Learning to play a musical instrument can change your brain, according to a US review. It also finds that music training can lead to improved speech and foreign language skills.
Although it has been suggested that in the past that listening to Mozart or other classical music could make you smarter, there has been little evidence to show that music improves brain power. But a data-driven review by Northwestern University has explored the research about the effect of musical training on the learning skills including language, speech, memory, attention and even vocal emotion.
Researcher Nina Kraus said the data strongly suggested that the neural connections made during musical training also strengthened the brain for other aspects of human communication. The researchers said that in their study the effect of music training suggests that, just like the physical exercise and its impact on body fitness, music is a resource that strengthens the brain for listening fitness and thus requires society to re-examine the role of music in shaping individual development.
The study, published n Nature Reviews Neuroscience, looked at the rapid increase of research in recent years focused on the effects of music training on the nervous system which could have strong effects on education. The study found that playing an instrument strengthens the brain to choose what is relevant in a complex process that may involve reading or remembering a score, timing issues and working with other musicians.
Kraus said in a statement that a musician's brain selectively tells apart the information-bearing elements in sound and in a beautiful interrelationship between sensory(感觉的)and cognitive(认知的)processes, the nervous system makes associations between complex sounds and what they mean. The study reviewed the past research and found, for example, that musicians are more successful than non-musicians in learning to incorporate(合并)sound patterns for a new language into words.

单选题 We can learn from the passage that in the past people thought______.

单选题 According to Nina Kraus, the research showed that______.

单选题 What is the researchers' opinion on the effect of music training in their study?

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】由题千中的the effect of musictraining定位到第三段第二句。该句提到，研究人员在研究报告中说道，音乐训练所产生的这种影响表明，与体育锻炼对身体健康产生的影响一样，音乐能够增强大脑活力，使听觉更加敏锐，所以我们的社会有必要重视音乐训练所起的作用，故答案为A)。

单选题 What can be obtained from the study published in Nature Reviews Neuroscience?

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】由题干中的 Nature ReviewsNeuroscience定位到第四段第一句。该句提到，这一在《神经系统科学自然评论》上发表的研究对近几年来该领域新增的大量研究进行了回顾和分析，这些研究主要关注的是音乐训练对神经系统的影响及其可能会对教育产生的重要影响，故答案为A)。