Question

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.”

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.

2.The participates in the study were asked to__________.

A. watch classical music competitions

B. assign the silent videos

C. pick out the best three competitors

D. decide who the winner is

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.

4.Where does this text probably come from?

A. A text book.                                                                   B. A sports magazine.

C. A story book.                                                                 D. A science website.

 

Answer 1

【答案】

 

1.A

2.C

3.C

4.D

【解析】

試題分析：本文是一篇科普文章。文章講述了在音樂比賽中，挑選獲勝者的時候無聲的視覺影像比聲音本身更起著重要作用。作者根據自己參加比賽的經驗，就這一現象進行了調查研究。

1.A考查推理判斷。 根據文章第一段中的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：獲勝者的音樂表演最好的預測因素就是他們表現出來的可以看到的激情。故選A。

2.C考查細節(jié)理解。  根據文章第三段中的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個人。故選C。

3.C考查推理判斷。根據文章第二段中的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歷，致使她對這個項目進行研究。故選C。

4.D考查推理判斷。根據文章的內容可知，本文講述的是：在音樂比賽中，無聲視覺所起的作用。這是與自然科學相關的內容，所以D正確。

考點：考查科普類文章的閱讀。