When students and parents are asked to rate subjects according to their importance, the arts are unavoidably at the bottom of the list. Music is nice, people seem to say, but not important. Too often it is viewed as mere entertainment, but certainly not an education priority（优先）. This view is shortsighted. In fact, music education is beneficial and important for all students.   ks5u

Music tells us who we are. Because music is an expression of the beings who create it, it reflects their thinking and values, as well ad the social environment it came 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 as a society.   ks5u

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 explore the emotive（情感的）meaning of the same phenomenon. 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.   ks5u

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 of civilization through which we express our fears, our curiosities, 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 access to an important way of expressing themselves such as music, we take away from them the meanings that music expresses.   ks5u

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 meaning and value of peace and love.   ks5u

So music education is far more necessary than people seem to realize.   ks5u

68. According to Paragraph 1, students   ks5u

A. regard music as a way of entertainment   ks5u

B. disagree with their parents on education   ks5u

C. view music as an overlooked subject   ks5u

D. prefer the arts to science   ks5u]

69. In Paragraph 2, the author uses jazz an example to   ks5u

A. compare it with rock music   ks5u

B. show music identifies a society   ks5u

C. introduce American musical traditions   ks5u

D. prove music influences people’s lifestyles   ks5u

70. According to the passage, the arts and science      .   ks5u

A. approach the world from different angles   ks5u

B. explore different phenomena of the world   ks5u

C express people’s feelings in different ways   ks5u

D. explain what it means to be human differently  

71. What is the main idea of the passage?   ks5u

A. Music education deserves more attention.   ks5u

B. Music should be of  top education priority.   ks5u

C. Music is an effective communication tool.   ks5u

D. Music education makes students more imaginative.   ks5u

Having written a book on rock music and a book on jazz music, and now writing a book __31__ the classical music of the 20^th century, I felt the __32__ to put somewhere the music that does not quite fit __33__ of these kinds of music. I also felt that I needed to research the beginning of the popular music in Western Europe and the USA in order to __34__ understand the change of the jazz and rock music. I also felt that ethnic music has become so __35__ that one should research the development from Western European and USA music. This book aims at __36__ all these gaps (差异). I did my best to give it a systematic feeling, although it is clear that musicians from such different parts of the world had very __37__ in common. Only after the joining together of the 1907s can we __38__ of a worldwide history of popular music. This book is about the __39__ of that formation (形成).
It was not very difficult to decide how to __40__ jazz music from pop music. It was much more __41__ to decide how to separate rock music __42__ the rest of popular music, because rock music has taken in just about everything. Pieces of this book were firstly written for my 2003 books on rock music. __43__ that happened after the 1960s will be in the book on rock music. The __44__ is that you should read this book first, then the __45__ of jazz music and the history of rock music.

Having written a book on rock music and a book on jazz music, and now writing a book __31__ the classical music of the 20^th century, I felt the __32__ to put somewhere the music that does not quite fit __33__ of these kinds of music. I also felt that I needed to research the beginning of the popular music in Western Europe and the USA in order to __34__ understand the change of the jazz and rock music. I also felt that ethnic music has become so __35__ that one should research the development from Western European and USA music. This book aims at __36__ all these gaps (差异). I did my best to give it a systematic feeling, although it is clear that musicians from such different parts of the world had very __37__ in common. Only after the joining together of the 1907s can we __38__ of a worldwide history of popular music. This book is about the __39__ of that formation (形成).

It was not very difficult to decide how to __40__ jazz music from pop music. It was much more __41__ to decide how to separate rock music __42__ the rest of popular music, because rock music has taken in just about everything. Pieces of this book were firstly written for my 2003 books on rock music. __43__ that happened after the 1960s will be in the book on rock music. The __44__ is that you should read this book first, then the __45__ of jazz music and the history of rock music.

填空（共10小题，每小题1分，共10分）：

阅读下面的短文，在标有序号的空白处填入一个适当的词，或填入括号中单词的正确形式，并将序号及相应答案写在答题纸上。

Around the world young people are spending unbelievable sums of money to listen to rock music. Forbes Magazine claims that at least fifty rock stars have an __1__ of between two million and six million dollars per year.

Some observers think the customers are buying more than music. According to one theory, rock music has a special appeal because no real training is needed to produce it. There is __2__ gap between the audience and the performers. Every boy and girl in the audience thinks,” I could sing __3__ that.” So rock has become a new kind of religion, a new form of worship. Young people are glad to worship a rock star because it is a way of worshipping __4__.

Luck is a key word for explaining the success of many. In 1972 one of the luckiest was Don McLean, who wrote and sang “American Pie”. Like most performers, McLean __5__ his own music, so he earns additional money. Records provide only part of a star’s income. Around the world young listeners soon want to see the star in movies, on television, and __6__ person.

__7__ do the rock stars use their money? What do they do when the money starts pouring in like water? Most of the young stars just throw the money around. England’s Elton John bought himself a $5,000 pair of eyeglasses that light up and spell E-L-T-O-N. He also bought himself __8__ cars, “one for each foot”.

In the end the rock star’s life is unrewarding. After two or three years fame and fortune are gone. __9__(leave) with his memories and his tax problems, the lonely ex-performer spends his __10__ (remain) years trying to impress strangers. New stars have arrived to take his place.