2016年职称英语A级阅读判断

Stage FrightFall down as you come onstage. That's an odd trick. Not recommended. But it saved the pi anist Vladimir Feltsman when he was a teenager back in Moscow. The veteran cellist Mstisl av Rostropovich tripped him purposely to cure him of pre-performance panic,Mr.Feltsman said, "All my fright was gone. I already fell. What else could happen?"Today, music schools are addressing the problem of anxiety in classes that deal with perfor mance techniques and career preparation. There are a variety of strategies that musicians can learn to fight stage fright and its symptoms:icy fingers, shaky limbs ,racing heart,blank mind.Teachers and psychologists offer wide-ranging advice, from basics like learning pieces insid e out, to mental discipline, such as visualizing a performance and taking steps to relax. Don ’t deny that you're jittery,they urge; some excitement is natural, even necessary for dynami c playing. And play in public often, simply for the experience.Psychotherapist Diane Nichols suggests' some strategies for the moments before performa nce, "Take two deep abdominal breaths, open up your shoulders, then smile," she says. "A nd not one of these 'please don't kill me' smiles. Then choose three friendly faces in the au dience, people you would communicate with and make music to, and make eye contact wi th them." She doesn't want performers to think of the audience as a judge.Extreme demands by mentors or parents are often at the root of stage fright, says Dorothy Delay, a well-known violin teacher. She tells other teachers to demand only what their stud ents are able to achieve.When Lynn Harrell was 20, he became the principal cellist of the Cleverland Orchestra, and he suffered extreme stage fright. "There were times when I got so nervous I was sure the audience could see my chest responding to the throbbing. It was just total panic. I came to a point where I thought, ' If I have to go through this to play music, I think I' m going to loo k for another job. Recovery, he said, involved developing humility-recognizing that whatev er his talent, he was fallible, and that an imperfect concert was not a disaster.It is not only young artists who suffer, of course. The legendary pianist Vladimir Horowitz's nerves were famous. The great tenor Franco Corelli is another example. "They had to push him on stage," Soprano Renata Scotto recalled.Actually, success can make things worse. "In the beginning of your career,when you're scar ed to death, nobody knows who you are, and they don't have any expectations," Soprano J une Anderson said. "There's less to lose. Later on, when you're known, people are coming to see you, and they have certain expectations. You have a lot to lose. "Anderson added, "I never stop being nervous until I've sung my last note. "Question1. Falling down onstage was not a good way for Vladimir Feltsman to deal with his stage fri ght.Starting a New TraditionShantelle Davis is a nine-year-old girl in New York. On a cold night in December, her famil y is standing around the kitchen table while she lights a candle. The table is decorated wi th baskets of fruits and vegetables and ears of com for Shantelle and her two brothers. “This candle represents umoja, an African word that means being together,” Shantelle sa ys. “That's the most important thing for a family.”Tonight is the first night of Kwanzaa, and Shantelle is spending the holiday with her family . More than 5 million African Americans celebrate Kwanzaa every year from December 2 6 until January I. It's a time when they get together with their families to think about thei r history and their ancestors in Africa.Kwanzaa is very unusual because it was started by one man. In 1966, an American named Maulana Karenga wanted a holiday for African-Americans to honor their culture and tra ditions. So he used words and customs from Africa to create a new celebration. He took t he name Kwanzaa from the words for “first fruits” in Swahili, an African language. At fi rst, a few American families had small celebrations at home. Now there are also Kwanzaa events in schools and public places， and Kwanzaa has spread to other countries like Ca nada and Jamaica.The main symbol of Kwanzaa is a candleholder with seven candles, one for each of the pr inciples of Kwanzaa. Each night, a family member lights one of the candles and talks abou t the idea it represents： being together, being yourself, helping each other, sharing, havi ng a goal， creating, and believing. The candles are red, black, and green, the colors of K wanzaa. The parents also pour drinks to honor family members who have died. On the la st night of Kwanzaa, there is a big dinner with African food, and children receive small pr esents.Today people can buy Kwanzaa greeting cards and special Kwanzaa clothes. Stores sell Kw anzaa candles and candleholders. Some people don't believe that Kwanzaa is a real holid ay， because it's so new. But other people say that customs and celebrations are always changing and that Kwanzaa shows what is important in people's lives.Shantelle Davis says she likes Kwanzaa because it's fun. “But I also learn new things every year," she says.QuestionA Dog’s DilemmaFinding a babysitter while you go out to work is, for example, an inconvenience. For the African wild dog, one of the continents‘s most endangered carnivores, it’s a matter of life and death. New research shows that once packs fall below a certain size, they are not enough animals to both hunt food and stay at home protecting the young.The African wild dog has declined drastically over the past century. Habitual loss，persecution and unexplained outbreaks of disease have all been blamed. Only 3,000 to 5,000 animals remain, and the species is expected to go extinct within decades if the trend continues.Other large carnivores such as the spotted hyena face similar pressures, yet are not declining. Now Franck Courchamp of Cambridge University has found a reason why.The dog‘s weakness lies in its social organization.Within each pack of up to 20 adults and pups, only he dominant male and female bread.The remaining animals help raise the pups, cooperating to hunt prey and defend the kill from other carnivores.Be cause pups can‘t keep up on a hunt, large packs leave an adult behind to protect them from predators, which include lions and hyenas. But leaving a babysitter also carries costs.A smaller hunting party is less able to tackle large prey and to defend the kill. There is also one less stomach in which to carry food back to the den, and one more mouth to feed when they get there.Courchamp investigated this awkward trade-off by modeling how the costs of a babysitter change with decreasing pack size.This showed that packs of more than five adults should be able to feed all the pups and still spare a babysitter.But with smaller packs, either the hunting or the babysitting suffers, or the animals have to compensate by increasing he number of hunting excursions - which itself carries a cost to the pack.number of hunting excursions - which itself carries a cost to the pack.Field observations in Zimbabwe supported the model.Packs of five animals or fewer left pups unguarded more frequently than larger packs did.There was also evidence that when they did leave a babysitter, they were forced to hunt more often.A pack which drops below a critical size becomes caught in a vicious circle, says Courchamp, who is now at Paris-Sud University.“ Poor reproduction and low surv ival further reduces pack size, culminating in failure of the whole pack.” And deaths caused by human activity, says Courchamp, may be what reduces pack numbers to below the sustainable threshold. Mammal ecologist Chris Carbone at London‘s Institute of Zoo logy agrees.Maintaining the integrity of wild dog packs will be vital in preserving the species, he says.QuestionThe National TrustThe National Trust in Britain plays an increasingly important part in the preservation for public enjoyment of the best that is left unspoiled of the British countryside. Although the Trust has received practical and moral support from the Government, it is not a rich Government department. It is a voluntary association of people who care for the unspoiled countryside and historic buildings of Britain. It is a charity which depends for its existence on voluntary support from members of the public. Its primary duty is to protect places of great natural beauty and places of historical interest.The attention of the public was first drawn to the dangers threatening the great old houses and castles of Britain by the death of Lord Lothian, who left his great seventeenth-century house to the Trust together with the 4500-acre park and estate surrounding it. This gift attracted wide publicity and started the Trust's "Country House Scheme”. Under this scheme, with the help of the Government and the general public, the Trust has been able to save and make accessible to the public about one hundred and fifty of these old houses. Last year about one and three quarters of a million people paid to visit these historic houses, usually at a very small charge.In addition to country houses and open spaces the Trust now owns some examples of ancient wind and water mills, nature reserves, five hundred and forty farms and nearly two thousand five hundred cottages or small village houses, as well as some complete villages. In these villages no one is allowed to build, develop or disturb the old village environment in any way and all the houses are maintained in their original sixteenth-century style. Over four hundred thousand acres of coastline, woodland, and hill country are protected by the Trust and no development or disturbances of any kind are permitted. The public has free access to these areas and is only asked to respect the peace, beauty and wildlife.So it is that over the past eighty years the Trust has become a big and important organization and an essential and respected part of national life, preserving all that is of great natural beauty and of historical significance not only for future generations of Britons but also for the millions of tourists who each year invade Britain in search of a great historic and cultural heritage.Question6. The may enter a wood under the protection of the National Trust withoutLower Body Fat Means Better PerformanceThese days, fashion models and pop stars are not the only people who have to watch their waistline. Football players who miss a few kicks and let their belly hanging out a little too much are likely to be attacked by rabid fans or even the president of a country.The latest football star to draw the attention of the "fat police" is Barcelona's Ronaldinho, 26. Last Friday, a Spanish sports daily published two photos of the Brazilian star without his shirt. One was taken in November 2003; the other was taken this month. In the most recent one, the star's waistline seems to have a little extra padding.Another Spanish sports daily published similar before-and-after photos and argued that the star has “lost his explosiveness and velocity" and is “worn out". The cause, according to the news paper, is his poor physical fitness.However, the player's coach, Frank Rijkaard, insists that he's satisfied with Ronaldinho's form and fitness. And after Barcelona's victory over Athletic Bibao on Sunday, Ronaldinho challenged photographers to take pictures of him when he took off his shirt."I don't have anything to hide, "he said.Fellow Brazilian Ronaldo, 30, of Real Madrid, faced similar criticism before the 2006 World Cup. But the criticism didn't come from a bunch of sports reporters: It came from the president of Brazil.“So, what is it?” Brazil's President LuizInacio Lula da Silva asked the national soccer team's coach in his office last June, according to the Associated Press. "Is he (Ronaldo) fat or not?" "He is very strong, president” ,Carlos Alberto Parreira reportedly said at the time. "He is not that boy anymore. His body type has changed. ”The game of footfall demands that players put as much emphasis on fitness as they can do on dribbling, passing or shooting.During a proper training regimen, football players normally follow a load -fatigue - recovery pattern. They push their body toward a higher mark of fitness and experience a slight and brief drop in performance. Then they begin the recovery process, which will ideally carry their performance to an even higher plane.However, sometimes non-physical factors can influence a player's poor fitness. In Ronaldinho's case, for instance, people - often unnamed - have blamed everything from the pressure of contract negotiations to personal problems and too many advertising commitments.Question，Ronaldo's body shape has changed.。