2 . The ability of music to evoke (唤起) specific, often powerful feelings is no secret to anyone who has listened to Gustav Mahler’s “Symphony No.5”, Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child”, the Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated”, Lizzo’s “Good as Hell” or any of the other countless compositions that have found their way onto Western playlists in the past few centuries.

The emotional effects of music are the point, of course. They are also the subject of a fast-growing field of research around the world in which scientists are exploring the nature of the many “subjective experiences” — such as joy, sadness, anxiety and calmness — that music evokes.

In a recent set of experiments, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and their colleagues sought to determine if the feelings that people experience when listening to music “show evidence of universality”. They compared and analyzed how more than 2,800 U. S. and Chinese study participants responded to 2,168 (mostly Western) samples of instrumental music. The team identified 13 distinct and very specific feelings that the Chinese and U. S. subjects shared when listening to music, despite their cultural differences.

The music used in the research, described in the paper as “the richest set of Western music samples ever studied,” included classical, pop, rock, indie, hip-hop, R&B, country, film soundtracks, and more. An additional 189 sample of traditional Chinese music was also used. In all, the researchers gathered 375,230 judgments of the samples from the study participants.

In the first experiment, subjects listened to Western music samples (each of which was just five seconds long) and reported on the specific feelings they evoked, choosing responses from a list of 28 “categories of subjective experience” provided by the researchers. Terms on the list included “victorious/heroic”, “sad/depressing”, “joyful/cheerful”, “awe-inspiring/amazing” and “dreamy”. The team then used data-driven statistical modeling to identify the 13 shared experiences. The second experiment, which included the Chinese music, involved broad evaluations of the samples by participants—such as whether the subjects liked or disliked them or found them exciting or not. A central finding of the study, the researchers write, is that specific feelings “drive the experience of music” more than the broader features.

4 . This is a song millions of Americans will hear this New Year’s Eve. It is called Auld Lang Syne (《友谊地久天长》). It is the traditional music played during the New Year’s celebration. Auld Lang Syne is an old Scottish poem. It tells about the need to remember old friends.

The words “auld lang syne” mean “old long since”. No one knows who wrote the poem first. However, a version by Scottish poet Robert Bums was published (出版) in 1796. The words and music we know today first appeared in a songbook three years later.

The song is played in the United States mainly on New Year’s Eve. The version (译文) you are hearing today is by the Washington Saxophone Quartet. As we end our program with Auld Lang Syne. I would like to wish all of our radio friends a very Happy New Year! This is Buddy Thomas. (from www.zkenglish.com)

The virtual choir was the idea of award-winning composer and conductor Eric Whitacre. Born in the USA on 2 January 1970, Whitacre began     1     (study) music at the University of Nevada in 1988. He fell in love with Mozart’s classical music when he sang for the university choir.     2     (move) by this music, he said, “It was like seeing color for the first time.” He graduated     3     university in 1995 and then received a master’s degree in musical composition from the Juilliard School in New York in 1997. Over the next 10 years, Whitacre’s     4     (origin) compositions began to become quite popular among choirs and singers. This led to the creation of the virtual choir.

In 2009, Whitacre received a video of a girl who was singing one of his works.     5     (inspire), he asked his fans to make videos, which he then joined together into one     6     (perform). His first virtual choir, “Lux Aurumque”, had 185     7     (singer) from 12 different countries. It has received millions of views on     8     Internet. Since then, the virtual choir     9     (become) a worldwide phenomenon. Whitacre’s next effort was the Virtual Youth Choir for UNICEF,     10     was first seen onstage on 23 July 2014 in the UK. Altogether, 2,292 young people from 80 countries joined in to sing Whitacre’s song “What If.”

Many people while they are at home alone imagine having the opportunity     1     (sing) together with others,     2     was realized as a virtual choir. Anyone can take part in it from anywhere. It has proved to be a positive influence     3     the lives of many people. Award-winning composer and     4     (conduct) Eric Whitacre came up with the idea of a virtual choir, who began studying music in 1988.     5     (move) by Mozart’s classical music, he received     6    master’s degree in     7     (music) composition in 1997. In 2009, his first virtual choir received     8     (million) of views on the Internet and     9     (become) a worldwide phenomenon   since then. In 2014, he     10     (form)the Virtual Youth Choir for UNICEF, and 2,292 young people from 80 countries sang his song “What If”. The virtual choir is a wonderful way for people around the world to sing with one voice and thus make the world a better place.

I have always enjoyed listening to music. It helps me calm down after    1    busy day, and I am also one of those    2    can listen and study at the same time. I am not interested    3    jazz music, but I like many other    4    (type) of music. When I was a child, I used to listen to music on the radios. With the    5    (invent) of personal computers and cellphones, I prefer to listen on the phone, as new functions    6    (add) to them in the past few years. The technology was developed in response to customer need. Some people affected by    7    (anxious) start to feel relaxed while    8    (listen) to music on the phone. Others worry about not being able to use it well. However, I am    9    dependent on the cellphones that I fail    10    (live) without them.

10 . Since the age of three, Chelsie Hill had dreamed of becoming a dancer. That ambition ______ ended one night in 2010. Hill, then a 17-year-old high school senior was in a car accident that put her in the ______ for 51 days and left her paralyzed (瘫痪的) from the waist down. For most people, that would have killed any hope of a dancing career. For Hill, however, it was the ______. “I wanted to prove that I was still ‘______,’” she said. That word for her meant dancing, so Hill did it in her ______. “I have to move with my hands. It definitely took much learning and ______.”

After graduation, Hill wanted to expand her dance network to ______ women like her. She met people who had suffered disabilities but ______ her determination, and she invited them to dance with her. In 2014 Hill formed a team of dancers with disabilities she calls the Rollettes. “I want to ______ the stereotype (成见) of wheelchair users and show that dance is dance, whether you’re walking or you’re ______.” she said. Dancing on wheels can be just as artful and fulfilling. In disabled dance competitions, they’re ______, and as the audiences’ excited reactions indicate, the happiness is contagious (传染的).

Hill is a real ______. She has achieved her childhood ______. Every year she holds a dance camp for wheelchair users. For many, it was the first time they’d felt they ______. A girl once told her it was the most _____thing when she rolled into a room and everyone was at eye level.