My father was a music teacher who traveled to farm homes or homes in smaller communities to teach his students. He was never at home in the ___ because he left around 1:00 each afternoon to start ___ and would return around 11:00 p. m. long after everyone, except my mother, was ___. Mom, on the other hand, was the ruler of the home ___ everything went well. She had to ___ my brother and me, cook meals, and wash clothes. Mother was a strict taskmaster ___ that we all obey the rules without any ___. When we didn’t, there were always ___ punishments(惩罚).
One day I got myself into trouble. ___ dealing with the situation, my mother told me that my father would come to punish me. I thought this was no ____ since I would be ____ long before my father got home. ____, he wouldn’t wake me up to punish me.
The next morning, I ____ thinking all was well. However, my father called me into the playroom. He told me to ____ beside him in a wooden chair and then said how ____ he was in me. I was told that I would not be ____ to play with any of my toys for two days.
I always remember that ____ even after all these years have gone by. The reason I remember it so well is that it taught me a lot. I came to ____ that you won’t ____ the punishment no matter how much you don’t want it, or how much you bury your ____ in the sand and think that it will just go away like a bad dream.
1.A.evening B.daytime C.morning D.midnight
2.A.practicing B.studying C.teaching D.performing
3.A.quiet B.awake C.worried D.asleep
4.A.figuring out B.making sure C.working out D.relying on
5.A.live with B.search for C.turn to D.look after
6.A.demanding B.suggesting C.arguing D.pretending
7.A.reason B.result C.excuse D.cause
8.A.harmful B.dangerous C.unfair D.immediate
9.A.Except for B.Instead of C.As for D.Because of
10.A.business B.accident C.trouble D.surprise
11.A.in bed B.off duty C.at sea D.at work
12.A.However B.Therefore C.Otherwise D.Besides
13.A.got up B.called back C.rang off D.settled down
14.A.lie down B.sit down C.write down D.climb down
15.A.proud B.honest C.confident D.disappointed
16.A.invited B.chosen C.allowed D.required
17.A.position B.experience C.condition D.schedule
18.A.realize B.prove C.remember D.hope
19.A.feel B.suffer C.understand D.escape
20.A.toys B.hands C.head D.feet
Ted talks bitterly about being made to play the clarinet as a kid. For three years during his teens, his parents required him to spend an hour after dinner every night practicing. His parents wanted him to be in the marching band. They disagreed with him when he thought maybe jazz was more his thing. 1. However, he learned to hate it.
Angela was forced to take up the violin when she was 12. During her practice, she would close her bedroom door, lay the violin on her bed and pull the bow back and forth across the strings while reading her favorite novels. Then she tried to make them believe that maybe the violin wasn’t for her.2.
The parents of both of the kids were wellintentioned（出于好心的）. 3. They saw it as their responsibility to provide the opportunity to have lessons and to insist on regular practicing.
They weren’t wrong to want music in their kids’ lives.4.
●Music can help adjust the mood.
●Making music and listening to it develop the part of the brain that is involved with language and reasoning.
●So many mathematicians, engineers and architects are also musicians. There are facts showing that learning an instrument helps in the development of spatial-temporal skills.
●Making music is a way to make friends and to improve self-esteem.
●Best of all, playing an instrument is a skill that can be enjoyed and shared over a lifetime.
Both Ted’s and Angela’s parents’ hearts were in the right place. But they, like many parents, failed to understand that providing lessons would not make their kids into musicians if practicing was a chore（令人厌烦的工作） instead of a pleasure. Music educators are clear: 5. Ideally, music lessons are something we do with our kids, not to them.
A. They wanted him to love his instrument.
B. Playing instruments is good for your health.
C. Much to her relief, they stopped the lessons.
D. Understanding kids is very important, especially for parents.
E. Kid’s success in music depends on parental involvement.
F. There are many good reasons to give kids lessons on an instrument.
G. They believed that playing an instrument would give their kid some kind of advantage.
Theresa May is the second female prime minister（首相）, taking charge of the UK at one of the most hard times in recent political history.
Born in Sussex but raised largely in Oxfordshire, Mrs. May was educated in a grammar school in the village of Wheatley. The young Theresa Brasier threw herself into village life.
Like Margaret Thatcher, she went to the University of Oxford to study. In 1976, in her third year, she met her husband Philip May. They were introduced at a Conservative Association disco and got married four years later.
Her university friend Pat Frankland, speaking in 2011 on a BBC Radio 4, said, “I cannot remember a time when she did not have political ambitions（政治抱负）.”
There are no tales of drunken student celebration, but Pat Frankland and other friends said May was not the serious figure she would later come to be seen as, and that she had a sense of fun and a full social life.
After graduating with a degree in geography, May went to work in the Bank of England. But it was already clear that she saw her future in politics. Like Margaret Thatcher, it took a bit of time for her to find hers. She first dipped her toe in the water in 1992, when she gained a Labour seat in North West Durham. She entered Parliament in 1997 and Theresa was chosen as Home Secretary（内政大臣） in May 2010 and became the longest-serving Conservative Home Secretary for over 60 years. During this time she was in charge of reductions in crime, reform of the police, and the introduction of the landmark Modern Slavery Act 2015.
Following her election as Leader of the Conservative Party, Theresa was chosen as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on 13th July 2016.
1.Theresa May got married in ______.
A.1976 B.1980
C.1992 D.1997
2.According to the text, what may contribute most to May’s becoming the Prime Minister?
A.Her strong ambitions.
B.Her husband’s help.
C.A sense of fun.
D.A full social life.
3.What does May have in common with Thatcher according to the text?
A.They received the degree in geography.
B.They didn’t become politicians on graduation.
C.They spent their childhood in the countryside.
D.They got to know their husbands in university.
4.What do we know about Theresa May?
A.She was a successful Home Secretary.
B.She was popular with her classmates.
C.She was serious when she was young.
D.She studied politics in university.
The researchers say a person loses two months for every kilogram overweight they are — and seven years for smoking a packet of cigarettes a day.
Unusually, a team from the University of Edinburgh found their answers by researching differences in people’s genetic code or DNA. Finally they thought they would show new ways of helping us to live longer.
The group used the DNA of more than 600,000 people who are taking part in a natural experiment. If someone smokes, drinks, drops out of school and is overweight, it can be difficult to find out the impact of one specific unhealthy behavior.
Instead, the researchers turned to the natural experiment. Some people carry mutations（变异） in their DNA that increase appetite or make them more likely to put on weight, so researchers were able to compare those programmed to eat more with those who were not. The research team also found specific mutations in human DNA that could change lifespans（寿命）.
·Mutations is a gene that is involved in running the immune system（免疫系统） could add seven months of life on average.
·People with a mutation that increased levels of bad cholesterol knocked eight months off lifespans.
·A rare mutation in a gene — APOE — related to dementia reduced lifespans by 11 months.
·And one that made smoking more attractive cut lives by five months.
Dr Joshi says that while genes do influence lifespans, you’ve got even more influence through the choices you make. Dr Joshi said, “We hope to discover genes affecting lifespans to give us new information about ageing and construct treatment for ageing.”
There are also some disease mutations that clearly affect lifespans and bring destructive effect for people, such as the Huntington’s gene. People with Huntington’s even die in their 20s.
However, in order to follow people until the end of their lives, many of the people studied were born before 1940.
1.What is difficult for the researchers to find out?
A.The differences in people’s DNA.
B.The reasons why people put on weight very easily.
C.The results of many natural and massive experiments.
D.One bad behavior’s effect on people with many bad behaviors.
2.Which of the following mutations affects lifespans most greatly?
A.One related to controlling the immune system.
B.One increasing unhealthy cholesterol.
C.One called APOE involved in dementia.
D.One making smoking more attractive.
3.What’s the meaning of Dr Joshi’s study?
A.To help stop mutations.
B.To find diseases earlier.
C.To make people live longer.
D.To reduce the effects of genes.
4.Why did researchers mainly study people born before 1940?
A.To follow them until they die.
B.To teach them to lose weight.
C.To show they are more important.
D.To make them live happier.
Music has always been related to exercising. Most of us listen to our favourite music while jogging in the park or while working out in the gym, but we never think of it as more than just an accompaniment (伴奏) to our exercise. But recent scientific research has shown that using the “right” music while you are exercising can do you a whole lot of good: from creating a feeling of positivity to calming any anxious feeling.
Research on the effects of music during exercise has been done for years. In 1911, an American researcher, Leonard Ayres, found that cyclists rode faster while listening to music than they did in the silence.
This happens because listening to music can drown out (淹没) our brain’s cries of tiredness. As our body realizes we’re tired and wants to stop exercising, it sends signals to the brain to stop for a break. Listening to music competes for our brain’s attention, and can help us to overcome those signals of tiredness, though this is mostly beneficial for moderate- and low- intensity (中低强度的) exercise. During high- intensity exercise, music isn’t as powerful as pulling our brain’s attention away from the pain of the workout.
Not only can we manage to exercise longer and harder when we listen to music, but it can actually help us to use our energy more efficiently. A 2015 study showed that cyclists who listened to music required 7% less oxygen to do the same work than those who cycled in the silence did. In the same way exercising makes us happier, so it’s not surprising that music adds significantly to our workout success.
What have you noticed about how music affects you? Next time when you take exercise, select the right music to accompany you. You will find yourself in a more different mood than ever.
1.Why do some people listen to music while exercising?
A.They are fond of enjoying music.
B.They know music helps do exercise.
C.They find music is an accompaniment.
D.They give too much consideration to it.
2.What can you do when you want to stop exercising?
A.To try to listen to the music you like.
B.To stop for a rest immediately.
C.To tell yourself never to do that.
D.To send a signal to your brain.
3.What can be inferred from the fourth paragraph?
A.Listening to music can help produce more energy.
B.The cyclists love listening to music more than others.
C.People should take listening to music seriously while exercising.
D.Significant music can benefit high-intensity exercise.
One billion teenagers and young adults around the world risk losing their hearing by listening to loud music, according to the World Health Organization. The U. N. agency is asking young people to turn down the volume（音量） to prevent great damage to their hearing.
Many people believe the sound being louder is better if they are listening to rock and roll. But experiencing really loud music, even really good music, can have a serious effect on the hearing.
Studies in middle- and high-income countries show nearly 50 percent of teenagers and young adults aged 12 to 35 listen to unsafe levels of sound. They are listening on their personal audio devices as well as at concerts, nightclubs and other entertainment places.
But what is an unsafe level of sound?
The WHO says there can be many kinds of unsafe levels of sound. It depends on how loud the sound is and how long you listen to it. Unsafe levels of sound can mean noise levels of 85 decibels（分贝） for eight hours a day or 100 decibels for just 15 minutes.
Doctors say there are simple measures to protect people from unsafe sound levels. Young people who wear earplugs（耳塞） during concerts can enjoy music at 90 decibels as much as they can at 110 decibels. But they admit that earplugs may not look very cool. A common sense suggestion is to turn down the volume on their personal audio devices. The WHO also advises young people to limit their use of such devices to less than one hour a day. It reminds people to use their technology to stay safe. Smartphone apps can help t monitor safe listening levels.
The U. N. agency estimates 360 million people suffer hearing loss linked to many causes, including noise, genetic conditions, infectious diseases and aging. It notes half of all cases of hearing loss are avoidable.
1.What’s the purpose of the passage?
A.To advise good music.
B.To advise people to wear carplugs.
C.To give tips on how to enjoy loud music.
D.To remind people to prevent hearing loss.
2.The underlined words “unsafe levels of sound” can refer to ______.
A.how loud the sound is
B.how long you listen to the music
C.loud music at 90 decibels
D.noise at 100 decibels for 150 minutes
3.What can we learn from the passage?
A.One billion young people risk hearing loss from loud music.
B.Smartphones can do harm to people’s hearing.
C.Don’t wear earplugs during concerts.
D.Louder music is good music.
4.What’s the main idea of the last but one paragraph?
A.There are many factors that cause hearing loss.
B.Some measures to protect people’s hearing.
C.Not all cases of hearing loss are avoidable.
D.The reason why people wear earplugs during concerts.
