Some current research by staff of the Department of Music

You are going to read four descriptions of research being carried out by staff of a music college. For questions 47-56, choose from the extracts (A-D). The extracts may be chosen more than once.

 

Which section mentions the following...

47.- some unexpected information concerning a particular musician? _____

48.- a description of the methodology used to generate data? _____

49.- the researcher's hope that future research will be carried out into the same materials? _____

50.- how some of the material in a planned book will be structured? _____

51.- a wish to assist performers? _____

52.- the use of source material not previously known? _____

53.- exploration of the business context in which performances were given in a particular period? _____

54.- the influence that artists had on one another?_____

55.- how discoveries in the field of music relate to ones in an academic discipline other than music? _____

56.- the use of materials that have previously been studied from a different perspective? _____

 

Some current research by staff of the Department of Music

A

Bernice Mitchell is engaged in researching law-court records from London in the first half of the 18th century, lar the light they throw on the city 's professional music world of the time. While the materials are familiar to legal researchers, this is thought to be the first time that their relevance to the history of music has been recognised. One objective of the research is to provide guidance on access to the materials and on their interpretation, in the expectation that more scholars will be encouraged to investigate this fascinating resource. To date, Mitchell 's research has concentrated on the opera houses, and the documents have yielded considerable new insights into numerous issues, including their management, contracts with singers, musicians and composers, their working conditions, and performance fees. Mitchell is about to broaden her research, to include a detailed comparison between the 18th- and 21st-century conditions in which opera houses flourished - or not, as the case may be!.

 

B

James Rowe's project is being carried out in collaboration with London's Science Museum. Visitors are asked to participate in a series of experiments designed to yield information about the effect of music on the perception of time passing, and so far, more than 800 people have taken part. Participants listen to a piece of music , and are then asked about its duration and their responses to it, including enjoyment and familiarity. They are also asked about personal details, including their musical preferences and level of musical training, if any. Preliminary findings indicate that people who enjoy the music think it lasted longer than those who dislike it. In a follow-up experiment, visitors are asked to memorise a list of random words while listening: this appears to have the effect of shortening the perceived duration of the music. Some of the findings are in line with current theories in psychology about the perception of time , while others appear to contradict them. The results of the research will be published next year.

 

C

 The topic that Colin Saunderson has chosen for his current research is the creative milieu of Paris in the early 20th century, when musicians, painters, sculptors, intellectuals and many others contributed to a ferment of creativity that left its mark on all concerned. Although the topic has already been well researched, a recently discovered archive of unpublished letters is proving a mine of information on the response of the common man and woman - the concert audiences - to the immense creativity they observed. It is also adding some surprising detail on the mannerisms of several famous musicians. The research takes into account amateur music-making at that time, and the use of music in plays. Saunderson hopes the volume he is engaged in writing will provide a more nuanced view of that world than many of the existing studies. One section will quote extensively from the letters, with the extracts presented on a month-by-month basis. The intention is that this will give the reader a sense of history unfolding in front of their eyes.

 

D

Ray Hutchinson has published numerous books and articles on the physical and psychological demands of music-making, and in his latest research, he is focusing on how musicians manage the daily challenge of making ends meet, and the influence of career insecurity on their way of life. Many of those who are not on the payroll of a permanent orchestra or music college live a hand-to-mouth existence, all too often forced to supplement their meagre and sporadic income by working in ways that will allow them to take time off when the musical engagements come in; for example, Hutchinson interviewed a professional flautist whose bread-and-butter job , rather incongruously, is as a butler who can be hired by the day! Hutchinson's aim is not only to discover the survival strategies that musicians employ, but also to share tips and resources, in order to help them to maximise their professional opportunities.

 

O’Dell, Felicity (2015) Advanced Trainer. 2^nd edition. Reading and Use of English Part 8 Test 5. Cambridge University Press: Dubai. Pages 162 and 163.

Yukon: Canada's Wild West

You are going to read an extract from a magazine article. Six paragraphs have been removed from the extract. Choose from the paragraphs A-G the one which fits each gap (41-46). There is one extra paragraph which you do not need to use.

 

Yukon: Canada's Wild West

A modern-day minerals rush threatens one oi North America's last great wildernesses

 

Shawn Ryan recalls the hungry years, before his first big strike. The prospector and his family were living in the Yukon, in a metal shack on the outskirts of Dawson, the Klondike boomtown that had declined to a ghostly remnant of its glory days. They had less than $300 and no running water or electricity. One night, as wind sneaked through gaps in the walls , Ryan's wife, Cathy Wood, worried aloud that they and their two children might even freeze to death.

 

41.-_____

The minerals rush has reanimated Dawson's bars and hostels, whose facades glow in pastel hues during midsummer's late-night sunset. The scene could be from more than a century ago, with bearded men bustling along wooden sidewalks and muddy streets, stopping to chat and trade rumors of the latest strikes and price spikes.

 

42.-_____

 

It's well worth that investment in technology and people . The claim-staking boom may have cooled since the price of gold has stabilized, but an ongoing high demand for minerals and the Yukon's industry-friendly regulations continue to attract mining companies from as far away as China. Shawn Ryan's business is as successful as any of them.

 

43.-_____

 

In his small office , radios and bear-spray canisters surround a trio of computer screens atop a plywood table. A self-taught geologist, Ryan uses the left-hand screen to display the colored maps he generates from his ever-growing database of soil samples, looking for anomalies that might betray a hidden body of precious ore. On the center sereen, a blue grid overlays a map of the Yukon, showing the claims he currently owns; since 1996, he and his crews have staked more than 55,000 claims, enough to cover a landmass larger than Jamaica. Ryan uses the right-side screen to track his gold-related holdings, which notch up in value whenever an economic jolt sends investors fleeing to precious metals.

 

44.-_____

 

Trish Hume, for example, has expressed concern. Though she is involved in mapping work that's mining related, she worries that the Yukon is reaching a tipping point where the environmental and cultural costs of mining outweigh the benefits. "The people coming up and taking out minerals aren't asking what happens to the animals we hunt, the fish we eat, the topsoil that holds it all together. And when the boom is over, how does our tiny population afford to c1ean up the toxic mess?" The population is small, but the area of the Yukon is enormous.

 

45.-_____

 

Walled off by some of the country's highest peaks and largest glaciers, the territory is almost completely unsettled, its sparse population scattered over a few small communities and the capital, Whitehorse. It is also rich in wildlife, an Arctic safari park whose extreme seasonal shifts beckon vast herds of caribou and other animals into motion.

 

46.-_____

 

It is crucial that such a remarkable environment, as this c1early is, is not lost for ever, destroyed by the businesses anxious to exploit its mineral wealth for their own ends.

 

A.-

It is even larger than the state of California, but with only 37,000 inhabitants, it drives an immense wedge between Alaska and the bulk of Canada. From its north coast, the Yukon stretches to the south and south-east, taking in tremendous expanses of lake-dotted tundra, forests, mountains, wetlands, and river systems.

 

B.-

At his expanding compound at the edge of town, helicopters thump overhead, fetching GPS-equipped prospectors to and from remote mountain ridges. Ryan F is 50 years old, but he radiates the eagerness and intensity of a much younger mano "This is the biggest geochemical exploration project on the planet right now," he says, his grin revealing a couple of missing upper teeth, "and maybe in history."

 

C.-

Today, the couple could buy-and heat-just about any house on Earth. Ryan's discovery of what would eventually amount to billions of dollars' worth of buried treasure has helped reinfect the Yukon with gold fever, and fortune seekers have stormed the Canadian territory in numbers not seen since the 1890s.

 

D.-

In contrast, the Yukon's early inhabitants hunted bison, elk, caribou, woolly mammoths, waterfowl, and fish, and they competed for resources with carnivores such as wolves and Beringian lions. Due to c1imate warming and other factors, some of these animals died off. But others, such as the barren-ground caribou, thrived in such numbers that native peoples adapted their own movements and lifestyles to the animals' migrations.

 

E.-

Such creatures are especially to be found in the Peel watershed, an immense wilderness which drains an area larger than Scotland. "The Peel watershed is one of the few places left where you still have large, intact predator-prey ecosystems," says a representative of the Yukon Conservation Society. "From wolves and grizzlies and eagles on down, it's a wildlife habitat of global importance."

 

F.-

As the material needs of the world's seven billion people continue to grow, the rush to exploit the Yukon's exceptionally rich resources-gold, zinc, copper, and more- has brought prosperity to a once forsaken corner of the continent. But the boom has brought to the fore a growing tension between those who would keep one of North America's last great wildernesses unbroken and those whose success depends on digging it up.

 

G.-

But in other ways, things are different now. During the first Klondike stampede, prospectors plied nearby creeks with picks and pans and shovels, and a bartender could sweep up a small fortune in spilled gold dust at the end of a big night. Nowadays, mining's heavy lifting is done by a mechanized army of bulldozers, drilling rigs, and flown-in workers.

 

O’Dell, Felicity (2015) Advanced Trainer. 2^nd edition. Reading and Use of English Part 7 Test 2. Cambridge University Press: Dubai. Pages 83 and 84.

The early human race

For questions 9-16, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0). 

 

The early human race

 

Scientists traditionally believed that a species which ranged over parts of Africa, Europe and Asia, eventually developed (0)_INTO_ both Homo sapiens (the species modern human beings belong to) and Neanderthals. (9)_________ Neanderthals, who evolved in Europe and Asia, Homo sapiens emerged in Africa, later spreading into Europe and replacing Neanderthals.

 

Not (10)_________ ago, some remains of what appeared to be a distinct species of early human beings were found in Siberia, but it was far (11)_________ clear where this group - given the name 'Denisovans' - fitted into the picture. They were assumed to have hardly (12)_________ connection with Homo sapiens. However, tests on fossils in Spain have uncovered DNA that includes Denisovan material. This suggests that they, or at (13)_________ their DNA, might have spread much further than was previously thought, interbreeding (14)_________. Horno sapiens, and possibly also Neanderthals. (15)_________ the precise connection may have been, the population dynamics are potentially very complex.

 

We would know nothing about the relationship were (16)_________ not for recent advances in DNA retrieval and sequencing.

 

O’Dell, Felicity (2015) Advanced Trainer. 2^nd edition. Reading and Use of English Part 2 Test 4. Cambridge University Press: Dubai. Page 131.

Three theories about sleep

For questions 1-8, read the text below and decide which answer (A, B, C or D) best fits each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0).

 

Three theories about sleep

 

People spend about one-third of their lives asleep. It seems certain, therefore, that sleep has a (0)_B)_VITAL_ function. However, what that function might be is still in (1)__________. Scientists are far from being in agreement about (2)__________ why so much of our precious time is given over to sleep.

 

There seem to be three main theories. The most popular states that the functions and (3)__________ of sleep are primarily physiological. It claims that we sleep in order to (4)__________ the health of our body. In other words, biological processes work hard as we sleep to repair any damage done during the day and to restore ourselves to (5)__________ efficiency. However, a second theory places more emphasis on the learning benefits of sleep. This theory holds that sleep allows us to process the information that we (6)__________ during the day, and asserts that, without sleep, learning would not take place. A third popular theory is (7)__________ on ideas about energy, saying that we need (8)__________ of sleep in order to, in a sense, recharge our batteries and so have an adequate supply of energy for the coming day.

0.- A) chief          B) vital      C) principal  D) focal

1.- A) discussion B) dispute  C) argument D) debate

2.- A)correctly  B)absolutely C)actually D)precisely

3.- A) purposes  B) targets  C) intentions D) points

4.- A) take       B) maintain     C) stay       D) keep

5.- A) strong     B) utter           C) full       D) entire

6.- A) achieve   B) complete   C) reach    D) acquire

7.- A) rooted  B) supported  C) based  D) developed

8.- A) periods    B) eras    C) moments   D) episodes

 

O’Dell, Felicity (2015) Reading and Use of English Test 1 Part 1. 2^nd edition. Cambridge University Press: Dubai. Pages 12 and 13.

Hedgehogs

For questions 9-16, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0).

 

Hedgehogs 

A hedgehog ls a small mammal characterised (0)_BY_ the sharp spines which cover its body. (9)_________ hedgehogs are found in many different parts of the world, none is native to either America or Australia.

AII species of hedgehog share the ability (10)_________ roll into a tight ball when attacked, (11)_________ that their spines point outwards. The effectiveness of this as a defence mechanism , depends, of course , (12)_________ the number of spines the hedgehog has. Some desert hedgehogs have evolved to carry (13)_________ weight, and consequently, they have fewer spines and are thus more likely to attempt to run into their attacker, using their ball rolling ability (14)_________ a last resort.

Hedgehogs are primarily nocturnal and sleep for much of the day, either under cover of bushes (15)_________ in a hole in the ground. Despite the (16)_________. that all hedgehogs can hibernate, not all choose to do so; in suitable conditions, some will stay awake all year round.

 

O’Dell, Felicity (2015) Reading and Use of English Test 1 Part 2. 2^nd edition. Cambridge University Press: Dubai. Pages 16.