Directions:In this section, there is a passage with ten
blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of
choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through
carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a
letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2
with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the
bank more than once. Music produces profound and lasting
changes in the brain. Schools should add music classes, not cut them. Nearly 20
years ago a small study advanced the 1 that listening to Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major could boost
mental functioning. It was not long before trademarked "Mozart effect" products
began to appeal to anxious parents aiming to put toddlers (刚学步的孩子) on the fast
track to prestigious universities like Harvard and Yale, Georgia’s governor even
2 giving every newborn there a
classical CD or cassette. The 3
for Mozart therapy turned out to be weak, perhaps nonexistent,
although the 4 study never claimed
anything more than a temporary and limited effect. In recent years, however,
scientists have examined the benefits of a concerted effort to study and
practice music, as 5 to playing a
Mozart CD or a computer-based "brain fitness" game once in a while.
Advanced monitoring 6 have
enabled scientists to see what happens inside your head when you listen to your
mother and 7 practice the violin for an
hour every afternoon. And they have found that music lessons can produce
profound and lasting changes that enhance the general ability to learn. These
results should 8 public officials that
music classes are not a mere decoration, ripe for discarding in the budget
crises that constantly trouble public schools. Studies have
shown that 9 instrument training from
an early age can help the brain to process sounds better, making it easier to
stay focused when absorbing other subjects, from literature to mathematics. The
musically adept (擅长的) are better able to 10 on a biology lesson despite the noise in the classroom or, a few years
later, to finish a call with a client when a colleague in the next office starts
screaming at a subordinate. They can attend to several things at once in the
mental scratch pad called working memory, an essential skill in this era of
multitasking. A．witness B．original
C．evidence D．techniques
E．actually F．concentrate G．notion
H．diligent I．proposed
J．opposed K．conceive L．gradually
M．convince N．solemn O．context