Today, we talk to an up-and-coming (有前途的) erhu player, Lee Hang, from Hong Kong. He’ll play with the Hong Kong Orchestra (管弦乐队) next Sunday in a special concert by young Chinese musicians.

Interviewer: Thank you for talking to us, Lee. You must be very excited.

Lee: Yes, I am. This is the first time that I’ve played with such a famous orchestra and in front of so many people. They’re expecting about 4,000 people.

Interviewer: Does that scare you?

Lee: To be honest, yes. I haven’t slept much in the last few days. But my teacher told me I wouldn’t take it seriously enough if I wasn’t scared. That helped a lot.

Interviewer: Tell me about why you started playing the erhu.

Lee: My parents took me to piano and violin lessons. I quite liked them but they had to force me to go sometimes. One night, I saw a documentary about Yo Yo Ma, the famous Chinese American cello(大提琴) player. He talked about his love of Chinese instruments and we should follow our interests. I always enjoyed listening to Chinese instruments like the erhu and guzheng. That inspired me to learn the erhu. My parents were glad that I was playing something I actually liked.

Interviewer: What do your friends think of you playing a Chinese instrument?

Lee: Well, a lot of my classmates think playing things like the erhu isn’t cool. I don’t care. It makes me happy. I got a letter from Yo Yo, saying how much he admired me and that he’d like to meet me next time when he’s in Hong Kong. They thought that was pretty cool!

Interviewer: And what does the future hold for you?

Lee: I’d like to study music in a university in China then hopefully play in orchestras. My ambition is to bring the beautiful sound of the erhu to all the corners of the world.

Interviewer: Well, if anyone can, it’s you. Thanks for talking to me, Lee. Good luck.

Lee: Thanks.

What will Lee Hang do next Sunday?

A. He will have an interview. 

B. He will talk to a newspaper reporter.

C. He will play a Chinese musical instrument at a concert.

D. He will study in a university in China.

Lee _______ because of the concert.

A. hasn’t been sleeping well    B. hasn’t been sleeping 

C. will meet 4000 people       D. has been afraid of his teacher

Lee started playing the erhu ________ a film about Yo Yo Ma.

A. before seeing   B. while seeing   C. after seeing    D. to copy

Lee likes playing the erhu _______ the piano and violin.

A. less than   B. as much as   C. more than    D. because his parents like

Lee’s friends thought _______ was great.

A. getting a letter from a famous musician     B. writing a letter to a famous musician

C. playing Chinese musical instruments       D. seeing Yo Yo Ma in Hong Kong

The lights dimmed,the musical hall grew quiet and out walked the conductor (指挥) shiny and white and 4 feet and 3 inches tall.

ASIMO, a robot designed by Honda Motor Co., met its latest challenge Tuesday evening: Conducting the Detroit Symphony (底特律交响乐团), in a performance of “The Impossible  Dream” from “Man of La Mancha”.

“Hello, everyone,” ASIMO said to the audience in a childlike voice, then waved to the orchestra. As it conducted, it perfectly mimicked (模仿) the actions of a conductor,

nodding its head at various sections and gesturing with one or both hands. ASIMO took a final bow to excited shouts from the audience. Later, cellist Yo-Yo Ma joined ASIMO onstage to receive an award for his efforts in music education.

Honda spokeswoman Alicia Jones says it is the first time ASIMO has conducted an orchestra, and it may be the first time any robot has conducted a live performance. But ASIMO has its  limits. ASIMO's engineers programmed the robot to mimic Charles Burke, the Detroit Symphony's education director, as he conducted the piece in front of a pianist about six months ago. But it can't respond to the musicians.

“It's not a communicative device. It simply is programmed to do a set of gestures,” said Leonard Slatkin, the orchestra's musical director. “If the orchestra decides to go faster, there's nothing the robot can do about it. Hopefully, I keep that under control.”

But several musicians also said ASIMO was more realistic than they expected. “The movements are still a little stiff (僵硬的), but very humanlike, much better than I thought,” Hutchinson said.

1.What's the audience's response to ASIMO's performance?

A.Disappointed.

B.Moved.

C.Excited.

D.Astonished.

2.Whose conducting was ASIMO made to copy?

A.Yo-Yo Ma's.

B.Charles Burke's.

C.Leonard Slatkin's.

D.Alicia Jones's.

3.We can learn from the passage that ASIMO ________.

A.was designed and trained by Yo-Yo Ma

B.can communicate with the audience freely

C.only performs according to the designed programs

D.can change its conducting style freely

4.What would be the best title for this passage?

A.Detroit Symphony gives a good performance

B.Honda robot conducts Detroit Symphony

C.“The Impossible Dream” from Detroit Symphony

D.Cooperation between Honda and Detroit Symphony

 

完形填空。
     Years ago, in a small fishing village in Holland, a young boy taught the world about the rewards of unselfish
service.
     Because the entire village lived on fishing, a volunteer rescue team was needed in case of emergency. One
night, the winds   1  , the clouds burst and a strong storm overturned a fishing boat at sea. The crew in
trouble   2   the SOS. The captain of the rescue rowboat team   3   the alarm and the villagers   4   in the town
square overlooking the sea. When the team started their rowboat fought their way through the wild waves, the
villagers waited   5   on the beach, holding lamps to   6   the way back.
     An hour later, the rescue boat reappeared through the fog and the   7   villagers ran to greet them.
Falling   8   on the sand, the volunteers reported that the rescue boat could not hold any more   9   and they had
to leave one man behind. Even one more passenger would have surely  10  the rescue boat and all would have
been lost. 
      11 , the captain called for another volunteer team to  12  the survivor. Sixteen -year-old Hans stepped
forward. His mother grabbed his arm, crying, "please don't go. Your father  13  in a shipwreck (船只失事) 10
years ago and yo ur elder brother, Paul, has been lost  14  for three weeks. Hans, you are all I have left."
     Hans replied, "Mother, I have to go.  15  everyone said I can't go, let someone else do it? Mother, this time
I have to do my duty. When the call for service  16 , we all need to take our turn and do our part. Hans kissed
his mother, joined the team and  17  into the night."
     Another hour passed, which seemed to Hans' mother like a century.  18  the rescue boat dashed through the
fog with Hans standing up in the bow.  19  his hands, the captain called, "did you find the lost man?"  20  able
to control himself, Hans excitedly cried back, "Yes, we found him. Tell my mother it's my elder brother, Paul!"
(     )1. A. stilled        
(     )2. A. set about        
(     )3. A. sounded         
(     )4. A. gathered         
(     )5. A. nervously        
(     )6. A. hope            
(     )7. A. promising       
(     )8. A. uncomfortable    
(     )9. A. villagers       
(     )10. A. pushed          
(     )11. A. Anxiously     
(     )12. A. look after      
(     )13. A. died            
(     )14. A. in the fire     
(     )15. A. How about       
(     )16. A. comes          
(     )17. A. appeared        
(     )18. A. Therefore        
(     )19. A. Making          
(     )20. A. Hardly          
B. screamed    
B. sent out     
B. set          
B. followed     
B. angrily      
B. light        
B. hoping       
B. exhausted    
B. sailors      
B. pulled       
B. Strangely    
B. look for     
B. pulled       
B. at sea       
B. What for     
B. goes         
B. disappeared      
B. Firstly      
B. Keeping      
B. Only         
C. stopped        
C. came up with  
C. took           
C. fought           
C. fearfully      
C. expect        
C. cheering       
C. disturbed      
C. captains       
C. overturned     
C. Unexpectedly      
C. lookout       
C. went           
C. on strike     
C. What if         
C. flies          
C. came            
C. when          
C. Showing         
C. Seldom      
D. calmed          
D. took over      
D. made            
D. struggled         
D. happily         
D. try             
D. standing         
D. painful          
D. passengers                    
D. settled          
D. Doubtfully        
D. look on          
D. interrupted      
D. in the war    
D. What with        
D. climbs           
D. went              
D. Finally        
D. Cupping           
D. Always       

I’m seventeen. I had worked as a box boy at a supermarket in Los Angeles. People came to the counter and you put things in their bags for them. And carried things to their cars. It was hard work.

  While working, you wear a plate with your name on it. I once met someone I knew years ago. I remembered his name and said,“Mr Castle, how are you?”we talked about this and that.As he left, he said," It was nice talking to you,Brett.”I helt great,he remembered me. Then I looked down at my name plate. Oh no. he didn’t remember me at all, he just resd the name plate. I wish I had put“Irving”down on my name plate. If he’d have said,“Oh yes, Irving,how could I forget you?”I’d have been ready for him. There’snothing personal here.

  The manager and everyone else who were a step above the box boys often shouted orders. One of these was:you couldn’t accept tips(小费)。Okay, I’m outside and I put the bags in the car. For a lot of people, the natural reaction(反应)is to take a quarter and give it to me. I’d say,‘‘I‘m sorry, I can’t,”they‘d get angry. When you give someone o tip, you’re sort of being polite. You take a quarter and you put it in their hand and you expect them to say,”Oh,thanks a lot.”When you say‘‘I’m sorry,I can’t.” They'd get angry.When you give someone a tip,you're sort of being polite.You take a quarter and you put it in their hand and yo cxpect them to say, "oh , thanks a lot." When you say,"I'm sorry,I can't,"they feel a little put down. They say "No one will know.”And they put it in your pocket. You say, "I really can’t.”It gets to a point where you almost have to hurt a person physically(身体上)to prevent him from tipping you. It was not in agreement with the store’s belief in being friendly. Accepting tips was a friendly thing and made the customer feel good. I just couldn’t understand the strangeness of some people’s ideas. One lady actually put it in my pocket, got in the car,and drove away. I would have had to throw the quarter at her or eaten it or something.

  I had decided that one year was enough. Some people needed the job to stay alive and fed. I guess I had the means and could afford to hate it and give it up.

1. what can be the best title for this text?

A. how hard life is for Box Boys

B. getting along with Customers

C. why I Gave up My Job

D. the Art of Taking Tips

2. From the second paragraph, we can infer that___.

A. the writer didn’t like the impersonal part of his job

B . with a name plate,people can easily start talking

C . Mr Castle mistook Irving for Brett

D. Irving was the writer’s real name

3. The box boy refused to accept tips because__

A. customers only gave small tips

B. some customers had strange ideas about tipping

C. the store forbade the box boys to take tips

D. he didn’t want to fight with the customers

4. The underlined phras“put down”in the third paragraph probably means__

A. misunderstood

B. dEfeated

C. hateful

D. hurt

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