C

                              ★★★★★

         Mathematical ability and musical ability may not seem to be connected on the surface,but people who have researched the subject and studied the brain say that they are. Research for my book Late-Talking Children drove home the point to me. Three quarters of the bright but speech-delayed children in the group I studied had a close relative who was an engineer,a ma.thematician or a scientist,and four fifths had a close relative who played a musical instrument. The children themselves usually took readily to mathematics and other analytical subjects or to music.

         Black,white and Asian children in this group showed 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,which has happened with a number of well-known black musicians.

         It is precisely in those kinds of music where one can acquire great skills without formal training that blacks have excelled(擅长) in popular music rather than classical music,piano rather than violin,and 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 an extremely large role in the development of jazz,both traditional and modem. None of this presupposes any special (先天的) 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 musie,as well as into mathematics,science and engineering.

9. What is the main idea of Paragraph 1 ?

   A. More people are good at music than mathematics.

   B. Most talented people are good at analytical subjects.

   C. Mathematical ability and musical ability are connected.

   D. Mathematical ability is more important than musical ability.

10. The underlined word “discrepancy” in Paragraph 3 probably means .

   A. purpose          B. difference

   C. innate ability   D. analytical ability

11. Blacks are extremely good at popular music because.

   A. they lack formal training ^

   B. they don't like classical music

   C. they lack strong analytical ability

   D. violin and opera are harder for them

12. Which of the following questions is the text mainly concerned with?

   A. What kinds of music require formal training?

   B. What contributions have black musicians made?

   C. Can kids’ musical ability and mathematical ability be influenced by their relatives?

   D. Why have blacks excelled in popular music in American history?

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