问题 阅读理解

Sitting is art that isn’t getting passed along. People these days feel as though they have to be doing something. If they are not working, they are jogging, or playing tennis or golf, or taking courses to improve their minds or bodies –or they are parked in front of the TV. Sitting in front of the TV isn’t sitting – it’s watching.

People used to sit a lot. You would walk down the street or drive down the road, and there they would be, out on the doorsteps, sitting. You could go down to the store and sit on the bench out front in the summer or around the fire in the winter. There were sitting benches out in the town square. At the garage, there were straight-backed chairs. There among the oilcans and tries and spare parts, you could kick back and sit.

Houses used to have sitting rooms, where the grown ups would go after Sunday dinner. Mom and Dad, Grandpa and Aunt Ruby would sit and digest (消化) the fried chicken and talk about Aunt Ethel’s illness, and how well the minister did today. Outside, the children would play, and the afternoon would pass by in a comfortable haze (悠闲的氛围).

That sort of thing looks like doing nothing. A recharging battery (正在充电的电池) doesn’t look as if it’s doing anything either. Sitting restores your soul if you want to enjoy a truly full life, don’t just do something –sit there.

小题1:What message does the author try to get through to us ?

A.People should make better use of their sitting room.

B.People should spend less time watching TV.

C.People should pass down their good habits.

D.People should take things easy for their own good.小题2:We can learn from the second paragraph that  _____________

A.people lived a more restful life in the past

B.towns were built to make living convenient

C.small town garages had a lot to offer

D.people enjoyed going out for a drive小题3:The sitting room mentioned in the text used to be a place for______________.

A.eating food .

B.watching TV .

C.gathering together.

D.playing with children.小题4: From the text we know the writer believes_______________

A.sitting has a good spiritual effect

B.sitting helps people remember the past

C.sitting rooms may have different purposes

D.a sitting room is important for the old.

答案

小题1:D

小题2:A

小题3:C

小题4:A

问答题

The decision of the New York Philharmonic to hire Alan Gilbert as its next music director has been the talk of the classical-music world ever since the sudden announcement of his appointment in 2009. For the most part, the response has been favorable, to say the least. "Hooray! At last!" wrote Anthony Tommasini, a sober-sided classical-music critic.
One of the reasons why the appointment came as such a surprise, however, is that Gilbert is comparatively little known. Even Tommasini, who had advocated Gilbert’s appointment in the Times, calls him "an unpretentious musician with no air of the formidable conductor about him. " As a description of the next music director of an orchestra that has hitherto been led by musicians like Gustav Mahler and Pierre Boulez, that seems likely to have struck at least some Times readers as faint praise.
For my part, I have no idea whether Gilbert is a great conductor or even a good one. To be sure, he performs an impressive variety of interesting compositions, but it is not necessary for me to visit Avery Fisher Hall, or anywhere else, to hear interesting orchestral music. All I have to do is to go to my CD shelf, or boot up my computer and download still more recorded music from iTunes.
Devoted concertgoers who reply that recordings are no substitute for live performance are missing the point. For the time, attention, and money of the art-loving public, classical instrumentalists must compete not only with opera houses, dance troupes, theater companies, and museums, but also with the recorded performances of the great classical musicians of the 20th century. There recordings are cheap, available everywhere, and very often much higher in artistic quality than today’s live performances; moreover, they can be "consumed" at a time and place of the listener’s choosing. The wide-spread availability of such recordings has thus brought about a crisis in the institution of the traditional classical concert.
One possible response is for classical performers to program attractive new music that is not yet available on record. Gilbert’s own interest in new music has been widely noted: Alex Ross, a classical-music critic, has described him as a man who is capable of turning the Philharmonic into "a markedly different, more vibrant organization. " But what will be the nature of that difference Merely expanding the orchestra’s repertoire will not be enough. If Gilbert and the Philharmonic are to succeed, they must first change the relationship between America’s oldest orchestra and the new audience it hopes to attract.

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