*Question*
Read the article and select the best answer. Article: 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 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 , 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 , 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 _ for many decades, trying to figure out exactly what happens when we listen to music with no musicians in the room. Question: The author's attitude towards the recorded music may best be described as _ . Options: A: dissatisfied B: defensive C: optimistic D: objective
**Answer**
D

*Question*
Read the article and select the best answer. Article: Every week in China, millions of people will sit in front of their TVs watching teenagers compete for the title Character Hero, which is a Chinese-style spelling bee . In this challenge, young competitors must write Chinese characters by hand. To prepare for the competition, the competitors usually spend months studying dictionaries. Perhaps the show's popularity should not be a surprise. Along with gunpowder and paper, many Chinese people consider the creation of Chinese calligraphy to be one of their primary contributions to civilization. Unfortunately, all over the country, Chinese people are forgetting how to write their own language without computerized help. Software on smart phones and computers allows users to type in the basic sound of the word using the Latin alphabet. The correct character is chosen from a list. The result? It's possible to recognize characters without remembering how to write them. But there's still hope for the paint brush. China's Education Ministry wants children to spend more time learning how to write. In one Beijing primary school we visited, students practice calligraphy every day inside a specially decorated classroom with traditional Chinese paintings hanging on the walls. Soft music plays as a group of six-year-olds dip brush pens into black ink. They look up at the blackboard often to study their teacher's examples before carefully attempting to reproduce those characters on thin rice paper. "If adults can survive without using handwriting, why bother to teach it now?" we ask the calligraphy teacher, Shen Bin. "The ability to write characters is part of Chinese tradition and culture," she reasons. "Students must learn now so they don't forget when they grow up." says the teacher. Question: Where does this text probably come from? Options: A: A news report. B: A science report. C: An advertisement. D: Children's literature.
**Answer**
A

*Question*
Read the article and select the best answer. Article: Maybe you never opened that account, but someone else did ----someone who used your name and personal information to commit fraud . When an imposter uses your name, your credit card number, or some other piece of your personal information for their own purpose -in short, when someone takes your personal information without your knowledge -it's a crime, pure and simple. The biggest problem is that you may not know your identity has been stolen until you notice that something's wrong: you may get bills for a credit card account you never opened, your credit report may include debts you never knew you had, a billing cycle may pass without your receiving a statement, or you may see charges on your bills that you didn't sign for, and even don't know anything about. If someone has stolen your identity, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) suggests that you take three actions immediately. First, contact the fraud departments of each of the three major credit offices. Tell them to flag your file with a fraud alert including a statement that creditors should get your permission before opening any new accounts in your name. Then, ask the credit offices for copies of your credit reports. Credit offices must give you a free copy of your report if it is not correct because of fraud. Review your reports carefully to make sure no additional fraudulent accounts have been opened in your name or unauthorized changes made to your present accounts. In a few months, order new copies of your reports to check your corrections and changes, and to make sure no new fraudulent activity has occurred. Question: What should you do first when you find your identity is stolen? Options: A: Inform creditors not to open any new accounts in your name without your permission. B: Ask for copies of your credit reports and make sure no other frauds have been made. C: Keep ordering new copies to check what you have already changed and corrected. D: Always lock your ID card in your cupboard in case it should be stolen.
**Answer**
A