Learning to play a musical instrument can change your brain, with a US review finding musical training can lead to improved speech and foreign language skills.
Although it was suggested in the past that listening to Mozart’s music or other classical music could make you smarter, there has been little evidence to show that music can boost(使增长) brain power.
But a data-driven review by Northwestern University has pulled reaserch together that links musical training to learning that spills over into (波及) skills including language, speech, memory, attention and even vocal emotion.
Researcher Nina Kraus said the data strongly suggested that the nervous connections made during musical training also prepared the brain for other aspects of human communication.
“ The effect of musical training suggests that, like physical exercise and its effect on body fitness, music is a resource that tones the brain for auditory fitness and thus requires society to re-examine the role of music in shaping individual development, ” the researchers said in their study.
Kraus said learning musical sounds could improve the brain’s ability to adapt and change and also enable the nervous system to provide constructing patterns that are important to learning.
The study, published in Nature Review Neuroscience , looked at the explosion of research in recent years focusing on the effect of musical training on the nervous system which could have impacts for education.
The study found that playing an instrument prepares the brain to choose what is related in a complex process that may involve reading or remembering a score, timing issues and coordination with other musicians.What is the text mainly about ?
| A．The effect of physical exercise. | B．The researcher named Kraus. |
| C．The benefit of musical training. | D．Musicians’ improved skills. |
The underlined word “ auditory ” in Paragraph 5 probably means “ __________”.
| A．of the body | B．connected with seeing |
| C．of the mind | D．connected with hearing |
It was believed but not proved that listening to classical music could __________.
| A．add to your intelligence | B．improve your speech |
| C．boost your memory | D．make you think faster |
According to Kraus, musical training contributes to the following EXCEPT __________.
| A．body fitness | B．the way to speak |
| C．langugage learning | D．mental concentration |
Tristan da Cunha, a 38-square-mile island, is the farthest inhabited island in the world, according to the Guinness Book of Records. It is 1,510miles southwest of its nearest neighbor, St. Helena, and 1,950miles west of Africa. Discovered by the Portuguese admiral（葡萄牙海军上将）of the same name in 1506, and settled in 1810, the island belongs to Great Britain and has a population of a few hundred.
Coming in a close second –- and often wrongly mentioned as the most distant land －is Easter Island, which lies 1,260 miles east of its nearest neighbor, Pitcairn Island, and 2,300 miles west of South America.
The mountainous 64-square-mile island was settled around the 5th century, supposedly by people who were lost at sea. They had no connection with the outside world for more than a thousand years, giving them plenty of time to build more than 1,000 huge stone figures, called moai, for which the island is most famous.
On Easter Sunday, 1772, however, settlers from Holland moved in and gave the island its name. Today, 2,000 people live on the Chilean territory （智利领土）. They share on street, a small airport, and a few hours of television per day.
56．It can be learned from the text that the island of Tristan da Cunha _____________.
A．was named after its discoverer B．got its name from Holland settlers
C．was named by the British government D．got its name from the Guinness Book of Records
57．Which of the following is most famous for moai?
A．Tristan da Cunha. B．Pitcairn Island.
C．Easter Island. D．St. Helena.
58．Which country does Easter Island belong to?
A．Britain. B．Holland. C．Portugal. D．Chile.
Fidenzio Salvatori is determined that the city of Toronto will have an outdoor marketplace for merchants from its immigrant community, complete with dancing and other forms of amusement form their native countries. “Toronto is truly multicultural (多元文化的)，” he said in a newspaper interview. “It’s a city from many places, and multicultural marketplace will help Torontonians to understand and appreciate the rich variety of cultural groups in our city.”
Salvatori, aged 23, will soon complete his studies at the University of Toronto. He was eleven years old when he came to Canada from Italy with his parents. “Most of Toronto’s immigrants are from lands where the marketplace has always been part of daily life,” he said.
Salvatori has been interested in getting an open-air market for Toronto for the last three years. This year, with the help of two fellow students, he prepared a proposal on the subject and presented it to the city’s Executive committee, asking for their support. The proposal pointed out Toronto’s rich variety of national groups, “whose customs include market shopping.”
Under a Canadian government program for multiculturalism, the three students have received two thousand dollars with which they will do a study to find out whether Toronto’s immigrant businessmen would support an open-air market. They hope the merchants will support the plan strongly. “A study done earlier this year showed that 90 percent of shoppers would be in favor of it,” Salvatori said. “At first it would be an experiment. But we think it will prove to be good business for the merchants, as well as tourist attraction.”
61. What is Fidenzio Salvatori’s purpose of having an outdoor marketplace for Toronto?
A. To provide different forms of amusement.
B. To keep the cultural variety of the city.
C. To inspire its immigrant community.
D. To satisfy its immigrant merchants.
62. Fidenzio Salvatori, with two other students, has got two thousand dollars from the government ______.
A. to make an experiment B. to perform a research
C. to start a marketplace D. to operate a business
63.According to Salvatori, the marketplace may also help to improve Toronto’s ______.
A. market management B. travel industry
C. community service D. city planning
64.It can be inferred from the text that the Canadian government supports ______.
A. the protection of different cultures B. the plan of an open-air market
C. the request of merchants D. the attitude of shoppers
MONTREAL (Reuters) – Crossing the US-Canada border (边界) to go to church on a Sunday cost a US citizen $ 10,000 for breaking Washington’s strict new security (安全) rules.
The expensive trip to church was a surprise for Richard Albert, who lives right on the Canadian border. Like the other half-dozen people of Township 15, crossing the border is a daily occurrence for Albert. The nearby Quebec village of St. Pamphile is where they shop, eat and go to church.
There are many such situations in these areas along the largely unguarded 5,530-mile border between Canada and the US – which in some cases actually runs down the middle of streets or through buildings.
As a result, Albert says he did not expect any p0roblems three weeks ago when he returned home to the US after attending church in Canada, as usual, The US customs (海关) station in this area is closed on Sundays, so he just drove around the locked gate, as he had done every weekend since the pate appeared last May, following a tightening of border security. Two days later, Albert was told to go to the customs office, where an officer told him he had been caught on camera crossing the border illegally (非法).
Ottawa has given out sp0ecial passes to some 300 US citizens in that area so they can enter the country when Canadian customs stations are closed, but the US stopped a similar program last May. That forces the people to a 200-mile detour along hilly roads to get home through another border checkpoint.
Albert has requested that the customs office change their decisions on the fine, but he has not attended a Sunday church since. “I feel like I’m living in a p0rison,”he said.
41．We learn from the text that Richard Albert is _______.
A．an American living in Township 15
B．a Canadian living in a Quebec village
C．a Canadian working in a customs station
D．an American working in a Canadian church
5.2．Albert was fined because he ________.
A．failed to obey traffic rules
B．broke the American security rules
C．worked in St. Pamphile without a pass
D．damaged the gate of the customs office.
63．The underlined word “detour” in Paragraph 5 means _________.
A．a drive through the town B．a race across the fields
C．a roundabout way of traveling D．a journey in the mountain area
7.4．What would be the best title for the text?
A．A Cross-country Trip B．A Special Border Pass
C．An Unguarded Border D．An Expensive Church Visit
If the world were a village of 1,000 people it would include:
• 584 Asians
• 124 Africans
• 95 Eastern and Western Europeans
• 84 Latin Americans
• 55 former Soviets （ including Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, and other national groups）
• 52 North Americans
• 6 Australians and New Zealanders
The people of the village would speak:
• 165 Mandarin
• 86 English
• 83 Hindu/Urdu
• 64 Spanish
• 58 Russian
• 37 Arabic
The above list covers the mother tongues of only half the village.
One-third of the people in the village are children, and only 60 are over the age of 65. Just under half of the married women in the village have access to modem equipments.
This year 28 babies will be born. Ten people will die, 3 of them for lack of food, 1 from cancer. Two of the deaths will be of babies born within the year. With the 28 births and 10 deaths, the population of the village next year will be 1,018.
In this village of 1,000 persons, 200 people receive 75 percent of the income; another 200 receive only 2 percent of the income.
About one-third have access to clean, safe drinking water.
Of the 670 adults in the village, half can not read nor write.
The village has a total yearly budget （预算）, public and private, of over $3 million—$ 3,000 per person if it is distributed evenly. Of the total $3 million:
$ 181,000 goes to weapons and warfare
$ 159,000 to education
$ 132,000 to health care
These weapons are under the control of just 100 of the people. The other 900 are watching them with deep anxiety, wondering whether they can learn to get along together.
60. Which of the following is true about Mandarin according to the text?
A. Nearly one-third of Asian people speak Mandarin in the village.
B. About 8.25 per cent of the people speak Mandarin in the village.
C. About 16. 5 per cent of the people speak Mandarin in the village.
D. Nearly all the Mandarin-speaking people are from Asia in the village.
61. Which of the following problems is NOT mentioned in the text?
A. Poverty. B. Education. C. Environment. D. Marriage.
62. The underlined part “have access to” （in Para. 4（ means_____.
A. use B. buy C. produceD. try
63. The last sentence in the text implies that most of the people long for _____.
A. a peaceful world B. good education
C. better health care D. a life without anxiety
Every year more people recognize that it is wrong to kill wildlife for “sport.” Progress in this direction is slow because shooting is not a sport for watching, and only those few who take part realize the cruelty and destruction.
The number of gunners, however, grows rapidly. Children too young to develop proper judgments through independent thought are led along way away by their gunning parents. They are subjected to advertisements of gun producers who describe shooting as good for their health and gun carrying as a way of putting redder blood in the veins （血管）. They are persuaded by gunner magazines with stories honoring the chase and the kill. In school they view motion pictures which are supposedly meant to teach them how to deal with arms safely but which are actually designed to stimulate （刺激） a desire to own a gun. Wildlife is disappearing because of shooting and because of the loss of wild land habitat （栖息地）. Habitat loss will continue with our increasing population, but can we slow the loss of wildlife caused by shooting? There doesn't seem to be any chance if the serious condition of our birds is not improved.
Wildlife belongs to everyone and not to the gunners alone. Although most people do not shoot, they seem to forgive shooting for sport because they know little or nothing about it. The only answer, then, is to bring the truth about sport shooting to the great majority of people.
Now, it is time to realize that animals have the same right to life as we do and that there is nothing fair or right about a person with a gun shooting the harmless and beautiful creatures. The gunners like to describe what they do as character-building, but we know that to wound an animal and watch it go through the agony of dying can make nobody happy. If, as they would have you believe, gun-carrying and killing improve human-character, then perhaps we should encourage war.
72. According to the text, most people do not seem to be against hunting because___________.
A. they have little knowledge of it B. it helps to build human character
C. it is too costly to stop killing wildlife D. they want to keep wildlife under control
73. The underlined word "agony" in the last paragraph probably means______________.
A. form B. Condition C. pain D. sadness
74. According to the text, the films children watch at school actually__________.
A. teach them how to deal with guns safely B. praise hunting as character-building
C. describe hunting as an exercise D. encourage them to have guns of their own 75. It can be inferred from the text that the author seems to_____________.
A. blame the majority of people B. worry about the existence of wildlife
C. be in favour of war D. be in support of character-building