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Composers today use a wider variety of sounds than ever before, including
many that were once considered undesirable noises. Composer Edgard Var è se (
1883-1965 ) called thus the "liberation of sound...the right to make music with
any and all sounds." Electronic music, for example — made with the aid of
computers, synthesizers, and electronic instruments — may include sounds that in
the past would not have been considered musical. Environmental sounds,such as
thunder, and electronically generated hisses and blips can be recorded,
manipulated, and then incorporated into a musical composition. But composers
also draw novel sounds from voices and nonelectronic instruments. Singers may be
asked to scream, laugh, groan, sneeze, or to sing phonetic sounds rather than
words. Wind and string players may lap or scrape their instruments. A brass or
woodwind player may hum while playing, to produce two pitches at once; a pianist
may reach inside the piano to pluck a string and then run a metal blade along
it. In the music of the Western world, the greatest expansion and
experimentation have involved percussion instruments,which outnumber strings and
winds in many recent compositions. Traditional percussion instruments are struck
with new types of beaters; and instruments that used to be couriered
unconventional in Western music — tom-toms, bongos, slapsticks, maracas — are
widely used.In the search for novel sounds, increased use has been made in
Western music of microtones.Non-western music typically divides and interval
between two pitches more finely than westernmusic does, thereby producing a
greater number of distinct tones, or micr otones, within the same interval.
Composers such as Krzysztof Penderecki create sound that borders on electronic
noise through tone clusters — closely spaced tones played together and heard as
a mass, block, or band of sound. The directional aspect of sound has taken on
new importance as well. Loudspeakers or groups of instruments may be placed at
opposite ends of the stage, in the balcony, or at the back and sides of the
auditorium.Because standard music notation makes no provision for many of these
innovations, recent music scores may contain graphlike diagrams, new note shapes
and symbols, and novel ways of arranging notation on the page.
1. What does the passage mainly discuss?
( A ) The use of nontraditional sounds in contemporary music
( B ) How sounds are produced electronically
( C ) How standard musical notation has been adapted for nontraditional sounds
( D ) Several composers who have experimented with the electronic production of sound
2. The word "wider" in one 1 is closest in meaning to more impressive
( A ) more distinctive
( B ) more controversial
( C ) more extensive
( D ) more impressive
3. The passage suggests that Edgard Var è se is an example of a composer who
( A ) criticized electronic music as too noiselike
( B ) modified sonic of the electronic instruments he used in his music
( C ) believed that any sound could be used in music
( D ) wrote music with environmental themes
4. The word "it" in line 12 refers to
( A ) piano
( B ) string
( C ) blade
( D ) music
5. According to the passage , which of the following types of instruments has played a role in
much of the innovation in western music?
( A ) string
( B ) percussion
( C ) woodwind
( D ) brass
6. The word "thereby" in line 20 is closest in meaning to
( A ) in return for
( B ) in spite of
( C ) by the way
( D ) by that means
7.According to the passage , Krzysztof Penderecki is known for which of the following practices?
( A ) Using tones that are clumped together
( B ) Combining traditional and nontradinonal instruments
( C ) Seating musicians in unusual areas of an auditorium
( D ) Playing Western music for non-Western audiences
8. According to the passage , which of the following would be considered traditional elements of
Western music?
( A ) microtones
( B ) tom-toms and bongos
( C ) pianos
( D ) hisses
9. In paragraph 3, the author mentions diagrams as an example of a new way to
( A ) chart the history of innovation in musical notation
( B ) explain the logic of standard musical notation
( C ) design and develop electronic instruments
( D ) indicate how particular sounds should be produced
托福阅读答案：
ACCBB DACD
另外有一则好消息，针对托福备考，