Question

“Without music, life would be a mistake,” famous German philosopher（哲學家）Friendrich Nietzsche said over a century ago. Music is a big part of our lives. But in recent years, some US schools have cut music classes to control budgets（預算）.

For example, Chicago public schools hurt arts education when it fired over 1,000 teachers. Among them, 10 percent of the teachers taught art or music, according to The Washington Times. In fact, this is not just a problem in the US. In other countries, such as China and the UK, music classes are not thought to be as important as ones like science, math and history. That’s partly because music is not seen as a very important life skill, and it isn’t tested. Many students are busy with schoolwork, so parents and students choose to focus（關注）on subjects that are tested more often.

However, learning music is useful in many ways.

When playing music, you need different abilities to work together. It is not as simple as it looks, according to Kenneth Guilmartin of Music Together, an early childhood music development program. For example, when playing the piano, people see music notes and decode（解碼）them in their brains. They also use their fingers to make sounds. You need to deal with all these things at the same time.

Music has a special connection with science as well. You can see that many scientists are good at playing music: Einstein played the violin, and German physicist Max Planck did well in playing the piano.

1.Some schools in the US cut music classes, because ______.

A. they were too difficult to learn B. students in the US weren’t interested in music

C. the schools wanted to control budgets D. there weren’t enough music teachers in the US

2.In Paragraph 2, what does the underlined word “them” refer to（指代）?

A. Fired teachers. B. Public schools. C. Parents in Chicago. D. Students in Chicago.

3.What’s the main idea of Paragraph 4?

A. Playing the piano needs people to see music notes.

B. Playing the piano needs people to use fingers to make sounds.

C. Decoding music notes is needed while we are playing music.

D. Different abilities are needed to work together while we are playing music.

4.How many scientists who are good at playing music are mentioned in this passage?

A. One. B. Two. C. Three. D. Four.

5.What’s the writer’s opinion according to this passage?

A. Music is as simple as it looks. B. Music classes should be cut in some schools.

C. Music is a big part of our lives. D. Music isn’t a very important life skill for us.

Answer 1