三、閱讀理解（本大題共10小題，每小題2分，共20分）

閱讀下面的短文，從A、B、C、D四個(gè)選項(xiàng)中選出一個(gè)最佳答案填空或答題，錯(cuò)選、多選或未選均無(wú)分。

Passage 1

In the United States, boys and girls start school when they are five years old. In some states they must stay in school until they are sixteen. Most students are seventeen or eighteen years old when they graduate from secondary schools. Another name for secondary school is high school.

Most children go to public elementary and secondary schools. The parents of public school pupils do not have to pay directly for their children’s education because tax money supports the public schools. If a child attends a private school, his parents pay the school for the child’s education.

Today about half of the high school graduates go on to colleges and universities. Some colleges and universities receive tax money from the government. A student at a state university does not have to pay very much if his parents live in that state. Private colleges and universities are expensive; however, almost half of the college students in the United States work while they are studying. When a student’s family is not rich, he has to earn money for part of his college expenses.

31. The students in all the states of the U.S. must finish _________ school until they are _________ at least.

A. high; eighteen                        B. elementary; seventeen

C. secondary; sixteen                    D. starting; five years old

32. The tax money from the states supports the public schools, doesn’t it? 

A. Yes, it doesn’t                      B. No, it does

C. Yes, it does                          D. No, it doesn’t

33. According to the text, a child in the U.S. can enter a college or a university only _________.

A. at the age of eighteen                B. before completing elementary school

C. before graduating from public school D. after finishing secondary school

Passage 2

Music which is original is individual and personal. That is to say, it can be identified as belonging to a particular composer. It has particular qualities, or a style, which are not copied from another. If you can recognize the style of a composer, you will probably be able to tell that a certain composition belongs to him or her even though you have never heard it before. A composer organizes his melodies (旋律) and rhythms and combines sounds to create harmony. He may be capable of thinking up very good, original tunes, yet if tunes are poorly organized, the final result will not be to standard.

Good music expresses feelings in a way that is suitable to those feelings. There may be joy, sorrow, fear, love, anger, or whatever. Bad music, on the other hand, may confuse unrelated feelings, it may not express any important feeling at all, or it may exaggerate some feelings and make them vulgar, that is, cheap and ugly.

Good music will stand the test of time. It will not go out of fashion but will continue to be enjoyed and respected long after it is first introduced. It will gain a kind of permanent status while bad music will disappear and be forgotten quickly. In pop music, where the general rule seems to be “the newer the better”, the test of time is the hardest test of all to pass.

34. A piece of original music _________.

A. has a personal style

B. sounds very familiar to our ears

C. is one whose style you cannot recognize

D. cannot be recognized as belong to any composer

35. Good music is _________.

A. well-organized tunes.                 B. the proper expression of feelings.

C. an expression of mixed feelings.      D. exaggeration of some feelings.

36. The passage is concerned with _________.

A. how to compose music                  B. how to enjoy music

C. how to judge music                    D. how to perform music