Les Paul is one of the most influential people in modern popular music. He was a skillful guitarist who
played an energetic mixture of jazz and country songs. He was also an inventor.
The electric guitar and recording devices he created changed the sound of popular music and greatly
influenced rock and roll.
     Les Paul is best known for creating one of the first solidbody electric guitars and the eighttrack
recording device. He also perfected new recording methods to give special effects to his music.
Les Paul was born Lester William Polfuss (POLLfuss)in 1915 in Waukesha, (WAHkuhshaw)Wisconsin. By the age of nine, he had taught himself to play the harmonica and had built a radio. He also learned to
play the guitar and banjo. He could not read music, but he could play music that he heard. And he had a
good sense of musical structure.
     Les Paul was soon performing in country bands in the Midwest. He left high school to perform full time on radio shows. He performed using the names "The Wizard of Waukesha", "Hot Rod Red" and "Rhubarb Red". He also started playing music influenced by great jazz guitarists including Django Reinhardt.
     By 1937, he had formed the Les Paul trio. He moved to New York City the next year. Les Paul played with many famous performers including the popular singer Bing Crosby.
     Around 1941, Les Paul invented his famous guitar. He wanted to make an instrument that could play a note longer than notes played on a traditional acoustic guitar. He developed a new kind of electric guitar that had a solid body. On an acoustic guitar, the strings vibrate and the hollow part of the instrument, or the
sound box, also vibrates. Les Paul wanted an instrument in which only the strings vibrated.
     In the 1970s, Les Paul made two records with the country guitarist Chet Atkins. One was called "
Chester and Lester". It won a Grammy Award in 1976. Starting in the early 1980s, Paul began playing in
jazz clubs in New York City. He kept on performing weekly until a few months before his death.

1. Which of the following shows the right order of Les Paul's experience?
a. He moved to New York.
b. He had taught himself to play the harmonica.
c. He performed full time on radio shows.
d. He began playing in jazz clubs in New York City.
e. He invented his famous guitar.

A. abcde
B. bcade
C. bcdea
D. bcaed

2. According to the passage, the author develops the passage ________.

A. in order of time
B. in order of importance
C. by giving examples
D. by listing reasons

3. Which of the following best describes Les Paul?

A. He is a creative man.
B. He is a lazy man.
C. He is a naughty man.
D. He is a crazy man.

4. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A. He influenced Django Reinhardt.
B. He had no good sense of musical structure.
C. He could play and read music when he was a child.
D. He made two records with Chet Atkins in the 1970s.

1. Why did the British lawmakers ask Graham Sutherland to paint a picture of Winston Churchill?

A. To show their respect for him.        
B. To make Churchill happy.
C. To put it in the Westminster Hall.        
D. To make Churchill unhappy.

2. Where was the painting of Winston Churchill after it was finished?

A. In Churchill’s home.                  
B. In Churchill's office.
C. In the Westminster Hall.              
D. In a busy town square.

3. Why was Churchill actually unhappy at that time?

A. Because he had to retire anti put an end to his political life.
B. Because the painting did not look like him one little bit.
C. Because Lady Churchill was not happy with the painting.
D. Because he was so very sick and did not feel well at all.

4. What is the author's attitude towards the painting being destroyed?

A. Approval.    
B. Disapproval.      
C. Anger.      
D. Indifference.

     "Mark Twain" was the name used by Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910) when he wrote
books. His father was a lawyer, but a poor one, who lived at Florida, Missouri. The family was so
poor that Samuel did not receive much teaching. He had to learn all that he could from the people
whom he met. His father died when he was very young, and then there was even less money than
before.
     Many of the men in this part of America worked in the ships on the great River Mississippi, and
he did this himself at one time (1857).
     Where did he find the name "Mark Twain"? It came from the great river itself. It was part of one
of the cries used by men who worked in the ships. When a man called "By the mark twain!" he meant
that the river was "two marks deep" there, that is to say, six feet deep ( "Twain" is an old form of the
work "Two".) Samuel Clemens often heard these words when he was young, and he used them as a
penname all his life.
     During his work on the Mississippi he met travelers of all kinds, and this helped him a great deal
when he started to write. But the number of travelers became smaller when war started in America in
1861. Many of the great ships on the river stopped work. Samuel left then and went to Nevada with
his brother, who was at that time Governor of Nevada. There, near the town of Carson, Samuel
became a gold miner, but he never made much money at the time. He soon saw that life in the gold
mines was not for him. He also tried writing for the newspapers in Nevada, and this seemed more
hopeful. He found that he could write.
     He went to Europe in 1867 and visited France and Italy. In 1870 he married Olivia Langdon,
and two years later he was spending nearly all his time writing. Among his books is his own story
(1908).
     He is now always known as Mark Twain, and many people do not even know that his family
name was Clemens. He traveled in America and in England, and went to Oxford in 1907. He was
one of the great American writers of the time, and could make his readers laugh - a thing which few
writers can do. He died in 1910.

1. "Mark Twain" was _________.

A. a famous American writer    
B. name of a book      
C. a great river in America      
D. a large ship

2. As a child, Samuel did not get much education because _________.

A. his father died too early          
B. the family was very poor  
C. he disliked school very much
D. he could learn what he liked from the people he met

3. What gave him a great deal when he started writing? _______

A. His poor childhood              
B. The Mississippi river    
C. All kinds of travelers he met        
D. His brother

4. We can infer from the passage that ________.

A. Samuel loved writing from his early age  
B. Samuel did not love writing at the beginning
C. his writings to the newspaper were successful            
D. his brother encouraged him to write more

5. According to the writer of the passage, a good writer could _________.

A.write a lot for his readers            
B. make a lot of money for his family
C. cause his readers to laugh          
D. travel everywhere he wanted

     Charlton Heston was born in 1923 in Evanston, Illinois. Charlton Heston discovered his interest in
acting while performing in plays at his high school. He later spent two years studying theater at
Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. But he left college to join the Army Air Forces during World War Two.
     After the war, he found small roles in the theater as well as in television shows. His performance in a
television version of the book Jane Eyre caught the attention of the Hollywood producer Cecil B. DeMille who later asked Heston to play the role of Moses in his movie The Ten Commandments which came out in 1956. This role made Heston famous and defined (明确) his career as a hero and leader. His face and
body represented strength and heroism in many different roles. He played cowboys, soldiers and athletes.
The 1959 movie Ben Hur made Charlton Heston an even bigger star. Ben Hur won eleven Academy
Awards, including Best Actor for Charlton Heston. Heston starred in many adventure movies during the 1960s. In the 1970s, Heston appeared in popular disaster movies like Earthquake,. Skyjacked and Airport 1975.
     Charlton Heston was also very active in the movie industry. He worked to help set up the American
Film Institute. In 1977 he was honored for his service in the industry. He received the Jean Hersholt
Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 1997 he was awarded a Kennedy Center Honor. And, in 2003, President Bush gave Charlton Heston a Presidential Medal of
Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
     In 2000, Charlton Heston issued a statement announcing that he had an Alzheimer's disease. He died in 2008 at his home in Beverly Hills, California.

1. What kind of role did Charlton Heston often play in films?

A. Heroes.      
B. Cowboys.  
C. Soldiers.    
D. Athletes.

2. Which film won Best Actor for Charlton Heston?

A. Jane Eyre.  
B. Earthquake.  
C. Ben Hur.  
D. The Ten Commandments

3. What can we learn about Charlton Heston according to the passage?

A. He began to show his talent in Ben Hut.    
B. He used to be a soldier.
C. He was once awarded by Kennedy.        
D. He won eleven Academy Awards.

4. What's the main idea of Paragraph 2?

A. How Charlton Heston became famous.
B. How Charlton Heston began his career.
C. Who made Charlton Heston a popular star.
D. Who made Charlton Heston win so many awards.

     Frederic Francois Chopin, the famous composer and pianist,was born in Zelazowa Wola, Poland, on
February 22,1810, of a French father and a Polish mother. His father, Nicholas Chopin, was a French
tutor to many noble families, later accepting a position as a French teacher at
the Warsaw Lyceum.
     Although Chopin later attended the Lyceum where his father taught ,  his early training began at home. This included receiving piano lessons from his mother. By the age of six, Chopin was creating original
pieces, showing remarkable musical ability. His parents arranged for the young Chopin to take piano
instruction from Wojciech Zywny. When Chopin was sixteen, he attended the Warsaw Conservatory of
Music, directed by composer Joseph Elsner. Elsner, like Zywny, insisted on the traditional training
associated with classical music but allowed his students to investigate more original imaginations of the
romantic style as well.
      As often happened to the young musicians of both the Classical and Romantic Periods, Chopin was
sent to Vienna,the center of music that day. He gave piano concerts and then arranged to have his pieces
published by a Viennese publishing house there. While Chopin was in Austria,Poland and Russia were in
the apparent beginnings of war.He returned to Warsaw to get his things in preparation for a more
permanent move. While there, his friends gave him a silver goblet filled with Polish soil. He kept it always, as he was never able to return to his beloved Poland.
      News of the war in Poland inspired Chopin to write many sad musical pieces expressing his grief for " his" Poland. Among these was the famous " Revolutionary Etude". As the war continued in Warsaw and
then reached Paris, Chopin retired to Scotland with friends. Although he
was far beyond the reach of the revolution, his attitude of sorrow did not improve and he sank deeper
into a depression. Likewise, his health did not regain either.
     Chopin died at the age of 39 and was buried in Paris. His last request was that the Polish soil in the
silver goblet be cast over his grave.

1. Why do you think Chopin's friends gave him a silver goblet of soil?  

A. Because they wanted him to remember his motherland.
B. Because the silver goblet was expensive.
C. Because the soil could be used in his experiments.
D. We don' t know the reason from the passage.

2. What do you think of Chopin's last request before his death?  

A. He cared too much about his friendship with friends.
B. He liked the goblet very much.
C. He loved his motherland deeply.
D. He was interested in the soil in the goblet.

3. Which of the following is true about Chopin?  

A. He died and was buried in his motherland.
B. He hated his country so he left it.
C. He missed his motherland when he was abroad.
D. He enjoyed an active life.

4. What can we infer from the passage?  

A. Chopin never retumed to Poland.
B. Poland and Russia used to fight against with each other.
C. Chopin created his original pieces at the age of six.
D. Chopin died at an early age mainly because of his character.

     Richard Wagner was a German musician who lived in the mid-19th century. He gained fame by
writing operas, a form of performance combining singing, music on
instruments , and drama.
     Wagner's lif'e and work have been very controversial(引起争议的). While he  wrote  excellent 
 music, many people think his operas are too dark and serious,lacking the fun in most operas written
before his time.
     Wagner,on the other hand, thought the opera of his time was too simple. He wanted to make opera
a serious form of art that combined drama and music to tell deep stories that would have a strong effect
on the audience.
     Some people thought Wagner's new kind of music was too different from the operas they were used
to hearing. Wagner agreed with them. In fact, he didn't call his works "operas" at all but using a German
word that means " Musical Festival" or " Musical Play" .
      While many people today still do not like Wagner's operas,they cannot deny that Wagner has had a
lot of influence on opera as a form of art. Wagner invented the tradition of turning off the lights before
starting a play. He also was the first person to make the whole audience sit down for an entire play.
Today, almost all operas are performed in this manner.
     Wagner as a man was even more controversial than Wagner as a writer of music. He hated Jewish
people , slept with his friends' wives,and made many people angry-lots of things we would today think
of as evil. Some would say he was a good musician, while others hold that he was a bad musician. But it
would be difficult to say he was not an important person in music: and in the world.

1. Which of the following best expresses the main idea of the passage?

A. Richard Wagner is not worth talking about.
B. Richard Wagner was an evil man.
C. Richard Wagner wrote operas.
D. Richard Wagner is a very controversial man.

2. Which of the following uses the word "deep"  in the same sense as it is used at the end of
    paragraph three?  

A. The ocean is very deep.
B. He has a very deep , booming voice.
C. It is not easy to tell the meaning of this poem,because the poet is very deep.
D. We had the deep issue resolved last week.

3. Which of the following is not a way in which Wagner's works were different from normal operas
   before his time?   

A. Wagner called his works "Musical Festival".
B. Wagner used a combination of drama, music on instruments, and singing.
C. Wagner turned off the lights before starting a play.
D. Wagner made the whole audience sit down for an entire performance.

4.  Which of the following does not support the point that the author makes in the last sentence?    

A. Few musicians have been affected by Wagner's works.
B. Most writers of opera today think opera as a serious form of music.
C. Today, all operas are performed with the lights off before starting and the audience seated.
D. Wagner's music had a big influence on Adolf Hitler.

                                                         Walt Disney: A Short Biography
     Walt Disney was born on December 5,1901 in Chicago Illinois, to his father Elias Disney, and mother
Flora Call Disney. Walt was one of five children, four boys and a girl. 
                                                                
     After Walt's birth, the Disney family moved to Marceline Missouri, Walt lived most of his childhood here.
     Walt had very early interests in art, he would often sell drawings to neighbors to make extra money. He
pursued his art career, by studying art and photography by going to McKinley High School in Chicago.
     Walt began to love, and appreciate nature and wildlife, and family and community (社区), which were a
large part of agrarian (农业的) living. Though his father could be quite stern (严格的), and often there was
little money, Walt was encouraged by his mother, and older brother, Roy to pursue his talents.
     During the fall of 1918, Disney attempted to enlist (入伍) for military service. Rejected because he was
under age, only sixteen years old at the time. Instead, Walt joined the Red Cross and was sent overseas to
France, where he spent a year driving an ambulance (救护车) and chauffeuring (驾驶) Red Cross officials.
     Once Walt returned from France, he began to pursue a career in commercial (商业的) art. He started a
small company called Laugh-O-Grams, which eventually fell bankrupt (破产). With his suitcase and twenty
dollars, Walt headed to Hollywood to start anew.
     After making a success of his "Alice Comedies", Walt became a recognized Hollywood figure. OnJuly13,
1925, Walt married one of his first employees, Lillian Bounds, in Lewiston, Idaho. Later on they would be
blessed with two daughters, Diane and Sharon.
     In 1932, the production entitled Flowers and Trees (the first color cartoon) won Walt the first of his
studio's Academy Awards. On December 21, 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length
animated (有生命的) musical feature, premiered (最初的) at the Cathay Theater in Los Angeles. The film
produced at the unheard cost of $1 499 000 during the depths of the Depression (不景气).
     Walt Disney's dream of a clean, and organized amusement park, came true, as Disneyland Park opened
in 1955.Walt also became a television pioneer, Disney began television production in 1954,and was among
the first to present full-color programming with his Wonderful World of Color in 1961.
     Walt Disney is a legend (传奇); a folk (民间的) hero of the 20th century. His worldwide popularity was
based upon the ideals (理想) which his name represents: imagination, optimism, creation, and self-made
success in the American tradition. He brought us closer to the future, while telling us of the past, it is certain,
that there will never be such as great a man, as Walt Disney.

【个性思考】 Walt Disney's bases on his imagination, optimism, creation as mentioned above. If you want
make your career in the future, what experience can you learn from him?
     In my view ___________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________

    Willa Cather once said, "When people ask me whether writing has been a hard or easy
road,I always answer with the famous saying: The end is nothing；the road is all. That is
what I mean when I say writing has been a pleasure. I have never used the computer with
the thought that one more task had to be done."
    Like most writers, Willa Cather did not write books for the money that they brought her,
but rather for the pleasure that came in their writing. Her works were, like her, simple and
full of the vigor of her days in Nebraska, where she grew from child to young womanhood
and where she developed a deep love for the treeless land of the great plain with its wild
flowers, wheat fields and rivers.
    "It's a rather strange thing about the flat country," she wrote later. "It takes hold of you or
it leaves you perfectly cold. A great many people find it very dull; they like a church tower,
an old factory, a waterfall, the country all made to look like a German Christmas card...But
when I come to the open plain, something happens. I'm home. I breathe differently."

1. Willa Cather wrote because she found writing _____.

A. simple and lively
B. opened up a road to success
C. neither too hard nor too easy
D. interesting and enjoyable

2. What was the place like where Cather grew up?

A. It was cold,plain and without a church.
B. It was vast,open and flat.
C. It was like a German Christmas card.
D. It was a colorful world of wild flowers.

3. When she said "It takes hold of you or it leaves you perfectly cold.", Willa Cather
    meant that _____.

A. you either love the place or hate it
B. you decide either to stay or to leave
C. some find the place warm; others find it cold
D. some find the place peaceful; others find it wild

4. What happens when Cather comes to the open plain?

A. She breathes differently from others.
B. She wants to make the place her home.
C. She feels completely comfortable.
D. She finds the place similar to her home.