When students and parents are asked to grade subjects according to their importance, the arts are usually at the bottom of the list. Music is nice, people seem to say, but not important. Too often it is only viewed as entertainment, but certainly not an education priority(优先). This view is shortsighted. In fact, music education is very important for all students.
Music tells us who we are. Because music is an expression of the beings who create it, it shows 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(身份,特性)as a society.
Music provides a kind of perception(感知)that cannot be acquired any other way. Science can explain how the sun rises and sets. The arts can express the emotive(情感的)meaning of the same thing. 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 through which we express our fears, 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 an important way of expressing themselves such as music, we take away from them the meanings that music expresses.
Science and technology do not tell us what it means to be human. The arts do. Music is an important way we express human suffering, celebration, the value of peace and love.
So music education is far more necessary than people seem to realize.What can we learn from Paragraph 1?
A.Students regard music as a way of entertainment. |
B.Students disagree with their parents on education. |
C.Students take music as an important subject. |
D.Students prefer the arts to science. |
In Paragraph 2, the writer 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 |
According to the passage, the arts and science____________. .
A.explain the world in different ways |
B.explain different facts of the world |
C.express people’s feelings in different ways |
D.explain what it means to be human differently |
What is the main idea of the passage?
A.Music education is worth more attention. |
B.Music should be of top education priority. |
C.Music is really a good communication tool. |
D.Music education makes students more imaginative. |
It is true that people with better education are usually able to get better paying jobs. In other words, they have more chances to choose a good job, while people with little or no education don't. It seems that the purpose of education is to make people get jobs. But this isn't accepted by all people.
Some people may think that a person should spend the best years of his life getting education only for a way of living. This was probably one of the earliest reasons of education. In fact, if education is just a way of making a living, people don't need to spend so much time in school. People can get education for a living in a short time. Subjects like history and geography need not be taught to everyone. Even language and math need not be taught in detail(详细), either. Here it is clear that education is much more than teaching a man to get a way of living.
Education is wellrounded(全面的) and it is mainly for improving a man. It is not only to teach him to speak, read and write, but also to develop his creative thinking and other abilities. After that, it is to make him a wise man. Education is to make a man lead a better life. Educated people are expected to be able to listen to good music, read good books, watch good plays and most of them take an interest in the world.
I would agree that making a good living is an important reason for education, but certainly not the most important or the main reason.People with little or no education have chances to choose a good job.
A.more | B.fewer | C.many | D.much |
One of the earliest reasons of education was probably .
A.making a man lead a better life |
B.teaching a man to write and think |
C.making people get a way of living |
D.teaching people to read good books |
From the passage, we know that the writer thinks making a good living is for education.
A.an important reason |
B.the main reason |
C.the most important reason |
D.the least important reason |
According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?
A.All people think the purpose of education is to make people get jobs. |
B.People don't need to learn language or math at all. |
C.Education is to make a man lead a better life. |
D.Only education can make all people take an interest in the world. |
Once there was a man and a woman. They had been married for more than 60 years. They kept no secrets from each other except that the old woman had a shoe box under her bed. She told her husband never to open or ask about it.
For all these years, he had never thought about the box. But one day the old woman got very sick and the doctor said she would never get better.
The woman said it was time that he should know what was in the box. The old man took the shoe box to his wife's bedside.
When he opened it, he found two beautiful doilies(装饰小垫) and some money. The money was $25,000.
“When we got married, ”she said, “my grandmother told me that the secret of a happy family was never to fight. She told me if every time I got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and crochet(编织) one doily.”
The old man was so moved because only two doilies were in the box. He thought she had only been angry with him twice in all those years.
“My dear,” he said, “but what about all the money? Where did it all come from?”
“Oh,” she said, “that's the money I made from selling the doilies. So far, I have sold 2,500 doilies.”The old woman let her husband open her shoe box because .
A.she was badly ill | B.she was 60 years old |
C.she believed in her husband | D.her husband made her angry |
From the story, we can infer(推断) the old woman had been angry with her husband times before she told him the secret.
A.25,000 | B.2,500 | C.2,502 | D.250 |
From the story we know .
A.the old woman enjoyed crocheting doilies |
B.the old man only made his wife angry twice |
C.the old woman didn't follow her grandmother's advice |
D.the old man was moved when he saw only two doilies in the box |
Ma Yun was born on October 15,1964 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. He is the founder (创始人)of Alibaba Group.
At the age of 10, Ma Yun took an interest in English. Each morning, he rode his bike to Hangzhou Hotel to talk with foreigners. In 1988, he became an English teacher. Then Ma Yun met Bill Aho, an American businessman, in Hangzhou. In 1995, he visited the United States for the first time. He stayed with Mr. Aho's family. There, he was introduced to the World Wide Web. Then he returned home and set up one of China's first web companies(公司), China Yellowpages in the same year. On February 21,1999, he founded Alibaba. He chose Alibaba as the name because everyone knew the story of Alibaba.
Ma Yun had problems along the way. But his hard work made Alibaba an online success.Ma Yun became an English teacher at the age of .
A.10 | B.24 | C.31 | D.35 |
In 1995, Ma Yun set up a company named .
A.Alibaba | B.China Yellowpages |
C.Hangzhou Hotel | D.World Wide Web |
The underlined word founded in the passage means .
A.发现 | B.离开 | C.创建 | D.加入 |
According to the passage, which of the following is NOT TRUE?
A.Ma Yun was born on the 15th of October, 1964. |
B.He set up Alibaba Group. |
C.In 1995, he was introduced to the World Wide Web. |
D.Ma Yun chose Alibaba as the name because he liked the story of Alibaba. |
A Calendar as a Schedule(计划表)
Some schedules are actually calendars. The schedule below shows all the important things that are happening on each day at Fairview High School during the month of May. The days on this schedule are listed across the top, and each day of the month has a number.Which month is the schedule for?
What event do the students have on the second day of the month?
What time does the Drama Club meet?
When will the students leave school on the third Monday of the month?
How many days will the tests last?
Once upon a time, a wealthy villager hid a huge piece of gold in a nearby rice field to protect it from robbers(强盗).
Many years later, the wealthy man died and no one else knew about the gold. One day , a poor farmer began to plough(犁)the field. After ploughing for some time, his plough struck(碰、撞)the long forgotten treasure.
At first, he thought it must be a very hard tree root. However, when he went closer to look, he saw that it was a large piece of beautiful shining gold.
Waiting until midnight, the farmer started to take the gold home. He tried to lift the gold but it was too heavy. He tried to pull it out with ropes, but it was so huge that he could hardly move it. He became frustrated and thought how lucky he was to have found treasure, but unlucky too, as he could not move it. He even tried kicking the gold but it would not budge!
He sat down and began to use his head. He decided to break the gold into smaller pieces. This would enable him to carry the gold easily.
He thought to himself, “ I will use one part for my daily needs, I will save the second part for a rainy day. I will invest(投资)the third part in my farming business. I will use the fourth part to help the poor and needy.”
Follow this, he calmly divided the huge piece of gold into smaller pieces. Finally, he took all the gold home easily and lived happily ever after.The wealthy villager hid the gold in the rice field to .
A. plough the field
B. keep it safe
C. donate it to the farmerThe poor farmer found when the ploughted the field.
A. a hard tree root
B. the piece of gold
C. rice cropsWhen the farmer the gold, we know he was annoyed.
A. lifted B. pulled C. kickedThe word “budge” in the passage means “ “
A. move B. stay C. rollThe underlined parts in “I will save the second part for a rainy day.” means “ ”
A. use the gold to keep the rain out
B. use the gold when it rains
C. use the gold when money is in great need