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Music is not just a set of sounds and rhythms. Its influence on the brain is much deeper than any other human experience. Keep on reading to know all those amazing powers of music.
A recent study suggests that preterm (早产的) babies appear to experience less pain and feed more when listening to music. Experts led by Dr. Manoj Kumar of the University of Alberta, Canada, found that music had a beneficial effect on reducing pain for preterm babies experiencing painful medical tests. It also appeared to benefit full-term babies during operations.
Many people experiencing brain damage have speech and movement-related problems. Music can help recover from brain injuries. As a different and effective treatment, doctors often advise such patients to listen to good music to improve the parts of the brain responsible for these two functions. When people with neurological (神经的) disorders hear a musical beat, it helps them to regain a balanced walk.
Though music cannot make deafness disappear, it really can stave off the loss of hearing. There was an experiment involving 163 people where 74 were musicians. Participants were asked to pass some listening tests. Musicians heard the sounds better than non-musicians, and this difference gets clearer with age. This means that a 70-year-old musician hears better than a 50-year-old non-musician, even in a noisy environment.
Besides, music mends a broken heart. It is not about a thrown-away love, but about a heart attack. The matter is that music can help people recover from a heart attack or heart operation by reducing blood pressure, slowing down the heartbeat rate, and reducing anxiety. Listening to the quality music produces positive emotions, improves the movement of blood, and expands blood vessels, thus, promoting quick recovery of the whole cardiovascular (心血管的) system.
1.How does music affect preterm babies?
A.It helps reduce their pain.
B.It helps develop their potential in music.
C.It helps improve their hearing systems.
D.It helps repair their neurological systems.
2.What does the underlined phrase “stave off” in Paragraph 4 mean?
A.Lead to
B.Increase
C.Prevent
D.Break into
3.Why can music mend a broken heart?
A.It has a positive effect on human body systems’ work.
B.It can help people prevent diseases caused by anxiety.
C.It helps make a person feel optimistic about life.
D.It can help patients recover in a slow way.
4.What may be the best title for the text?
A.Who can benefit from music
B.The best time to listen to music
C.The way to choose quality music
D.How music affects our mind and body
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
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Puerto Rico may be part of the USA but its music and dance is a mixture of both Spanish and African rhythms. The country, as a result, is a mixture of very new and very old. It exhibits the open American way of yet retains the more formal Spanish influences. This is reflected in the architecture, not just the contrast between the colonial and the modern in urban areas but also in the countryside, where older buildings sit side by side with concrete schools and buildings.
However, if you do not wander beyond the tourist areas on the coast, you will not experience the real Puerto Rico. Old volcanic mountains, long inactive, occupy a large part of the interior（内陆）, with the highest peak, Cerro de Punta, at 1,338m in the Cordillera Central. North of the Cordillera is the karst （岩溶）country where the limestone（石灰石）has been acted upon by water to produce a series of small steep hills and deep holes. The mountains are surrounded by a coastal plain with the Atlantic shore beaches cooled all the year round by trade winds.
The population is 3.8 million, of which about 1.5 million live in San Juan, although about another two million Puerto Ricans live in the USA Average life expectancy is 73.8 years and GDP per capita is US $12,212, the highest in Latin America, although not up to the level of mainland USA. Most Puerto Ricans do not speak English and less than 30% speak it fluently. Second generation Puerto Ricans who were born in New York but who have returned to the island, are called Nuyoricans. The people are very friendly and hospitable but there is crime, liked to drugs and unemployment.
1.What are the disadvantages of Puerto Rico?
A．Too many Puerto Ricans live in the USA
B．Few people in Puerto Rico can speak English
C．Puerto Rico’s GDP is lower than that of the USA
D．Social problem connected with drugs and lack of jobs.
2.We can learn from the passage that Puerto Rico _________.
A．is a state of the United States B．used to be ruled by Spain
C．is an agricultural country D．is gently affected by Africa
3.Nuyorican is a person who _______.
A．has been living in New York
B．is living in New York
C．was born in New York but has returned to Puerto Rico
D．has got the citizenship of America
4.What does the underlined word “retains” mean?
A．loses B．keeps C．enjoys D．returns
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
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The Mandarin version of The Sound of Music will return to Beijing from Aug 18 to Sept 3,after its first tour of the country last year.Performed first in July 2016,the musical,produced by Seven Ages,a Beijing-based company devoting to adapting classical Western musicals into Chinese versions,has been staged more than 100 times and attracted over 100,000 people.
The Broadway show,based on the book The Trapp Family Singers,which was written by Maria Von Trapp about her real-life experiences and published in 1949,made its debut in 1959.With music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II,it won five Tony Awards,including Best Musical.When the Oscar-winning film with the same title was screened in China in the 1970s,the movie,which was released by Twentieth Century Fox in 1964,was very popular,especially its songs,such as Do-Re-Mi and Edelweiss.The Broadway production and the production by composer Andrew Lloyd Webber both toured China in 2008 and 2014,which expanded its Chinese fan base.
The upcoming tour will see actors,including 11-year-old Beijinger Qiu Jiahao and 5-year-old Liang Xiaoxian, play the seven children in the family.Fu Zhenhua,a graduate of the Shanghai Theater Academy,and Dang Wenwei,a graduate of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music,will play the roles of Captain Georg von Trapp and Maria Rainer.
"My favorite aspect of this musical is the way it takes a look at various kinds of love we experience as human beings and even the love of things spiritual and unexplainable.And that is what I like most about The Sound of Music－it really is the sound of love," says Graves,a veteran Broadway director,who has lived and worked in China since 2002.
After Beijing,the musical will be staged in Shenzhen in December and Shanghai next January.
If you go
7:30 pm,Aug 18-Sept 3.Poly Theater,14 Dongzhimen Nandajie,Dongcheng district,Beijing,400-028-2577.
1.What can we learn about the musical from the first paragraph?
A. It was performed in Beijing in 2016.
B. It will set foot on China from America.
C. It has appealed to millions of audiences.
D. It was translated from English into Chinese.
2.What can we infer about The Sound of Music?
A. The book was written about a real story.
B. The play was presented with Tony Awards.
C. The film received at least an Oscar Award.
D. The Broadway production wasn’t a movie.
3.What does the underlined word that in Paragraph 4 refer to?
A. The musical. B. The way.
C. The love. D. The book.
4.What’s the author’s purpose in writing the passage?
A. To promote the book. B. To introduce the new version.
C. To advertise the musical. D. To review the Mandarin version.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
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Just as a book is often judged ______ by the quality and appearance of its cover, a person is judged immediately by his appearance.
A. outwardly B. initially C. uniquely D. previously
高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
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Our body clock, or natural body rhythm, influences our energy and alertness. Paying attention to it can help us choose the suitable time of the day when we best perform specific tasks.
The reality, however, is that most of us organize the time around work demands, school deadlines, commuting or social events. Doing whatever the body feels like doing is a luxury in today’s fast-paced modern society.
But that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth trying. Obeying our body clock has significant health benefits. Disrupting our natural body rhythm, on the other hand, has been linked to problems such as depression, obesity, or headache, says Steve Key, a biology professor.
When the body clock can synchronize (使…同步) the rhythms of its natural processes, it “gives us an advantage in daily life”, says Key.
According to him, when it comes to cognitive (认知的) work, most adults perform best in the late morning. As our body temperature starts to rise just before awakening in the morning and continues to increase until midday, our memory, alertness and concentration gradually improve.
However, he adds, our ability to concentrate typically starts to decrease soon thereafter. Most of us are more easily distracted (分心) between noon and 4 pm.
Alertness also tends to fall after eating a meal and sleepiness tends to peak around 2 pm, making that a good time for a nap.
Surprisingly, tiredness may increase our creative powers. For most adults, problems that require open-ended thinking are often best dealt with in the evening when they are tired, according to a study in the journal Thinking & Reasoning.
When choosing a time of the day to exercise, paying attention to your body clock can improve results. Physical performance is usually best from about 3 to 6 pm, says Michael Smolensky, a professor of biomedical engineering.
Of course, not everyone’s body clock is the same, making it even harder to synchronize natural rhythms with daily plans.
1.If we know our natural body rhythm well, we can ______.
A. find out the suitable time to do specific tasks
B. organize our time around work demands
C. do whatever our body feels like doing
D. be sure to be healthy
2. Which of the following is NOT true?
A. Our alertness is influenced by our natural body rhythm.
B. Doing whatever your body feels like is very difficult in our modern society.
C. Obeying our body clock is good for our health.
D. Disrupting our natural body rhythm can lead to obesity.
3.Inspiration to solve a difficult problem will most probably come to us______.
A. when we get up in the morning
B. when we are tired in the evening
C. when we are full of energy in the late morning
D. when we are asleep at night
4. Which of the following can be the suitable title for the passage?
A. What is natural body rhythm?
B. Natural body rhythm is good for us.
C. natural body rhythm and health
D. The latest research about natural body rhythm.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
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Our body clock, or natural body rhythm, influences our energy and alertness. Paying attention to it can help us choose the suitable time of the day when we best perform specific tasks.
The reality, however, is that most of us organize the time around work demands, school deadlines, commuting or social events. Doing whatever the body feels like doing is a luxury in today’s fast-paced modern society.
But that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth trying. Obeying our body clock has significant health benefits. Disrupting our natural body rhythm, on the other hand, has been linked to problems such as depression, obesity, or headache, says Steve Key, a biology professor.
When the body clock can synchronize (使……同步) the rhythms of its natural processes, it “gives us an advantage in daily life”, says Key.
According to him, when it comes to cognitive (认知的) work, most adults perform best in the late morning. As our body temperature starts to rise just before awakening in the morning and continues to increase until midday, our memory, alertness and concentration gradually improve.
However, he adds, our ability to concentrate typically starts to decrease soon thereafter. Most of us are more easily distracted (分心) between noon and 4 pm.
Alertness also tends to fall after eating a meal and sleepiness tends to peak around 2 pm, making that a good time for a nap.
Surprisingly, tiredness may increase our creative powers. For most adults, problems that require open-ended thinking are often best dealt with in the evening when they are tired, according to a study in the journal Thinking & Reasoning.
When choosing a time of the day to exercise, paying attention to your body clock can improve results. Physical performance is usually best from about 3 to 6 pm, says Michael Smolensky, a professor of biomedical engineering.
Of course, not everyone’s body clock is the same, making it even harder to synchronize natural rhythms with daily plans.
1.If we know our natural body rhythm well, we can ______.
A. find out the suitable time to do specific tasks
B. organize our time around work demands
C. do whatever our body feels like doing
D. be sure to be healthy
2.Which of the following is NOT true?
A. Our alertness is influenced by our natural body rhythm.
B. Doing whatever your body feels like is very difficult in our modern society.
C. Obeying our body clock is good for our health.
D. Disrupting our natural body rhythm must lead to obesity.
3.Inspiration (灵感) to solve a difficult problem will most probably come to us
______.
A. when we get up in the morning
B. when we are tired in the evening
C. when we are full of energy in the late morning
D. when we are asleep at night
4.Which of the following can be the suitable title for the passage?
A. What is natural body rhythm?
B. Natural body rhythm is good for us.
C. Something about natural body rhythm.
D. The latest research about natural body rhythm.
高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析
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Our body clock，or natural body rhythm，influences our energy and alertness．Paying attention to it can help us choose the suitable time of day when we best perform specific tasks．
The reality，however，is that most of us organize their time around work demands，school deadlines，commuting or social events．Doing whatever your body feels like doing is a luxury in today's fast-paced modem society．
But that doesn't mean it isn't worth trying．Obeying our body clock has significant health benefits．Disrupting our natural body rhythm，on the other hand，has been linked to problems such as depression，obesity，or headache，says Steve Key，a biology professor．
When the body clock can synchronize（使……同步）the rhythms of its natural processes，it “gives us an advantage in daily life”，says Key．
According to him，when it comes to cognitive（认知的）work，most adults perform best in the late m
orning．As our body temperature starts to rise just before awakening in the morning and continues to increase until midday，our memory，alertness and concentration gradually improve．However，he adds，our ability to concentrate typically starts to decrease soon thereafter．Most of us are more easily distracted（分心）between noon and 4 pm．
Alertness also tends to fall after eating a meal and sleepiness tends to peak around 2 pm，making that a good time for a nap．
Surprisingly, tiredness may increase our creative powers．For most adults，problems that require open ended thinking are often best dealt with in the evening when they are tired， according to a study in the journal Thinking & Reasoning．
When choosing a time of day to exercise，paying attention to your body clock can improve results．Physical performance is usually best from about 3 to 6 pm，says Michael Smolensky，a professor of biomedical engineering．
Of course, not everyone's body clock is the same，making it even harder to synchronize natural rhythms with daily plans．
1.If we know our natural body rhythm well, we can ．
A．find out the suitable time to do specific tasks
B．organize our time around work demands
C．do whatever our body feels lik
e doingD．be sure to be healthy
2.Which of the following is NOT true?
A．Our alertness is influenced by our natural body rhythm
B．Doing whatever your body feels like is v
ery difficult in our modem society．C．Obeying our body clock is good for our health．
D．Disrupting our natural body rhythm can lead to obesity．
3.According to Steve Key，which of the following is NOT true?
A．When our body clock synchronizes the rhythms of its natural processes，we can do better．
B．When it comes to cognitive（认知的）work，most people perform best in the late morning．
C．As body temperature rises before awakening in the morning，our concentration gradually improves．
D．We concentrate better in the late morning than be
tween noon and 4 pm．4.Inspiration（灵感）to solve a difficult problem will most probably come to us ．
A．when we get up in the morning
B．when we are tired in the evening
C．when we are full of energy in the late morning
D．when we are asleep at night
5.Which of the following can be the suitable title for the passage?
A．What is natural body rhythm?
B．Natural body rhythm is
good for us．C．Something about natural body rhythm．
D．The latest research about natural body rhythm．
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
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Our love of music and appreciation of musical harmony is learnt and not based on natural ability, a new study by University of Melbourne researchers has found. The researchers said previous theories about how we appreciate music were based on the physical functions of sound, the ear itself and a born ability to hear harmony.
The study shows that musical harmony can be learnt, and it is a matter of training the brain to hear the sounds. So if you thought that the music of some foreign culture (or Jazz) sounded like the crying of cats, it’s simply because you haven’t learnt to listen by their rules.
The researchers used 66 volunteers with a range of musical training and tested their ability to hear combinations of notes(音符) to determine if they found the combinations familiar or pleasing. They found that people needed to be familiar with combinations of notes. If they found the notes unfamiliar they also found the sound unpleasant. This finding put an end to centuries of theories claiming that physical functions of the ear determine what we find attractive.
The study found that trained musicians were much more sensitive to unpleasant notes than non-musicians. When they couldn’t find the note, the musicians reported that the sounds were unpleasant, while non-musicians were much less sensitive. This shows the importance of training or nurturing(培养) the brain to like particular sound of combinations of notes, like those found in jazz or rock.
Depending on their training, a strange chord(和弦) sound was pleasant to some musicians, but very unpleasant to others. This showed us that even the ability to hear a musical note is learnt.
To confirm this finding, they trained 19 non-musicians to find the notes of a random selection of western chords. Not only did the participants’ ability to hear notes improve rapidly, afterward they reported that the chords they had learnt sounded more pleasant -- regardless of how the chords were played.
The question of why some combinations of musical notes are heard as pleasant or unpleasant has long been debated. “We have shown in this study that for music, beauty is in the brain of the beholder(观看者)”, a researcher said.
1.According to the study, people find foreign music quite unpleasant because_____.
A. they hear the music much too often
B. they don’t like the person playing it
C. they have no idea about how to listen
D. they have no born musical ability at all
2.Although non-musicians were less sensitive to music, they can still_____.
A. be trained to like particular music
B. make friends with real musicians
C. find the beauty of chords without training
D. enjoy the beauty of music when played by musicians
3.The 19 non-musicians were trained in order to show_____.
A. the brain likes particular combinations of notes
B. not a strange note was pleasant to all musicians
C. how the chords were played was very important
D. people’s ability to hear a musical note can be learnt
4.What is the main idea of the passage?
A. Love of musical harmony can’t be taught.
B. Love of music is not natural but nurtured.
C. Listening to music can improve your brain.
D. You can be a musician without being trained.
高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析
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Music for Humans and Humpback Whales
As researchers conclude in Science, the love of music is not only a universal feature of the human species, but is also deeply fixed in complex structures of the human brain, and is far more ancient than previously suspected.
In the articles that discuss the field of bio-musicology, the study of the biological basis for the creation and appreciation of music, researchers present various evidence to, show that music-making is at once an original human "business", and an art form with skillful performers throughout the animal kingdom.
The new reports stress that humans hold no copyright on sound wisdom, and that a number of nonhuman animals produce what can rightly be called music, rather than random sound. Recent in-depth analyses of the songs sung by humpback whales show that, even when their organ would allow them to do otherwise, the animals converge on the same choices relating to sounds and beauty, and accept the same laws of song composition as those preferred by human musicians, and human ears, everywhere.
For example, male humpback whales, who spend six months of each year doing little else but singing, use rhythms (节奏) similar to those found in human music and musical phrases of similar length—a few seconds. Whales are able to make sounds over a range of at least seven octaves (八度音阶), yet they tend to move on through a song in beautiful musical intervals, rather than moving forwards madly. They mix the sounds like drums and pure tones in a ratio (比例) which agrees with that heard in much western music. They also use a favorite technique of human singers, the so-called A-B-A form, in which a theme is stated, then developed, and then returned to in slightly revised form.
Perhaps most impressive, humpback songs contain tunes that rhyme. "This suggests that whales use rhyme in the same way we do: as a technique in poem to help them remember complex material," the researchers write.
1.The underlined words "converge on" in Paragraph 3 probably means__________.
A. tend towards B. refer to
C. turn into D. put forward
2.Which of the following shows the advanced musical ability in humpback whales?
A. They can remember complex material.
B. They can create pleasing patterns of music.
C. They can make sounds like drums continuously.
D. They can sing along with rhythms of western music.
3.What is the main idea of the article?
A. Animals are able to compose and enjoy music like humans.
B. Human beings borrow ideas in music from humpback whales.
C. Humpback whales are skillful performers in the animal kingdom.
D. Music-making it an ancient activity of both humans and animals.
4.The main purpose of the passage is to __________.
A. argue and discuss B. inform and explain
C. compare and advertise D. examine and assess
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
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Music for Humans and Humpback Whales As researchers conclude in Science, the love of music is not only a universal feature of the human species, but is also deeply fixed in complex structures of the human brain, and is far more ancient than previously suspected.
In the articles that discuss the field of bio-musicology, the study of the biological basis for the creation and appreciation of music, researchers present various evidence to show that music-making is at once an original human "business", and an art form with skillful performers throughout the animal kingdom.
The new reports stress that humans hold no copyright on sound wisdom, and that a number of nonhuman animals produce what can rightly be called music, rather than random sound．Recent in-depth analyses of the songs sung by humpback whales show that, even when their organ would allow them to do otherwise, the animals converge on the same choices relating to sounds and beauty, and accept the same laws of song composition as those preferred by human musicians, and human ears, everywhere.
For example, male humpback whales, who spend six months of each year doing little else but singing, use rhythms (节奏) similar to those found in human music and musical phrases of similar length—a few seconds．Whales are able to make sounds over a range of at least seven octaves (八度音阶), yet they tend to move on through a song in beautiful musical intervals, rather than moving forwards madly．They mix the sounds like drums and pure tones in a ratio (比例) which agrees with that heard in much western music．They also use a favorite technique of human singers, the so-called A-B-A form, in which a theme is stated, then developed, and then returned to in slightly revised form．
Perhaps most impressive, humpback songs contain tunes that rhyme．"This suggests that whales use rhyme in the same way we do: as a technique in poem to help them remember complex material," the researchers write.
1.The underlined words "converge on" in Paragraph 3 probably means__________.
A．tend towards
B．refer to
C．turn into
D．put forward
2.Which of the following shows the advanced musical ability in humpback whales?
A．They can remember complex material.
B．They can create pleasing patterns of music.
C．They can make sounds like drums continuously.
D．They can sing along with rhythms of western music.
3.What is the main idea of the article?
A．Animals are able to compose and enjoy music like humans.
B．Human beings borrow ideas in music from humpback whales.
C．Humpback whales are skillful performers in the animal kingdom.
D．Music-making is an ancient activity of both humans and animals.
4.The main purpose of the passage is to __________.
A．argue and discuss
B．inform and explain
C．compare and advertise
D．examine and assess
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
orning．As our body temperature starts to rise just before awakening in the morning and continues to increase until midday，our memory，alertness and concentration gradually improve．
ery difficult in our modem society．
tween noon and 4 pm．
good for us．