8．When students and parents are asked to rate subjects according to their importance，the arts are unavoidably at the bottom of the list．Music is nice，people seem to say，but not important．Too often it is viewed as entertainment，but certainly not an education priority （優(yōu)先）．This view is shortsighted．（52）E
Music tells us who we are，because music is an expression of the beings who create it．It reflects their thinking and values，as well as the social environment it came from．Rock music represents a lifestyle just as surely as does a Schubert song．The jazz influence is obviously American because it came from American musical traditions．Music expresses our character and values．（53）A
Music provides a kind of perception（感知）that cannot be acquired any other way．（54）B The arts explore the emotive（情感的） meaning of the same phenomenon．We need every possible way to discover and respond to our world for one simple but powerful reason：No one way can get it all．
The arts are forms of thought as powerful in what they communicate as mathematical and scientific symbols．They are the language of civilization through which we express our fears，our curiosities，our hungers，our discoveries，our hopes．They are ways we give form to our ideas and imagination so that they can be shared with others．When we do not give children access to an important way of expressing themselves such as music，we take away from them the meanings that music expresses．
（55）F
A．It gives us identity as a society．
B．Science can explain how the sun rises and sets．
C．They are ways we human beings"talk"to each other．
D．Science and technology do not tell us what it means to be human．
E．In fact，music education is beneficial and important for all students．
F．So music education is far more necessary than people seem to realize．
