Musical chills:The power of“ skin excitement”音乐寒意：“肌肤兴奋”的力量

王雪云

主题语境：音乐 篇幅：330词 建议用时：7分钟

1 When you hear the beginning of your favorite song from the radio， suddenly your neckis covered in goose bumps.

2 It's such a thing that a group of scientists call“ skin excitement”—a feeling of coldcaused not by a drop in temperature or sudden scare， but by the sense of beauty.“ Skinexcitement” can come from a song， a painting， a moving movie scene， or even a be?loved memory—pretty much anything that causes the giving out of pleasure?soaked do?pamine （多巴胺） in your brain. But it does not come for all of us.

3 Your favorite music uncovers a lot about your personality， and so does how you respondto that music. Studies suppose that as few as 55 percent of people experience“ skin ex?citement” when listening to music. And if you count yourself among this group， thegoose bumps on your skin aren't the only giveaway—scientists can read it in yourbrain， too. In a new study published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuro?science， Harvard researchers performed brain scans on 10 students who said they reli?ably got cold when listening to music， and 10 students who didn't. They found that thecold?prone brains may really be excited by stronger emotions.

4 Cold?prone brains are generally more likely to show stronger emotional intelligencethan no?cold brains. Cold?prone brains tend to have unusually active imagination，reflect more deeply on their emotions， and appreciate nature and the beauty of musicand art to a stronger degree than no?cold brains.

5 So， what type of music causes the chills？ It seems that the type is not so important; par?ticipants in the new study reported getting cold from songs of every kind. And any songconnected with a strong emotional memory of the listener can produce the most reliableresults. For me， that's the song Sailing to Philadelphia by Mark Knopfler， which Ilistened to as a kid in the car with my dad， on the way to the summer camp.

Reading

Check

1. What can we learn about“ skin excitement” in the text？

A. It helps to produce dopamine.

B. It is caused by the pain in the skin.

C. It can be experienced by every music listener.

D. It is the human body's reaction to something nice.

2. What does the new study by Harvard researchers mainly find？

A. The percentage of music lovers in students.

B. The solutions to the goose bumps on one's skin.

C. The differences between cold?prone and no?cold brains.

D. The relationship between one's music preference and personality.

3. What are people with cold?prone brains like？

A. Beautiful and intelligent.

B. Emotional and dishonest.

C. Imaginative and sensitive.

D. Brave and strong?minded.

4. What does the text mainly focus on？

A. Responses to music vary among people.

B. A feeling of cold is caused by horrible music.

C. Your favorite music reveals your personality.

D. Favorite music may bring forth goose bumps.

Language

Study

Ⅰ. Difficult sentence in the text

In a new study published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience，Harvard researchers performed brain scans on 10 students who said they reliably got coldwhen listening to music， and 10 students who didnt. 在发表于《社会认知与情感神经科学》杂志的一项新研究中，哈佛大学的研究人员对10名声称在听音乐时确实感到寒冷的学生以及10名没有这种感受的学生进行了脑部扫描。

【点石成金】本句是一个主从复合句。主句是Harvard researchers performed brainscans on 10 students；从句为who said they...who didn't，其中who said...是由who引导的定语从句，修饰先行词10 students；they reliably got cold when listening to music是省略了引导词that 的从句，从句作动词said 的宾语；when listening to music 相当于whenthey were listening to music。在时间状语、条件状语、让步状语等从句中，当主句和从句的主语一致时，可将从句中的主语和be动词同时省略。

Ⅱ. Text?centered chunks

skin excitement 肌肤兴奋

a drop in temperature 温度下降

goose bumps 鸡皮疙瘩

brain scan 脑部扫描

emotional intelligence 情商

active imagination 活躍的想象力

reflect deeply 深思熟虑

appreciate nature 欣赏大自然

stronger degree 更强的程度

type of music 音乐类型

strong emotional memory 强烈的情感记忆

summer camp 夏令营