单选题   Mathematical ability and musical ability may not seem on the surface to be connected, but people who have researched the subject and studied the brain say that they are. Three quarters of the bright but speech-delayed children in the group I studied had a close relative who was an engineer, mathematician or scientist, and four fifths had a close relative who played a musical instrument. The children themselves usually took readily to math and other analytical subjects and to music.
    Black, white and Asian children in this group show the same patterns. However, it is clear that blacks have been greatly overrepresented in the development of American popular music and greatly underrepresented in such fields as mathematics, science and engineering.
    If the abilities required in analytical fields and in music are so closely related, how can there be this great discrepancy? One reason is that the development of mathematical and other such abilities requires years of formal schooling, while certain musical talents can be developed with little or no formal training, as has happened with a number of well-known black musicians.
    It is precisely in those kinds of music where one can acquire great skill without formal training that blacks have excelled popular music rather than classical music, piano rather than violin, blues rather than opera. This is readily understandable, given that most blacks, for most of American history, have not had either the money or the leisure for long years of formal study in music.
    Blacks have not merely held their own in American popular music. They have played a disproportionately large role in the development of jazz, both traditional and modern. A long string of names comes to mind—Duke Ellington, Scott Joplin, W.C. Handy, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker...and so on.
    None of this indicates any special innate ability of blacks in music. On the contrary, it is perfectly consistent with blacks having no more such inborn ability than anyone else, but being limited to being able to express such ability in narrower channels than others who have had the money, the time and the formal education to spread out over a wider range of music, as well as into mathematics, science and engineering.
单选题     Why does the author speak about the group of children that he studied in the first paragraph?
 
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】推断题。根据第一段people who have researched the subject and studied the brain say that they are以及后面所举的例子可知，作者试图证明数学能力和音乐能力有联系。因此，正确答案是B。
单选题     The word 'discrepancy' (Para. 3) most probably means ______.
 
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】含义题。文章第一段中心意思是数学能力和音乐能力有联系，文章第二段却说黑人在美国流行音乐中是主力军，然而在数学等方面却默默无闻，因此产生discrepancy。根据前文可推断discrepancy应该是“差距，差异”的意思。因此，正确答案是A。
单选题     What has made blacks earn more achievement in popular music than in math, science and engineering?
 
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】细节题。根据第三段One reason is that the development of mathematical and other such abilities requires years of formal schooling, while certain musical talents can be developed with little or no formal training可知，数学等其他类似学科的发展需要多年的正规学校教育，而音乐不需要接受正规教育。因此，正确答案是D。
单选题     What do we know about opera from the passage?
 
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】推断题。根据关键词opera定位到原文第四段It is precisely in those kinds of music where one can acquire great skill without formal training that blacks have excelled popular music rather than classical music, piano rather than violin, blues rather than opera. 可知，对于黑人而言不需要经过正规训练就可以获得极好的技能的音乐领域包括流行音乐、钢琴和蓝调音乐，所以歌剧属于需要经过正规学习的领域。因此，正确答案是B。
单选题     How can blacks finally achieve greater skills in kinds of music that don't need formal training?
 
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】细节题。根据文章最后一段最后一句可知，黑人天赋并不超人，没有钱，没有时间，无法接受正规教育，只能在有限的空间里发挥自己的能力。因此，正确答案是B。