Music can calm the soul and inspire creativity, but it won’t, according to researchers from Harvard, improve intelligence.
“More than 80 percent of American adults think that music can improve children’s grades or intelligence, “said Samuel Mehr, a Harvard Graduate School of Education doctoral student in a statement. “Even in the scientific community, there’s a general belief that music is important to children’s development — but there is very little evidence（证据） supporting the idea that music classes improve children’s intelligence.”
The view that music improves intelligence can date back to a study published in 1993 in the journal Nature, which describes the “Mozart effect” as the ability for people who play instruments to perform better at spatial（空间的） problems. The study later was proved wrong, but the idea that music could make you smarter remained.
To test the connection between music and intelligence, researchers studied 29 parents and their four-year-olds. It turned out that music training did not improve the children’s intelligence. The children who had music training performed only slightly better at one spatial problem.
The researchers then did the study again, but with 45 parents and children. Half the group were given music training and the other half didn’t receive any. As with the first study, the second round produced no evidence that music training made the participants any smarter.
The researchers limited their research to classical music, and didn’t show whether different types of music made any difference. And while they concluded that the idea that music makes you smarter is a myth（谬见）, they argue that teaching children music is still important, and may have other advantages that aren’t all connected with intelligence.
1.What can we learn from the first two paragraphs?
①Music can encourage creativity.
②Most American parents take music seriously.
③Most scientists believe music has no advantages to children’s development.
④The idea that music can improve intelligence is not true.
A.①②③ B.②③④
C.①③④ D.①②④
2.What can we know about the “Mozart effect” from the passage?
A.It was brought up by Mozart.
B.It proved that music could make children smarter.
C.The idea has been completely accepted.
D.It is the origin of the idea that music can improve intelligence.
3.According to the researchers, ______.
A.music can help one become much cleverer
B.music lessons should be stopped in school
C.music is important to children’s development
D.students should learn different kinds of music
4.What is the best title for the passage?
A.Music — the Key to Your Success
B.The Advantages of Learning Music
C.The Connection Between Music and Creativity
D.Music May Not Make You Smarter
I went deaf in my right ear and was left with 50% hearing in my left when I was a little boy. My doctors _______ that I would be completely deaf, and today, my hearing has _______ to 20%, so I think I’m doing pretty _______.
For my 18th birthday, my dad asked me to deejay（当唱片节目主持人） at the restaurant he owned. I was _______. I e-mailed a well-known New York City was DJ: “I know you like challenge. How about _______ a deaf person to deejay?” He wrote back the next day: “Challenge _______.” He tutored me twice a week for two years, helping me develop proper skills. I practiced four hours a day. Now when I’m _______, my muscle memory recovers.
_______ I started, I wouldn’t tell the club managers I was deaf. I would just _______, introduce myself and start playing music. At the end of the night, someone would say, “Oh, here’s the check.” And I’d say, “What? Oh, I can’t hear.” They were always so ________. Sometimes I would bring doctor’s ________ because they wouldn’t believe me. It was reassuring（令人安心的） that they came there not out of ________, but because I was good.________ people started calling me “Deaf DJ”.
It is not all about ________. For each show, I can hear some of the lower frequencies（频率） and feel the ________ in my feet. I can feel the energy of the song and the ________ goes crazy. The next time you go dancing ________ your ears, and you’ll feel a little bit of how I do it. You’ll start using your other senses. You’ll start seeing that you’re able to listen to the music in a ________ way.
Now, I play at all sorts of get-togethers in many different places. I also go to schools for the deaf and talk to the students about motivation and ________ themselves. I tell their parents, “My ________ to you is to let your kids follow their dreams. I’m a deaf DJ, so why not your kids?”
1.A.agreed B.proved C.predicted D.admitted
2.A.increased B.stayed C.dropped D.kept
3.A.well B.much C.bad D.little
4.A.disappointed B.anxious C.shocked D.excited
5.A.changing B.expecting C.teaching D.imaging
6.A.refused B.accepted C.found D.paid
7.A.singing B.watching C.performing D.listening
8.A.When B.While C.After D.Until
9.A.cheer up B.show up C.look up D.call up
10.A.satisfied B.frightened C.worried D.surprised
11.A.notes B.orders C.plans D.letters
12.A.encouragement B.favor C.pity D.respect
13.A.Easily B.Eventually C.Regularly D.Immediately
14.A.sensing B.playing C.feeling D.hearing
15.A.beat B.noise C.clap D.wave
16.A.music B.song C.crowd D.manager
17.A.fold B.cover C.close D.hide
18.A.complex B.traditional C.strange D.different
19.A.believing in B.agreeing with C.concentrating on D.worrying about
20.A.point B.advice C.idea D.message
单句语法填空
1.To make a good ____________, she dressed well and told some ____________ stories about herself, which made the interviewers deeply ____________.（impress）
2.Chongqing is known to us all ______ a “foggy city”.
3.It was when I got back to my apartment ______ I first came across my new neighbors.
4.Almost all pre-school children go to a kindergarten, ______ they learn simple games and songs.
5.______（settle） in Austria for years, he got used to the life there.
6.Born into an artist’s family, she showed a great gift for painting from ______ early age.
7.By the time you receive this letter, I ______（leave） this city for my hometown.
8.A library as well as 5,000 books ______（offer） to the country as a gift last year.
9.The little boy showed his great ______ for painting. We believed he would become a ______ artist.（talent）
10.The air gets thinner and thinner ______ the height increases.
Writing
介绍一下令你印象最深的一位老师(80-100字)。
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Translation
1.有志者，事竟成。where
2.最后，这个牧羊人被绳之于法。justice
3.上海的气温在0℃到35 ℃之间。range
4.我正在街上走着，这是忽然有人从后面拍我的肩膀。when
PEOPLE— ________
This Thursday, Irena Sendler will be honoured for her work as a smuggler (偷运者). During World War II, the Polish social worker smuggled nearly 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto (聚居区). She gave them new identities, found them safe places with good-hearted Christians, and kept the children’s real names buried in jars in her neighbours’ gardens. (The play, Life in a Jar, based on her story, is being performed.) At 93, Sendler lives in a Warsaw nursing home and is too weak to travel to Washington D.C., to receive the 2003 Jan Karski Award for Valor and Compassion from the American Center of Polish Culture. One of the children she saved will accept the award for her.
You risked your life to save the children.
I was taught by my father that when someone is drowning, you don’t ask if they can swim, you just jump in and help. During the war, everyone was drowning, but mostly the Jewish children.
How did you persuade parents to give up their children?
I had to answer honestly that I didn’t even know if we would get past the guards.
What was the most frightening moment?
When I saw a priest (牧师) in charge of an orphanage for Jewish children in the ghetto walk with them out to be killed. The children were in their best Sunday suits. The priest was killed with them.
How did you get the children to behave as you smuggled them out?
I told the older children to act as if they were sick and sometimes gave the younger ones a sleeping pill. They were told to remember their new names. I also told the children to tell guards they had only been visiting a servant in the ghetto and were going back to their real homes outside.
Did you tell your own two children what you did?
I never told them. Only when my daughter went to Israel did she learn all about me. I thought it was only normal to do so. And it was a very painful subject. It was always on my mind that I couldn’t do more.
1.We can learn from the passage that Irena Sendler ________.
A.will go to Washington to accept the award with her daughter
B.was caught a few times while she was rescuing the Jewish children
C.told those parents that their children’s lives would be guaranteed
D.saved thousands of Jewish children at the risk of her own life
2.The expression “everyone was drowning” can best be replaced by “________”.
A.everyone was involved in the war
B.all the people were drowned
C.all the people were facing danger and death
D.Jewish children were being killed
3.Which one could NOT be expected when Sendler was smuggling the Jewish children?
A.The children pretended to be brothers and sisters from one big family.
B.Some children pretended to be returning home after visiting servants in the ghetto.
C.The children were asked to remember and use new names instead of real ones.
D.Some children were told to pretend to be sick in front of the guards.
4.Which of the following is best for the blank in the title?
A.DISASTER SURVIVOR B.IMPRESSIVE SMUGGLER
C.AWARD RECEIVER D.SECRET DEFENDER
