Many people believe that teaching children music makes them smarter, better able to learn

Many people believe that teaching children music makes them smarter, better able to learn new things. But the organizers of a new study say there's no scientific evidence that early musical training affects the intelligence of young people.
An estimated 80 percent of American adults think music lessons improve children's abilily to learn or their performance in school. They say that the satisfaction for learning to play a new song helps a child express creativity.
Researchers at Harvard University, however, have found that there's one thing musi­cal training does not do. They say it does not make children more intelligent. Samuel Mehr is a graduate student at Harvard's School of Education. He said it is wrong to think that learning to play a musical instrument improves a child's intellectual development. He says the evidence comes from studies that measured the mental ability of two groups of 4-year-olds and their parents. One group attended music class, the other went to a class that places importance on the visual arts—arts that can be seen.
The evidence there is 'no'. We found no evidence for any advantage on any of these tests for the kids participating in these music clases, said Mehr.Samuel Mehr says researchers have carried out many studies in an effort to learn whether musical training can make children smarter. He says the results have been mixed. He says only one study seems to show a small percentage increase in IQ, intellectual scores among students after one year of music lessons. He does not believe that IQ is a good measure of child's intelligence. He says researchers in his study compared how well children in the musical training group did on mental processing tasks or projects, then the results were compared to those of children who did not take lessons. There was no evidence that the musical training group did much better on the mental tasks than the other group.
The researchers comfirmed the results with a larger group of children and their par­ents.Mr Mehr says music lessons may not offer children a fast easy way to gain entry to the best schools later of their life. But he says the training is still important for cultural reasons. In his words, We teach music because music is important for us.
【小题1】According to the new study, musical training .A．makes children smarterB．helps a child express creativityC．does not make children more intelligentD．improve children's ability to learn in school【小题2】Samuel Mehr may agree that .A．the children who attended music class are smarter than those who attended arts classB．IQ is a good measure of a child's intelligenceC．we needn't to teach children musicD．music training is still important for cultural reasons【小题3】In order to confirm his view, Samuel Mehr .A．conducted more than one researchB．interviewed many American adults C．taught two groups of 4-yetr-olds music and artsD．offered children a fast way to be admitted to the best schools【小题4】The artical may be taken from a report about .A．healthB．educationC．cultureD．economyC

(答案→)C 解析：人们认为孩子小的时候接受音乐教育可以更聪明。但事实是这样吗？哈佛大学最近的一项研究表示，没有证据支持接受了音乐教育的孩子比没有接受音乐教育的孩子表得更好。【小题1】主旨大意题。文章讲了哈佛大学做的一项研究 ，推翻了人们认为的孩子小时候学习音乐会更聪明的结论。故选C。【小题2】细节理解题。由“ But he says the training is still important for cultural reasons. In his words, We teach music because music is important for us.”可知他认为 音乐对于文化原因还是很重要的。故选D。【小题3】细节理解题。由“Samuel Mehr says researchers have carried out many studies in an effort to learn whether musical training can make children smarter.”可知 Samuel Mehr组织了不止一项研究去论证音乐对孩子早期智力开发的真实作用。故选A。【小题4】主旨大意题。 全文讲了哈佛大学教授做的一项关于音乐开发小孩智力真假与否的研究，因此应该出自教育有关的栏目。health健康；education教育；culture文化；economy经济。故选B。

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