Have you ever thought about why malls, restaurants, and even theaters have music? Well, to understand this, you simply just look back at how you felt when you heard music in these places. Music is known to improve the mood of people. Often music helps us pay attention to what we are doing. Music helps patients feel good and helps them recover faster and better.
Depression（沮丧) is a state of mind that most of us experience at some point of time. There are some periods in our life when everything seems difficult. It seems that everything is getting worse and we have no control over our life. Studies have shown that music can be an important mood lifter in such situations. Music also plays a great role in making us feel less nervous or worried. Anxiety(焦虑) can often cause loss of sleep and other illnesses.
Music is often known as an international language. We may not know the language another person is speaking, but most of us respond to music in the same way. Music can often be the best way to connect with someone.
Music is one of the best ways to improve your moods, but this can depend largely on the kind of music you listen to. While happy music can certainly make you feel better, sad music can further lower your spirits. Listening to classical music can often make you feel a lot more powerful, while soft music can be the perfect way to relax at the end of a long way. If you want to use music to change the way how you are feeling, you need to understand the role of it, learn to recognize the kind of music that lifts your mood and helps you feel better. Once you realize the kind of music you can use, you can use it to change the way you feel. The right kind of music can be the perfect way to help us feel happier.
【小题1】The passage is mainly about __________.

A．what meanings music has

B．how we control our moods

C．how music affects our moods

D．what kind of music we listen to

【小题2】According to the passage, playing music in restaurants is to __________.

A．welcome the customers

B．make customers feel good

C．make customers dance

D．make customers feel powerful

【小题3】From the passage, we can know that __________.

A．most of us suffer depression all the time

B．most of us respond to music in different ways

C．music can be a good way to connect with others

D．any kind of music will help us improve our moods

【小题4】According to the passage, which kind of music can relax ourselves from a long day’s work?

A．Soft music.	B．Classical music.
C．Sad music.	D．Rock music.

   Need inspiration？Happy background music can help people get the creative juice flowing.

Simone Ritter, at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands, and Sam Ferguson at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia, have been studying the effect of silence and different types of music on how we think.

They divided 155 volunteers into five groups. Four of these were each given a type of music to listen to while taking a series of tests, while the fifth group did the tests in silence. The tests were produced to judge two types of thinking: divergent thinking, which refers to the process of creating new ideas, and convergent thinking, which is how we find the best solution to a problem. Ritter and Ferguson found that people were more creative when listening to music they thought was positive, coming up with more special ideas than the people who worked in silence.

"We also performed other types of music that were sad, anxious and calm, and didn't see this effect, " says Ferguson. "It seems that the type of music present is important, rather than just any music." In addition, no type of music helped convergent thinking, suggesting that it's better to solve problems in silence.

Ritter and Ferguson write that their finding could be used to improve creative thinking in places like educational institutions or laboratories, but Irma at the University of Helsinki in Finland, says happy music may help creativity by setting off the release of dopamine, a brain chemical involved in pleasure and relief." Dopamine also increases creative thinking and goal-directed working, "says Irma. And she also thinks happy music may not help convergent thinking because this kind of thinking relies more on logic and less on creativity.

【小题1】How does happy background music help people work?

A．By making people enjoy the juice.

B．By influencing people's behavior.

C．By inspiring people to work more.

D．By improving people's creativity.

【小题2】What can we learn from the passage?

A．Dopamine can direct our convergent thinking.

B．Divergent thinking helps find the best solution.

C．Divergent thinking helps produce the new ideas.

D．Dopamine can reduce our divergent thinking.

【小题3】What could be the best title for the passage?

A．Happy Music Makes You Lively

B．Happy Music Excites Your Creativity

C．Happy Music Keeps You Clever

D．Happy Music Simplifies Your Work

   At the moment, when looking round the world, we can find all kinds of dance performances are being offered. There are many competitions, and the dancers might be quite confused (困惑的) Which is of high standard and good quality, and which is not worth going to? First of all it has clearly got to be distinguished (区分) between the different styles of dance and the purposes of such competitions. When a person wants to learn classical ballet, he or she would never dream of going to a ballroom teacher. Such a teacher might even have been a world champion in his ballroom dancing, but he would definitely not be experienced in teaching proper classical ballet.

People in Britain and the USA are taking more interest in modern dance. Dance classes of all kinds are popular; a large number of audiences go to watch modern dance companies. And perhaps the most popular modern dance company in Britain is the Ballet Rambert.

The Ballet Rambert is Britain’s oldest dance company which began in 1926. In the 1960s the company lacked the money to go on staging big productions. The directors wanted to encourage new talent and to keep up their high standards. A change of direction was necessary. They decided to give the ballet a “new look” in 1966. The purpose was to provide a chance for new talent and to show dance as a contemporary art form. And although some of the company’s previous fans disliked the change, new audiences came to see the productions.

The modern dance pieces and modern music found unexpected popularity. In the 21st century the Ballet Rambert was a great success in London’s West End. The company became a focus for new, progressive talent in the art.

The Ballet Rambert has managed to make modern dance popular while creating original productions. It can claim to be the oldest dance company in Britain and at the same time one of the most modern!

【小题1】If a person wants to learn classical ballet, he or she will probably go to ________.

A．the Ballet Rambert	B．a ballroom teacher
C．a world champion	D．a qualified school

【小题2】The underlined phrase “new talent” in Para. 3 probably means ________.

A．new productions	B．new audiences
C．talented directors	D．gifted young dancers

【小题3】From the passage we know that the Ballet Rambert ________.

A．has succeeded in making modern dance popular

B．wanted to become the oldest dance company

C．was once a popular dance company

D．changed old dances into new ones

【小题4】This passage is mainly about ________.

A．the popularity of modern dance

B．the introduction to new modern dancers

C．the development of the Ballet Rambert

D．the high standards of dance performances

   I like music so much that I believe I can't live without it. I was once asked by a friend of mine why I took such a great interest in it. First I would like to go deep into my soul and find myself through the music I like. Actually，some people call it the process of looking for the purpose of life，but I consider it to find my own spirit rather than the purpose of life. And the other reason is that I can communicate with other people and share all the things we have with the help of music. In fact，the use of music as a communication tool has been kept by human beings for thousands of years.

My friend asked me for further explanation after hearing what I said. I told him that this can date back to the original time，and to the very beginning of the world. At the very beginning of human beings，our forerunners（先驱）already had a special hobby of music. You'll know exactly what I mean if you happen to know the musical sentence when Adam，the first man，said to the first woman Eve，“Madam，I'm Adam”，which may have the meaning when you read from the end to the beginning. Later on，Adam and Eve and their children began to enjoy the sound of nature as a result of the special hobby of music. They found interest in listening to the sound of wind and rain, the singing of birds, the howls of beasts as well as the simple songs they themselves made.

As time went by, people started to form different kinds of music, such as Eastern music, pop music, rock and roll and light music. People became more skillful at enjoying the music. They were not just paying attention to the words and melodies, but they went deep into the soul of a piece of music. They began to know the relationship between music and their own life. They realized the power of music and started to use music to show their feelings and emotions. At the same time, people who listened to music and found the right way of enjoying it were going deeper and deeper into their soul and spirit through music. They got the whole colourful world which was surrounded by music. They began to communicate with others and share their feelings with the help of music. Music has become a kind of language since then.

Nowadays, people take a greater interest in music than ever before. More and more people begin to like music because they want to find their soul deep in their spirit and also because they have a need to share their life with other people. It is said that music has become an exactly international language today. It is even believed that if there are creatures on other planets and all other ways can't help communicate with them, music will probably do!

【小题1】The passage is intended to ___________.

A．show people how to enjoy music

B．persuade people to take interest in music

C．tell people the origin of music

D．present the reasons why the writer loves music

【小题2】The underlined word "this" in Paragraph 2 refers to“___________”.

A．the explanation	B．his love of music
C．music	D．the history

【小题3】In Paragraph 2 the example of Adam is meant to ___________.

A．arouse people's curiosity

B．show music has a long history

C．reveal the real meaning of music

D．explain how music came into being

【小题4】Which of the following does NOT agree with the writer according to the passage?

A．Music can serve as a means of communication.

B．People can associate music with their own life.

C．Music helps to find the purpose of life.

D．Music is a universal language in a sense.

假如你是李华，你的美国朋友Chris现在正在中国上学。下周日上午9点你校将在礼堂举办一场二胡演奏会。请你根据以下提示，用英语给Chris写一封电子邮件，邀请他一起观看演出。要求：
1. 提出邀请并简述原因；
2. 提出观看演出后的活动建议（如参观附近的博物馆或美术馆等)；
3. 请求对方回复。
注意：
1. 词数100左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
参考词汇：美术馆art gallery
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