A
From Mozart to Metallica, tons of people enjoy listening to various types of music while they paint, write, or draw.Many believe that music helps inspire creativity, but an international study conducted by English and Swedish researchers is challenging that idea.
Psychologists from Lancaster University, The University of Gavle, and The University of Central Lancashire say that their findings indicate music actually prevents creativity.
To come to their conclusions, researchers had participants complete verbal insight (洞察) problems designed to inspire creativity while sitting in a quiet room, and then again while music played in the background.They found that background music “significantly impaired (削弱)” the participants' ability to complete tasks associated with verbal creativity.
The research team also tested background noises such as those commonly heard in a library, but found that such noises had no impact on subjects' creativity.
The tasks were simple word games.For example, participants were given three words, such as dress, dial, and flower.Then, they were asked to find a single word associated with all three that could be combined to form a common phrase or word.The single word, in this case, would be “sun” (sundress, sunflower, etc.)．
Participants completed the tasks in either a quiet room, or while exposed to three different types of music; music with unfamiliar lyrics, instrumental music, or music with familiar lyrics.
“We found strong evidence of impaired performance when playing background music in comparison to quiet background conditions，” says coauthor Dr.Neil McLatchie of Lancaster University.
Dr.McLatchie and his colleagues theorize that music interferes (干 扰) with the verbal working memory processes of the brain, preventing creativity.Also, as far as the library background noise having seemingly no effect, the study's authors believe that was the case because library noises create a “steady state” environment that doesn't prevent concentration.
It's worth mentioning that even familiar music with well known lyrics impaired participants creativity, regardless of whether or not it produced a positive reaction, or whether participants typically studied or created while listening to music.
“To conclude, the findings here challenge the popular view that music inspires creativity, and instead show that music, regardless of the presence of semantic(语义的) content (no lyrics, familiar lyrics or unfamiliar lyrics), always prevent creative performance in insight problem solving，” the study reads.
[语篇解读] 本文是一篇说明文。普遍的观点认为音乐有助于激发创造力，但研究表明，背景音乐会阻碍人们的创造力。
1．What conclusion can most probably be drawn from this passage?
A．Background music inspires creativity.
B．Background music impairs creativity.
C．Background noises have bad influence on creativity.
D．Different music has different effects on creativity.
解析：细节理解题。根据第二段中“their findings indicate music actually prevents creativity (他们的发现表明音乐实际上会抑制创造力)”和第三段中“They found that background music ‘significantly impaired’ the participants' ability to complete tasks associated with verbal creativity.(他们发现背景音乐‘严重削弱’参与者完成与语言创造力有关任务的能力)”可知，背景音乐会阻碍人们的创造力。故选B项。
答案：B
2．The participants were asked to ________.
A．do some reading in a library
B．design some verbal insight problems
C．do some word games
D．listen to some background music
解析：细节理解题。根据第五段中描述的实验过程“The tasks were simple word games.For example, participants were given three words, such as dress, dial, and flower.Then, they were asked to find a single word associated with all three that could be combined to form a common phrase or word.(参与者需要完成的任务是一些简单的文字游戏。例如，给参与者三个单词，如裙子、表盘和花。然后，他们被要求找到一个与这三个词相关的单词，这三个词都可以与其组合成一个常见短语或单词)可知，在实验中，要求参与者做一些文字游戏。故选C项。
答案：C
3．Why can't the participants perform well?
A．Because the music prevents concentration.
B．Because they aren't familiar with music.
C．Because the tasks are too challenging.
D．Because the background is not creative.
解析：细节理解题。第七段中提到“We found strong evidence of impaired performance when playing background music in comparison to quiet background conditions(有证据表明，与安静的环境相比，播放背景音乐会影响人的表现)”以及第八段中“Dr.McLatchie and his colleagues theorize that music interferes with the verbal working memory processes of the brain, preventing creativity.(McLatchie博士和他的同事认为，音乐干扰了大脑的语言工作记忆过程，阻碍了创造力)”可知，参与者表现不好是因为背景音乐影响了他们的注意力的集中。故选A项。
答案：A
4．Which of the connections about background music with their learning effects is TRUE?
A．The music with a positive reaction has a positive effect.
B．The effects depend on the contents of music.
C．Quiet music does good to learning effects.
D．All background music is bad for learning effects.
解析：推理判断题。根据最后一段中“the findings here...instead show that music...always prevent creative performance in insight problem solving (这些发现反而证明了……音乐总是会干扰人们解决洞察力问题时创造力的表现)”可知，所有的背景音乐对学习效果都有不好的影响。故选D项。
答案：D
