Our love of music and appreciation of musical harmony is learnt and not based on natural ability, a new study by University of Melbourne researchers has found. The researchers said previous theories about how we appreciate music were based on the physical functions of sound, the ear itself and a born ability to hear harmony.
The study shows that musical harmony can be learnt, and it is a matter of training the brain to hear the sounds. So if you thought that the music of some foreign culture (or Jazz) sounded like the crying of cats, it’s simply because you haven’t learnt to listen by their rules.
The researchers used 66 volunteers with a range of musical training and tested their ability to hear binations of notes(音符) to determine if they found the binations familiar or pleasing. They found that people needed to be familiar with binations of notes. If they found the notes unfamiliar they also found the sound unpleasant. This finding put an end to centuries of theories claiming that physical functions of the ear determine what we find attractive.
The study found that trained musicians were much more sensitive to unpleasant notes than non-musicians. When they couldn’t find the note, the musicians reported that the sounds were unpleasant, while non-musicians were much less sensitive. This shows the importance of training or nurturing(培养) the brain to like particular sound of binations of notes, like those found in jazz or rock.
Depending on their training, a strange chord(和弦) sound was pleasant to some musicians, but very unpleasant to others. This showed us that even the ability to hear a musical note is learnt.
To confirm this finding, they trained 19 non-musicians to find the notes of a random selection of western chords. Not only did the participants’ ability to hear notes improve rapidly, afterward they reported that the chords they had learnt sounded more pleasant -- regardless of how the chords were played.
The question of why some binations of musical notes are heard as pleasant or unpleasant has long been debated. “We have shown in this study that for music, beauty is in the brain of the beholder(观看者)”, a researcher said.
【小题1】According to the study, people find foreign music quite unpleasant because .A．they hear the music much too oftenB．they don’t like the person playing itC．they have no idea about how to listenD．they have no born musical ability at all【小题2】Although non-musicians were less sensitive to music, they can still .A．be trained to like particular musicB．make friends with real musiciansC．find the beauty of chords without trainingD．enjoy the beauty of music when played by musicians【小题3】The 19 non-musicians were trained in order to show .A．the brain likes particular binations of notesB．not a strange note was pleasant to all musiciansC．how the chords were played was very importantD．people’s ability to hear a musical note can be learnt【小题4】What is the main idea of the passage? A．Love of musical harmony can’t be taught.B．Love of music is not natural but nurtured.C．Listening to music can improve your brain.D．You can be a musician without being trained.C
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(答案→)C
解析：
试题分析: 本文是说明文，提到对音乐的喜爱是可能过能培养获得。
【小题1】C细节理解题。根据第二段提到if you thought that the music of some foreign culture (or Jazz) sounded like the crying of cats, it’s simply because you haven’t learnt to listen by their rules.如果你认为外国的音乐象猫叫，那就是仅仅因为你听不懂他们的规则，所以选C项。
【小题2】A细节理解题。根据第四段提到This shows the importance of training or nurturing(培养) the brain to like particular sound of binations of notes, like those found in jazz or rock.这就表明训练与后天培养的重要性，所以选A项。
【小题3】D 细节理解题。根据第六段提到Not only did the participants’ ability to hear notes improve rapidly, afterward they reported that the chords they had learnt sounded more pleasant -- regardless of how the chords were played.不仅是参与者听记迅速提高超过十短的会话能力，之后他们说他们已经知道和弦听起来更加愉快——不管和弦进行调整所以选D项。
【小题4】B 主旨大意。本文开篇提到对于音乐的爱好不仅仅是天生的，还是可能通过培养与训练能得到，通过举例及对于研究对象的分析，The study found that trained musicians were much more sensitive to unpleasant notes than non-musicians.被训练的音乐人能对不是那么动听的音乐比不被训练的人更为敏感，所以B项对于音乐的爱好不是天生的而是可有后天培养出来的。
考点 ：科普类阅读。