radio station was playing music from their favorite band, the Shape Shifters.
“I can’t believe the Shifters are going to be playing here and we can’t go!” Alexis complained. “I know,” complained Zoe. “Tickets were sold out in five minutes, and even if we could get some, they are so expensive!”
“It’s totally unfair,” said Alexis. “They should give the tickets to their biggest fans first!” “You mean us, right?” “Obviously,” laughed Alexis. “Everyone knows we’re their number one fans.”
Zoe turned the radio up a little louder. Their favorite song was on, and using a pencil and a banana as microphones (麦克风), they sang loudly as if they were at the concert.
As the song ended, the host started talking about the concert. “The Shape Shifters are playing in town this weekend,” he announced loudly. “And we’re giving away two tickets to Saturday’s sold-out show, right now! We’re looking for the 10th caller who can correctly answer this question: Who is the oldest member of the Shape Shifters?”
Alexis and Zoe looked at each other. They couldn’t believe how easy the question was. “It’s Georgie!” said Alexis. “No, it’s Natasha,” answered Zoe.
“What do you mean?” asked Alexis. “Everyone knows Georgie is 29, he’s much older than the rest of the band.” “Yeah, I know he’s the oldest person, but the question was who the oldest member of the band is. Natasha started the band when she was just 15. The others joined the group after her.” explained Zoe. ” “But…” Alexis wasn’t convinced.
As they listened, they heard the host taking calls from excited fans. “Caller Number Three, you’re up! What’s your answer?” “Georgie,” said the nervous voice. “Wrong again,” boomed the host. “Nobody seems to know the answer! Next caller!”
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。
“You’re right! CALL THE STATION NOW!” Alexis said.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“What are your names, ladies?” the host asked seriously.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________4 . While rap(说唱音乐)songs are made up of many parts, the verse(主歌部分)is by far the most important.
Begin by free-writing lines about your topic. Using your topic as a starting point, start writing outlines of your thoughts, trying to rhyme(使押韵)the last word in each line. Once you’ve exhausted a set of rhymes, start another one and write lines until you run out of ideas. Explore ideas around your topic until you find the ones you enjoy or know best.
Build a rhyme scheme(格式)around your favorite lines. A rhyme scheme is a pattern that gives your verse structure
Start with a powerful line. The first lines of your verse should introduce the verse and capture the listener’s attention. Ask a question, make an interesting metaphor, or blow the listener away with skillful wordplay.
Develop a flow, or rhythm, in your rap. Once you’ve got your words on the page, you need to figure out how to say them. Flow is how a rapper delivers his/ her lyrics in along with the beat. Listen again to the beat you are rapping and practice fitting your lyrics to it.
| A．Get to know your beat well |
| B．Rewrite your verse to fit the beat |
| C．Most rappers have mixed rhyme schemes |
| D．You can think of it as a blueprint of which lines need to rhyme |
| E．Don’t be worried just yet about making your lines ideally perfect |
| F．That’s because it’s where a rapper develops the ideas or the song in depth |
| G．Anything that introduces the verse and make yourself stand out will be OK |
Lonely Warrior , the theme song of the film Arcane: League of Legends, came out last November, the lyrics by Tang Tian and the singer Eason Chan. It has become
One woman began singing the song on the street, and dozens of children spontaneously
So what’s the secret
For Tang Tian, the song is autobiographical. When she was 29, she
6 . Do you like Chinese traditional painting and dance? They are two important parts of the traditional Chinese art. But what about when they meet each other?
This year, a dance drama titled Poetic Dance: The Journey of a Legendary Landscape Painting (《只此青绿》) was staged on CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala and became popular.
According to CCTV, this poetic dance program was inspired by the 900-year-old Chinese painting A Panorama of Rivers and Mountains (《千里江山图》), created by Song Dynasty painter Wang Ximeng at about 18. The painting is amazing in its sweeping size, rich coloration and the expressive details, reported by CCTV. It shows a Chinese blue-green landscape: mountains and groupings of infinite (无限的) rise and fall between cloudless sky and rippling (涟漪的) water.
When the dancers moved elegantly, audiences seemed to be looking at the moving mountains and rivers. “It brings me a pure experience of beauty. It is not only a drama but also an exhibition. Vast mountains and rivers are coming to life!” Internet user Mo Weisha wrote in a review. “More than a thousand years later, green mountains and rivers still impress people as they did long ago.” Some people even decided to watch the dance again when it was staged in the theaters later. In fact, in recent years, more and more modern shows have featured Chinese traditional culture and received warm welcome. As for the reason, it is due to people’s great love for traditional culture.
“The younger generations have grown up with a more open mind. They accept Chinese culture and are proud of it,” Yao Wei, director of Henan TV Station’s Innovation Center, told China Daily.
1. What’s the writing purpose of paragraph 1?| A．To raise a question. | B．To introduce the topic. |
| C．To describe the art world. | D．To show a doubtful thought. |
| A．CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala. | B．A Chinese blue-green landscape. |
| C．Song Dynasty painter Wang Ximeng. | D．An old Chinese traditional painting. |
| A．Traditional culture is accepted and loved by people. |
| B．Green mountains and rivers greatly impress people. |
| C．The poetic dance can be staged in the theaters later. |
| D．Increasing modern shows feature Chinese traditional culture. |
| A．It explains why Chinese art enjoys popularity. |
| B．It shows us art can come to life through dance. |
| C．It highlights the beauty of Chinese traditional art. |
| D．It tells us the love for Chinese traditional painting. |
The pipa is a four-stringed Chinese musical instrument,
In China, plenty of music and stories are associated
8 . Taste in music varies considerably, but whatever people enjoy listening to, they often report an emotional response that has a touch of the physical to it. Maybe you feel beautiful music gives you the feeling of being cold, or makes your hair stand on end.
By studying a rare person, named BW, who does not like or respond to music at all, psychologist Psyche Loui of Northeastern University has discovered that connectivity patterns in the brain link finding music rewarding with finding social interaction enjoyable.
“BW said he had never understood why people enjoy music,” Loui says. BW is not someone who doesn’t like art, Loui says. “He goes to museums. He’s an enthusiastic photographer. He likes good food. He likes long walks on the beach. He just doesn’t like music.” He told Loui that when he saw a person at the grocery store with headphones in their ears dancing to music, he could never understand why anyone would do that. “This really seems to be a somewhat socially weakening experience,” Loui says.
“Given that music is important for social bonding across different cultures and that music is a way for the hearing system to connect to the reward system, one strong prediction is that music reward sensitivity can partially explain individual differences in sensitivity to social reward.”
This newly discovered connectivity between the hearing and reward systems may be why we feel emotions in response to music, Loui says. “I think that there’s a role of music for social bonding.” She also thinks there are influences from this work for other conditions with low social reward. “If people who don’t love music have differences in specific systems in the brain, then that shows these specific systems are related to the love of music. Then we can examine what else engages these same systems and what other abilities or human capacities are linked to music.”
1. Why are “being cold” and “hair stand on end” mentioned in Paragraph 1?| A．To develop the plot. | B．To draw a conclusion. |
| C．To make comparisons. | D．To support the argument. |
| A．He thinks music is important in social bonding. |
| B．He enjoys music while wandering on the beach. |
| C．He figures music is less important than art and food. |
| D．He takes little interest in and is unresponsive to music. |
| A．What role music plays in social bonding. |
| B．How people respond to music emotionally. |
| C．Whether specific music influences brain system. |
| D．What other human abilities are linked with music. |
| A．People’s emotional and physical reactions to beautiful music. |
| B．Connections between enjoyment of music and social interaction. |
| C．Relationships among social bonding, diverse cultures and music. |
| D．Links among music sensibility, hearing system and reward system. |
9 . It is difficult for a teacher to decide whether to allow students to listen to music in the classroom. Every time students need to write an essay or work on a problem, they say, “Can I put my headphones on? I think better that way.” But is that really true? Does music help concentrate?
Research offers little to back up the idea that listening to music improves concentration. In one small study, 133 students performed reading tasks while listening to either light music, hip hop, or no music at all. Students who performed the reading tasks in silence scored the highest. Music with a higher intensity (强度) like hip hop was more distracting and had a bad effect on task performance.
Volume (音量) plays a more important role than the type of music. The study found that the louder the music, the worse the performance in concentration. The type of music didn’t matter. Data from the study showed once again that silence was the best environment to improve concentration.
However, music has a positive effect on work performance. Studies have showed that listening to music leads to positive changes in mood, as well as creativity. In fact, in music-listening cultures, which students are certainly part of, there’s actually a change in mood when the music is taken away.
It’s hard to convince my students that music doesn’t help with their concentration. Taj, a senior told me, “I wouldn’t be able to concentrate if I were listening to music and trying to read. However, when I write, I feel like music helps me concentrate deeply. I don’t have writer’s block. It’s easy for me to put my words on paper.”
“Maybe not with reading, but when it comes to math, listening to music certainly helps,” Danela told me. “You could actually be singing along with what you’re listening to and doing well in math.”
1. What does the underlined word “distracting” in paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Making it difficult for someone to concentrate. |
| B．Causing great excitement. |
| C．Making someone want to do something. |
| D．Making someone feel frightened. |
| A．Students do well in reading tasks while listening to music. |
| B．Music can’t improve people’s mood and creativity. |
| C．Different types of music lead to different performances. |
| D．The volume of music affects concentration. |
| A．They believe music doesn’t help concentrate. |
| B．They use music to help with their paper-writing. |
| C．They can’t focus on reading while listening to music. |
| D．They don’t listen to music while doing math problems. |
| A．Should Students Listen to Music? | B．Does Music Help Concentration? |
| C．Is Music Related to Reading? | D．Can Music Change Mood? |
10 . Sixteen years ago, while we were driving on vacation, my wife decided to pass the time by singing “The Christmas Song”. She sang it over and over again. Somehow, I decided to
When she got to the
Shocked and terrified, she
Fast forward to this year. It’s snowing outside and I was in a good mood. I started singing “The Christmas Song” and my wife then
I laughed and
As for me, though I am now the King of Lies who is never to be
| A．agree | B．mess | C．pass | D．drive |
| A．line | B．song | C．story | D．sentence |
| A．hearing | B．voicing | C．singing | D．playing |
| A．blame | B．inform | C．award | D．teach |
| A．made fun of | B．took charge of | C．broke out of | D．got ahead of |
| A．rarely | B．frequently | C．usually | D．particularly |
| A．taste | B．flavor | C．standard | D．skill |
| A．accepted | B．bought | C．denied | D．liked |
| A．wrote | B．sold | C．reminded | D．spared |
| A．nose | B．patient | C．asylum | D．arm |
| A．completed | B．ruined | C．broken | D．restored |
| A．argued | B．confirmed | C．admitted | D．announced |
| A．joyful | B．grateful | C．awkward | D．mad |
| A．lie | B．comedy | C．drama | D．show |
| A．teased | B．trusted | C．heard | D．loved |
