Many people don't realize the importance of music education in the schools today. A new study showed, however, music education is extremely important.
In college, music education is one of the largest programs. Teachers have to learn general education materials and techniques. They must learn to play every instrument; they must learn music history and music theory; they must learn instrument repair and teaching methods; they must learn conducting and so much more. At the same time, much of our culture and tradition is absorbed in music.
Music plays a very important role in our education.
Music helps with math and science. Students learn to count, and how to multiply and divide. Students also use science to help them discover what sounds good together and what doesn’t. Students also need science to understand something called the “overtone series", which is about how music is produced by vibration（颤动）and why.
Students learn a lot about languages through music．Many songs are written in other languages, including ancient ones. Students must learn to translate these works to understand what they are singing about. A song is likely to be a famous short work set to music; so students are exposed to that very often while singing.
Students learn a huge amount of cooperation （协作）of body parts through music, so parts of the body can work better together. Students must use motor（肌肉运动的）skills in order to play an instrument. Singers and wind（管乐器）players must learn breath control and be in good shape to play.
Students learn about art. Some famous pieces were written about important pieces of art, and students learn about the artists and styles as they're playing the music.
Music education also brings higher thinking to our children. It allows them to think about complex patterns. Students have to be aware of what every other musician does at every time. In that way, it develops cooperation, as well. They tend to develop more ability for learning.
As one can see, music is very important to education.
1. What can we infer about learning music in college?
A. It is an easy task without much effort.
B. It attracts more and more people to learn.
C. It is such a challenging job to finish
D. It has no value to our future life.
2. Music benefits us a lot in many ways except for_______.
A. making us a scientist later.
B. improving language ability
C. bettering cooperation of body parts.
D. making us think more about how to learn well
3. The underlined word “that” in Para. 5 refers to “_________”
A. the music B. the workC. the culture D. the language
4. What can we know from the passage?
A. A good achievement of science is vital to music learning.
B. Learning music to a higher level on one’s own is impossible
C. People have long known the importance of music to our growth.
D. Music has benefits to the all—around development of human beings.
World leaders from nearly 200 countries have signed an important historic agreement to fight global climate change. The agreement came after two weeks of talks between the leaders at the 21st Conference in Paris, France.
As part of the Paris agreement, countries said they would cut down on pollution However, according to the terms of the deal, countries that don’t do this will not be punished, or fined. Instead，the document is meant to show that governments around the world take climate change seriously and are willing to work together to fight global warming.
World leaders have met many times to discuss climate change. But, the 21st Conference of Parties, or COP21, which began on November 30 in Paris, was the first time they agreed on a global, legal pact (协定).
Before the conference, each nation was asked to create plans on how to reach the shared goal. The pact that was signed allows countries to decide the best way to cut down their gas pollution. No matter how they decide to go green, each country must report honestly on all of their efforts. Every five years, nations must look at the work they’ve done and submit new plans on how they will improve over the next five years.
In the pact, the countries pledge（承诺）to limit the amount of greenhouse gases emitted（排放） by human activity to the levels that trees，soil and oceans can absorb naturally. It urges countries to spend trillions of dollars on creating new energy sources, like solar and wind power. It also requires countries to raise at least $ 100 billion each year to help developing countries.
However, critics of the pact say it is not detailed enough, and doesn’t include specifics about how the plan will be enforced and how improvements will be measured. The pact does include one large, specific goal: how countries will aim to keep global temperatures from rising more than 3. 60℉(20℃) by 2100.
Nonetheless，the agreement is considered by many world leaders to be a major victory. The U. N. has been working more than two decades to convince governments to work together to reduce man-made emissions.
“History will remember this day,” U. N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said. “The Paris agreement on climate change is a monumental success for the planet and its people.”
1.When was the legal pact probably passed?
A. On November 30. B. On December 4.
C. On December 8. D. On December 12.
2.According to the agreement, countries_________ .
A. have to give a yearly report about their work
B. will be published if they fail to reduce pollution
C. are required to ensure investment in fighting pollution
D. should try to reach the agreed standard in five years
3.What is each country required to do before the Paris conference?
A. Provide a work plan. B. Give an oral explanation.
C. Provide a large amount of money. D. Give a written assessment.
4.The pact is thought to be imperfect because_______.
A. it doesn’t consider developing countries
B. it is not detailed enough
C. it is not attractive to all countries
D. it only benefits some countries
Most academics would view a post at an elite university like Oxford or Harvard as the crowning achievement of a career—bringing both honour and access to better wine cellars. But scholars desire such places for reasons beyond glory. They believe perching on one of the topmost branches of the academic tree will also improve the quality of their work, by bringing them together with other geniuses with whom they can collaborate and who may help spark new ideas. This sounds reasonable. Unfortunately，as Albert Laszlo Barabasi of Northeastern University，in Boston (and also, it must be said, of Harvard), shows in a study published in Scientific Reports, it is not true.
Dr Barabasi and his team examined the careers of physicists who began publishing between 1950 and 1980 and continued to do so for at least 20 years. They ranked the impact of the institutions these people attended by counting the number of citations each institution’s papers received within five years of publication. By tracking the association of individual physicists and counting their citations in a similar way, Dr Barabasi was able to work out whether moving from a low to a high-ranking university improved a physicist’s impact. In total, he and his team analysed 2,725 careers.
They found that, though an average physicist moved once or twice during his career, moving from a low-rank university to an elite one did not increase his scientific impact. Going in the opposite direction, however, did have a small negative influence. The consequence is that elite university do not，at least as far as physicists are concerned，add value to output. That surprising conclusion is one which the authorities in countries such as Britain, who are seeking to concentrate expensive subjects such as physics in fewer, more elite institutions—partly to save money, but also to create what are seen as centers of excellence—might wish to consider.
1. What is the fundamental reason why scholars want to get a post at an elite university?
A. Their academic career can benefit from it.
B. It is an access to better wine cellars.
C. Reasons beside glory.
D. They can win honour.
2. On what basis did Dr Barabasi’s research team draw conclusions that getting a post at a higher-rank university won’t help scholastic impact?
A. His team examined the 20-year careers of physicists.
B. He came from Havard, a top-ranking university himself and knew it well.
C. Individual physicists’ citations by other authors increased within 5 years.
D. They ranked the physicists’ institutions according to citations to these universities’ paper.
3. Which of the following is true of Dr Barabasi’s research?
A. It proved that a post at an elite university helps academics.
B. It began in 1950 and ended in 1980.
C. It calculated the citations of the physicists’ institutions.
D. It is based on a lot more than 2,000 scholars of various fields.
Most people agree that eating healthy food is important. But sometimes making good food choices can be difficult. Now, there are apps that can help people learn about the food they eat to improve their health and their dining out experience.
Open Table app
Open Table app helps people choose restaurants when they want to go out to eat. It is a free service that shows users restaurant available based on where and when they want to dine. It gives users points when they make reservations(预定), which can add up to discounts on restaurant visits.
Max McCalman’s Cheese & Wine Pairing app
Wine and cheese can be a great combination. But which wines go best with which cheeses? Max McCalman’s Cheese & Wine Pairing app can help. It provides information about hundreds of different cheeses and suggests wines to pair with each. Max McCalman’s Cheese & Wine Pairing app is free.
HappyCow app
Vegetarians do not eat animal meat. Vegans do not eat any animal products. The HappyCow app is made for both groups. Users can search for vegetarian-vegan restaurants and stores around the world.
LocalEats app
Restaurant chains, like McDonalds, can be found almost anywhere a person might travel. But sometimes travelers want to eat like locals. The LocalEats app is designed for that. It can help you find local restaurants in major cities in the US and in other countries. It costs about a dollar.
Where Chefs Eat app
“Where Chefs Eat” is a 975-page book. Most people would not want to carry that around. But there is a much lighter app version of the same name for just $15. Six hundred chefs provide information on 3,000 restaurants around the world on the Where Chefs Eat app.
1. What do the first two apps have in common?
A. They are both free of charge.
B. Discounts are provided on both.
C. Best wines can be reserved on both
D. They tell you where to have the best food.
2. Who is Happycow app probably designed for?
A. Friends drinking wines together.
B. Chefs enjoying meat very much.
C. People who want to go on a diet.
D. Those often eating in a restaurant.
3. Where can we most likely see the text?
A. On a tourism guide.
B. In a cellphone application introduction
C. In a students’ textbook
D. On a scientific discovery TV program
4. Why on earth did the writer make this text?
A. To help fatties to lose some weight.
B. To bring us some healthy eating habits.
C. To make some money by advertising apps.
D. To introduce some useful apps to food lovers.
假定你是李华，上个月Professor Smith曾推荐你去芝加哥大学(Chicago University)深造学习，现在你已被该大学录取。请你给Professor Smith写一封e-mail，表达对他的感激之情。主要内容：
1. 表达感激；
2. 描述Professor Smith提供的帮助；
3. 表示会努力学习以回报老师的帮助。
注意：
1. 词数100左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3. 开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
Dear Professor Smith,
I am writing to______________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Best wishes!
Yours truly,
Li Hua
短文改错
假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号(∧)，并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用(＼)划掉。
修改：在错的词下画一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2. 只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
When I was in Junior Middle School, I once quarrel with my favorite teacher Mr. Yang because he criticized me strictly. Before that, I was so ashamed that I had no courage to see her again. To my surprised, Mr. Yang found me and apologized to me for his sharp words next day. He had said he could understand why I was so angry at that moment. Also, Mr. Yang hoped I could understand that he was so strictly with me because he thought I should have behaved better. What he had said or done made me very touching. Therefore, I was determined not to let him down any long.
