Question

What did your school smell like? Was it noisy or peaceful? It might not seem important, but a growing body of research suggests that smells and sounds can have an impact on learning, performance and creativity．

Bridget Shield has been conducting studies and advising people on the effects of all sorts of noises, such as traffic and sirens, as well as noise made by the children themselves． "Everything points to a harmful impact of the noise on children’s performance, in numeracy, in literacy, and in spelling,” says Shield．

Shield says the sound of “babble” －the chatter of other children, is particularly distracting in the classroom．。People are very distracted by speech-particularly if it is understandable, but you’re not involved in it．” This phenomenon is also known as the irrelevant speech effect, she says, adding that “it’s a very common finding in open-plan offices as well．’’

In a series of studies published last year, Ravi Mehta found that people were more creative when the background noises were played at a medium level than when volume was low． Loud background noise, however, damaged their creativity． Ravi Mehta suggests there maybe some benefit to playing music or other sounds in an art class or other situations where creativity is the key．

Many teachers all over the world already play music to students in class． Many are inspired by the belief that hearing music can boost IQ in their tasks, the so-called Mozart effect． While the evidence actually suggests it’s a guess to say classical music boosts brainpower, researchers do think pleasant sounds before a task can sometimes lift your mood and help you perform well, says Ravi Mehta," If you like the music or you like the sound-even listening to a Stephen King novel-then you did better． It didn’t matter about the music,“ he says．

However, it’s worth considering that music is not always helpful while you’re trying to work． Trying to perform a task which involves serial recall - for instance, doing mental mathematics-will be distracted by sounds with audio variation, says Ravi Mehta． Songs with lyrics, on the other hand, are more likely to interfere（干扰）with tasks that involve languages-such as reading comprehension．

This isn’t the only sense being related to affecting learning．

1.The second paragraph implies that _________.

A．general noise also has a harmful effect．

B．students are sensitive to noise．

C．some children need special sounds to do tasks．

D．children aren't affected by their own noise．

2.The irrelevant speech effect refers to the fact that _________.

A．you don’t understand what others are talking

B．you are interrupted by the chatting of others

C．you are unwilling to chat with other people

D．you find what others are talking irrelevant to you

3.According to the text, Ravi Mehta believes that __________.

A．music matters when you want to do better．

B．music will help you do mental arithmetic．

C．any music can be beneficial as long as you like it．

D．songs with lyrics will improve your reading comprehension．

4.What might be discussed in the following paragraph?

A．Whether music is helpful all the time．

B．What sound can promote a person’s creativity．

C．When smell can improve students’ behavior．

D．How smell affects children’s performance．

Answer 1

1.A

2.B

3.C

4.D

【解析】

试题分析: 一些学校在教室里给学生播放音乐，并且使教室充满令人宜人的味道、他们这样做的目的是看看这样是否能提高学生的考试成绩。在本文中作者通过对几个实验的介绍表明适当的音乐和使人愉悦的味道的确会起到积极的作用。

1.A细节理解题。根据第二段 “"Everything points to a harmful impact of the noise on children’s performance, in numeracy, in literacy, and in spelling,””噪音对孩子的计算能力，识字能力以及拼写能力方面都有坏的影响，可知噪音有坏的影响。故选A。

2.B细节理解题。根据第三段最后两行的意思“人们特别容易因为他人讲话而分神——尤其是你能够听懂讲话内容，但是却没有参与其中的时候。”她说，这种现象也称为无关言语效应，”可知，无关言语效应指的是我们被别人的谈话而打断，从而注意力不集中。故选B。

3.C细节理解题。根据 “If you like the music or you like the sound-even listening to a Stephen King novel-then you did better． It didn’t matter about the music” 如果你喜欢所播放的音乐或声音——甚至是听史蒂芬·金的小说——那么你也会做得更好。是否是音乐并不重要。可知，不选C。

4.D推理判断题。根据第一段“气味和声音会对学习、表现和创造力产生影响”再结合本文分析了听觉对学习能力的影响，所以接下来科学家会写味觉对人们学习能力的影响是好还是坏。故选D。

考点：社会科学类短文