More than a century ago, the composer and bandleader John Philip Sousa warned that technology would destroy music, who said, “These talking machines are going to ruin the artistic development of music in this country. When I was a boy … in front of every house in the summer evenings you would find young people together singing the songs of the day or the old songs. Today you hear these terrible machines going night and day. We will not have a vocal cord (聲帶) left.”
Music has greatly changed in the past hundred years, which has been everywhere in our world: rivers of digital melody flow on the Internet or on disc; MP3 players with forty thousand songs can be put in a back pocket or a purse. Yet, for most of us, music is no longer something we do ourselves, or even watch other people do in front of us. It has become a radically virtual medium, an art without a face.
Ever since Edison invented the phonograph cylinder(留聲機), people have been assessing what the medium of recording has done for and to the art of music. Sousa was a spokesman for the party of doom; in the opposite corner are the utopians(烏托邦), who argue that technology has not imprisoned music but liberated it. Before Edison came along, Beethoven’s symphonies could be heard only in select concert halls. Now the recordings carry the man from Bonn to the corners of the earth. Glenn Gould, after renouncing live performance in 1964, predicted that within the century the public concert would disappear into the electronic air.
Having discovered much of my favorite music through LPs and CDs, I am not about to join Sousa’s party. Modern urban environments are often so soulless or ugly that I’m grateful for the humanizing touch of electronic sound. But neither can I accept Gould’s slashing futurism. I want to be aware of technology’s effects, positive and negative. Fortunately, scholars and critics have been methodically exploring this terrain for many decades, trying to figure out exactly what happens when we listen to music with no musicians in the room.
小題1:The first paragraph is intended to        .
A.defend an argumentB.make a prediction
C.criticize an attitudeD.summarized a viewpoint
小題2:The author’s attitude towards the recorded music may best be described as        .
A.dissatisfiedB.defensiveC.optimisticD.objective
小題3:The underlined word “terrain” in the last paragraph most nearly means       .
A.regionB.subjectC.landD.distinction
小題4:The primary purpose of the passage is to       .
A.explain different attitudes of scholars and critics
B.defend the view of one group from the criticism of another
C.a(chǎn)dvocate an unexpected solution to a pressing problem
D.present the key issues in an ongoing debate

小題1:D
小題2:D
小題3:B
小題4:D

試題分析:John Philip Sousa警告科技會破壞音樂,人們對這個話題也有不同的觀點,作者陳述不同的觀點和自己的看法。
小題1:段落大意題:從第一段的句子: More than a century ago, the composer and bandleader John Philip Sousa warned that technology would destroy music,作曲人和樂隊隊長 John Philip Sousa警告科技會破壞音樂,可知這段是總結一個觀點,選D
小題2:作者態(tài)度題:從文章第四段的內(nèi)容:But neither can I accept Gould’s slashing futurism. I want to be aware of technology’s effects, positive and negative.所以作者對于錄音音樂的態(tài)度是客觀的,選D
小題3:猜詞題:從最后一段的句子:Fortunately, scholars and critics have been methodically exploring this terrain for many decades,可知“terrain” 的意思是“subject”,選B
小題4:主旨題:從文章第三段和第四段的內(nèi)容:可知這篇文章的主要目的是陳述現(xiàn)在的正在進行的辯論的一個關鍵的問題,選D
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C  Morton and Goodman were contemporaries.
D  Goodman was the first bandleader who hired Black musicians in 1930s.
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B  to get rid of a problem.
D  to point out, designate.
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D.Business experience.
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A.fast-forward their proposals to their bosses.
B.better control the whole negotiation process
C.easily make friends with business people abroad
D.easily find new approaches to meet market needs

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