Question

    When students and parents are asked to rate subjects according to their importance，the arts are unavoidably at the bottom of the list. Music is nice, people seem to say, but not important. Too often it is viewed as entertainment, but certainly not an education priority（优先）. This view is shortsighted. In fact, music education is beneficial and important for all students

Music tells us who we are. Because music is an expression of the beings who create it, it reflects their thinking and values, as well as the social environment it came from. Rock music represents a lifestyle just as surely as does a Schubert song. The jazz influence that George Gershwin and other musicians introduced into their music is obviously American because it came from American musical traditions. Music expresses our character and values. It gives us identity as a society.

Music provides a kind of perception(视角) that cannot be acquired any other way. Science can explain how the sun rises and sets. The arts explore the emotive（情感的）meaning of the same phenomenon. We need every possible way to discover and respond to our world for one simple but powerful reason: No one way can get it all.

The arts are forms of thought as powerful in what they communicate as mathematical and scientific symbols. They are ways we human beings “talk” to each other. They are the language of civilization through which we express our fears, our curiosities our hungers, our discoveries, our hopes. The arts are ways we give form to our ideas and imagination so that they can be shared with others. When we do not give children access to an important way of expressing themselves such as music, we take away from them the meanings that music expresses.

So music education is far more necessary than people seem to realize.

1.According to paragraph 1, students ________.

A.regard music as a way of entertainment

B.disagree with their parents on education

C.view music as an overlooked subject

D.prefer the arts to science

2.In Paragraph 2, the author uses jazz as an example to ________.

A.compare it with rock music

B.show music identifies a society

C.introduce American musical traditions

D.prove music influences people’s lifestyles

3.According to the passage, the arts and science ________.

A.approach the world from different angles

B.explore different phenomena of the world

C.express people’s feeling in different ways

D.explain what it means to be human differently

4.What is the main idea of the passage?

A.Music education deserves more attention.

B.Music should be of top education priority.

C.Music is an effective communication tool.

D.Music education makes students more imaginative.

Answer

1.A

2.B

3.A

4.A

【解析】

这是一篇议论文。本文介绍了作者认为艺术教育尤其是音乐教育是相当重要和必须的，作者认为艺术尤其是音乐是人类表达情感的重要方式，人们应加强音乐教育。

1.细节理解题。根据第一段it is viewed as entertainment可知，音乐被视为是一种娱乐。故选A。

2.细节理解题。根据第二段最后一句It gives us identity as a society可知，作者以爵士乐为例，来展示音乐赋予了我们作为一个社会人的身份。故选B。

3.推理判断题。从第三段可知，作者认为自然科学揭示事物规律，艺术探索同一现象的情感，二者从不同角度探索发现我们的世界。故选A。

4.主旨大意题。根据最后一段最后一句So music education is far more necessary than people seem to realize可知，本文主要讲述让人们对音乐教育的给予更多地关注。故选A。