Babies as young as 5months can distinguish a happy tune, such as Ode to Joy, from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony,from sad tunes.
Researchers showed an emotionally-neutral(中立的)face to the babies while sad music played.When the babies looked away from the face, the music stopped Ode to Joy played, the babies stared at the face three to four seconds longer, suggesting they were interested in the change.
By nine months old, babies can do the opposite.
The finding is another example of how babies make sense of the world long before they can talk, said Brigham Young University psychology professor Ross Flom.
“One of the first things babies understand communicatively is emotion,so for them the melody(旋律)is the message,”Flom said. “Our study showed that by nine months, babies are classifying songs as happy or sad the same way that adults do”
So what makes a happy song?
BYU music professor Susan Kenney, who was not involved in the study, noted some of the technical difference between the happy and sad songs the babies heard.
“The happy songs were all in major keys with fairly short phrases or motives that repeated,”Kenney said, “The tempo(节拍)and melodic rhythms were faster than any of the sad ones,and the molodies had a general upward direction.The sad songs were in minor keys and all had a slower beat and long melodic rhythms.For a baby to notice those differences is interesting and attractive.”
The phrase “the opposite”in Paragraph 3 refers to “___”.
A.telling the difference between Ode to Joy and other songs |
B.picking out a sad tune from happy ones |
C.looking away from the face three to four sections longer |
D.showing they’re not interested in the change of tunes |
This musical study shows that___.
A.all babies are gifted in music |
B.music represents what babies want to tell us |
C.babies understand music emotionally even before they can talk |
D.the behavior of babies should be further studied |
How do babies distinguish different tunes according to Kenny?
A.By the tempo and rhythms |
B.By their emotion |
C.By their common sense |
D.By their interest |
Which section of a newspaper does this passage probably belong to?
A.Science |
B.Culture |
C.Education |
D.Entertainment |