1、I have to say that music really has a strong attractiveness to me. Naturally, everyone can choose suitable music to listen to. However, when you find a kind of music which can bring happiness to you, you will be surprised and become excited. Music has a magical energy, and it can help people gain go
2、od mood to a great extent. When you feel sad, you can have a try to listen to soothing music. At first, soothing music will let you calm down. You will find that you will pay much attention to the music, and then your sadness can be decreased. You will enter music ocean. You can experience a baptism
3、 of your heart. It does not matter that when you listen to soothing music and you want to cry, you should just follow your feeling to have a thorough release. Music will give you enough encouragement to overcome difficulties.Music also can double your happiness and arouse the fighting. For instance,
4、 when you solve some very difficult situations and gain success eventually, you will have a great mood. At this time, exciting music will witness your success. You will feel satisfied. Music lets you remember the glorious moment and cherish your success. Music can give you unlimited motivation to ac
5、hieve goals, because you still want to listen to glorious music. In addition, music includes a lot of useful knowledge. People can learn precious knowledge from music. Because there is different music, we can find out that different nations have different music thoughts to express. And from music, w
6、e can listen to music culture. Music culture will give you a deeper understanding to learn foreign culture, such as foreign language, foreign history and foreign traditional customs and so on. In a word, music has an important effect on promoting society development. Music indeed has a magical power
7、 to help people and society develop. I believe that music will still continue to bring us many surprises. As the development of society, great music will become more important. ,阅读障碍词1soothing adj.舒缓的2baptism n洗礼3promote v促进，推动Please match the words with their proper meanings.1universalAdetermined n
8、ot to change your mind very strongly2awesome Bto say what sb.s punishment will be 3stubborn Cdone by or involving all the people in the world4condemn Dextremely serious or difficult and perhaps rather frightening5seize Eto angrily criticize someone6demand Feasily noticed or understood7evident Gto as
9、k for something very firmly8scold Hto take hold of something suddenly答案：15CDABH68GFELook at the following pictures and decide what kind of music they belong to.APop musicBChinese operaCRock and roll DOrchestra 答案：1.B2.C3.D4.A.Fastreading1Whats the main idea of the text?According to the title we can
10、learn that the passage is about the worlds greatest opera Turandot.2Skim the text and match the main idea with each part.Part 1(Paragraphs 12)AOther information about the operaPart 2(Paragraphs 37) BBackground informationPart 3(Paragraph 8) CThe plotPart 4(Paragraph 9) DEvaluation答案：Part_1Part_4_BCD
11、A.Carefulreading()Choose the best answer according to the text. 1How many performances of Turandot were performed in the Forbidden City in Beijing?AEight.BSeven.COne. DTwo.2Why doesnt the emperor stop Turandots killings?ABecause he doesnt want her daughter to marry.BBecause he dare not control her d
12、aughter.CBecause Turandot has controlled him.DBecause he cannot break his promise.3Which of the following about the play in Beijing is TRUE?AIt starts with a Chinese traditional song.BIt is the best performance ever in Beijing.CIt tells a story about love which happened in China.DIt consists of acto
13、rs from countries except America.4We can infer from the text that _.ATurandot in Beijing made it to please the audienceBGiacomo Puccinis former students attended the play in BeijingCthe performance was a success because the composer is quite famousDthere were eight performances in the Forbidden City
14、 in Beijing every day答案：14ADCA() Fill in each blank with no more than three words according to the text.Turandot took on in BeijingI witnessed the opera, Turandot, being performed in the Forbidden City in Beijing.Worldfamous opera singers were (1)cast in the performance.The stage was full of Chinese
15、 (2)tradition_and_history.The beginning of the storyTurandot, the princess (3)unwilling to get married put three riddles for the prince to marry her.A prince was condemned to death for (4)failing to solve her riddles, making few men would dare to ask for her hand in marriage.The high pointA prince C
16、alaf solved the riddles and let the princess (5)guess_his_name.Calaf told Turandot the answer, giving his own (6)life to the princess.The endCalaf and Turandot got married with the whole city (7)celebrating_their_happiness.Other information about TurandotGiacomo Puccini, the (8)author of Turandot, h
17、ad died before completing the final scene, which was completed by one of his former students.The opera in Beijing was (9)directed by Zhang Yimou with many other excellent actors and conductors.The actors and stage are the (10)key parts for this successful production.StudyreadingAnalyze the following
18、 difficult sentences in the text. 1Seeing this, Calaf says that if she can guess his name by sunrise, she will not have to marry him, but can have him killed.句式分析尝试翻译见此情景，卡拉夫说如果她能在太阳升起之前猜出他的名字，她不仅可以不嫁给他，还可以杀了他。2Instead, he tells her his name just before the dawn deadline and says that she can kill h
19、im if she wishes.句式分析尝试翻译但是，卡拉夫告诉了图兰朵他的名字就在黎明的期限来临之前还说如果图兰朵愿意，她可以杀死他。3An opera company staged the opera in Beijing in the 1990s, but the performance I saw was the first time Turandot was staged inside the Forbidden City.句式分析尝试翻译在20世纪90年代，一家歌剧公司将这出歌剧搬上了北京的舞台，但我观看的这场演出是第一次在紫禁城里上演。.PostreadingFill in t
20、he blanks according to the text.Last night Turandotwas_performed (perform) in the Forbidden City in Beijing.Turandot is the story of a stubborn and cruel Chinese princess, named (name) Turandot, who lives in Beijings Forbidden City.She says any potential husband must solve three riddles or will be c
21、ondemned to death.The story begins when a prince is killed for failing to_solve (solve) the riddles. Shortly afterwards, Calaf sees Turandot and falls in love with her.Meanwhile, a young slave of Calafs father, Liu, loves Calaf.Calaf answers the riddles without any mistake, but Turandot is unwilling
22、 to get married. Calaf says that if she can guess his name by sunrise, she doesnt have to marry him.Turandot threatens and terrifies Liu; Liu kills herself (her). In the end the prince and princess unite in marriage and the whole city celebrates their happiness. The production combined the very best
23、 of Western and Chinese talents in music, staging and directing.Turandot in Beijingby Jane JonesLast night, I witnessed the first of only eight performances of Giacomo Puccinis worldfamous opera, Turandot, being performed in the Forbidden City in Beijing, China. The performance was splendid. Some of
24、 the worlds greatest opera singers were cast in this production, and many great Chinese musicians also participated. Puccini, an Italian, wrote Turandot towards the end of his life, between 1920 and 1924. He liked East Asia very much and also wrote MadamButterfly, which is set in Japan.Just imagine
25、performing such an opera in the Forbidden City there could not be a more awesome setting! You could almost feel the history. The weather was also perfect for a performance outdoors.Instead of a stage curtain, there were decorated screens covered with red and gold, and traditional Chinese drums were
26、used to announce the start of the opera.Turandot is the story of a stubborn and cruel Chinese princess, named Turandot, who lives in the Forbidden City in Beijing. In the story, the emperor of China, Turandots father, has promised to allow her to choose her own husband. In order to avoid marriage, s
27、he says that any potential husband must solve three riddles if he wants to marry her. Those who cannot answer all three riddles, however, will be condemned to death. This means that few men would dare to ask for her hand in marriage. The story begins when a prince is killed for failing to solve her
28、riddles. The emperor finds the death disturbing. However, although he would like to, he cannot break his promise and must allow Turandot to do as she wishes.Shortly afterwards, another prince, Calaf, falls in love with Turandot at first sight and decides to solve the riddles so that he can marry her
29、. Meanwhile, Liu, a young slave of Calafs father, expresses her love for Calaf. The story then takes on a classic love triangle between Calaf, Turandot and Liu.Calaf goes to Turandot and without introducing himself or telling her his name answers the three questions.Turandot becomes very angry at th
30、is turn of events, as she is unwilling to get married. Seeing this, Calaf says that if she can guess his name by sunrise, she will not have to marry him, but can have him killed. Calafs father and Liu have been seen accompanying Calaf, so Turandot seizes Calafs father and Liu, and demands that they
31、tell her Calafs name or they will be beaten. Wanting to protect the father，Liu claims that she alone knows the name, but resists telling Turandot. Then Liu grabs a sword from a guard and kills herself.When it becomes evident what happened, Calaf scolds Turandot for not being more merciful. However,
32、though he is angry, he still loves her. Calaf kisses Turandot. Turandots heart grows softer, but is still quite hard. She demands that he leave. Instead, he tells her his name just before the dawn deadline and says that she can kill him if she wishes. At the end of the story, the prince and princess
33、 unite in marriage, and the whole city celebrates their happiness.Unfortunately, Puccini died of a heart attack before he completed this final scene, and it had to be completed by one of his former students, Franco Alfano. An opera company staged the opera in Beijing in the 1990s, but the performanc
34、e I saw was the first time Turandot was staged inside the Forbidden City. The production combined the very best of Western and Chinese talents. The music was conducted by Zubin Mehta, a superb conductor, who was born in India. The opera was directed by Zhang Yimou, a wellknown Chinese director. In t
35、he Beijing performance I saw, Turandot was played by Sharon Sweet from the USA, Liu was played by another opera singer from the USA, Barbara Hendricks, and Calaf was sung by Kristjan Johannsson from Iceland. They were all excellent.图兰朵在北京简琼斯昨天晚上，我目睹了贾科莫普契尼闻名世界的歌剧图兰朵在中国北京紫禁城的首场演出，该歌剧在这里只演八场。演出异彩纷呈。几位
36、世界级歌剧演唱家在演出中担任主角，许多杰出的中国音乐家也参与进来。普契尼是意大利人，1920年至1924年期间，在他的生命快要走向终点之际，他创作了图兰朵。普契尼非常喜欢东亚，还创作了以日本为背景的蝴蝶夫人。想象一下在紫禁城上演这出歌剧吧不可能有比这儿更令人叹为观止的场景了！你几乎可以感受到历史。天气对于户外演出来说也是绝佳的。覆盖着红色和金色的经过装饰的屏风代替了舞台帷幕，传统的中国鼓被用来宣告歌剧的开场。图兰朵讲述的是一位顽固、冷酷的中国公主图兰朵的故事，她住在北京的紫禁城里。故事中，中国的皇帝，即图兰朵的父亲，允诺女儿由她自己选择丈夫。为了逃避婚姻，她说任何想成为她丈夫的人要娶她必须猜中
37、三道谜语。但是猜不出全部三道谜语的人将被处以死刑。这意味着几乎没人胆敢向她求婚。故事开始时，一位王子因为猜不中图兰朵的谜语被处死。皇上为死人的事而感到不安，虽然他很想收回这一允诺，但又不能食言，只能让图兰朵按照自己的意愿行事。之后不久，另一位王子卡拉夫对图兰朵一见钟情，决定要解开谜底，以便能迎娶图兰朵。这时，卡拉夫父亲的年轻奴隶柳儿倾诉了她对卡拉夫的爱。故事随后演绎了发生在卡拉夫、图兰朵和柳儿三人之间的经典三角恋情。卡拉夫来到图兰朵面前没有自我介绍，也没有告诉图兰朵自己的名字回答出她的三个问题。对于事情的这一转折图兰朵非常恼火，因为她不愿意结婚。见此情景，卡拉夫说如果她能在太阳升起之前猜出他的
38、名字，她不仅可以不嫁给他，还可以杀了他。有人曾看见卡拉夫的父亲和柳儿陪伴着卡拉夫，因此图兰朵把卡拉夫的父亲和柳儿抓了起来，强令他们告诉她卡拉夫的名字，否则他们就要遭到毒打。为了保护卡拉夫的父亲，柳儿宣称只有她知道卡拉夫的名字，但她拒绝告诉图兰朵。然后柳儿从一名卫兵的手中夺过一把剑自刎。当所发生的一切已显而易见时，卡拉夫斥责图兰朵没有慈悲之心。然而，尽管卡拉夫非常愤怒，他依然爱着图兰朵。卡拉夫亲吻了图兰朵。图兰朵的心变得软些了，但仍然相当冷酷。她强令卡拉夫离开。但是，卡拉夫告诉了图兰朵他的名字就在黎明的期限来临之前还说如果图兰朵愿意，她可以杀死他。在故事的结尾处，王子和公主喜结良缘，整座城市欢庆
39、他们的幸福。不幸的是，普契尼还没有完成这最后一幕就因心脏病发作去世了，这一幕只好由他以前的一名学生佛朗哥阿尔法诺来完成。在20世纪90年代，一家歌剧公司将这出歌剧搬上了北京的舞台，但我观看的这场演出是图兰朵第一次在紫禁城里上演。这次演出结合了中西方最优秀的人才。乐队由生于印度的杰出指挥家祖宾梅塔指挥。歌剧由中国著名导演张艺谋执导。我观看的这场在北京的演出中，图兰朵由美国的莎伦斯威特扮演，柳儿由美国另一名歌剧演唱家芭芭拉亨德里克斯扮演，卡拉夫则是由来自冰岛的克里斯蒂安约翰松扮演。他们都很出色。,The Forbidden City was once only accessible to the
40、emperor, his family and senior officials. However, in this wonderful production, it has been transformed into the spot for a beautiful and sad love story. The bringing together of this group of people from many countries, the music, and the grand setting are clearly the key components of this amazing production.,紫禁城曾经只允许皇帝、皇室人员和高级官员进入，但是，在这次精彩的演出中，它变成了一个美丽而令人心碎的爱情故事的发生地。来自许多国家的这群人的联袂演出、音乐以及恢弘的场景显然是这场令人惊叹的演出的重要因素。