To learn an instrument such as the violin or accordion（手风琴）takes years. The job opportunities for musicians are scarce and competition is fierce. Then why are more people than ever before paying a lot of good cash to get their children the best music teaching they can afford?
The secret lies in the influence of music on the whole person. It has been found that learning a musical instrument actually increases a per
son’s IQ over time. Different instruments and different trypes of music have varying effect, with classical music and the string family coming out on top, potentially increasing you IQ by up to 12 points!
When is a good time to start learning music? Experts have found that even the fetus（胎儿）can benefit from listening to classical music. Surround yourself and your family with good music from the first. The Suzuki Piano Method teaches children from the age of 3 years piano, with two lessons per week. From preschool, children can learn to read music and play from sheet music. Progress in learning your instrument is directly proportional（成比例的）to the amount of practicing.
Is there such a thing as an unmusical child? Shinichi Suzuki proposes that music is the native home language of all human beings and therefore nobody can be “unmusical”. Of course there are exceptional talents, compared to which others may seem to be slower learners.
Is there any benefit for adults in starting an instrument? Apart from the purely relaxing aspect, yes. Learning an instrument can earn even adults additional IQ points, and as an added benefit in improves your health by reducing your stress levels. Your social life may benefit too, if you are prepared to come out of your box and join occasions such as Ceilidhs (musical get-togethers) or arrange house concerts. It has been established that people who play instruments tend to be more emotionally balanced and more patient with themselves, others and life in general.
So go ahead, sign up for that amateur orchestra, dust off your old trombone（长号）or take your first real six-string down from the attic（阁楼）; get out there and play!Playing which of the following musical instruments can help increase a person’s IQ most?
| A．The piano | B．The violin | C．The trombone | D．The accordion |
According to Shinichi Suzuki, .
| A．The progress in learning an instrument depends on natural gifts |
| B．It is too late for an adult to start an instrument |
| C．Every child has a natural talent for music. |
| D．All people can understand and read music. |
What can be inferred from the text?
| A．Music can balance our life. |
| B．Music can improve our living conditions. |
| C．Playing instruments can make adults keep their IQ points. |
| D．Playing instruments can help us get along well with others. |
By writing the text, the author mainly wants to .
| A．persuade us to send our children to music schools |
| B．express his great interest in musical instruments |
| C．tell us the importance of Music in Development |
| D．invite us to attend Ceilidhs |
There are only about 1,000 Hawaiian monk seals(夏威夷僧海豹) left and its population is going down 4% a year. Hawaiian monk seals are found in the northwest part of the Hawaiian Islands. They spend a lot of time at sea. They are able to dive 600 feet deep, and can stay under water for up to 20 minutes. Adults grow up to seven feet long, and weigh between 400 and 600 pounds. They can live as long as 30 years.
These seals are born on land. Every year, usually in May or June, females find sandy beaches and give birth to a single baby. The female seals avoid beaches where the water becomes deep very quickly because this lets sharks swim close to land and catch the seals.
Mothers stay with their babies for six weeks. During that entire time, they do not leave the beach even to eat. Instead, they live off fat that they have stored up over the previous year and feed their babies with fat-rich milk. After six weeks, mothers go back to the sea. The young have to live on their own.
Human disturbance(打扰) has been regarded as the important factor in the decrease of the monk seals. In fact, if human come too near a mother seal too often, she will go out to the sea. Unfortunately, this usually means death for the baby. It is now against the law for people to come within 100 yards of a seal on a beach.
Recent research has shown that the decrease in the Hawaiian monk seal population is due to lack of survival of these seals at one of the most important breeding(繁殖) beaches at French Frigate Shoals. Also, seals often get trapped in fishermen and by changes in weather patterns. If these threats(威胁) were not enough, during the breeding season, males will attack females until they are badly injured or finally killed.What can we learn about Hawaiian monk seals?
| A．They are in danger of dying out. |
| B．They spend most of the time on the beach. |
| C．They are the largest animals on the Hawaiian Islands. |
| D．They can stay under water as long as they like. |
According to the text, a seal baby______.
| A．is born at sea |
| B．is fed on fat by the mother |
| C．stays with its parents all life |
| D．is looked after by its mother for 6 weeks |
It can be inferred from the text that______.
| A．sharks are a threat to Hawaiian monk seals |
| B．male monk seals fight each other for females in the breeding season |
| C．when disturbed by people, the mother seal will protect the baby seal |
| D．Hawaiian monk seals give birth usually in July |
What are the last two paragraphs mainly about?
| A．Ways to protect Hawaiian monk seals。 |
| B．The struggle of Hawaiian monk seals to survive. |
| C．The reasons for the decline(减少) of Hawaiian monk seals. |
| D．The influence of climate change on Hawaiian monk seals. |
Italian Lakes and Greek Islands (12 Days)
Your tour begins in Milan, Italy(意大利), and moves on to the pretty Italian Lake District and the attractive resort(胜地)of Stresa, your home for two nights. Collette Vacations has carefully chosen the Costa Victoria as your home for your 7—night journey along the waterways of the Mediterranean. The cruise ship is filled with the warmth and culture of Italy and is richly designed with entertainment(娱乐)areas and very good living conditions. It will take you to the places of your dreams.
You’ll spend 4 days touring Greek cities you’ve always heard about. In Katakolon, you will have an exciting tour to nearby Olympia without a guide. Then with a local guide you will visit the Greek islands of Santorini, which is often related to the story of the lost city of Atlantis, and Mykonos, a wonderful island with beautiful beaches.
Your journey ends in Verona, home of the love story Romeo and Juliet, with a fun—filled Goodbye dinner—a perfect ending to a pleasant journey.
12 Days, 25Meals: 10 Breakfasts, 6 Lunches, 9 Dinners
Day 1 Overnight flight to Italy
Days2—3 Regina Palace, Stresa, Italy
Days4—10 Costa Victoria ( Costa cruises)
Day 11 Hotel Leopardi, Verona, Italy
Day12 Leave for home
Please Note:
| Leaving date |
Price for one person |
| April 7 |
$2,099 |
| June 2 |
$2,199 |
| October 6 |
$2,099 |
| November 3 |
$1,999 |
How is the journey planned?
| A．It starts and ends in Italy. |
| B．It starts and ends in Greece. |
| C．It starts in Italy and ends in Greece. |
| D．It starts in Greece and ends in Italy. |
What can be inferred from the travel plan?
| A．The price may get lower than those in the plan. |
| B．The prices include three meals a day. |
| C．The price is the highest in summer. |
| D．The prices include entertainment service. |
What does the underlined part “ the Costa Victoria” most probably refer to?
| A．A famous hotel. | B．A beautiful resort. |
| C．A comfortable ship. | D．A long—distance bus. |
Tourists will travel on their own in .
| A．Stresa | B．Olympia | C．Mykonos | D．Verona |
Whenever the sun dropped and the blue sky came up, my father and I used to climb the mountain near my house. Walking together, my father and I used to have a lot of conversations through which I learned lessons from his experiences. He always told me, “You should have goals like climbing the mountain.” Without the mountain-climbing that we both enjoyed. We couldn’t have enough time to spend together because my father was very busy. I really got a lot from mountain-climbing. It gave me time to talk with my father and to be in deep thought as well as develop my patience.
Once we climbed a very high mountain. It was so challenging for me because I was only ten years old. During the first few hours of climbing. I enjoyed the flowers and trees, and the birds’ singing, but as time passed, I got a pain in both of my legs. I wanted to quit climbing. In fact, I hated it at that mountain, but my father said to me, “You can always see a beautiful sky at the top of the mountain, but you can’t see it before you reach the top. Only there at the top, can you see all of the nice things, just like in life.”
At that time, I was too young to understand his words. But later after that, I got knew hope and confidence. I found myself standing at the top of the sky in my life, which was as clear as crystal (水晶).The passage tells us that mountain-climbing was _____for Father and Son.
| A．hard | B．painful | C．enjoyable | D．unhappy |
The word “quit” in the passage means “______”.
| A．carry on | B．put off | C．pick up | D．give up |
We can infer from the last paragraph that ______.
| A．the writer reached the top of the mountain. |
| B．the writer was very successful in his life. |
| C．thought the writer was young, he could understand his father. |
| D．the writer used to hate climbing the mountain. |
The best title for the passage is ______.
| A．How to Get to the Top of the Mountain | B．Father’s love |
| C．Conversations between Father and Son | D．Reaching the Top of the Mountain |
The Internet is not perfect. There are many problems with it. The Internet is not organized. There is no one in charge of the Internet. It is sometimes difficult to find what you are looking for. It is also easy to get the wrong information on the “Net”. Some businessmen cheat people on the Internet. Internet thieves can steal credit card numbers. Some advertisers send spam to e-mail boxes. E-mail boxes are often filled with these unwanted advertisements. Illegal(不合法的) businesses can operate on the Internet. These businesses sell X-rated materials, cigarettes and alcohol to teenagers.
The Internet has websites with information about making bombs, breaking the law and terrorism. Criminals（罪犯） can fool people, especially children, in chat rooms. They can spread poisonous（有毒的） information and attack new members.
The Internet is the greatest advance in communication since human appeared. But it can also be like a dark road in a dangerous part of town. Parents need to set parental controls on their children when they use the Internet. This will keep some of the bad material away from their children. The Internet can be dangerous to computers, too. Some people who have bad intentions enjoy causing problems for other people they don’t even know. They create computer viruses（病毒）. A computer can get virus by downloading a program that has a virus in it. Some virus come by e-mail.
A virus can destroy the data a person has saved in computer files. A virus can cause a computer to crash（崩溃）. A virus can also reproduce（复制） itself! It can send copies of itself to everyone on a person’s e-mail address list. Then these people’s will have the same problems and can’t work normally!The underlined word “spam” in the third paragraph means ___________
| A．letters | B．products |
| C．useless information | D．poisonous information |
Why can illegal businesses operate on the Internet?
| A．Because there is no one in charge of the Internet. |
| B．Because some people like to buy banned products on the Internet. |
| C．Because X-rated materials, cigarettes, alcohol and so on can be sold well on the Internet. |
| D．Because people who operate businesses on the Internet are criminals. |
Parental controls are needed when children use the Internet because________
| A．children can’t use the computers well |
| B．children may damage the computers |
| C．the Internet is always unsafe for the children |
| D．poisonous information may have a bad effect on children |
The harm of a computer virus is that___________
| A．it can change the saved data in computer |
| B．it can reproduce the computer |
| C．it can make the computer operate ill |
| D．it can destroy the saved files and the computer itself |
We can infer from the passage that the key to solving the problems with the Internet is____________
| A．to improve the computers | B．to improve people’s moral （道德）level |
| C．to order people not to use the Internet | D．to find a medicine to kill computer viruses |
Oprah Winfrey is not just a very successful TV personality(名人) in the US, she is also a woman who has encouraged millions. For those people, her life and her success are a good example. She has struggled with many of the challenges（挑战）that we all face, and she has changed her life. Her message is powerful: I did it, and so can you.
Oprah Winfrey is a black woman whose becoming famous is an encouraging story. She was born on January 29, 1954 in a small village in America. Her patents were very poor. For her family, life seemed to hold no promise.
But there was nothing that could stop Oprah. She was an extremely bright girl at school. She asked her kindergarten teacher to let her go to school sooner and she also skipped (跳级)the second grade of primary school（小学）. Her life from the age of six till about fourteen was very hard. For many women such difficulty would be too heavy to bear（忍受）. But not for Oprah. When she was fourteen, Oprah went to live with her father. Her father showed her how hard work and discipline（自律） could lead to self-improvement. Oprah listened to her father, and a few years later she won a college scholarship that allowed her to go to university.
Two years later, after graduation, she started working for television. For more than ten years she worked for different TV stations across the country. In 1984, she moved to Chicago, where she became the host of a talk show called "AM Chicago". When Oprah started, "AM Chicago" had few listeners. By September of the next year, the show was so successful that it was given a new name: 'The Oprah Winfrey Show".
Oprah Winfrey's story encourages many people to believe that success and happiness in life are within reach for everyone. What does Oprah Winfrey mean by saying “I did it”?
| A．I managed to over come (战胜)the challenges. |
| B．I encouraged many people who want to succeed. |
| C．I created many chances to help people. |
| D．I was respected as a source of strength.(力量源泉) |
When Oprah Winfrey was a child, her parents were so poor that _____.
| A．life seemed hopeless. | B．her family never promised anything. |
| C．her family could hardly keep any promise. | D．nobody trusted her family |
From the third paragraph we can infer________.
| A．Oprah was older than most of her schoolmates when she finished primary school. |
| B．Oprah was younger than most of schoolmates when she finished primary school. |
| C．Oprah couldn’t finish primary school because her family was very poor. |
| D．Oprah stopped her study when she was in the second grade of primary school. |
Which of the following statements is WRONG according to the passage?
| A．Oprah’s father had a great effect（影响） on her. |
| B．AM Chicago was a local newspaper in Chicago. |
| C．Oprah worked for different TV stations in the US. |
| D．Oprah suffered a lot when she was young. |
The best title of the passage may be _____.
| A．Oprah Winfrey’s TV show | B．A popular TV show in America |
| C．Oprah Winfrey | D．How to become a successful host |
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