Unit 8  
Part Ⅱ  Reading Comprehension  
    (35 minutes)  
Directions: There are 4 passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the centre.  


Passage One  
Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage:  
   
Material culture refers to the touchable, material “things” — physical objects that can be seen, held, felt, used — that a culture produces. Examining a culture’s tools and technology can tell us about the group’s history and way of life. Similarly, research into the material culture of music can help us to understand the music-culture. The most vivid body of “things” in it, of course, are musical instruments. We cannot hear for ourselves the actual sound of any musical performance before the 1870s when the phonograph (留声机) was invented, so we rely on instruments for important information about music-cultures in the remote past and their development. Here we have two kinds of evidence: instruments well preserved and instruments pictured in art. Through the study of instruments, as well as paintings, written documents, and so on, we can explore the movement of music from the Near East to China over a thousand years ago, or we can outline the spread of Near Eastern influence to Europe that resulted in the development of most of the instruments on the symphony orchestra.  
Sheet music or printed music, too, is material culture. Scholars once defined folk music cultures as those in which people learn and sing music by ear rather than from print, but research shows mutual influence among oral and written sources during the past few centuries in Europe, Britain, and America. Printed versions limit variety because they tend to standardize any song, yet they stimulate people to create new and different songs. Besides, the ability to read music notation (乐谱) has a far-reaching effect on musicians and, when it becomes widespread, on the music-culture as a whole.  
One more important part of music’s material culture should be singled out: the influence of the electronic media — radio, record player, tape recorder, television, and videocassette, with the future promising talking and singing computers and other developments. This is all part of the “information revolution,” a twentieth-century phenomenon as important as the industrial revolution was in the nineteenth. These electronic media are not just limited to modern nations; they have affected music-cultures all over the globe.  
   
21. Research into the material culture of a nation is of great importance because _______.  
A) it helps produce new cultural tools and technology  
B) it can reflect the development of the nation  
C) it helps understand the nation’s past and present  
D) it can demonstrate the nation’s civilization  

22. It can be learned from this passage that_______.  
A) the existence of the symphony was attributed to the spread of Near Eastern and Chinese music  
B) Near Eastern music had an influence on the development of the instruments in the symphony orchestra  
C) the development of the symphony shows the mutual influence of Eastern and Western music  
D) the musical instruments in the symphony orchestra were developed on the basis  
of Near Eastern music  
   
23. According to the author, music notation is important because_______.  
A) it has a great effect on the music-culture as more and more people are able to read it  
B) it tends to standardize folk songs when it is used by folk musicians  
C) it is the printed version of standardized folk music  
D) it encourages people to popularize printed versions of songs  
   
24. It can be concluded from the passage that the introduction of electronic media into the world of music_______.  
A) has brought about an information revolution  
B) has speeded up the arrival of a new generation of computers  
C) has given rise to new forms of music culture  
D) has led to the transformation of traditional musical instruments  
   
25. Which of the following best summarizes the main idea of the passage?  
A) Musical instruments developed through the years will sooner or later be replaced by computers.  
B) Music cannot be passed on to future generations unless it is recorded.  
C) Folk songs cannot be spread far unless they are printed on music sheets.  
D) The development of music culture is highly dependent on its material aspect.