Life gets noisier every day and very few people can free from noise of some sort or another.It doesn't matter where you live—in the middle of modern city，or a faraway village—the chances that you will be disturbed by jet aeroplanes，transistor radios，oilpowered engines，etc.，are almost everywhere. We seem to be getting used to noise，too. Some people feel quite lonely without background music while they are working.

    Scientific tests have shown that total silence can be a very frightening experience for human beings. However，some people enjoy listening to pop music which is very loud，and this can do harm to their eardrums (耳鼓)．The noise level in some disco is far above the usual safety level for heavy industrial areas.

    One recent report about noise and concentration suggested that although a lot of people say that any noise disturbs their concentration，what really affects their ability to concentrate is a change in the level of noise. It goes on to say that a background noise，which doesn't change too much (music，for example) may even help people to concentrate.

    Dreams are expressions of thoughts, feelings and events that pass through our minds while we are sleeping. People dream about one to two hours each night. We may have four to seven dreams in one night. Everybody dreams. But only some people can remember their dreams.

    The word “dream” comes from an old word in English that means “joy” and “music”. We dream in color. Our dreams often include all the senses—smells, sounds, sights, tastes and things we touch. Sometimes we dream the same dream over and over again. These repeated dreams are often unpleasant. They are bad dreams that sometimes frighten us.

    Artists, writers and scientists sometimes say they get ideas from dreams. For example, the singer Paul McCartney of the Beatles said he awakened one day with the music for the song Yesterday in his head. The writer Mary Shelley said she had a very strong dream about a scientist using a machine to make an animal come alive. When she woke up, she began to write her book about a scientist named Frankenstein who made a frightening monster(妖怪).

    In China, people believed that dreams were a way to visit with family members who had died. Some native American tribes(部落) and Mexican civilizations believe dreams are a different world we visit when we sleep.

    Words and the way we use them offer a rare window on social and cultural trends. Kory Stamper and Peter Sokolowski know that better than most.

    The Merriam-Webster(韦氏词典) lexicographers(词典编纂者) are part of a team that edits the dictionary. In a recent interview, Sokolowski and Stamper talked about their job and what the way we use words says about us collectively.

    So to know more about them, observers of the language, maybe we should start with some background.

    What is a lexicographer?

    Sokolowski: A lexicographer is a person who writes or edits a dictionary. The job of a dictionary editor is to prepare and present research about language. One of our former editors-in- chief said, "Tell the truth about words," and that sums it up for me.

    What do you guys do all day?

    Stamper: The two main duties of a lexicographer are reading and defining. We read everything: books, journals, blogs, phone books, take-out menus, and so on. What we're looking for are words that catch our eye. We record the context of these words and information about the sources. Those records are added to a database, and they are the raw material we use in writing definitions.

    When we are writing or revising a dictionary, most of our time is spent defining. We define a word according to how it is used in the recorded context, deciding whether the usage has been covered by our dictionary. Once this is done, you look at the new words and new senses and draft a definition.

    Drafting definitions requires some training, some experience and a lot of concentration. It's very, very quiet on the editorial floor.

    How closely do the most looked-up words on your online dictionary seem to be related to the news or trends?

    Stamper: When our dictionary went online back in 1996, we could see for the first time which were the most looked-up words in English: Affect, effect and ubiquitous were the top words. It was fascinating to us­dictionary editors spend so much time writing definitions but never could have known if anyone ever read them. We could follow what people were thinking about according to what words they were looking up. Thanks to our online dictionary, we had data.

The Art of Chinese Xinjiang Uyghur Muqam is a {#blank#}1{#/blank#}( represent ) name of various kinds of Muqam in Northwest China' s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region,{#blank#}2{#/blank#}was declared one of the UNESCO Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2005. 

Muqam ,{#blank#}3{#/blank#}( recognise ) as the mother of Uyghur music , is not only{#blank#}4{#/blank#}artistic creation with a long history, but also a record of {#blank#}5{#/blank#}( communicate ) between China and the regions to the west of it in history . It can be found in 19 countries and regions in Central , South , and West Asia , and North Africa , which is {#blank#}6{#/blank#}( particular ) due to Xinjiang' s central location along the Silk Road. 

In Muqam ensembles（乐团）, the lead instruments, called satar, are made from local materials and vary in form. The dancing skills involve unique steps, rhythms, and formations as well as{#blank#}7{#/blank#}( figure ) such as flower-picking-by-mouth, bowl-carrying-on-head, and imitation of animals in solo dances. 

Since the 1950s, every possible means{#blank#}8{#/blank#}( use ) to preserve the Twelve Muqam by the Chinese government. About 20 study centres have been set up {#blank#}9{#/blank#}( train ) professional researchers on Muqam. Moreover, the government has introduced Muqam {#blank#}10{#/blank#}the national artistic education system.

We've all heard the advice to "get out of your comfort zone" by taking on a new challenge. A recent study goes a step further: Make discomfort a direct goal. That's more likely to motivate you {#blank#}1{#/blank#} if you only focus on what you hope to learn.

In the first of five experiments, the researchers assigned several hundred students training at Second City Chicago {#blank#}2{#/blank#}（participate） in a small-group improvisation（即兴） exercise, and then instructed half of the group that their goal during the session was "to feel awkward and uncomfortable." The rest, {#blank#}3{#/blank#}（that） in the control group, {#blank#}4{#/blank#}（tell） to "feel yourself developing new skills." Members of the first group kept at the exercise longer than the others did and took {#blank#}5{#/blank#}（great） risks.

Experiments {#blank#}6{#/blank#}（involve） other dimensions of personal growth—engaging in expressive writing, learning about gun violence, and hearing about opposing political {#blank#}7{#/blank#}（belief）—produced similar results.

Reframing anxiety as excitement has been proven a way to improve singing in front of strangers, and thinking of stress as {#blank#}8{#/blank#} means to boost achievement demonstrated a stress-management technique.

"When people reinterpret negative experiences as {#blank#}9{#/blank#}（function）, they are more willing to engage in tasks that call forth those experiences," the researchers explain. "Instead of seeing discomfort as unrelated to the goal {#blank#}10{#/blank#} a signal to stop, they will start perceiving it as a sign of progress toward their goal."