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IELTS READING – MUSIC AND THE EMOTIONS S24AT3

IELTS Reading Music and the emotions reading practice test has 10 questions belongs to šŸŽµ Psychology & Music subject..

Neuroscientist Jonah Lehrer considers the emotional power of music

Why does music make us feel? On the one hand, music is a purely abstract art form, devoid of language or explicit ideas.Ā Q32 And yet, even though music says little, it still manages to touch us deeply. When listening to our favourite songs, our body betrays all the symptoms of emotional arousal.Ā Q32 The pupils in our eyes dilate, our pulse and blood pressure rise, the electrical conductance of our skin is lowered, and the cerebellum, a brain region associated with bodily movement, becomes strangely active. Blood is even re-directed to the muscles in our legs. In other words, sound stirs us at our biological roots.

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A recent paper in Neuroscience by a research team in Montreal, Canada, marks an important stepĀ Q33 in repealing the precise underpinnings of ā€˜the potent pleasurable stimulusā€™ that is music. Although the study involves plenty of fancy technology, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and ligand-based positron emission tomography (PET) scanning, the experiment itself was rather straightforward. After screening 217 individuals who responded to advertisements requesting people who experience ā€˜chillsā€™ to instrumental music, the scientists narrowed down the subject pool to ten. They then asked the subjects to bring in their playlist of favourite songs – virtually every genre was represented, from techno to tango – and played them the music while their brain activity was monitored. Because the scientists were combining methodologies (PET and fMRI), they were able to obtain an impressively exact and detailed portrait of music in the brain. The first thing they discovered is that music triggers the production ofĀ Q27 dopamine – a chemical with a key role in setting peopleā€™s moods – by the neurons (nerve cells) in both the dorsal and ventral regions of the brain. As these two regions have long been linked with the experienceĀ Q28 of pleasure, this finding isnā€™t particularly surprising.

Q34Ā What is rather more significant is the finding that the dopamine neurons in theĀ Q29 caudate-a region of the brain involved in learning stimulus-response associations, and in anticipatingĀ Q31 foodĀ and other ā€˜rewardā€™ stimuli –Ā Q34&37 were at their most active around 15 seconds before the participantsā€™ favourite moments in the music. The researchers call this theĀ Q30 ā€˜anticipatory phaseā€™ and argue that the purpose of this activity is to help us predict the arrival of our favourite part. The question, of course, is what all these dopamine neurons are up to. Why are they so active in the period preceding the acoustic climax? After all, we typically associate surges of dopamine with pleasure, with the processing of actual rewards. And yet, this cluster of cells is most active when the ā€˜chillsā€™ have yet to arrive, when the melodic pattern is still unresolved.

One way to answer the question is to look at the music and not the neurons. While music can often seem (at least to the outsider) like a labyrinth of intricate patterns, it turns out that the most important part of every song or symphony is when the patterns break down, when the sound becomes unpredictable. If the music is too obvious, it is annoyingly boring, like an alarm clock.Ā Q38 Numerous studies, after all, have demonstrated that dopamine neurons quickly adapt to predictable rewards. If we know whatā€™s going to happen next, then we donā€™t get excited.Ā Q35 This is why composers often introduce a keynote in the beginning of a song, spend most of the rest of the piece in the studious avoidance of the pattern, and then finally repeat it only at the end. The longer we are denied the pattern we expect, the greater the emotional release when the pattern returns, safe and sound.

To demonstrate this psychological principle, the musicologist Leonard Meyer, in his classic book Emotion and Meaning in Music (1956), analysed the 5th movement of Beethovenā€™s String Quartet in C-sharp minor, Op. 131. Meyer wanted to show how music is defined by its flirtation with – but not submission to – our expectations of order. Meyer dissected 50 measures (bars) of the masterpiece, showing how Beethoven begins with the clear statement of a rhythmic and harmonic pattern Q39 and then, in an ingenious tonal dance, carefully holds off repeating it. What Beethoven does instead is suggest variations of the pattern. Me wants to preserve an element of uncertainty in his music, making our brains beg for the one chord he refuses to give us. Q39 Beethoven saves that chord for the end.

According to Meyer, it is the suspenseful tension of music, arising out of our unfulfilled expectations, that is the source of the musicā€™s feeling.Ā Q40 While earlier theories of music focused on the way a sound can refer to the real world of images and experiences – its ā€˜connotativeā€™ meaning –Ā Q36 Meyer argued that the emotions we find in music come from the unfolding events of the music itself. This ā€˜embodied meaningā€™ arises from the patterns the symphony invokes and then ignores. It is this uncertainty that triggers the surge of dopamine in the caudate, as we struggle to figure out what will happen next. We can predict some of the notes, but we canā€™t predict them all, and that is what keeps us listening, waiting expectantly for our reward, for the pattern to be completed.

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IELTS READING – THE INTERSECTION OF HEALTH SCIENCES AND GEOGRAPHY S24AT2

Ā IELTS Reading The Intersection of Health Sciences and Geography reading practice test has 10 questions belongs to šŸŒ Health & Geography subject..

A. While many diseases that affect humans have been eradicated due to improvements inĀ Q20Ā vaccinations and the availability of healthcare, there are still areas around the world where certain health issues are more prevalent. In a world that is far more globalised than ever before, people come into contact with one another through travel and living closer and closer to each other. As a result, super-viruses and other infections resistant toĀ Q21 antibiotics are becoming more and more common.

B. Geography can often play a very large role in the health concerns of certain populations. For instance, depending on where you live, you will not have the same health concerns as someone who lives in a different geographical region. Perhaps one of the most obvious examples of this idea is malaria-prone areas, which are usually tropical regions that foster a warm and damp environment in which theĀ Q22 mosquitos that can give people this disease can grew.Ā Q19Ā Malaria is much less of a problem in high-altitude deserts, for instance.

C. In some countries, geographical factors influence the health and well-being of the population in very obvious ways. In many large cities, the wind is not strong enough to clear the air of the massive amounts of smog and pollutionĀ Q15 that cause asthma, lung problems, eyesight issues, and more in the people who live there. Part of the problem is, of course, the massive number of cars being driven, in addition toĀ Q23 factories that run on coal power. The rapid industrialisation of some countries in recent years has also led to the cutting down ofĀ Q24 forests to allow for the expansion of big cities, which makes it even harder to fight the pollution with the fresh air that is produced by plants.

D. It is in situations like these that the field of health geography comes into its own. It is an increasingly important area of study in a world whereĀ Q14 diseases likeĀ Q25 polio are re-emerging, respiratory diseases continue to spread, and malaria-prone areas are still fighting to find a better cure.Ā Q18 Health geography is the combination of, on the one hand, knowledge regarding geography and methods used to analyse and interpret geographical information, and on the other, the study of health, diseases, and healthcare practices around the world. The aim of this hybrid science is to create solutions for common geography-based health problems. While people will always be prone to illness, the study of how geography affects our health could lead to the eradication of certain illnesses, and the prevention of others in the future. By understanding why and how we get sick, we can change the way we treat illness and disease specific to certain geographical locations.

E. The geography of disease and ill health analyses the frequency with which certain diseases appear in different parts of the world, and overlays the data with the geography of the region, to see if there could be a correlation between the two. Health geographers also study factors that could make certain individuals or a population more likely to be taken ill with a specific health concern or disease, as compared with the population of another area. Health geographers in this field are usually trained as healthcare workers and have an understanding of basic epidemiology as it relates to the spread of diseases among the population.

F. Researchers study the interactions between humans and their environment that could lead to illness (such as asthma in places with high levels of pollution) and work to create a clear way of categorising illnesses, diseases, and epidemics into local and global scales.Ā Q16 Health geographers can map the spread of illnesses and attempt to identify the reasons behind an increase or decrease in illnesses, as they work to find a way to halt the further spread or re-emergence of diseases in vulnerable populations.

G. The second subcategory of health geography is the geography of healthcare provision. This group studies the availability (of lack thereof) of healthcare resources to individuals and populations around the world. In both developed and developing nations there is often a very large discrepancy between the options available to people in different social classes, income brackets, and levels of education. Individuals working in the area of the geography of healthcare provision attempt to assess the levels of healthcare in the areaĀ Q17 (for instance, it may be very difficult for people to get medical attention because there is aĀ Q26 mountain between their village and the nearest hospital). These researchers are on the frontline of making recommendations regarding policy to international organisations, local government bodies, and others.

H.Ā The field of health geography is often overlooked, but it constitutes a huge area of need in the fields of geography and healthcare. If we can understand how geography affects our health no matter where in the world we are located, we can better treat disease, prevent illness, and keep people safe and well.

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IELTS READING – FLYING TORTOISES S24AT1

IELTS Reading Flying tortoises reading practice test has 10 questions belongs to šŸ¢ Environment & Wildlife Conservation subject..

An airborne reintroduction programme has helped conservationists take significant steps to protect the endangered Galapagos tortoise.

A. Forests of spiny cacti cover much of the uneven lava plains that separate the interior of the Galapagos island of Isabela from the Pacific Ocean. With its five distinct volcanoes, the island resembles a lunar landscape. Only the thick vegetation at the skirt of the often cloud-covered peak of Sierra Negra offers respite from the barren terrain below.Ā Q1 This inhospitable environment is home to the giant Galapagos tortoise. Sometime after the Galapagosā€™s birth, around five million years ago, the

islands were colonised by one or more tortoises from mainland South America. As these ancestral tortoises settled on the individual islands, the different populations adapted to their unique environments, giving rise to at least 14 different subspecies. Island life agreed with them. In the absence of significant predators, they grew to become the largest and longest-living tortoises on the planet, weighing more than 400 kilograms, occasionally exceeding 1.8 metres in length, and living for more than a century.

B. Before human arrival, the archipelagoā€™s tortoises numbered in the hundreds of thousands.Ā Q2 From the 17th century onwards,Ā Q8 pirates took a few on board forĀ Q9 food, but the arrival of whaling ships in the 1790s saw this exploitation grow exponentially. Relatively immobile and capable of surviving for months without food or water, the tortoises were taken on board these ships to act as food supplies during long ocean passages. Sometimes, their bodies were processed into high-gradeĀ Q10 oil. In total, an estimated 200,000 animals were taken from the archipelago before the 20th century. This historical exploitation was then exacerbated whenĀ Q11 settlers came to the islands. They hunted the tortoises and destroyed their habitat to clear land for agriculture. They also introduced alienĀ Q12 species – ranging from cattle, pigs, goats, rats, and dogs to plants and ants – that either prey on theĀ Q13 eggs and young tortoises or damage or destroy their habitat.

C. Today, only 11 of the original subspecies survive and of these, several are highly endangered.Ā Q3Ā In 1989, work began on a tortoise-breeding centre just outside the town of Puerto Villamil on Isabela, dedicated to protecting the islandā€™s tortoise populations. The centreā€™s captive-breeding programme proved to be extremely successful, and it eventually had to deal with an overpopulation problem.

D. The problem was also a pressing one. Captive-bred tortoises canā€™t be reintroduced into the wild until theyā€™re at least five years old and weigh at least 4.5 kilograms, at which point their size and weight – and their hardened shells – are sufficient to protect them from predators.Ā Q4Ā But if people wait too long after that point, the tortoises eventually become too large to transport.

E. For years, repatriation efforts were carried out in small numbers, with the tortoises carried on the backs of men over weeks of long, treacherous hikes along narrow trails. But in November 2010,Ā Q5 the environmentalist and Galapagos National Park liaison officer Godfrey Merlin, a visiting private motor yacht captain, and a helicopter pilot gathered around a table in a small cafe in Puerto Ayora on the island of Santa Cruz to work out more ambitious reintroduction. The aim was to use a helicopter to move 300 of the breeding centreā€™s tortoises to various locations close to Sierra Negra.

F. This unprecedented effort was made possible by the owners of the 67-metre yacht White Cloud, who provided the Galapagos National Park with free use of their helicopter and its experienced pilot, as well as the logistical support of the yacht, its captain, and crew. Originally an air ambulance, the yachtā€™s helicopter has a rear double door and a large internal space thatā€™s well suited for cargo, so a custom crate was designed to hold up to 33 tortoises with a total weight of about 150 kilograms. This weight, together with that of the fuel, pilot, and four crew, approached the helicopterā€™s maximum payload, and there were times when it was clearly right on the edge of the helicopterā€™s capabilities. Q6 During a period of three days, a group of volunteers from the breeding centre worked around the clock to prepare the young tortoises for transport. Meanwhile, park wardens dropped off ahead of time in remote locations, cleared landing sites within the thick brush, cacti, and lava rocks.

G. Upon their release, the juvenile tortoises quickly spread out over their ancestral territory, investigating their new surroundings and feeding on the vegetation.Ā Q7Ā Eventually, one tiny tortoise came across a fully grown giant who had been lumbering around the island for around a hundred years. The two stood side by side, a powerful symbol of the regeneration of an ancient species.

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IELTS READING – THE BENEFITS OF BEING BILINGUAL S23AT3

IELTS Reading The Benefits of Being Bilingual reading practice test has 10 questions belongs to šŸ§  Psychology & Education subject..

A. According to the latest figures, the majority of the worldā€™s population is now bilingual or multilingual, having grown up speaking two or more languages. In the past, such children were considered to be at a disadvantage compared with their monolingual peers.Ā Q32Ā Over the past few decades, however, technological advances have allowed researchers to look more deeply at how bilingualism interacts with and changes the cognitive and neurological systems, thereby identifying several clear benefits of being bilingual.

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B. Research shows that when a bilingual person uses one language, the other is active at the same time.Ā Q39 When we hear a word, we donā€™t hear the entire word all at once: the sounds arrive in sequential order. Long before the word is finished, the brainā€™s language system begins to guess what that word might be. If you hear ā€˜canā€™, you will likely activate words like ā€˜candyā€™ and ā€˜candleā€™ as well, at least during the earlier stages of word recognition. For bilingual people, this activation is not limited to a single language; auditory input activates corresponding words regardless of the language to which they belong. Some of the most compelling evidence for this phenomenon, calledĀ Q28 ā€˜language co-activationā€™, comes from studyingĀ Q27Ā eye movements. A Russian-English bilingual asked to ā€˜pick up a markerā€™ from a set of objects would look more at a stamp than someone who doesnā€™t know Russian, because the Russian word for ā€˜stampā€™, marka, sounds like the English word he or she heard, ā€˜markerā€™. In cases like this, language co-activation occurs because what the listener hears could map onto words in either language.

C.Ā Q40 Having to deal with this persistent linguistic competition can result in difficulties, however.Ā Q34 For instance, knowing more than one language can cause speakers to name pictures more slowly, and can increase ā€˜tip-of-the-tongue statesā€™ when you can almost, but not quite, bring a word to mind. As a result, the constant juggling of two languages creates a need to control how much a person accesses a language at any given time. For this reason, bilingual people often perform better on tasks that requireĀ Q30 conflict management. In the classicĀ Q29 Stroop Task, people see a word and are asked to name the colour of the wordā€™s font. When the colour and the word match (i., the word ā€˜redā€™ printed in red), people correctly name the colour more quickly than when the colour and the word donā€™t match (i., the word ā€˜redā€™ printed in blue). This occurs because the word itself (ā€˜redā€™) and its font colour (blue) conflict. Bilingual people often excel at tasks such as this, which tap into the ability to ignore competing perceptual information and focus on the relevant aspects of the input. Bilinguals are also better at switching between two tasks; for example, when bilinguals have to switch from categorizing objects by colour (red or green) to categorizing them by shape (circle or triangle), they do so more quickly than monolingual people, reflecting betterĀ Q31 cognitive control when having to make rapid changes of strategy.

D. It also seems that the neurological roots of the bilingual advantage extend to brain areas more traditionally associated with sensory processing.Ā Q35Ā When monolingual and bilingual adolescents listen to simple speech sounds without any intervening background noise, they show highly similar brain stem responses.Ā Q37 When researchers play the same sound to both groups in the presence of background noise, however, the bilingual listenersā€™ neural response is considerably larger, reflecting better encoding of the soundā€™s fundamental frequency, a feature of sound closely related to pitch perception.

E.Ā Such improvements in cognitive and sensory processing may help a bilingual person to process information in the environment, and help explain why bilingual adults acquire a third language better than monolingual adults master a second language. This advantage may be rooted in the skill of focussing on information about the new language while reducing interference from the languages they already know.

F. Research also indicates thatĀ Q36Ā bilingual experience may help to keep the cognitive mechanisms sharp by recruiting alternate brain networks to compensate for those that become damaged during aging.Ā Q36 Older bilinguals enjoy improved memory relative to monolingual people, which can lead to real-world health benefits. In a study of over 200 patients with Alzheimerā€™s disease, a degenerative brain disease,Ā Q36 bilingual patients reported showing initial symptoms of the disease an average of five years later than monolingual patients. In a follow-up study, researchers compared the brains of bilingual and monolingual patients matched on the severity of Alzheimerā€™s symptoms. Surprisingly, the bilingualsā€™ brains had more physical signs of disease than their monolingual counterparts, even though their outward behaviour and abilities were the same. If the brain is an engine, bilingualism may help it to go farther on the same amount of fuel.

G. Furthermore, the benefits associated with bilingual experience seem to start very early. In one study,Ā Q38Ā researchers taught seven-month-old babies growing up in monolingual or bilingual homes that when they heard a tinkling sound, a puppet appeared on one side of a screen. Halfway through the study, the puppet began appearing on the opposite side of the screen. In order to get a reward, the infants had to adjust the rule theyā€™d learned; only the bilingual babies were able to successfully learn the new rule. This suggests that for very young children, as well as for older people, navigating a multilingual environment imparts advantages that transfer far beyond language.

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