HANDOUT: MUSIC MATTERS

Useful Vocabulary

• Music Genre: type of music

• adoring fans : people who love a particular band or singer
• background music: music that is played while something else is happening
• a catchy tune: a song that is easy to remember and makes you want to sing it
• classical music: music that is regarded as part of a long, formal tradition
• to download tracks: to obtain music from the Internet
• to have a great voice: to sing well
• to go on tour: to go on a planned series of performances around
a region or country • a huge following: a large number of fans
• live music: music that is listened to while it is performed (not recorded)
• live performance: (see live music)
• a massive hit: a record that sells lots of copies
• a music festival: music performances at a venue often over several days
• musical talent: skilled at music
• to be/sing out of tune: to not be in harmony/to sing the wrong notes
• a piece of music: an item of music
• to play by ear: to play without reading the musical notes
• a pop group: a small group of people who play or sing pop music together
• to read music: to understand and follow written musical notes
• a rock band: a group of musicians that play rock music
• to sing along to: to join in singing
• a sing-song: to sing informally, often with other people
• a slow number: a song with a slow tempo
• to take up a musical instrument: to begin learning a musical instrument
• taste in music: the music someone likes
• to be tone deaf: to be unable to distinguish the different notes in music

Idioms:
 Music to one’s ear
• Meaning: something (often information) very pleasant and enjoyable to
someone ▪ Example: “When my teacher told me that I got the highest mark in
the class for the assignment, it was like music to my ears.”

To ring a bell
▪ Meaning: to sound familiar
▪ Example: “I think I heard this song somewhere. It definitely rings a bell.”

To sound like a broken record

▪ Meaning: to repeat yourself again and again.
▪ Example: “Little children often sound like a broken record and it annoys most
people.”

READING
It was the Greek philosopher Plato who said that music gave 'soul to the universe,
wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life'. According
to the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, it was the 'shorthand of emotion'. From our earliest
societies, we have filled our lives with music. Nowadays, we are increasingly
surrounded by music of all kinds, which we sometimes cannot escape. The difference
in our modern world is that while we listen to more music, we make less.

Why does music affect us so powerfully? Professor of Psychology John Sloboda

believes that there are three reasons for this. Firstly, music is a strong source of
personal associations. Research into the psychology of memory and the psychology of
emotion suggests that close to events of high emotion, your brain takes a 'recording' of
all the other things that were going on at that heightened moment. So, a piece of music
linked to an emotional event in your life may well bring it flooding back when you
hear it again. However, this reaction is unpredictable and, by virtue of its individual
nature, idiosyncratic.

A second important reason is rooted in our physiology, which dictates the range and
organisation of the sounds we call music. Some of the most popular rhythmic patterns
in music reflect rhythms in our own bodies, especially heartbeat and breathing. This
mimicry extends to emotional 2 signals, such as the manipulation of human speech: if
you speak very slowly, pitching your voice down at the end of words and sentences,
anyone listening will assume you are pretty depressed. In the same way, slow music
with a falling cadence engenders a feeling of sadness. Sloboda observes that this is an
'iconic connection': when you listen to music, you make links to innate human
vocalisations of excitement, depression, anger, and so on. This might explain the
universal appeal of many forms of music, since basic human emotions are common to
all cultures.
For Sloboda, the third reason is the most interesting one. He points out that a key
aspect of our emotions is that they are tuned to detect change. The change may be
positive (falling in love, winning the lottery) or negative (sickness, bad luck), but
either way, the message of change is: pay attention now! In general, patterns are easily
recognisable to us humans and, more to the point, so are deviations in patterns. Since
music is essentially pattern in sound, it is easy to see how it can 'hook' its listeners with
subtle variation in melody, structure or rhythm. People pick up on the patterns and
make predictions about what will come next, without needing any formal music
training. When musical surprises happen, emotional responses are guaranteed.

In recent experiments, Sloboda has been plotting emotional highs and lows by having
his subjects move a joystick while they listen to music. In this way, he has been able to
record a trace of their emotional reaction. Interestingly, unlike the associative
memories, these reactions are not idiosyncratic, and by and large, people experience
higher or lower emotion at the same point in the music. This is scientifically useful
because the investigator can isolate those points and question what's going on.

So we may in fact have little control over the roller-coaster ride from sorrow to joy
that music seems to take us on. Some melodies are quite manipulative, working on our
emotions very effectively, and composers have often exploited this to the full: take an
orchestral piece by the Austrian composer Gustav Mahler, for example, which for
most listeners is a gripping and totally involving experience. Such is the raw power of
music, which should never be underestimated.

Read the passage again more carefully and answer questions 1-3, following the advice
given in the Test spot. Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

1 What explanation is given for why a certain piece of music can bring back
memories?

A Music making is still of central importance to our lives.

B If music is playing during a period of emotion, we

register this.

C Our recall of music is highly predictable and universal.

D We remember music more readily than other experiences.

2 According to Sloboda, it is possible for music to

A mirror universal emotions.

B reproduce bodily sounds.

C reflect individual cultures.

D mimic the human voice.

3 Why is the notion of change important to Sloboda's work?

A It is easier to recognise musical patterns if they change.

B His subjects prefer to listen to music that is unpredictable.

C Listeners show better concentration when music varies.

D People never fail to react to the unexpected in music.

Tackling Obesity in the Western World

A Obesity is a huge problem in many Western countries and one which now attracts considerable
medical interest as researchers take up the challenge to find a 'cure' for the common condition of
being seriously overweight. However, rather than take responsibility for their weight, obese
people have often sought solace in the excuse that they have a slow metabolism, a genetic
hiccup which sentences more than half the Australian population (63% of men and 47% of
women) to a life of battling with their weight. The argument goes like this: it doesn't matter how
little they eat, they gain weight because their bodies break down food and turn it into energy more
slowly than those with a so-called normal metabolic rate.
B 'This is nonsense,' says Dr Susan Jebb from the Dunn Nutrition Unit at Cambridge in England.
Despite the persistence of this metabolism myth, science has known for several years that the
exact opposite is in fact true. Fat people have faster metabolisms than thin people. 'What is very
clear,' says Dr Jebb, 'is that overweight people actually burn off more energy. They have more
cells, bigger hearts, bigger lungs and they all need more energy just to keep going.'
C It took only one night, spent in a sealed room at the Dunn Unit to disabuse one of their patients
of the beliefs of a lifetime: her metabolism was fast, not slow. By sealing the room and measuring
the exact amount of oxygen she used, researchers were able to show her that her metabolism
was not the culprit. It wasn't the answer she expected and probably not the one she wanted but
she took the news philosophically.
D Although the metabolism myth has been completely disproved, science has far from
discounted our genes as responsible for making us whatever weight we are, fat or thin. One of
the world's leading obesity researchers, geneticist Professor Stephen O'Rahilly, goes so far as to
say we are on the threshold of a complete change in the way we view not only morbid obesity,
but also everyday overweight. Prof. O'Rahilly's groundbreaking work in Cambridge has proven
that obesity can be caused by our genes. 'These people are not weak- willed, slothful or lazy,'
says Prof. O'Rahilly, 'They have a medical condition due to a genetic defect and that causes them
to be obese.' 
E In Australia, the University of Sydney's Professor Ian Caterson says while major genetic
defects may be rare, many people probably have minor genetic variations that combine to dictate
weight and are responsible for things such as how much we eat, the amount of exercise we do
and the amount of energy we need. When you add up all these little variations, the result is that
some people are genetically predisposed to putting on weight. He says while the fast/slow
metabolism debate may have been settled, that doesn't mean some other subtle change in the
metabolism gene won't be found in overweight people. He is confident that science will,
eventually, be able to 'cure' some forms of obesity but the only effective way for the vast majority
of overweight and obese people to lose weight is a change of diet and an increase in exercise.
F Despite the $500 million a year Australians spend trying to lose weight and the $830 million it
costs the community in health care, obesity is at epidemic proportions here, as it is in all Western
nations. Until recently, research and treatment for obesity had concentrated on behaviour
modification, drugs to decrease appetite and surgery. How the drugs worked was often not
understood and many caused severe side effects and even death in some patients. Surgery for
obesity has also claimed many lives.
G It has long been known that a part of the brain called the hypothalamus is responsible for
regulating hunger, among other things. But it wasn't until 1994 that Professor Jeffery Friedman
from Rockerfeller University in the US sent science in a new direction by studying an obese
mouse. Prof. Friedman found that unlike its thin brothers, the fat mouse did not produce a hitherto
unknown hormone called leptin. Manufactured by the fat cells, leptin acts as a messenger,
sending signals to the hypothalamus to turn off the appetite. Previously, the fat cells were thought
to be responsible simply for storing fat. Prof. Friedman gave the fat mouse leptin and it lost 30%
of its body weight in two weeks.
H On the other side of the Atlantic, Prof. O'Rahilly read about this research with great excitement.
For many months two blood samples had lain in the bottom of his freezer, taken from two
extremely obese young cousins. He hired a doctor to develop a test for leptin in human blood,
which eventually resulted in the discovery that neither of the children's blood contained the
hormone. When one cousin was given leptin, she lost a stone in weight and Prof. O'Rahilly made
medical history. Here was the first proof that a genetic defect could cause obesity in humans. But
leptin deficiency turned out to be an extremely rare condition and there is a lot more research to
be done before the 'magic' cure for obesity is ever found.

Questions 1-8
Reading Passage 1 has seven paragraphs A-H.
From the list of headings below choose the most suitable heading for each paragraph.
Write the appropriate numbers (i-xi) in boxes 1-8 on your answer sheet.
List of headings
i             Obesity in animals
ii            Hidden dangers
iii           Proof of the truth
iv           New perspective on the horizon
v            No known treatment
vi           Rodent research leads the way
vii          Expert explains energy requirements of obese people
viii         A very uncommon complaint
ix           Nature or nurture
x            Shifting the blame                     
xi           Lifestyle change required despite new findings
 

1             Paragraph A

2             Paragraph B 

3             Paragraph C

4             Paragraph D 
5             Paragraph E

6             Paragraph F 

7             Paragraph G

8             Paragraph H 

WRITING: Discussion Essays

In some countries, only a few young people go to classical music concerts or
play classical music. Why? Should young people be encouraged to attend and
learn more?
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