A research found that people shown silent videos of piano petitions 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 petitions. 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 petitions. The actual petition 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 petitive performance. She added, “We must be more mindful of our inclination(倾向) to depend on visual information at the expense of the content that we actually value as more relevant to our decisions.”
【小题1】According to the study, who would most probably win a piano petition? 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.【小题2】The participates in the study were asked to .A．watch classical music petitionsB．assign the silent videosC．pick out the best three petitorsD．decide who the winner is【小题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 petitor.D．Her curiosity in musical education.【小题4】Where does this text probably e from?A．A text book.B．A sports magazine.C．A story book.D．A science website.A
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(答案→)A
解析：本文是一篇科普文章。文章讲述了在音乐比赛中，挑选获胜者的时候无声的视觉影像比声音本身更起着重要作用。作者根据自己参加比赛的经验，就这一现象进行了调查研究。
【小题1】A考查推理判断。根据文章第一段中的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：获胜者的音乐表演最好的预测因素就是他们表现出来的可以看到的激情。故选A。
【小题2】C考查细节理解。 根据文章第三段中的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 petitions. 可知，参赛者中要选出最好的3个人。故选C。
【小题3】C考查推理判断。根据文章第二段中的For the last two decades, I’ve taken part in various petitions.和This led me to wonder about how much visual information really affects these important decisions可知，是Dr Tsay的参加各种比赛的经历，致使她对这个项目进行研究。故选C。
【小题4】D考查推理判断。根据文章的内容可知，本文讲述的是：在音乐比赛中，无声视觉所起的作用。这是与自然科学相关的内容，所以D正确。