雅思阅读素材 ：Music and the Mind

　　下面和谐英语网雅思频道为大家整理了雅思阅读素材 ：Music and the Mind，供考生们参考，以下是详细内容。

　　Music is the manifestation of the human spirit, similar to language. Itsgreatest practitioners have conveyed to mankind things not possible to say inany other language. If we do not want these things to remain dead treasures, wemust do our utmost to make the greatest possible number of people understandtheir idiom. --Zoltán Kodály

　　Recently a number of reports have appeared that attest to the connectionbetween music and academic achievement. In a study of the ability of fourteenyear-old science students in seventeen countries, the top three countries wereHungary, the Netherlands, and Japan. All three include music throughout thecurriculum from kindergarten through high school. In the 1960's, the Kodálysystem of music education was instituted in the schools of Hungary as a resultof the outstanding academic achievement of children in its "singing schools."Today, there are no third graders who cannot sing on pitch and sing beautifully.In addition, the academic achievement of Hungarian students, especially in mathand science, continues to be outstanding. The Netherlands began their musicprogram in 1968, and Japan followed suit by learning from the experience ofthese other countries.

　　Another report disclosed the fact that the foremost technical designers andengineers in Silicon Valley are almost all practicing musicians.

　　A third report reveals that the schools who produced the highest academicachievement in the United States today are spending 20 to 30% of the day on thearts, with special emphasis on music. Included are St. Augustine Bronxelementary school, which, as it was about to fail in 1984, implemented anintensive music program. Today 90% of the students are reading at or above gradelevel.

　　Davidson School in Augusta, Georgia (grades 5-12), which began its musicand arts program in 1981, is #1 academically in the country. Ashley RiverElementary in Charleston, North Carolina is #2 academically, second only to aschool for the academically gifted.

　　I personally experienced the relationship between music and scholarshipwhen I was director of the Seattle Creative Activities Center many years ago. Atthat time, we did not have the research at hand to explain why many children whowere taking music and painting classes suddenly began to excel in math atschool. Other children began to improve in their language arts skills.

　　Today, the research emerging from the cognitive sciences gives us usefulinformation to explain those connections. As a result of technology which allowsus to see the human brain while it is in the process of thinking, we canobserve, for example, t hat when people listen to melodies with a variety ofpitch and timbre, the right hemisphere of the brain is activated. It also"lights up" when people play music by ear. When, however, people learn to readmusic, understand key signatures, notation, and other details of scores, and areable to follow the sequence of notes, then the left hemisphere "lights up."Significantly, it is activated in the same area that is involved in analyticaland mathematical thinking.