I was 11 years old when I asked my mom for piano lessons in 2010. We were badly off in the recession (经济衰退). She said a ______ “no”.
That didn’t stop me. I Googled the ______ for a keyboard, drew the keys on a piece of paper and ______ it on my desk. I would click ______ on an online keyboard and “play” them back on my paper one—keeping the ______ they made on the computer in my ______. I spend six months playing without ______ a real piano. Once my mom saw that I was ______, she got into debt to buy me ten lessons.
In the first lesson I was ______ by how real the sound of the piano was. I set my grade one after eight lessons. ______ we couldn’t afford lessons again. I ______ grade three, then grade five, ______ only on my piece of paper. When I was about 13, my mom said she had a ______ for me: it was an electronic keyboard, bought with more ______ money.
My school didn’t offer music A-level. I found the Purcell School for young ______. The tryouts (选拔) were ______. Some of the questions involved a judgment on the composer or when it was written. I felt stuck. To my amazement I was offered a ______. There, I worked as hard as I could to improve my performance and save enough money to buy my _____ piano.
I feel proud: it’s been 10 years since I drew my paper piano, and now I’m at one of the world’s leading music schools. However, the irony（讽刺） is that I ______ doing a lot of my practice away from the piano: what we call ______ practice. The paper piano helped spark my curiosity about how music works, the building blocks that form the pieces.
1.A.grateful B.polite C.distant D.reliable
2.A.measurements B.colors C.system D.principle
3.A.laid B.stuck C.wrapped D.folded
4.A.links B.tunes C.notes D.symbols
5.A.noise B.video C.image D.sound
6.A.gesture B.sight C.head D.chest
7.A.touching B.seeing C.buying D.hearing
8.A.cautious B.serious C.entertained D.optimistic
9.A.occupied B.confused C.addicted D.struck
10.A.Lately B.Meanwhile C.Instantly D.Afterwards
11.A.passed B.missed C.organized D.quit
12.A.operating B.focusing C.practicing D.experimenting
13.A.credit B.surprise C.reward D.chance
14.A.borrowed B.hidden C.earned D.raised
15.A.students B.artists C.musicians D.performers
16.A.tough B.various C.common D.formal
17.A.post B.mark C.class D.place
18.A.delicate B.favorite C.first D.new
19.A.set about B.keep on C.turn to D.jump at
20.A.junior B.casual C.regular D.mental
The world is full of distractions. Unfortunately, the world also requires us to work. Coping with the first while still doing enough of the second is … sorry, where am I?
Ah, yes, the world is full of distractions. If you work in an office, it might be emails, phone calls or colleagues with questions to ask. If you are at home, it might be the contents of the fridge or a sudden fixation on dust mites (尘螨) under the sofa. Sometimes it takes even less. If you are sitting and doing work and someone near you says something particularly interesting, that can pull your focus. 1.
So, how can we stay focused in our wandering minds? 2. And put your smartphone and other irrelevant screens away—they attract our attention even if they are off. If you tend to pop on headphones and use music to shut out distractions, avoid listening to anything familiar. Knowing the words or tune well will distract you even more.
3. If you are doing something repetitive like stuffing envelopes or laying bricks, being distracted by listening to music or a podcast or engaging in a conversation with a co-worker can ultimately boost productivity. 4. Jihae Shin, now at the university of Wisconsin-Madison, has found that when people played Minesweeper for five minutes before coming up with new business ideas, they were more creative than those who didn’t play.
5. In general, this is the enemy of productivity: it encourages mistakes, stops us from completing things, promotes forgetfulness and lowers the quality of writing. But when we are trying to come up with creative solutions, task-switching distractions can help prevent "cognitive fixation" on ineffective approaches. So if you are a creative type, try lining up two or more tasks and spend your day switching between them. Or if that doesn’t work, just go play with your phone.
A.Not all distractions are bad, however.
B.Switching between tasks can also help.
C.Creativity can benefit from distraction too.
D.Switching off email or messaging services helps.
E.But you are not good at dealing with distractions.
F.If you have trouble concentrating, I suggest you try the following ideas.
G.If you are not careful, you will end up your day with nothing accomplished.
The chief problem in dealing with foreign motorists is not so much remembering that they are different from you, but that they are largely variable. Cross a frontier(边境) without adjusting and you can be in deep trouble.
One of the greatest gulfs separating the driving nations is the Atlantic Ocean. Or rather, it is the mental distance between the European and the American motorist, particularly the South American motorist. Compare, for example, an English driver at a set of traffic lights with a Brazilian.
Very rarely will an Englishman try to anticipate(预先准备) the green light by moving off. You will find the occasional someone who watches for the yellow light to come up on the set of lights. However, he will not go until he receives the lawful signal. Brazilians view the thing quite differently. If, in fact, they see traffic lights, they regard them as a kind of roadside decoration.
The natives of North America are much more disciplined. They show this in their addiction to driving in one lane(车道) and sticking to it—even if it means settling behind some great truck for many miles.
To prevent other drivers from falling into wrong ways, American motorists try always to stay close behind the vehicle in front which can make it impossible to make a real lane change. European visitors are always falling into this trap. They return to the Old World still waving their arms in disappointment because while driving in the State in their cars they kept failing to get off the highway when they wanted to and were swept along to the next city.
However, one nation above all others lives cautiously by its traffic regulations — the Swiss. In Switzerland, if you were simply to anticipate a traffic light, the chances are that the motorist behind you would take your number and report you to the police. There are slight regional variations among the French, German and Italian speaking areas, but it is generally safe to assume that any car bearing a CH sticker will be driven with a high degree of discipline.
1.How do American drivers behave on the road according to the passage?
A.They run the red light sometimes.
B.They drive close behind other drivers.
C.They care little about the traffic light.
D.They start their car at the yellow light.
2.Which people take the traffic light most seriously?
A.The Swiss. B.The Brazilians.
C.The English. D.The French.
3.The passage is mainly developed by ____.
A.analyzing causes B.describing changes
C.making comparisons D.pointing out similarities
4.Which part of a newspaper is the passage probably taken from?
A.Culture. B.Business.
C.Entertainment. D.Geography.
I was 16 years old the day I skipped school for the first time. It was easily done: Both my parents left for work before my school bus arrived on weekdays, so when it showed up at my house on that cold winter morning, I simply did not get on. The perfect crime!
And what did I do with myself on that glorious stolen day, with no adult in charge and no limits on my activities? Did I get high? Hit the mall for a shoplifting extravaganza (狂欢)?
Nope. I built a warm fire in the wood stove, prepared a bowl of popcorn, grabbed a blanket, and read. I was thrilled and transported by a book—it was Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises—and I just needed to be alone with it for a little while. I ached to know what would happen to Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley and Robert Cohn. I couldn’t bear the thought of sitting in a classroom taking another biology exam when I could be traveling through Spain in the 1920s with a bunch of expatriates (异乡客).
I spent that day lost in words. Time fell away, as the room around me turned to mist, and my role—as a daughter, sister, teenager, and student—in the world no longer had any meaning. I had accidentally come across the key to perfect happiness: I had become completely absorbed by something I loved.
Looking back on it now, I can see that some subtle things were happening to my mind and to my life while I was in that state of absorption. Hemingway’s language was quietly braiding itself into my imagination. I was downloading information about how to create simple and elegant sentences, a good and solid plot. In other words, I was learning how to write. Without realizing it, I was hot on the trail of my own fate. Writing now absorbs me the way reading once did and happiness is their generous side effect.
1.Why did the author skip school on that day?
A.Because her parents left home early. B.Because it was a cold winter morning.
C.Because she was fascinated by a novel. D.Because she hated to take the biology exam.
2.What did the author think is the source of true joy?
A.Reading by the fire. B.Travelling in Spain.
C.Breaking the regulations. D.Being occupied by one’s passion.
3.Which can best replace the underlined phrase “braiding itself into” in the last paragraph?
A.Entering. B.Destroying.
C.Mending. D.Blocking.
4.What can we infer from the passage?
A.I was tired of my real-life roles.
B.I learnt how to write on the internet.
C.Hemingway skipped school when he was young.
D.Becoming a writer was my childhood dream.
Has the volume in a restaurant ever made you finish your meal early? If so, you're not alone. Restaurants handle diners in various ways to influence food choices and consumption, from lighting to menu to server presentation. Unfortunately for those headache-prone restaurant goers, some places also choose to turn up the tunes and the background noise.
Chef Mario Batali is often blamed for the phenomenon of very loud or noisy restaurants in the 1990s, when he decided to flood the dining room with the same loud tunes he was playing in his kitchen. And other chefs followed suit. Some restaurateurs felt a "livelier" atmosphere encouraged more customers to dine there, and a side "benefit" was quicker table turnover, thus increasing the number of people who could dine in a specific evening.
A 1985 study out of Fairfield University looked at how chewing speed varied according to the type of music being played. Although the volume level was kept the same for both musical situations, it's important to note that fast-tempo (节奏) music often gives the impression of being louder than slower music.
"A significant increase in the number of bites per minute was found, and the effect was largest for fast music," the researchers wrote in the study. So, the faster, louder music gets people to down their food more quickly, relieving the table for future customers.
There are opinions about whether or not this is a sound practice. "A restaurant that places profit above dining experience often plays loud music with a fast tempo that puts diners under pressure to eat more quickly, even if that means they're less able to enjoy their meal," writes Dr. Neel Burton in Psychology Today, adding that loud, fast music reduces appetite.
What's more, some would-be repeat diners will shy away for fear of another very loud meal. The non-profit group Action on Hearing Loss found in a 2016 survey of nearly 1,500 people that 91% of those who view a restaurant as too noisy would choose not to return.
1.Why did some bosses of the restaurants favour loud music?
A.It might help attract more customers.
B.It was the favorite kind of music of them.
C.It made the restaurants softer and sweeter.
D.It could increase the popularity of their chefs.
2.What plays the most important role in the effect of music on diners according to the passage?
A.Its content. B.Its length.
C.Its speed. D.Its quality.
3.What is Dr. Neel Burton's attitude towards flooding restaurants with noisy music?
A.Doubtful. B.Disapproving.
C.Positive. D.Objective.
4.What could be a suitable tile for the text?
A.What People Think of Loud Restaurants?
B.Are Customers to Blame?
C.How Restaurants Improve Themselves?
D.Does Loud Music Really Benefit Restaurants?
The Walkmeter Walking & Hiking GPS has characteristics that are excellent for fitness walkers who want to improve their speed and distance. It uses your phone's GPS to measure the distance of your walks and hikes. It includes audio and voice integration（集成）so you can not only be informed of your workout statistics, but you can also listen to replies your friends send about your workout posts from Facebook and Twitter while you walk. Upgrading is less than $10 per year, far less than with some other apps, such as Endomondo.
Argus packs a lot into one lifestyle app. It functions as an all-day pedometer app. Your daily step count updates from your phone and includes active time, distance, calories, steps. and an hourly graph, It can also measure your heart rate at any time. You can easily take your heart rate during exercise and at rest. Besides, you can use the app’s food diary and sleep timer. A wide range of fitness and diet plans are also provided on it.
Charity Miles gives your walking a purpose, because it turns your exercise into donations to a certain cause, which offers a fresh donating means. Open up this free app（iOS or Google Play）and choose a charity. Start a workout, choosing walking, running, or cycling. For each completed mile, you’ll have earned a donation for your chosen charity. The basic rate is 25 cents for walking and running miles and 10 cents for cycling miles, subject to a periodic cap(最高限额). When you finish your walking, you must post to Facebook or Twitter to earn money for your charity.
1.What can users do with the Walkmeter Walking & Hiking GPS while exercising?
A.Upgrade the app for $10. B.Check comments of friends.
C.Reply to friends’ posts online. D.Make personalized fitness plans.
2.What is special about Charity Miles?
A.It measures your heart rate. B.It can earn you money.
C.It offers a new way of donating. D.It is connected to social software,
3.Where is the text probably taken from?
A.A website on app ratings. B.An online fitness course.
C.A medical report. D.An advertisement for phones.
