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.

1. 1.

   What can we learn from Paragraph 1?      

   1. A.
      Students regard music as a way of entertainment.
   2. B.
      Students disagree with their parents on education.
   3. C.
      Students take music as an important subject.
   4. D.
      Students prefer the arts to science.
2. 2.

   In Paragraph 2, the writer uses jazz as an example to____________.       

   1. A.
      compare it with rock music
   2. B.
      show music identifies a society
   3. C.
      introduce American musical traditions
   4. D.
      prove music influences people’s lifestyles
3. 3.

   According to the passage, the arts and science____________.

   1. A.
      explain the world in different ways
   2. B.
      explain different facts of the world
   3. C.
      express people’s feelings in different ways
   4. D.
      explain what it means to be human differently
4. 4.

   What is the main idea of the passage?

   1. A.
      Music education is worth more attention.
   2. B.
      Music should be of top education priority.
   3. C.
      Music is really a good communication tool.
   4. D.
      Music education makes students more imaginative.

阅读理解

　　Are you able to send a letter with pictures and sounds to someone，anywhere in the world without putting a stamp on it? With e-mail you can just do that. Using computer you can send e-mail quickly and easily. The post is much slower than e-mail. E-mail can send its message to the other side of the world in seconds.

　　E-mail is easy to use and it saves time and money. The differences in time and in different parts of the world do not matter when sending e-mail. It is twenty-four-hour service that you can send e-mail at any time of the day or night. No one has to be there to receive email. It does not matter if your friends are in bed when you send e-mail to them，or you are seeing a film at the cinema when they send e-mail back.

(1)With e-mail you can send a letter without putting ________ on it.

[　　]

(2)The writer wants to tell us something about

[　　]

(3)Which of the following is TRUE?

[　　]

A．E-mail is not easy to use.

B．E-mail saves time and money.

C．E-mail comes only at night.

D．E-mail is slower than the post.

(4)When can you send an e-mail to your friend?

[　　]

A．By daylight.

B．At night.

C．At any time.

D．When your friends are at home.

(5)How long does it take to send an e-mail?

[　　]

A．Within seconds.

B．More than one hour.

C．A few days.

D．It depends on the distance.

[　　]

A．who the old man was

B．what the old man was planting

C．why the old man was planting

D．when the old man was planting

(3)The old man asked the farmer to swim across the river because________.

[　　]

A．he would give him some peas

B．he wanted him to see the peas

C．he liked the farmer

D．he wanted to tell him quietly

(4)The farmer didn't like to swim across the river，but ________.

[　　]

A．he swam across the lake

B．he went there on foot

C．he knew the old man

D．he did as the old man told him

(5)The old man thought________.

[　　]

A．the sparrows could understand what he said

B．the farmer wanted to see the peas

C．the sparrows couldn't know that

D．the farmer could help him plant peas

A jobless man wanted very much to have the position of “office boy” at Microsoft. The HR manager interviewed him and then watched him cleaning the floor as a test. “You have passed the test,” he said. “Give me your e-mail address and I’ll send you the form to fill in and the date when you may start.” The man replied, “But I don’t have a computer, neither an e-mail.” “I’m sorry,” said the HR manager. “If you don’t have an e-mail, that means you are not living. And anyone who isn’t living cannot have the job.”

The man left with no hope at all. He didn’t know what to do with only $10 in his pocket. He thought and thought. Then he went to the supermarket and bought 10 kilos of tomatoes. He sold the tomatoes from door to door. In less than two hours, he had 20 dollars. He repeated the operation three times, and started to go early every day, and returned home late. Shortly, he bought a cart , then a truck, then he had his own fleet of delivery vehicles(运货车队). Five years later, the man was one of the biggest food retailers (零售商)  in the US.

One day, one of his friends asked him for his e-mail. He said, “I haven’t got one.” His friend couldn’t believe his ears. “Can you imagine what you could have been if you had an e-mail?” The man thought for a while and replied, “Yes, I’d be an office boy at Microsoft!”

根据材料内容选择最佳答案，并将其标号填入题前括号内。

1.What did the man do for the test?

A．He sent e-mails.                        B．He did the cleaning

C．He sold computers.                      D．He filled in forms.

2.The man didn’t get the job because he_____________.

A．disliked such a job

B．didn’t pass the test

C．didn’t have an e-mail

D．knew nothing about computers

3.The man ______after he left Microsoft.

A．went to look for another job

B．asked for food from door to door

C．thought of an idea to make monkey

D．bought a computer and got an e-mail

4.“office boy” means            in Chinese.

A．勤杂工           B．学徒             C．男职员           D．男程序员

5.Why could the man become one of the biggest food retailers in the US?

A．Because he had many friends to help him.

B．Because he was smart and worked very hard.

C．Because he had his own fleet of delivery vehicles.

D．Because he wanted to show Microsoft he was living.

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.
【小题1】What can we learn from Paragraph 1?