A research found that people shown silent videos of piano competitions could pick out the winners more often than those who could also hear the music. It underlines the importance of our sense of vision, say scientists. Their study concludes that the best predictor of a winner’s musical performance was the visible passion they displayed, followed closely by their uniqueness and creativity.
Chia-Jung Tsay, from University College London, UK, is the study’s author and herself a concert pianist. She was interested in how music was judged and found that even professional musicians were unaware of how much they were using visual information over sound. “For the last two decades, I’ve taken part in various competitions. Through this experience, I found that depending on what type of evaluations were used, the results might vary widely. This led me to wonder about how much visual information really affects these important decisions,” she explained.
More than 1,000 participants in the study were given samples of either audio, silent video or video with sound, and asked to rate the top three finalists from 10 international classical music competitions. The actual competition winners were only correctly identified by those who were randomly assigned(分配) the silent videos.
Dr Tasy said the findings were quite surprising, especially because both trained musicians and those without training had stated that sound was most important for their evaluation. “Regardless of levels of expertise, we still seem to be led primarily by visual information, even in this field of music,” she said. “Classical music training is often focused on improving the quality of the sound, but this research is about getting to the bottom of what is really being evaluated at the highest levels of competitive performance. She added, “We must be more mindful of our inclination(傾向) to depend on visual information at the expense of the content that we actually value as more relevant to our decisions.”
【小題1】According to the study, who would most probably win a piano competition? 

A.One who plays with great passion. 
B.One who plays unique music. 
C.One who plays creatively. 
D.One who has a sense of vision. 
【小題2】The participates in the study were asked to__________.
A.watch classical music competitions 
B.a(chǎn)ssign the silent videos 
C.pick out the best three competitors 
D.decide who the winner is 
【小題3】What probably led Dr Tsay to carry out the study?
A.Her love for music. 
B.Her desire to explore. 
C.Her experience as a competitor. 
D.Her curiosity in musical education. 
【小題4】Where does this text probably come from?
A.A text book. B.A sports magazine. 
C.A story book. D.A science website. 


【小題1】A
【小題2】C
【小題3】C
【小題4】D

解析試題分析:本文是一篇科普文章。文章講述了在音樂(lè)比賽中,挑選獲勝者的時(shí)候無(wú)聲的視覺(jué)影像比聲音本身更起著重要作用。作者根據(jù)自己參加比賽的經(jīng)驗(yàn),就這一現(xiàn)象進(jìn)行了調(diào)查研究。
【小題1】A考查推理判斷。根據(jù)文章第一段中的Their study concludes that the best predictor of a winner’s musical performance was the visible passion they displayed可知,研究表明:獲勝者的音樂(lè)表演最好的預(yù)測(cè)因素就是他們表現(xiàn)出來(lái)的可以看到的激情。故選A。
【小題2】C考查細(xì)節(jié)理解。 根據(jù)文章第三段中的More than 1,000 participants in the study were given samples of either audio, silent video or video with sound, and asked to rate the top three finalists from 10 international classical music competitions. 可知,參賽者中要選出最好的3個(gè)人。故選C。
【小題3】C考查推理判斷。根據(jù)文章第二段中的For the last two decades, I’ve taken part in various competitions.和This led me to wonder about how much visual information really affects these important decisions可知,是Dr Tsay的參加各種比賽的經(jīng)歷,致使她對(duì)這個(gè)項(xiàng)目進(jìn)行研究。故選C。
【小題4】D考查推理判斷。根據(jù)文章的內(nèi)容可知,本文講述的是:在音樂(lè)比賽中,無(wú)聲視覺(jué)所起的作用。這是與自然科學(xué)相關(guān)的內(nèi)容,所以D正確。
考點(diǎn):考查科普類文章的閱讀。

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【小題1】The primary purpose of the passage is to               .

A.describe how modern research has updated an old explanation
B.support a traditional view with new data
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【小題2】Which statement best describes Descartes theory of pain presented in paragraph 1?
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【小題3】The author implies that the reason why the gate control was “amazing” was that it        .
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B.was just opposite to people’s everyday experiences
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【小題1】What does the second paragraph mainly talk about?

A.A sheepherder used coffee beans to keep sheep excited.
B.Coffee was a special kind of red cherry from a certain plant.
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D.Sheep ate a lot of coffee beans while they changed pastures.
【小題2】Which of the following involves political tricks?
A.Kaldi’s story. B.The monk’s story.
C.Omar’s story. D.Baba Budan’s story.
【小題3】Mocha is originally the name of ______.
A.a(chǎn) town B.a(chǎn)n Arabian C.a(chǎn) kind of coffee D.a(chǎn) sheepherder
【小題4】What can be the best title for the text?
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“There is a definite link between changes in the sea ice and the welfare of polar bears,” said Steve Amstrup, who led the research team. He says Arctic sea ice is already at the lowest this year and is expected to retreat(退卻) farther this month.
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Other polar bears could survive beyond that date but many of those could be gone by 2100, Amstrup said. By this century’s end, the only polar bears left might live in the Canadian Arctic islands and along the west coast of Greenland.
“It is likely to result in loss of approximately two-thirds of the world’s current polar bear population by the mid 21st century,” the report’s executive summary said.
“Because the observed trajectory(軌跡)of Arctic sea ice decline appears to be underestimated by currently available models, this assessment of future polar bear status may be conservative(保守的).”
In January, the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing the polar bear as a threatened species, noting polar bears depend on sea ice as a platform to hunt seals, their main food.
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【小題1】What was the US Geological Survey intended to do?

A.To determine whether the polar bear was in danger.
B.To measure how fast the sea ice melts in the Arctic.
C.To check the predictions of the computer models.
D.To find out the exact number of the polar bear.
【小題2】What causes the polar bears to disappear by 2050?
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【小題3】The key to preventing polar bears dying out seems to _______________.
A.help young polar bears to survive the cold winter
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