6.
Are you listening to pop songs but not learning to play a musical instrument?The idea of practicing the piano or violin every day under your parents'watchful eye is bad enough,not to mention all the playtime you'll lose.
But you would change your mind if you knew that musical training could make you smarter,especially if you start young,according to The New York Times.
In fact,the study of the benefits (益處) of music has been going on for years.Back in 1993,Nature magazine reported an experiment showing that college students who listened to 10minutes of Mozart music before taking an IQ test scored better.This is what's now known as the"Mozart effect".
Although scientists later found that it wasn't IQ that had been improved,but temporary (短時(shí)的) reasoning ability,this study still got them thinking-if simply listening to music can bring good effects,what would actually playing an instrument do to brain development?
Now researchers at Northwestern University,US,have got the answer.They studied a group of college students-some of them had received musical training in their school years while others had not.
Looking at their brain waves,researchers discovered that they responded differently when hearing complex sounds-those who had learned music before were better at picking out single pitches (音高) from a noisy background.And this was true even if the lessons had ended years ago.
This ability to single out certain sounds is connected to language-based learning-for example,reading.
"To learn to read,you need to have good working memory,the ability to disambiguate (分辨) speech sounds,make sound-to-meaning connections,"professor Nina Kraus from Northwestern University told The New York Times.
"Each one of these things really seems to be strengthened…[when]playing a musical instrument."
But the researchers also said that there is no one best way to apply these findings.Different instruments,different teaching methods,different schedules-parents need to find what works best for the child,and children should try to enjoy themselves and their lessons.After all,music is about pleasure,instead of being just a tool.
53.Musical training can improve the ability toC.
A.enjoy the noisy background
B.make different speech sounds
C.learn language-based learning
D.connect sounds with the pictures
54.We can infer from the passage thatB.
A.listening to Mozart's music can improve one's IQ temporarily
B.musical training at a young age can bring us a great advantage
C.students who can play musical instruments are better at reasoning
D.we must learn the skill of playing a musical instrument nowadays
55.The article is mainly aboutC.
A.the connection between musical training and getting good grades
B.the effects of musical training on the development of human brain
C.a(chǎn) new discovery about the longtime benefits of early music lessons
D.the efforts at making full use of the brain through musical training.