四六级

　　你喜欢在学习或者工作的时候戴着耳机听背景音乐吗？有可能你最初的想法是想着这样可以“安静”一些，或者这样更加可以集中精力学习或者工作，但实际上，这样的做法可能会适得其反。最近一份来自英国和瑞典的科学家研究发现，听背景音乐去工作或者学习并不会让你的创造力增强，相反，可能会给你带来破坏性的影响。

　　很多人喜欢在学习或工作时播放背景音乐，认为能帮助改善情绪、激发创造力，然而这种做法可能适得其反。英国和瑞典科学家的一项研究发现，背景音乐非但对发挥创造力无用，反而会造成破坏性影响。

　　From Mozart to Metallica, tons of people enjoy listening to various types of music while they paint, write, or draw. Many believe that music helps boost creativity, but an international study conducted by English and Swedish researchers is challenging that notion1.

　　上标注解：

　　1.notion

　　n. 概念；见解；打算

　　关联例子：

　　Feminism is the radical notion that all people are equal, not the same but equal.— Betty Folliard, Twin Cities, "Betty Folliard: ERA 2020 — let’s finish what the suffragists started," 25 Aug. 2019

　　女权主义是一种激进的观念，即所有人都是平等的，不是相同的，而是平等的。

　　这里注意区分：单词notion和idea, concept, conception, thought, impression的区别

　　从莫扎特到金属乐队，无数人在写作或绘画时喜欢听各种音乐。许多人认为音乐有助于激发创造力，但一项由英国和瑞典研究人员进行的国际研究正在否定这一观点。

　　Psychologists from Lancaster University, The University of Gävle, and The University of Central Lancashire say that their findings indicate 2 music actually stymies creativity.

　　2.indicate

　　vt. 标示, 指示, 指出

　　关联例子：

　　Instead, the cartridges contained as much as 1,000 mg of THC — more than 150 times what the label indicated, authorities said.— Meg Jones, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Kenosha County brothers charged with operating huge counterfeit vaping cartridge operation," 16 Sep. 2019

　　相反，药筒中含有高达1000毫克的四氢呋喃，是标签上标明的150倍多。

　　这里注意区分：indicate和bespeak, betoken, denote, mean, point的区别

　　兰卡斯特大学、耶夫勒大学和中央兰开夏大学的心理学家表示，他们的发现表明音乐实际上阻碍了创造力。

　　To come to their conclusions, researchers had participants 3 complete verbal insight problems designed to inspire creativity while sitting in a quiet room, and then again while music played in the background. They found that background music “significantly impaired” the participants’ ability to complete tasks associated with verbal creativity.

　　3.participants

　　n. 参加者, 参与者

　　来看一个华盛顿邮报的例子：

　　During the summer program, one of the participants told her he forgot to take his medication and explained what might happen as a result.— Theresa Vargas, Washington Post, "A car struck this filmmaker in a parking lot, changing how she sees her own story and the ones she wants to tell," 14 Sep. 2019

　　在暑期项目中，一位参与者告诉她，他忘了吃药，并解释了结果可能会怎样。

　　这里注意区分：participants和actor, partaker, participator, party, player, sharer的区别

　　研究人员让参与者在安静的房间里完成了一些旨在激发创造力的语言洞察问题，然后让他们在播放背景音乐时再做一次，从而得出了这一结论。研究人员发现，背景音乐“显著地削弱”了参与者完成与语言创造力有关的任务的能力。

　　The research team also tested background noises such as those commonly heard in a library, but found that such noises had no impact 4 on subjects’ creativity.

　　4.impact

　　n. 效果；影响；碰撞；冲击力

　　来看一个来自纽约时报的例子：

　　Mexican asylum applicants, who don’t have to transit through another country to reach the United States, are not impacted by the new policy.— New York Times, "‘This Takes Away All Hope’: Rule Bars Most Applicants for Asylum in U.S.," 12 Sep. 2019

　　墨西哥的避难申请者不必通过另一个国家到达美国，也不会受到新政策的影响。

　　这里注意区分：单词impact和shock, collision, clash的区别

　　研究小组还测试了背景噪音，比如图书馆里经常听到的噪音，但发现这些噪音对受试者的创造力没有影响。

　　The tasks were simple word games. For example, participants were given three words, such as dress, dial, and flower. Then, they were asked to find a single word associated with all three that could be combined 5 to form a common phrase or word. The single word, in this case, would be “sun” (sundress, sunflower, etc).

　　5.combined

　　adj. 结合的；组合的

　　关联例子：

　　They combined their holiday with a visit to their relatives.

　　他们既度假, 又走访亲戚。

　　参与者需要完成的任务是一些简单的文字游戏。例如，给参与者三个单词，如dress（裙子）、dial（表盘）和flower（花）。然后，他们被要求找到一个与所有三个词相关的单词，这三个词都可以与其组合成一个常见短语或单词。而在这个例题里，这个单词应该是sun（太阳），可以组成sundress（太阳裙）、sunflower（向日葵）等词。

　　Participants completed the tasks in either a quiet room, or while exposed to three different types of music; music withunfamiliar6 lyrics, instrumental music, or music with familiar lyrics.

　　6.unfamiliar

　　adj. 不熟悉的;不常见的;陌生的

　　再来看一个来自纽约时报的例子：

　　While many career mail carriers and UPS drivers follow familiar routes every day, contract drivers for Amazon are often in unfamiliar territory, reliant on Amazon’s directions.— Patricia Callahan, New York Times, "The Human Cost of Amazon’s Fast, Free Shipping," 5 Sep. 2019

　　这些车队属于一个“联合体”，负责寻找新的玩家。虽然许多职业邮件运营商和ups司机每天都遵循熟悉的路线，但亚马逊的合同司机往往在陌生的领域，依赖亚马逊的指示。

　　参与者要么在一个安静的房间里完成任务，要么一边做题一边听三种不同类型的音乐：歌词不熟悉的音乐、器乐演奏或歌词熟悉的音乐。

　　"We found strong evidence of impaired performance when playing background music in comparison to quiet background conditions 7,” says co-author Dr. Neil McLatchie of Lancaster University.

　　7.condition

　　n. 状况, 状态; 地位

　　来看一个来自今日美国的例子：

　　However, some of the terms and conditions of the program began to bother him over time.— Dalvin Brown, USA TODAY, "Should you really pay monthly to use your at-home printer?," 16 Sep. 2019

　　然而，有些术语和条件是方案开始的，而且是在一段时间之后。

　　这里注意区分：condition和state, status, situation, circumstance的区别

　　这项研究的合著者、兰卡斯特大学的尼尔·麦克拉奇博士表示：“我们发现了强有力的证据来证明这一事实：与安静的背景条件相比，播放背景音乐会使人们的表现受到不利的影响。”

　　Dr. McLatchie and his colleagues theorize that music interferes with the verbal 8 working memory processes of the brain, hindering creativity. Also, as far as the library background noises having seemingly no effect, the study’s authors believe that was the case because library noises create a “steady state” environment that doesn’t disrupt concentration.

　　8.verbal

　　adj. 词语的, 言语的, 字句的

　　再来看一个来自今日美国的例子：

　　Investigators believe a verbal argument turned physical, and Spaulding allegedly punched her multiple times and took away her cell phone.— Lucas Peerman, USA TODAY, "New Mexico man choked a cat, fed it meth, abused his girlfriend, police say," 13 Aug. 2019

　　调查人员认为，一场“口头”的争吵变成了身体上的争吵，斯伯丁据称对她拳打脚踢，并抢走了她的手机。

　　麦克拉奇博士和他的同事认为，音乐干扰了大脑的语言工作记忆过程，阻碍了创造力。至于为什么图书馆的背景噪音似乎没有影响，该研究的作者认为，这是因为图书馆噪音创造了一个“稳定状态”的环境，不会干扰注意力。

　　It’s worth mentioning that even familiar music with well known lyrics impaired participants’ creativity, regardless of whether or not it elicited a positive reaction, or whether participantstypically9 studied or created while listening to music.

　　9.typically

　　adv. 代表性地;作为特色地;典型地

　　来看一个国家评论的例子：

　　In that transatlantic sense, a Canadian or American typically had more in common with an Englander than did a German or Greek.— Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, "Is England Still Part of Europe?," 12 Sep. 2019

　　从大西洋彼岸的意义上讲，加拿大人或美国人与英格兰人的共同点通常比德国人或希腊人多。

　　这里注意区分：typically和commonly, generally, natch, naturally, normally, ordinarily, usually的区别

　　值得一提的是，即使是参与者熟知歌词的音乐也会削弱其创造力，不管它是否引起了积极的反应，也不管参与者是否在听音乐时学习或创作。

　　"To conclude, the findings here challenge the popular view that music enhances creativity, and instead demonstrate that music, regardless of the presence of semantic content (no lyrics, familiar lyrics or unfamiliar lyrics), consistently disrupts 10 creative performance in insight problem solving,” the study reads.

　　10.disrupt

　　vt. 使混乱, 扰乱

　　来看一个国家地理杂志的例子：

　　In 2015, earthquakes disrupted the lives of many Nepalese people, especially those living in small farming villages.— National Geographic, "Nepal Community Service: Sustainable Development and Rural Livelihoods," 10 Sep. 2019

　　2015年，地震扰乱了许多尼泊尔人的生活，特别是那些生活在小农庄的人。

　　研究报告写道：“总而言之，这些研究结果挑战了人们普遍认为音乐能够增强创造力的观点，反而证明了无论音乐的内容是什么（有没有歌词、歌词熟不熟悉），音乐总是会干扰人们解决洞察力问题的创造性表现。”