I have always enjoyed listening to music. It helps me calm down after    1    busy day, and I am also one of those    2    can listen and study at the same time. I am not interested    3    jazz music, but I like many other    4    (type) of music. When I was a child, I used to listen to music on the radios. With the    5    (invent) of personal computers and cellphones, I prefer to listen on the phone, as new functions    6    (add) to them in the past few years. The technology was developed in response to customer need. Some people affected by    7    (anxious) start to feel relaxed while    8    (listen) to music on the phone. Others worry about not being able to use it well. However, I am    9    dependent on the cellphones that I fail    10    (live) without them.

9 . Many of us would listen to music while we are work, thinking that it will help us to concentrate on the task at hand. In fact, recent research has found that music can have beneficial effects on creativity.

The idea that listening to music while working is good for output probably has its roots in the so-called “Mozart Effect”. Put simply, the reasoning ability is increased immediately after listening to the music of Mozart’s, compared to no sound at all.

How sounds affect performance has been the topic of research for over 40 years. It is observed through a phenomenon called the irrelative sound effect. To study the irrelative sound effect, participants are asked to complete a simple task which requires them to recall a series of numbers or letters in an exact order. The difficult thing is doing this while ignoring the background noise.

Two key characteristics of the irrelative sound effect are required. First, subjects (受试者) are required to use their memory ability. Second, the sound must contain acoustical (听觉的) variation.

The irrelative sound effect comes from attempting to process two sources of ordered information at the same time. One is from the task, and the other is from the sound. Unfortunately, only former is required to perform in the recall task, and the effort to prevent processing irrelevant order information from the sound hinders the memory ability.

A similar problem is also seen when reading in the presence of music with lyrics (歌词). In this situation, the two sources of words from the task and the sound will hinder each other. The cost is poorer performance of the task in the presence of music with lyrics.

What this all means is that whether having music playing in the background helps or hinders performance depends on the task and the type of music and only understanding this relationship will help people maximize their productivity levels.

10 . How similar are language and music?

Language is part of our daily lives, no matter where we live in the world.     1     Both language and music play a huge role in our culture and here are some of their similarities.

Both language and music have a writing system.

In English we record language using the alphabet, which is a collection of letters. Similarly, we use notes (音符) to keep a record of music. Musicians read notes and create meaning in the form of music.     2     By writing pieces of text or music, we are able to share experiences through time. We can read the ideas or hear the composition (作品) of someone who lived hundreds of years ago.

    3    

You can make a good guess at where someone is from by listening to the language he uses. In the same way, we know that styles of music are different around the world, giving us the opportunity to explore many different cultures through their music and providing us with music for every situation.

Both share emotion.

    4     Of course you may be able to see it in my face, but you will know for sure through my words. Similarly, music can sound angry, sad or happy. Music can show you exactly how the composer was or is feeling, and allows us to share that emotion. When you feel happy, you might want to sing and dance to a happy song to celebrate your happiness.     5     I think we have all used music to express or process our emotions, often combining it with language in the form of song lyrics (歌词).