题目内容
Although the distribution of recorded music went digital with the introduction of the compact disc in the early 1980s, technology has had a large impact on the way music is made and recorded as well. At the most basic level, the invention of MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface), a language enabling computers and sound synthesizers to talk to each other, has given individual musicians powerful tools with which to make music.
“The MIDI interface enabled basement musicians to gain power which had been available only in expensive recording studios,” One expert observed. “It enables synthesis of sounds that have never existed before, and storage and subsequent simultaneous replay and mixing of multiple sound tracks. Using a moderately powerful desktop computer running a music composition program and a 500 synthesizer, any musically literate person can write -- and play! -- a string quartet in an afternoon."
Whereas many musicians use computers as a tool in composing or producing music, Tod Machover uses computers to design the instruments and environments that produce his music. As a professor of music and media at the MIT Media Lab, Machover has pioneered hyper - instruments: hybrids of computers and musical instruments that allow users to create sounds simply by raising their hands, pointing with a "virtual baton," or moving their entire body in a "sensor chair."
Similar work on a "virtual orchestra" is being done by Geoffrey Wright, head of the computer music program at John Hopkins University's Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, Maryland. Wright uses conductors' batons that emit infrared light beams to generate data about the speed and direction of the batons, data that can then be translated by computers into instructions for a synthesizer to produce music.
In Machover's best -known musical work, Brain Opera (1996), 125 people interact with each other and a group of hyper - instruments to produce sounds that can be blended into a musical performance. The final opera is assembled from these sound fragments, material contributed by people on the Web, and Machover's own music. Machover says he is motivated to give people "an active, directly participatory relationship with music."
More recently, Machover helped design the Meteorite Museum, a remarkable underground museum that opened in June 1998 in Essen, Germany. Visitors approach the museum through a glass atrium, open an enormous door, enter a cave, and then descend by ramps into various multimedia rooms. Machover com- posed the music and designed many of the interactions for these rooms. In the Transflow Room, the undulating walls are covered with 100 rubber pads shaped like diamonds. "By hitting the pads you can make and shape a sound and images in the room. Brain Opera was an ensemble of individual instruments, while the Transflow Room is a single instrument played by 40 people. The room blends the reactions and images of the group."
Machover's projects at MIT include Music Toys and Toys of Tomorrow, which are creating devices that he hopes will eventually make a Toy Symphony possible, Machover describes one of the toys as an embroidered ball the size of a small pumpkin with ridges on the outside and miniature speakers inside. “We've recently figured out how to send digital information through fabric or thread,” he said. “So the basic idea is to squeeze the ball and where you squeeze and where you place your fingers will affect the sound produced. You can also change the pitch to high or low, or harmonize with other balls.”
Computer music has a long way to go before it wins mass acceptance, however. Martin Goldsmith, host of National Public Radio' s Performance Today, explains why: "I think that a reason a great moving piece of computer music hash' t been written yet is that -- in this instance -- the technology stands between the creator and the receptor and prevents a real human connect
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SECTION B INTERVIEW
Directions: In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. Questions 1 to 5 are based on an interview. At the end of the interview you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the following five questions.
Now listen to the interview.
听力原文：Interviewer (Woman) :Isn't advertising really a kind of lying？
Advertising man(Man) :I don't think so. Quite often people do try to get away with those types of things, but the Federal Trade Commission is always very quick to jump on them to force them to show evidence to back up a claim.
I: I mean in your work. I mean, don't you actually tell lies to get people to buy things？ let me give you an example. You know, a movie star says that she uses--a starlet--says that she uses a certain kind of soap every night to make her skin look beautiful and, of course, she doesn't use it at all, or hardly ever.
A: I think if you go back very recently, just within the last year, you'll remember that one of our famous singers and actors and was uh... called down for just that very thing, where he endorsed a product which he didn't use and had to take back what he said in his endorsement.
I: I see; so what you' re saying is that you' re forced to be honest in the profession.
A: In some eases that may be true. I won' t deny that.
I: Well, you've been in the ad. business for nearly fifteen years. What kind of work do you find most interesting？
A: I would say, developing new markets, or not so much new markets, but when you have a product which previously people didn't perceive that they needed, but it is an advancement or an improvement over what people previously used, and are able to educate people and inform. them of a partiular thing, and they discover it will make their life better and it is something that they could use.
I: To try to make them understand what's going on with a new product.
A: Basically, that's it. This is where a lot of the progress or the amenities in life which we take for granted now.., this is how they originally developed. Somebody thought of a new idea and convinced people that it was something they needed and after a period of time, it became what they considered a necessity. In other words, the advertising as a promotion will make people aware of a product, but.., the product's own worth will determine whether or not it' s something that people will bring into their daily lives.
I: And... I suppose that if it endures over a long period of time, that shows that the product really does have a stable value and that you've not lying ,...
A: Well, I think that's a fair assumption. I ... won' t try to tell you in promoting things, people never lie, but the initial promotion simply gets people to try a product for the first time. And if the product itself has any merit, then people will continue to use it. So, the quality of a product will determine whether it has any staying power.
The interviewer believes that _______.
I'm Margery Hooper, your course coordinator. I'd like to welcome you all to Grange Manor Summer Music school. I hope you'll enjoy your life here. If you have anything unclear, don't hesitate to ask. As you know, we are running three - weekly courses currently this year: History of Music, Principle Tutor professor Hepworth; Choral Singing, conducted by Archibald Blake from the Royal Institute of Music; and, last but not least, a new departure for us, classical Guitar for Beginners, Tutor Clive Mortimer.
Now you all know - at least I hope you do what course you are registered for. As soon as you've had tea, we'd like you to report to our secretary, Miss Mathews - you'll find her in the office on the first floor. She'll give you your course number and timetable and explain where the various classrooms are, what books you'll need, and whether they are available in the library. Besides, she'll give you detailed information about how you are scored. If books are not available in the library, you can try in the bookstore. Our book store is next to the reception in the main hall. It's open from 9 to 10 a.m. daily.
Now about meals breakfast 8: 30 to 9, full evening meal 6: 30 to 8: 30 in the dining room. I' m afraid you have to make your own arrangements about lunch, but the cafeteria in the canteen is open from 10 to 4 for sandwiches and coffee. Classes finish at 5.
If you look at the notice board in the main hall, you'll see that we have arranged a variety of evening entertainments for you, and Saturday excursions. Anyone who wants to go on an excursion should inform. the secretary, as soon as possible as the coach company need to know numbers.
I hope you'll all have a very enjoyable time, and make a lot of new friends.
Margery Hooper is _______.
听力原文： The world's No. 3 record company, EMI became the first major music company to sell a large selection of its recordings on line on Tuesday.
It related more than 100 albums and 40 singles from acts of famous singers of various styles for fans to download from their computers.
EMI'S downloading trial came as Legal battles rage over copyrights and digital music distribution between the re- cording industry and online music providers like MP3. com Inc.. MP3. com provides access to music via the popular MP3 technology, a compression format that turns music on compact discs into small computer fibres. EMI' S music will be available in the future in secure format, after the company develops a player that supports the format.
Current MP3 technology allows fans to copy songs again and again, the encoded software being used by EMI will limit consumers from hard drives. A consumer can turn the song to a CD twice and send it to a portable device three times.
EMI is _______.
Family Matters
This month Singapore passed a bill that would give legal teeth to the moral obligation to support one's parents. Called the Maintenance of Parents Bill, it received the backing of the Singapore Government.
That does not mean it hasn't generated discussion. Several members of the Parliament opposed the measure as un-Asian. Others who acknowledged the problem of the elderly poor believed it a disproportionate response. Still others believe it will subvert relations within the family; cynics dubbed it the "Sue Your Son" law.
Those who say that the bill does not promote filial responsibility, of course, are right. It has nothing to do with filial responsibility. It kicks in where filial responsibility fails. The law cannot legislate filial responsibility any more than it can legislate love. All the law can do is to provide a safety net where this morality proves insufficient. Singapore needs this bill not to replace morality, but to provide incentives to shore it up.
Like many other developed nations, Singapore faces the problems of an increasing proportion of people over 60 years of age. Demography is inexorable. In 1980, 7.2% of the population was in this bracket. By the turn of the century, that figure will grow to 11%. By 2030, the proportion is projected to be 26%. The problem is not old age per se. It is that the ratio of economically active people to economically inactive people will decline.
But no amount of government exhortation or paternalism will completely eliminate the problem of old people who have insufficient means to make ends meet. Some people will fall through the holes in any safety net.
Traditionally, a person's insurance against poverty in his old age was his family. This is not a revolutionary concept. Nor is it uniquely Asian. Care and support for one's parents is a universal value shared by all civilized Societies.
The problem in Singapore is that the moral obligation to look after one's parents is unenforceable. A father can be compelled by law to maintain his children. A husband can be forced to support his wife. But, until now, a son or daughter had no legal obligation to support his or her parents.
In 1989, an Advisory Council was set up to look into the problems of the aged. Its report stated with a tinge of complacency that 95% of those who did not have their own income were receiving cash contributions from relations. But what of the 5% who aren't getting relatives' support7 They have several options: (a) get a job and work until they die; (b) apply for public assistance (you have to be destitute to apply); or (c) starve quietly. None of these options is socially acceptable. And what if this 5% figure grows, as it is likely to do, as society ages？
The Maintenance of Parents Bill was put forth to encourage the traditional virtues that have so far kept; Asian nations from some of the breakdowns encountered in other affluent societies. This legislation will allow a person to apply to the court for maintenance from any or all of his children. The court would have the discretion to refuse to make an order if it is unjust.
Those who deride the proposal for opening up the courts to family lawsuits mixes the point. Only in extreme cases would any parent take his child to court. If it does indeed become law, the bill's effect would be far more subtle.
First, it will reaffirm the notion that it is each individual's -- not society's -- responsibility to look after his parents. Singapore is still conservative enough that most people will not object to this idea. It rein-forces the traditional values and it doesn't hurt a society now and then to remind itself of its core values.
Second, and more important, it will make those who are inclined to shirk their responsibilities think twice. Until now, if a person asked family elders, clergymen or the Ministry of Community Development
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