Exercises

1. Practise reading the words from Text A and Text B. Learn their Russian equivalents.

(A) adept, affluent, alert, belligerence, beloved, chord, cliché, to compete, consonant, contour, coach, crescendo, crucial, dissonant, epilepsy, epileptic, to execute, hemisphere, to intersperse, neurosurgeon, neuron, phonograph, ratio, rendezvous, rudimentary, salsa, seizure, serenity, socioeconomic, to soothe, sublime, synapse, technique, transfixed, to vary;

(B) athlete, medal, protégé, semihypnotic.

2. VOCABULARY

(A) 1) to shed light on sth; 2) to tease out; 3) to enhance; 4) to incite; 5) to bring sth up; 6) to hold up; 7) to score; 8) to map out; 9) to be adept at;

(B) 1) to come down to; 2) on autopilot / on automatic pilot; 3) to wind sb up; 4) to psych up; 5) to keep going (Cf: to keep sb going); 6) to distract sb (sb’s attention) from sth; 7) to channel sth into sth.

3. Find in the articles the English for:

(A) 1) пытаясь, предпринимая попытку сделать ч-л; 2) чистая кварта; 3) чистая квинта; 4) в средневековье; 5) человеческий мозг; 6) серое вещество (мозга); 7) височные доли мозга; 8) эпилептический припадок; 9) оперная ария;

10) мозолистое тело (мозга); 11) кора головного мозга;

(B) 1) на Олимпийских Играх в Сиднее; 2) обладатель золотой медали в соревнованиях по академической гребле; 3) спринтер; 4) золотой призёр, боксёр…; 5) сердечный ритм; 6) эстафета (спорт.); 7) полуфинал (спорт.); 8) «скачать» ч-л из Интернета.

4. Explain the meaning of the following word-combinations:

(A) rudimentary knowledge of sth; a line of evidence; bi-manual movements;

(B) a conscious effort; to serve a joint purpose.

5. Say what is meant by:

(A) a laptop; Windows; PET; MRI; salsa; Steinway;

(B) soul (music); Nike.

6. Rephrase the sentences:

1. 1. When a researcher at the recent conference in New York brought up these studies, he got an auditoriumful of laughs. 2. This year, Shaw reported that music can help bridge a socioeconomic gap. 3. Although kids who receive music training often improve somewhat across the board … they just shoot ahead in math.

2. 1. You have to lock off the rest of the world and music helps you do that.

7. Answer the questions and do the following tasks:

A.

1. Give detailed answers to the following questions:

1. What differs the brain of a musician from that of a non-musician?

2. What experiment proves that the temporal lobes of the brain act as the music centre?

3. What evidence confirms the thesis that learning music helps children do better at math?

4. What role do mental rehearsals play in improving a musician’s performance?

2. Interpret the concluding sentence of the article.

C.

1. Fill in the table using the information given in the article:

Music	Effects
1. Michael Jackson, Madonna	maintains a steady pulse of 100-120 beats a minute…
2. Bill Haley…

B.

1. Answer the question:

a) How does the information of this article complement the information provided in Texts A and C? Can you see any contradictions?

8. Do you believe in the effects of music on the human system?

GLOSSARY