2005年上海交大考博英语真题

passage one

Why do people always want to get up and dancewhen they hear music? The usual explanation is that there is something embededin every culture-----that dancing is a “cultural universal”. A researcher in Manchester thingks theimpulse may be more deeply rooted than that. He says it may be a reflexreaction.

Neil Todd,apsychologist at the University of Manchester. told theBA that he first got an inkling that biology was the key after watching peopledance to deafeningly loud music.“There is a compulsion about it.”he says.Hereckoned there might be a more direct,biological,explanation for the disre todance,so he started to look at the inner ear.

The human ear hastwo main functions:hearing and maintaining balance.The standard view is thatthese tasks are segregated so that organs for balance,for insance,do not havean acoustic function.But Todd says animal studies have shown that thesacculus,which is part of the balance---regulating vestibular system,has retainsome sensitivity to sound.The sacculus is especially sensitive to extremelyloud noise,above 70 decibel.

“There’s noquestion that in a contemporary dance environment,the sacculus will bestimulated.”says Todd.The average rave,he says,blares music at a painful 110 to140 decibels.But no one really knows what an acoustically stimulated sacculusdoes.

Todd speculatesthat listening to extremely loud music is a form of “vestibularself-stimulation”:it gives a heightened sensation of motion. “We don’t knowexactly why it causes pleasure.”he says.”But we know that people go toextraordinary length to get it.”He list bungee jumping,playing on swings oreven rocking to and fro in a rocking chair as other example of pursuits designedto stimulate the sacculus.

The same pulsingthat makes us feel as though we are moving may make us get up and dancesas well,says Todd.Loud music sends signals to the inner ear which may prompt reflexmovement. “The typical pulse rate of dance music is around the rate of locomotion.”hesays,“It’s quite possible you’re triggering a spinal reflex.”

61.The passage begins with______

A. a new explanation of music B. a cultural universal questioned

C. a common psychological abnormality D. a deep insight into human physicalmovenents

62.What intrigued Todd was ______

A.human instinct reflexes

B.people’s biological heritages

C.people’s compulsion about loud music

D.the damages loud music wrecks on humanhearing

63.Todd’s biological explanationfor the desire to dance refers to_____

A.themechanism of hearing sounds

B.the response evoked from the sacculus

C.the two main functions performed by thehuman ear

D.the segregation of the hearing and balancemaintaining function

64.When the sacculus isacoustically stimulated,according to Todd_____

A.functional balance will be maintained inthe ear

B.pleasure will be aroused

C.decibel will shoot up

D.hearing will occur

65.What is the passage mainlyabout?

A.The human ear does more than hearing thanexpcted.

B.Dancing is capable of heighten thesensation of hearing

C.Loud music stimulates the inner ear andgenerates the urge to dance

D.The human inner ear does more to help hearthan to help maintain balance.

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