reading answers of book review on musicophilia

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Book Review on Musicophilia IELTS Reading Answers

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Updated On Oct 31, 2023

reading answers of book review on musicophilia

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Book Review on Musicophilia IELTS Reading Answers

Recent IELTS Reading Test with Answers - Free PDF

Book Review on Musicophilia is a reading passage that appeared in the recent IELTS Test. Try to find the answers to get an idea of the difficulty level of the passages in the actual reading test. The Reading Module of the IELTS can be the top-scoring category with diligent practice. To achieve the best results in this section, you must understand how to approach and answer the different Question types in the Reading Module.

This page contains – Book Review on Musicophilia IELTS reading answers and its passage for you to practice. If you want more passages to solve, try taking one of our IELTS reading practice tests.

The question types found in this passage are:

Multiple Choice Question (Q. 1-4)
True/False/Not Given (Q. 5-10)
Matching Sentence Endings (Q. 11-14)

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Reading Passage 1

Book review on musicophilia.

Norman M. Weinberger reviews the latest work of Oliver Sacks on music.

A Music and the brain are both endlessly fascinating subjects, and as a neuroscientist specialising in auditory learning and memory, I find them especially intriguing. So I had high expectations of Musicophilia, the latest offering from neurologist and prolific author Oliver Sacks. And I confess to feeling a little guilty reporting that my reactions to the book are mixed.

B Sacks himself is the best part of Musicophilia. He richly documents his own life in the book and reveals highly personal experiences. The photograph of him on the cover of the book-which shows him wearing headphones, eyes closed, clearly enchanted as he listens to Alfred Brendel perform Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata-makes a positive impression that is borne out by the contents of the book. Sacks’ voice throughout is steady and erudite but never pontifical. He is neither self-conscious nor self-promoting.

C The preface gives a good idea of what the book will deliver. In it, Sacks explains that he wants to convey the insights gleaned from the “enormous and rapidly growing body of work on the neural underpinnings of musical perception and imagery, and the complex and often bizarre disorders to which these are prone.” He also stresses the importance of “the simple art of observation” and “the richness of the human context.” He wants to combine “observation and description with the latest in technology,” he says, and to imaginatively enter into the experience of his patients and subjects. The reader can see that Sacks, who has been practicing neurology for 40 years, is torn between the “old-fashioned” path of observation and the new-fangled, high-tech approach: He knows that he needs to take heed of the latter, but his heart lies with the former.

D The book consists mainly of detailed descriptions of cases, most of them involving patients whom Sacks has seen in his practice. Brief discussions of contemporary neuroscientific reports are sprinkled liberally throughout the text. Part, “Haunted by Music,” begins with the strange case of Tony Cicoria, a nonmusical, middle-aged surgeon who was consumed by a love of music after being hit by lightning. He suddenly began to crave listening to piano music, which he had never cared for in the past. He started to play the piano and then to compose music, which arose spontaneously in his mind in a “torrent” of notes. How could this happen? Was the cause psychological? (He had had a near-death experience when the lightning struck him.) Or was it the direct result of a change in the auditory regions of his cerebral cortex? Electroencephalography (EEG) showed his brain waves to be normal in the mid-1990s, just after his trauma and subsequent “conversion” to music. There are now more sensitive tests, but Cicoria has declined to undergo them; he does not want to delve into the causes of his musicality. What a shame!

E Part II, “A Range of Musicality,” covers a wider variety of topics, but unfortunately, some of the chapters offer little or nothing that is new. For example, chapter 13, which is five pages long, merely notes that the blind often has better hearing than the sighted. The most interesting chapters are those that present the strangest cases. Chapter 8 is about “amusia,” an inability to hear sounds like music, and “dysharmonia,” a highly specific impairment of the ability to hear harmony, with the ability to understand melody left intact. Such specific “dissociations” are found throughout the cases Sacks recounts.

F To Sacks’s credit, part III, “Memory, Movement and Music,” brings us into the underappreciated realm of music therapy. Chapter 16 explains how “melodic intonation therapy” is being used to help expressive aphasic patients (those unable to express their thoughts verbally following a stroke or other cerebral incident) once again become capable of fluent speech. In chapter 20, Sacks demonstrates the near-miraculous power of music to animate Parkinson’s patients and other people with severe movement disorders, even those who are frozen into odd postures. Scientists cannot yet explain how music achieves this effect

G To readers who are unfamiliar with neuroscience and music behavior, Musicophilia may be something of a revelation. But the book will not satisfy those seeking the causes and implications of the phenomena Sacks describes. For one thing, Sacks appears to be more at ease discussing patients than discussing experiments. And he tends to be rather uncritical in accepting scientific findings and theories.

H It’s true that the causes of music-brain oddities remain poorly understood. However, Sacks could have done more to draw out some of the implications of the careful observations that he and other neurologists have made and of the treatments that have been successful. For example, he might have noted that the many specific dissociations among components of music comprehension, such as loss of the ability to perceive harmony but not melody, indicate that there is no music center in the brain. Because many people who read the book are likely to believe in the brain localisation of all mental functions, this was a missed educational opportunity.

I Another conclusion one could draw is that there seem to be no “cures” for neurological problems involving music. A drug can alleviate a symptom in one patient and aggravate it in another or can have both positive and negative effects in the same patient. Treatments mentioned seem to be almost exclusively antiepileptic medications, which “damp down” the excitability of the brain in general; their effectiveness varies widely.

J Finally, in many of the cases described here the patient with music-brain symptoms is reported to have “normal” EEG results. Although Sacks recognises the existence of new technologies, among them far more sensitive ways to analyze brain waves than the standard neurological EEG test, he does not call for their use. In fact, although he exhibits the greatest compassion for patients, he conveys no sense of urgency about the pursuit of new avenues in the diagnosis and treatment of music-brain disorders. This absence echoes the book’s preface, in which Sacks expresses fear that “the simple art of observation may be lost” if we rely too much on new technologies. He does call for both approaches, though, and we can only hope that the neurological community will respond.

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Questions 1-4

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write your answers in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.

1 Why does the writer have a mixed feeling about the book?

A The guilty feeling made him so.

B The writer expected it to be better than it was.

C Sacks failed to include his personal stories in the book.

D This is the only book written by Sacks.

2 What is the best part of the book?

A the photo of Sacks listening to music

B the tone of voice of the book

C the autobiographical description in the book

D the description of Sacks’ wealth

3 In the preface, what did Sacks try to achieve?

A make a herald introduction of the research work and technique applied

B give a detailed description of various musical disorders

C explain why he needs to do away with the simple observation

D explain why he needs to do away with the simple observation

4 What is disappointing about Tony Cicoria’s case?

A He refuses to have further tests.

B He can’t determine the cause of his sudden musicality.

C He nearly died because of the lightning.

D His brain waves were too normal to show anything.

Questions 5-10

Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in the Reading Passage?

In boxes 5-10 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the views of the writer

FALSE if the statement contradicts with the views of the writer

NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

5 It is difficult to give a well-reputable writer a less than totally favorable review.

6 Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata is a good treatment for musical disorders.

7 Sacks believes technological methods are of little importance compared with traditional observation when studying his patients.

8 It is difficult to understand why music therapy is undervalued.

9 Sacks held little skepticism when borrowing other theories and findings in describing reasons and notions for phenomena he depicts in the book.

10 Sacks is in a rush to use new testing methods to do treatment for patients.

Questions 11-14

Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-F, below.

Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 11-14 on your answer sheet.

11 The content covered dissociations in understanding between harmony and melody

12 The study of treating musical disorders

13 The EEG scans of Sacks’ patients

14 Sacks believes testing based on new technologies

A show no music-brain disorders.

B indicates that medication can have varied results.

C is key for the neurological community to unravel the mysteries.

D should not be used in isolation.

E indicate that not everyone can receive a good education.

F show a misconception that there is a function centre localized in the brain

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Answers of Book Review on Musicophilia Reading Answers With Explanation

Read further for the explanation part of the reading answer.

1 Answer: B

Question type: Multiple Choice Question

Answer location: Paragraph A, line 2-line 3

Answer explanation: In the given location, it is given that “ So I had high expectations of Musicophilia, the latest offering from neurologist and prolific author Oliver Sacks. And I confess to feeling a little guilty reporting that my reactions to the book are mixed. ” . These lines point out that the author finds himself guilty of having mixed feelings about the book while reporting as he had high expectations (expected it to be better than it was). Hence, the answer is B (The writer expected it to be better than it was.).

2 Answer: C

Answer location: Paragraph B, line 1-line 2

Answer explanation: In the specified lines, it is given that “ Sacks himself is the best part of Musicophilia. He richly documents his own life in the book and reveals highly personal experiences. ” . It proves that the best part of the book (Musicophilia) was the rich description of the author’s own life and personal experiences (autobiographical description). Hence, the answer is C (the autobiographical description in the book).

3 Answer: A

Answer location: Paragraph C, line 2 -line 3

Answer explanation: In the mentioned lines, it is stated that “ In it, Sacks explains that he wants to convey the insights gleaned …also stresses the importance of “the simple art of observation” and “the richness of the human context.” ” . It can be concluded that in the preface, Sacks had provided a detailed introduction of the research (insights) and the technique applied (simple art of observation and richness of human context). Hence, the answer is A (make a herald introduction of the research work and technique applied).

4 Answer: A

Answer location: Paragraph D, line 10- line 11

Answer explanation: In the cited lines, it is stated that “ There are now more sensitive tests, but Cicoria has declined to undergo them; he does not want to delve into the causes of his musicality. What a shame! ”. Based on the comment of the author (What a shame), it can be concluded that he found it disappointing that Cicoria refused (declined) to have further tests (more sensitive tests). Hence, the answer is A (He refuses to have further tests.).

5 Answer: True

Question type: True/False/Not Given

Answer location: Paragraph A, line 3

Answer explanation: In the mentioned line, it is given that “ And I confess to feeling a little guilty reporting that my reactions to the book are mixed. ”. Based on this reference, it can be concluded that the author is feeling guilty of giving a mixed reaction as according to him, it is difficult to give a well-reputable writer, like Oliver Sacks anything less than a favorable review. As the statement agrees with the views of the writer, the answer is True.

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6 Answer: Not Given

Answer location: N.A.

Answer explanation: Although there is a reference to Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata in the passage, there is no mention of whether it is a good treatment for musical disorders. Hence, the answer is Not Given.

7 Answer: False

Question type: Matching Features

Answer location: Paragraph C, line 4

Answer explanation: In the cited lines, it is stated that “ He wants to combine “observation and description with the latest in technology,” he says, and to imaginatively enter into the experience of his patients and subjects. ”. Based on these references, it can be concluded that Sacks wanted to apply the latest technological advances to study his patients, even though he did not do that in the end. As the statement contradicts with the views of the writer, the answer is False.

8 Answer: Not Given

Answer explanation: Although there is a mention that in Part III, Sacks brings out the underappreciated realm of music therapy, there is no mention of the reasons it is difficult to understand this undervalue. Hence, the answer is Not Given.

9 Answer: True

Answer location: Paragraph G, line 4

Answer explanation: The given lines specify that “ And he tends to be rather uncritical in accepting scientific findings and theories. ”. It is indicated that Sacks had little skepticism (was rather uncritical) about accepting or borrowing other scientific findings and theories. As the statement agrees with the views of the writer, the answer is True.

10 Answer: False

Answer location: Paragraph J, line 2

Answer explanation: In Paragraph J, it is mentioned that “ Although Sacks recognises the existence of new technologies, among them far more sensitive ways to analyze brain waves than the standard neurological EEG test, he does not call for their use.” . It shows that even though Sacks recognized the new methods, he did not use them or was in no rush to use them. As the statement contradicts with the views of the writer, the answer is False.

11 Answer: F

Question type: Matching Sentence Endings

Answer location: Paragraph H, line 3

Answer explanation: In Paragraph H, it is noted that “ For example, he might have noted that the many specific dissociations among components of music comprehension, such as loss of the ability to perceive harmony but not melody, indicate that there is no music center in the brain.” . Based on the reference, it can be said that Sanks noted many dissociations between harmony and melody (the ability to perceive harmony and not melody) indicate the fact that the function centre located in the brain is a misconception. Hence, the answer is F (show a misconception that there is a function centre localized in the brain).

12 Answer: B

Answer location: Paragraph I, line 1-line 2

Answer explanation: In the mentioned portion, it is reported that “ Another conclusion one could draw is that there seem to be no “cures” for neurological problems involving music. A drug can alleviate a symptom in one patient and aggravate it in another or can have both positive and negative effects in the same patient. ”. It can be concluded that from the study of musical disorders, a second conclusion has been made that medication for neurological problems related to music can have different/varied effects on different people. Hence, the answer is B (indicates that medication can have varied results.).

13 Answer: A

Answer location: Paragraph J, line 1

Answer explanation: In the mentioned line, it is given “ Finally, in many of the cases described here the patient with music-brain symptoms is reported to have “normal” EEG results. ”. It can be deduced from this statement that even for patients with music-brain disorders, the ECG scan shows no signs of disorders. It means that Sacks failed to find any symptoms. Hence, the answer is A (show no music-brain disorders.).

14 Answer: D

Answer location: Paragraph J, line 4- line 5

Answer explanation: In the quoted lines, it is stated that “ This absence echoes the book’s preface, in which Sacks expresses fear that “the simple art of observation may be lost” if we rely too much on new technologies. He does call for both approaches… ”. It can be pointed out that Sacks believed that relying completely on new technology will result in loss of observation and therefore should not be used alone. As a result, he stressed on the use of both. Hence, the answer is D (should not be used in isolation.).

Tips for Answering the Question Type in the above Reading Passage

Let us check out some quick tips to answer the type of questions in the ‘Book Review on Musicophilia ’ IELTS Reading Answers passage.

True/False/Not Given:

True/False/Not Given questions are a type of IELTS Reading question that requires you to identify whether a statement is true, false, or not given in the passage.

True statements are statements that are explicitly stated in the passage.
False statements are statements that are explicitly contradicted in the passage.
Not Given statements are statements that are neither explicitly stated nor contradicted in the passage

To answer True/False/Not Given questions, you need to be able to understand the passage and identify the key information. You also need to be able to distinguish between statements that are explicitly stated, contradicted, and not given.

Multiple Choice Questions:

You will be given a reading passage followed by several questions based on the information in the paragraph in multiple choice questions. Your task is to understand the question and compare it to the paragraph in order to select the best solution from the available possibilities.

Before reading the passage, read the question and select the keywords. Check the keyword possibilities if the question statement is short on information.
Then, using the keywords, read the passage to find the relevant information.
To select the correct option, carefully read the relevant words and match them with each option.
You will find several options with keywords that do not correspond to the information.
Try opting for the elimination method mostly.
Find the best option by matching the meaning rather than just the keywords.

Great work on attempting to solve the reading passage! To crack IELTS Reading in the first go, Try solving more of the recent IELTS reading passages here.

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IELTS AC Reading: Cambridge 13 Test 4; Reading Passage 3: Book Review; with best solutions and detailed explanations

This IELTS Reading post deals with Cambridge 13 Reading Test 4 Passage 3 which is entitled ‘Book Review’ . This post discusses all the answers and solutions for Reading Passage 3. This is another intended post for candidates who have the most difficulties in finding and understanding IELTS Reading Answers. This post can simply guide you the best to figure out every Reading answer without trouble. Finding IELTS Reading answers is a step-by-step routine and I hope this post can assist you in this topic.

Cambridge 13 Reading Test 4 Passage 3 :

The headline of the passage: book review.

Questions 27-29: (Multiple Choice Questions)

[ Multiple choice questions are a common type of question set in the IELTS Reading test. It is also found in the Listening test. Most of the time, they come with four options but sometimes there are three options. Candidates need to work hard for this type of question because this may confuse them easily in passage 2 or passage 3. There will be long answers for each question, so they may kill valuable time. So, a quick reading or skimming technique might come handy here. Remember that answers in 3 options out of 4 will be very close. So, vocabulary power will help a lot to choose the best answer.]

[ TIPS: Skimming is the best reading technique. You need not understand every word here. Just try to gather the gist of the sentences. That’s all. Read quickly and don’t stop until you finish each sentence.]

Question 27: What is the reviewer’s attitude to advocates of positive psychology?

Keywords for this question: reviewer’s attitude, advocates of positive psychology

We can find the reference to ‘positive psychology’ in line 6 of paragraph no. 1. Here, the writer defines ‘positive psychology’. However, the mention of ‘advocates of positive psychology’ is found in line 12 of paragraph no. 2. The writer says in lines 2-5 about them, “Those who think in this way are oblivious to the vast philosophical literature in which the meaning and value of happiness have been explored and questioned, and write as if nothing of any importance had been thought on the subject until it came to their attention .”

Here, as if nothing of any importance had been thought on the subject until it came to their attention means they are actually ignorant about the ideas which they should consider.

*The word oblivious also means unaware or ignorant .

So, the answer is: D

Question 28: The reviewer refers to the Greek philosopher Aristotle in order to suggest that happiness

Keywords for this question: Aristotle,

We find the mention of Greek philosopher Aristotle in line 7 of paragraph no. 2. So, we need to scan the lines carefully. Here, the writer says in lines 6-10, “For Bentham it was obvious that the human good consists of pleasure and the absence of pain. The Greek philosopher Aristotle may have identified happiness with self-realisation in the 4th century,. .. . .. .. . but for Bentham all this was mere metaphysics or fiction.” The writer discusses here that Bentham considers happiness as only with pleasure and with the absence of pain. But for Aristotle it was not only pleasure and absence of pain. Rather, it was something that could be identified by self-realisation, which may not seem correct all the time.

So, the answer is: A

Question 29: According to Davies, Bentham’s suggestion for linking the price of goods to happiness was significant because

Keywords for this question: Davies, Bentham’s suggestion, linking, price of goods,

The answer is in the fourth paragraph, where the writer talks about price of goods. Here, in the last few lines, the writer says, “By associating money so closely to inner experience, Davies writes, Bentham ‘ set the stage for the entangling of psychological research and capitalism that would shape the business practices of the twentieth century’.” The writer explains here that Bentham had associated money or price of goods with inner experience and thus made a connection between work and human psychology.

So, the answer is: B

Questions 30-34: (Summary completion with NO MORE THAN ONE WORD)

[In this kind of question candidates are given a summary for one, two or three paragraphs with some fill in the blanks questions. As these are fill in the blanks or gaps, there is a condition of writing no more than ONE, TWO, or THREE words for each answer and candidates must maintain this condition. Candidates need to find out the related paragraphs by correctly studying the keywords form the questions. Then, they should follow the steps of finding answers to fill in the gaps.]

Title of the summary: Jeremy Bentham

Question 30: In the 1790s he suggested a type of technology to improve _________ for different Government departments.

Keywords for this question: 1790s, technology, to improve, different Government departments

The answer to this question lies in paragraph no. 3, lines 6-7 where the author writes, “In the 1790s, he wrote to the Home Office suggesting that the departments of government be linked together through a set of ‘conversation tubes’.”

These lines indicate that Bentham proposed to the Home office that Governmental departments should establish communication with Home office through ‘conversation tubes’.

So, the answer is: F (communication)

Question 31: He developed a new way of printing banknotes to increase ________

Keywords for this question: developed, new way, printing banknotes

In paragraph no. 3, the author says in lines 8-9, “… and to the Bank of England with a design for a printing device that could produce unforgeable banknotes ”. Here, unforgeable means something that cannot be forged or falsified or falsified. So, this means that Bentham actually developed a new way of printing banknotes to increase safety or security .

So, the answer is: B (security)

Question 32: and also designed a method for the ________ of food.

Keywords for this question: designed, method, food

The reference to food can be found in lines 9-10 of paragraph no. 3. “He drew up plans for a “frigidarium” to keep provisions such as meat, fish, fruit and vegetables fresh.” These lines directly refer to the preservation of food .

So, the answer is: G (preservation)

Question 33: He also drew up plans for a prison which allowed the _______ of prisoners at all times, … .. . .

Keywords for this question: drew up plans, prison, allowed, prisoners

The answer is in lines 10-12 of paragraph no. 3. Here, the author writes, “He celebrated design for a prison to be known as ‘Panoptieon’, in which prisoners would be kept in solitary confinement while being visible at all time to the guards, ….” Here, while being visible = under observation

So, the answer is: E (observation)

Question 34: when researching happiness, he investigated possibilities for its ________, and suggested some methods of doing this.

Keywords for this question: investigated, possibilities, suggested some methods

The answer to this question is also found in lines 1-2 of Paragraph no. 4. “If happiness is to be regarded as a science, it has to be measured ,….” This means Bentham suggested the methods of taking measurement .

So, the answer is: A (measurement)

Questions 35-40 (YES/NO/NOT GIVEN):

[In this type of question, candidates are asked to find out whether:

The statement in the question matches the claim of the writer in the text- YES The statement in the question contradicts the claim of the writer in the text- NO The statement in the question has no clear connection with the account in the text- NOT GIVEN ]

[TIPS: For this type of question, you can divide each statement into three independent pieces and make your way through with the answer.]

Question 35: One strength of The Happiness Industry is its discussion of the relationship between psychology and economics.

Keywords for this question: The Happiness Industry, discussion, relationship, psychology, economics

The answer can be found in the first few lines of paragraph no. 5 “The Happiness Industry describes how the project of a science of happiness has become integral to capitalism . We learn much that is interesting about how economic problems are being redefined and treated as psychological maladies ”. So, it is clear from these lines that there is a strong relationship between psychology and economics.

So, the answer is: YES

Question 36: It is more difficult to measure some emotions than others.

Keywords for this question: difficult to measure, some emotions,

The answer cannot be found in this passage. There is a sentence in paragraph 5 about the feeling of pleasure and displeasure that can be measured which gives further information for research management and advertising. “In addition, Davies shows how the belief that inner states of pleasure and displeasure can be objectively measured has informed management studies and advertising.” But it is not related to this question.

So, the answer is : NOT GIVEN

Question 37: Watson’s ideas on behaviourism were supported by research on humans he carried out before 1915.

Keywords for this question: Watson’s ideas, behaviuorism, supported, research, humans, before 1915

The answer is found in lines 7-9 of paragraph no. 5 which directly contradicts the given question. “When he became president of the American Psychological Association in 1915, he had never even studied a single human being: his research had been confined to experiments on white rats.”

This means Watson’s experiments were on rats , not on humans.

So, the answer is: NO

Question 38: Watson’s ideas have been most influential on governments outside America.

Keywords for this question: Watson’s ideas, most influential, governments outside America

In paragraph 5 there is no information about the impact of Watson’s ideas on countries outside the USA.

So, the answer is: NOT GIVEN

Question 39: The need for happiness is linked to industrialization.

Keywords for this question: need for happiness, linked, industrialization

The answer to this question can be found in the opening sentence paragraph no. 6 which talks about the need for happiness that is connected with labour market. “ Modern industrial societies appear to need the possibility of ever-increasing happiness to motivate them in their labours.” This is a clear match with the question.

Question 40: A main aim of government should be to increase the happiness of the population.

Keywords for this question: main aim, government, increase, happiness of the population

The writer says in lines 2-3 in paragraph no. 6, “But whatever its intellectual pedigree, the idea that governments should be responsible for promoting happiness is always a threat to human freedom .”

Our question asks to find out the aim. But we find out that this is a comment from the author, not a statement on the aim of government.

So, the answer is: NO

Please leave your comments if you like this post or have any queries about it.

Click here for solutions to Cambridge 13 Test 4 Reading Passage 1

Click here for solutions to Cambridge 13 Test 4 Reading Passage 2

36 thoughts on “ IELTS AC Reading: Cambridge 13 Test 4; Reading Passage 3: Book Review; with best solutions and detailed explanations ”

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Why the answer of 40 is not “Not Given”? In the sentence, it doesn’t mention government’s aim at all

I agree with you 🙂 The question designers of IELTS tests design the tests in a way that even the natives connot answer them correctly!!! I don’t understand it is an analytical test or a test for assessment of our English! I don’t comprehend why they are taking so hard! How many languages except their mother language do they know which expect us know English as well as our mother tongue?!

Sorry:( I am a little angry about the vain rigidity that the world has considered for people!

Hahahahhaha, wonderful???

Totally agree!

Initially, I also struggled to understand the explanation for question 40. After carefully scanning again, I finally found out the problem. We suppose to find the synonym of the key word ‘main aim of the government’ which is located in Paragraph 5, line 10 – ‘the goal of governments’. Reading that sentence, we’ll see that the main aim here is to change the behaviour of the population , not to increase their happiness.

Omg thank u

Government has several aims, and even if one of them is changing the behavior of the population, we still can not be sure whether increasing their happiness is their main aim or not, so the detail cant be in that passage

Just to for fun I guess, cause’ it is wrong answer to make a student have a mistake they say the answer is wrong!

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2 mistakes on ques 6 and 40 🙂

May I ask about the mistakes in details please?

I also found some difficulty in que 6 bcz I think it’s a true but it is false..!

Thanks for explanation But why the q 38 is notgiven ? It is obviously said that :In Britain

But it doesn’t mention ‘most influential’

Why some of the passage 3 in book 12 and 13 are too hard?

Hi thank you for all your information with nice flow to compare frequentist vs bayesian approach. I will look forward to next part of the tutorials!!

You’re most welcome!

The ans of third question should be false

Can you explain que no 37 ..here, they are talking about’ before 1915′ also.. But in passage ,it is mentioned that ‘ he became president in 1915’..

This means Watson’s experiments were on rats, not on humans.

I am from Vietnam and I wish I could do something for you. Since I started to do the tests, this web has helped me a lot

Hello, Thank you for your kind thoughts. My son is extremely sick. As a father, it gives me such a pain to watch him go through this. Please pray for my son.

According to the author’s analysis, the answer 40 seems like a ‘NG’. However, in the last paragraph, the writer gives his own comment that he is not agree with the idea that government should be responsible for promoting happiness, which is just what the question 40 claims. That’s why the answer 40 is a ‘N’ not a ‘NG’, cuz it contradicts the claims of the writer.

How the answer of 35 is yes? AND does it has mentioned that discussing relationship between psychology and economics is the strenght part of The happiness industry?

Thanks a lot.This was helpful

Good day! I always use your system to check my mistakes. The system is perfectly organised. Please, can you give me some advice about reading? I do most of the reading practices but the score is always the same 5.5 or 6.

Hello, I think you can register for some 1-to-1 classes with me. Here, I can help you solve your problems directly. If that sounds good, let me know. Here’s my email: [email protected]

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Many thanks.

Could you explain why the answer for 36 question isn’t No. Could you explain why the answer for 36 isn’t No

because there did not mentioned about emotions, only emphasized pleasure and displeasure

Academic IELTS Reading: Test 1 Reading passage 3; To catch a king; with best solutions and explanations

This Academic IELTS Reading post focuses on solutions to an IELTS Reading Test 1 Reading Passage 3 titled ‘To catch a king’. This is a targeted post for IELTS candidates who have great problems finding out and understanding Reading Answers in the AC module. This post can guide you the best to understand every Reading answer […]

IELTS General Training Reading: Test 2 Section 1; How to choose your builder & Island adventure activities; with complete solutions and best explanations

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Academic Reading Test 22.3

READING PASSAGE 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40 , which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.

Book review on Musiccophilia

Norman M. Weinberger reviews the latest work of Oliver Sacks

A. Music and the brain are both endlessly fascinating subjects, and as a neuroscientist specialising in auditory learning and memory, I find them especially intriguing. So I had high expectations of Musicophilia, the latest offering from neurologist and prolific author Oliver Sacks. [ Crack IELTS with Rob ] And I confess to feeling a little guilty reporting that my reactions to the book are mixed.

B. Sacks himself is the best part of Musicophilia. He richly documents his own life in the book and reveals highly personal experiences. The photograph of him on the cover of the book - which shows him wearing headphones, eyes closed, clearly enchanted as he listens to Alfred Brendel perform Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata-makes a positive impression that is home out by the contents of the book. [ Crack IELTS with Rob ] Sacks’s voice throughout is steady and erudite but never pontifical. He is neither self-conscious nor self-promoting.

C. The preface gives a good idea of what the book will deliver. In it, Sacks explains that he wants to convey the insights gleaned from the “enormous and rapidly growing body of work on the neural underpinnings of musical perception and imagery, and the complex and often bizarre disorders to which these are prone.” He also stresses the importance of “the simple art of observation” and “the richness of the human context.” He wants to combine “observation and description with the latest in technology,” he says, and to imaginatively enter into the experience of his patients and subjects. The reader can see that Sacks, who has been practicing neurology for 40 years, is tom between the ‘old-fashioned path of observation and the new-fangled, high-tech approach: He knows that he needs to take heed of the latter, but his heart lies with the former.

D. The book consists mainly of detailed descriptions of cases, most of them involving patients whom Sacks has seen in his practice. Brief discussions of contemporary neuroscientific reports are sprinkled liberally throughout the text. [ Crack IELTS with Rob ] Part, “Haunted by Music,” begins with the strange case of Tony Cicoria, a nonmusical, middle-aged surgeon who was consumed by a love of music after being hit by lightning. He suddenly began to crave listening to piano music, which he had never cared for in the past. He started to play the piano and then to compose music, which arose spontaneously in his mind in a “torrent” of notes. How could this happen? Was the cause psychological? (He had had a near-death experience when the lightning struck him.) Or was it the direct result of a change in the auditory regions of his cerebral cortex? Electroencephalography (EEG) showed his brain waves to be normal in the mid-1990s, just after his, trauma and subsequent “conversion” to music. There are now more sensitive tests, but Cicoria, has declined to undergo them; he does not want to delve into the causes of his musicality. What a shame! E. Part II, “A Range of Musicality,” covers a wider variety of topics, but unfortunately, some of the chapters offer little or nothing that is new. For example, chapter 13, which is five pages long, merely notes that the blind often has better hearing than the sighted. [ Crack IELTS with Rob ] The most interesting chapters are those that present the strangest cases. Chapter 8 is about “amusia,” an inability to hear sounds as music, and “dysharmonia,” a highly specific impairment of the ability to hear harmony, with the ability to understand melody left intact. Such specific “dissociations” are found throughout the cases Sacks recounts.

F. To Sacks’s credit, part III, “Memory, Movement and Music,” bring the US into the underappreciated realm of music therapy. Chapter 16 explains how “melodic intonation therapy” is being used to help expressive aphasic patients (those unable to express their thoughts verbally following a stroke or other cerebral incident) once again become capable of fluent speech. [ Crack IELTS with Rob ] In chapter 20, Sacks demonstrates the near-miraculous power of music to animate Parkinson’s patients and other people with severe movement disorders, even those who are frozen into odd postures. Scientists cannot yet explain how music achieves this effect

G. To readers who are unfamiliar with neuroscience and music behavior, Musicophilia may be something of a revelation. But the book will not satisfy those seeking the causes and implications of the phenomena Sacks describes. For one thing, Sacks appears to be more at ease discussing patients than discussing experiments. [ Crack IELTS with Rob ] And he tends to be rather uncritical in accepting scientific findings and theories.

H. It’s true that the causes of music-brain oddities remain poorly understood. However, Sacks could have done more to draw out some of the implications of the careful observations that he and other neurologists have made and of the treatments that have been successful. For example, he might have noted that the many specific dissociations among components of music comprehension, such as loss of the ability to perceive harmony but not melody, indicate that there is no music center in the brain. Because many people who read the book are likely to believe in the brain localisation of all mental functions, this was a missed educational opportunity.

I. Another conclusion one could draw is that there seem to be no “cures” for neurological problems involving music. A drug can alleviate a symptom in one patient and aggravate it in another, or can have both positive and negative effects in the same patient. [ Crack IELTS with Rob ] Treatments mentioned seem to be almost exclusively antiepileptic medications, which “damp down” the excitability of the brain in general; their effectiveness varies widely.

J. Finally, in many of the cases described here the patient with music-brain symptoms is reported to have “normal” EEG results. Although Sacks recognises the existence of new technologies, among them far more sensitive ways to analyze brain waves than the standard neurological EEG test, he does not call for their use. [ Crack IELTS with Rob ] In fact, although he exhibits the greatest compassion for patients, he conveys no sense of urgency about the pursuit of new avenues in the diagnosis and treatment of music-brain disorders. This absence echoes the book’s preface, in which Sacks expresses fear that “the simple art of observation may be lost” if we rely too much on new technologies. He does call for both approaches, though, and we can only hope that the neurological community will respond.

Questions 27 - 30

Choose the correct letter A , B , C or D .

Write the correct letter in boxes 27-30 on your answer sheet.

27. Why does the writer have a mixed feeling about the book?

Sacks failed to include his personal stories in the book.
This is the only book written by Sacks.
The guilty feeling made him so.
The writer expected it to be better than it was.

28. What is the best part of the book?

the autobiographical description in the book
the description of Sacks ’s wealth
the photo of Sacks listening to music
the tone of voice of the book

29. In the preface, what did Sacks try to achieve?

explain how people understand music
explain why he needs to do away with simple observation
make a herald introduction of the research work and technique applied
give detailed description of various musical disorders

30. What is disappointing about Tony Cicoria’s case?

His brain waves were too normal to show anything.
He refuses to have further tests.
He can’t determine the cause of his sudden musicality.
He nearly died because of the lightening.

Questions 31 - 36

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2?

In boxes 31-36 on your answer sheet, write

YES if the statement agrees with the view of the writer

NO if the statement contradicts the view of the writer

NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

31. YES NO NOT GIVEN It is difficult to give a well-reputable writer a less than totally favorable review.

32. YES NO NOT GIVEN Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata is a good treatment for musical disorders.

33. YES NO NOT GIVEN Sacks believes technological methods is of little importance compared with traditional observation when studying his patients.

34. YES NO NOT GIVEN It is difficult to understand why music therapy is undervalued.

35. YES NO NOT GIVEN Sacks held little skepticism when borrowing other theories and findings in describing reasons and notion for phenomena he depicts in the book.

36. YES NO NOT GIVEN Sacks is in a rush to use new testing methods to do treatment for patients.

Questions 37 - 40

Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-F , below.

Write the correct letter, A-F , in boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet.

List of endings A. show no music-brain disorders. B. indicates that medication can have varied results. C. is key for the neurological community to unravel the mysteries. D. should not be used in Isolation. E. indicate that not everyone can receive a good education. F. show a misconception that there is a function centre localized in the brain.

37. A B C D E F The content covered dissociations in understanding between harmony and melody

38. A B C D E F The study of treating musical disorders

39. A B C D E F The EEG scans of Sacks’s patients

40. A B C D E F Sacks believes testing based on new technologies

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Musicophilia: Tales of music and the brain by Oliver Sacks

By Frances H. Rauscher

5 December 2007

THE cover of Oliver Sacks’s new book shows the author listening to Beethoven’s Pathétique Sonata . He looks ecstatic, which is appropriate for his exploration of the marvels of music, in particular the intricate relationship between music and the brain. Musicophilia is a wonderfully good read.

A renowned neurologist and prolific writer, Sacks was raised in a “house full of music”, though it wasn’t until 1966 when he started working with sleeping sickness patients that he began to wonder about its therapeutic qualities. These patients – the basis for his book Awakenings – had survived an encephalitis outbreak in the…

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Musicophilia Reader’s Guide

By oliver sacks.

Category: Psychology | Music | Self-Improvement & Inspiration

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READERS GUIDE

Introduction, questions and topics for discussion.

1. In the preface Sacks presents differing views on the origins and evolution of the music instinct [p. x]. On first reading, which explanation is the most persuasive? Did the book change or confirm your opinion?

2. Discuss the style and structure of Musicophilia . How does Sacks blend personal anecdotes, case histories, theories, and empirical research into an engaging narrative? How does he bring out the humanity of the patients he describes? What do the explanations of complex brain functions add to the portraits of each individual?

3. Tony Cicoria “grew to think [that he] . . . had been transformed and given a special gift, a mission, to ‘tune in’ to the music that he called, half metaphorically, ‘the music from heaven’”[p. 7]. Is art by its very nature a “spiritual” endeavor? Does Sacks’s conclusion that “even the most exalted states of mind, the most astounding transformations, must have some physical basis or at least some physiological correlate in neural activity” [p. 12] belittle the value of artistic expression?

4. In chapter four (Music on the Brain: Imagery and Imagination) and chapter five (Brainworms, Sticky Music, and Catchy Tunes), Sacks explores normal musical imagery, which almost everyone experiences, and the pathological version, when “music repeats itself incessantly, sometimes maddeningly, for days on end” [p. 44]. Do his explanations of the psychological and neurological components of these phenomena support his suggestion that people are more susceptible to brainworms today because of the pervasiveness of music in our lives [p. 53]? Does Anthony Storr’s theory that even unwanted music has a positive effect [p. 42] mitigate Sacks’s darker outlook?

5. The stories of musical hallucinations demonstrate the disruptive power of music [pp. 54-92]. Using these stories as a starting point, discuss the distinction between the “brain” and the “mind.” What accounts for the different ways people react to involuntary mental intrusions? What do the various coping mechanisms people employ reveal about biological determination and the exercise of choice and free will?

6. “Musicality comprises a great range of skills and receptivities, from the most elementary perceptions of pitch and tempo to the highest aspects of musical intelligence and sensibility…” [p. 104]. What do Sacks’s descriptions of extreme conditions like amusia and disharmonia show about the many factors—neurological, cultural, and experiential—that shape an individual’s response to music?

7. Sacks also introduces people who represent the “highest aspects of musical intelligence and sensibility.” What insights do these examples of extraordinary or unusual gifts offer into average musical sensibilities? What do his examinations of absolute pitch and synesthesia, as well as his stories about musical savants and the high level of musicality among blind people, reveal about the brain’s innate strengths and weaknesses?

8. The story of Clive Wearing is one of the most memorable tales in Musicophilia . While it illustrates the persistence of musical memory with clarity and precision, it is much more than a well-written “case history.” How does Sacks capture the emotional impact of Wearing’s devastating amnesia without descending into melodrama or sentimentality? What details help create a sense of Wearing as a distinct and sympathetic individual? What is the significance of Deborah’s description of Clive’s “at-homeness in music” and their continuing love for one another [p. 228]?

9. Music therapy is used to treat conditions ranging from Parkinson’s and other movement disorders to Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. In what ways does music therapy represent the perfect intersection of scientific knowledge and deep-seated personality traits like intuition, creativity, and compassion?

10. The relationship between music and universal human activities is a central theme in Musicophilia . Sacks writes, for instance, “The embedding of words, skills, or sequences in melody and meter is uniquely human. The usefulness of such an ability to recall large amounts of information, particularly in preliterate culture, is surely one reason why musical abilities have flourished in our species” [p. 260]. Drawing on the stories and studies presented in Musicophilia and on your own experiences, discuss the roles music plays in human society. Talk about its importance in creating a sense of community, evoking spiritual or religious feelings, and stimulating sexual desire, for example.

11. In a review for The New York Review of Books [March 6, 2008] Colin McGinn noted “Sacks generally confines himself to classical music, saying little specifically about jazz and rock music.” How do the emotional, psychological, and physical reactions to popular music differ from those elicited by classical music? Do you think a familiarity with or preference for certain kinds of music might influence a reader’s reaction to Musicophilia ?

12. What does Musicophilia show about science’s ability to resolve intriguing quirks and mysteries? What do the new technology Sacks describes portend for future discoveries about how the brain works?

13. Does Musicophilia offer a new way of understanding what makes us human? Which facts, theories, or speculations did you find particularly compelling?

About this Author

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Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain

In this New York Times bestseller—now revised and expanded for the paperback edition—Dr. Sacks investigates the power of music to move us, to heal and to haunt us.

Amazon Canada
Barnes & Noble

Alzheimer's Dementia Music Therapy Parkinson's Tourette's

“Musicophilia is a Chopin mazurka recital of a book, fast, inventive and weirdly beautiful.”

— The American Scholar

Musicophilia

“Anatomists today would be hard put to identify the brain of a visual artist, a writer or a mathematician – but they would recognize the brain of a professional musician without moment’s hesitation.” — Oliver Sacks

Music can move us to the heights or depths of emotion. It can persuade us to buy something, or remind us of our first date. It can lift us out of depression when nothing else can. It can get us dancing to its beat. But the power of music goes much, much further. Indeed, music occupies more areas of our brain than language does–humans are a musical species.

Oliver Sacks’s compassionate, compelling tales of people struggling to adapt to different neurological conditions have fundamentally changed the way we think of our own brains, and of the human experience. In Musicophilia, he examines the power of music through the individual experiences of patients, musicians, and everyday people–from a man who is struck by lightning and suddenly inspired to become a pianist at the age of forty-two, to an entire group of children with Williams syndrome who are hypermusical from birth; from people with “amusia,” to whom a symphony sounds like the clattering of pots and pans, to a man whose memory spans only seven seconds–for everything but music.

Our exquisite sensitivity to music can sometimes go wrong: Sacks explores how catchy tunes can subject us to hours of mental replay, and how a surprising number of people acquire nonstop musical hallucinations that assault them night and day. Yet far more frequently, music goes right: Sacks describes how music can animate people with Parkinson’s disease who cannot otherwise move, give words to stroke patients who cannot otherwise speak, and calm and organize people whose memories are ravaged by Alzheimer’s or amnesia.

Music is irresistible, haunting, and unforgettable, and in Musicophilia, Oliver Sacks tells us why.

📷 Oliver Sacks studying Bach. Photo by Bill Hayes

When Musicophilia was published, Wired Magazine asked Oliver Sacks for a list of his favorite recordings . Add some musical accompaniment to your reading of the book with this special playlist, recreated to include music by some of his favorite composers.

Praise for Musicophilia

“Dr. Sacks writes not just as a doctor and a scientist but also as a humanist with a philosophical and literary bent. . . [his] book not only contributes to our understanding of the elusive magic of music but also illuminates the strange workings, and misfirings, of the human mind.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“Oliver Sacks turns his formidable attention to music and the brain . . . He doesn’t stint on the science . . . but the underlying authority of Musicophilia lies in the warmth and easy command of the author’s voice.” —Mark Coleman, Los Angeles Times

“His work is luminous, original, and indispensable . . . Musicophilia is a Chopin mazurka recital of a book, fast, inventive and weirdly beautiful . . . Yet what is most awe-inspiring is his observational empathy.” — The American Scholar

“[Sacks] weaves neuroscience through a fascinating personal story, allowing us to think about brain functions and music in a bracing new light . . . Human context is what makes good journalism, medical and otherwise. That’s the art of Sacks’ best essays.” —Kevin Berger, Salon

“[Sacks’s] lifelong love for music infuses the writing . . . Musicophilia shows music can be more powerful (even dangerous) than most of us realize, and that defining it may be crucial to defining who we are.” —Andrew Druckenbrod, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“Sacks is adept at turning neurological narratives into humanly affecting stories, by showing how precariously our worlds are poised on a little biochemistry.” —Anthony Gottlieb, The New York Times Book Review

“This was the book that introduced me to Dr. Sacks. I saw him talking about it on the Daily Show and I was so moved by his compassion for the people he writes about. Now I’ve read them all!”

“This book inspired me to embark on a professional career in music therapy.”

Follow along on social media and engage with Oliver Sacks fans around the world!

Musical Minds is a one-hour NOVA documentary on music therapy, produced by Ryan Murdock. Originally broadcast June, 23 2009 on PBS stations. Based on the 2008 BBC documentary by Alan Yentob and Louise Lockwood. This version has additional footage, including fMRI images of Dr. Sacks’s brain as he listens to music.

Icelandic singer Bjork’s album Biophilia, a multimedia project combining music, nature, and technology was inspired in part by Oliver Sacks’s book Musicophilia.

Related Books

The classic account of survivors of the encephalitic lethargica and their return to the world after decades of “sleep.” This book was the inspiration for the 1990 film starring Robert De Niro and Robin Williams.

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

A contemporary classics hardcover edition of Dr. Sacks’s beloved book, in which he recounts fascinating case histories of patients with neurological disorders. Introduction by Atul Gawande.

Hallucinations

Dr. Sacks’s weaves together stories of his patients and of his own mind-altering experiences with hallucinogenics to show how hallucinations have influenced every culture’s folklore and art.

Photo by Bill Hayes

"Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure."

Get in touch The Oliver Sacks Foundation 225 West 83rd Street, Suite 12A, New York, NY 10024, U.S.A [email protected]

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The Oliver Sacks Foundation is a charitable organization. Federal Identification Number (EIN) 46-3652950.

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IELTS Quang Bình

(update 2024) book review on musiccophilia | ielts reading practice test.

Table of Contents

Book review on Musiccophilia

Norman M. Weinberger reviews the latest work of Oliver Sacks

A . Music and the brain are both endlessly fascinating subjects, and as a neuroscientist specialising in auditory learning and memory, I find them especially intriguing. So I had high expectations of Musicophilia, the latest offering from neurologist and prolific author Oliver Sacks. And I confess to feeling a little guilty reporting that my reactions to the book are mixed.

B . Sacks himself is the best part of Musicophilia. He richly documents his own life in the book and reveals highly personal experiences. The photograph of him on the cover of the book-which shows him wearing headphones, eyes closed, clearly enchanted as he listens to Alfred Brendel perform Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata-makes a positive impression that is home out by the contents of the book. Sacks’s voice throughout is steady and erudite but never pontifical. He is neither self-conscious nor self-promoting.

C . The preface gives a good idea of what the book will deliver. In it Sacks explains that he wants to convey the insights gleaned from the “enormous and rapidly growing body of work on the neural underpinnings of musical perception and imagery, and the complex and often bizarre disorders to which these are prone.” He also stresses the importance of “the simple art of observation” and “the richness of the human context.” He wants to combine “observation and description with the latest in technology,” he says, and to imaginatively enter into the experience of his patients and subjects. The reader can see that Sacks, who has been practicing neurology for 40 years, is tom between the ‘ old-fashioned path o observation and the new fangled, high-tech approach: He knows that he needs to take heed of the latter, but his heart lies with the former.

E . Part II, “A Range of Musicality,” covers a wider variety of topics, but unfortunately, some of the chapters offer little or nothing that is new. For example, chapter 13, which is five pages long, merely notes that the blind often have better hearing than the sighted. The most interesting chapters are those that present the strangest cases. Chapter 8 is about “amusia,” an inability to hear sounds as music, and “dysharmonia,” a highly specific impairment of the ability to hear harmony, with the ability to understand melody left intact. Such specific “dissociations” are found throughout the cases Sacks recounts.

F . To Sacks’s credit, part III, “Memory, Movement and Music,” brings US into the under appreciated realm of music therapy. Chapter 16 explains how “melodic intonation therapy” is being used to help expressive aphasic patients (those unable to express their thoughts verbally following a stroke or other cerebral incident) once again become capable of fluent speech. In chapter 20, Sacks demonstrates the near-miraculous power of music to animate Parkinson’s patients and other people with severe movement disorders, even those who are frozen into odd postures. Scientists cannot yet explain how music achieves this effect

G . To readers who are unfamiliar with neuroscience and music behavior, Musicophilia may be something of a revelation. But the book will not satisfy those seeking the causes and implications of the phenomena Sacks describes. For one thing, Sacks appears to be more at ease discussing patients than discussing experiments. And he tends to be rather uncritical in accepting scientific findings and theories.

I . Another conclusion one could draw is that there seem to be no “cures” for neurological problems involving music. A drug can alleviate a symptom in one patient and aggravate it in another, or can have both positive and negative effects in the same patient. Treatments mentioned seem to be almost exclusively antiepileptic medications, which “damp down” the excitability of the brain in general; their effectiveness varies widely.

J . Finally, in many of the cases described here the patient with music-brain symptoms is reported to have “normal” EEG results. Although Sacks recognises the existence of new technologies, among them far more sensitive ways to analyze brain waves than the standard neurological EEG test, he does not call for their use. In fact, although he exhibits the greatest compassion for patients, he conveys no sense of urgency about the pursuit of new avenues in the diagnosis and treatment of music-brain disorders. This absence echoes the book’s preface, in which Sacks expresses fear that “the simple art of observation may be lost” if we rely too much on new technologies. He does call for both approaches, though, and we can only hope that the neurological community will respond.

Questions 27-30

Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D. Write the correct letter in boxes 27-30 on your answer sheet 27 Why does the writer have a mixed feeling about the book?

A. The guilty feeling made him so.

B. The writer expected it to be better than it was.

C. Sacks failed to include his personal stories in the book.

D. This is the only book written by Sacks.

28 . What is the best part of the book?

A. the photo of Sacks listening to music

B the tone of voice of the book

C the autobiographical description in the book

D the description of Sacks ’s wealth

29 In the preface, what did Sacks try to achieve?

A. make a herald introduction of the research work and technique applied

B. give detailed description of various musical disorders

C. explain how people understand music

D. explain why he needs to do away with simple observation

30 What is disappointing about Tony Cicoria’s case?

A. He refuses to have further tests.

B. He can’t determine the cause of his sudden musicality.

C. He nearly died because of the lightening.

D. His brain waves were too normal to show anything.

Questions 31-36

Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 3 ? In boxes 31-36 on your answer sheet write

YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer NO if the statement contradicts with the views of the writer NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

31 . It is difficult to give a well-reputable writer a less than totally favorable review.

32 . Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata is a good treatment for musical disorders.

33 . Sacks believes technological methods is of little importance compared with traditional observation when studying his patients.

34 . It is difficult to understand why music therapy is undervalued

35 . Sacks held little skepticism when borrowing other theories and findings in describing reasons and notion for phenomena he depicts in the book.

36 . Sacks is in a rush to use new testing methods to do treatment for patients.

Questions 37-40

Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-F , below .

Write correct letter, A-F , in boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet

37 . The content covered dissociations in understanding between harmony and melody

38 . The study of treating musical disorders

39 . The EEG scans of Sacks’s patients

40 . Sacks believes testing based on new technologies

—————

A . show no music-brain disorders.

B . indicates that medication can have varied results,

C . is key for the neurological community to unravel the mysteries.

D . should not be used in Isolation

E . indicate that not everyone can receive good education.

F . show a misconception that there is function centre localized in the brain

39. A 40. D

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Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Preface-Part 1

Key Figures

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

Summary and Study Guide

Musicophilia is a nonfiction book by Oliver Sacks, a prolific writer and neurologist whose books seek to bridge the gap between scientific and humanistic understandings of the human mind. Sacks compiled his case studies, personal experiences, and relevant neurological research to illuminate the power of Music as a Tool of Adaptation, Resilience, and Healing , to make the case for Music as an Innate Human Characteristic , and to explore The Limits of Knowledge in Musical Neurology . Musicophilia was originally published in 2007 but features case studies from as far back as 1965. As in his other books, Sacks writes about complex scientific topics for a general audience , using neuroscience to explore concepts most often associated with the arts and culture.

This guide utilizes the 2008 Vintage Books Trade Paperback edition of the book.

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Musicophilia is a scientific, philosophical, and experiential exploration of humanity’s physiological connections to music. Each chapter discusses a different and unique neurological experience of music and the neurological conditions, both genetic and acquired, that make that experience possible. Each chapter includes references to Sacks’s own experiences, his patients, his letters, and various scientific research, and each chapter includes both philosophical reflection and historical context . Sacks opens this exploration by defining the term “musicophilia”: A deep appreciation for and connection to music. Musicophilia may come in the form of creation and composition, of listening, or of song and dance. It may also appear suddenly, as was the case for a man who was struck by lightning and thereafter felt an insatiable need to play the piano.

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This introduction is followed by a discussion of musical seizures: Some patients report hearing music during a seizure, while for others, exposure to specific types of music can induce seizures. Musical imagery , or the ability to imagine music in one’s mind, is finely tuned and more accurate than other forms of memory, as Sacks points out. Musical imagery can be voluntary, as when someone purposely imagines their favorite piece or composes a new one, but it can also be involuntary, such as with earworms and musical hallucinations . Referencing several scientific studies, Sacks concludes that involuntary musical hallucinations often occur as the basal ganglia and auditory cortex attempt to compensate for hearing loss. For some people, musical hallucinations are a welcome compromise; for others, they are intrusive and debilitating.

In Part 2, Sacks examines the wide range of facility and interest in music among various populations. He explores the neurological and philosophical reasons behind these differences and poses new questions about the origin of various conditions. He begins by noting how, even among neurotypical people, there is a wide variation in how people respond to and perceive music. Some may appreciate it technically, while others understand it only emotionally. A condition known as amusia , in which people cannot perceive tones or melodies, can appear spontaneously or as the result of a brain injury. It can be temporary or permanent. Sacks describes his own experiences with amusia, when he was temporarily unable to perceive tone in some of his favorite music. He notes that melodic amusia occurs because of changes in the right hemisphere of the brain, while rhythmic amusia can occur in a wide variety of brain areas.

Sacks also explores various rare musical abilities such as absolute pitch (the ability to perceive exact tones), which many if not most people are capable of learning if trained early. Absolute pitch is essential for some musicians and unnecessary or secondary for others. Cochlear amusia occurs when the inner hair cells of the cochlea degrade. When this happens, people may experience an amusia specific to certain tones or octaves. Human ears have evolved to allow people to hear in stereo, as if the music is consuming the room and the mind. This ability can be compromised when someone loses hearing in one ear, but Sacks refers to one man who was able to use visual cues and memory to trick his mind into hearing stereo again. Musical savants are those with particularly extraordinary musical ability, and Sacks explains that savants almost always carry some other condition or deficit that musical ability seems to be compensating for. In particular, children who are blind often show a propensity toward music, and this may develop even when blindness is acquired later. Finally, synesthesia is a neurological difference in which peoples’ senses become combined. This often occurs in relation to music, as some people may see color in relation to specific notes, or even experience specific tastes and smells. Sacks notes that some composers find their synesthesia essential to the compositional experience. Sacks poses various questions about the nature of synesthesia, such as the potential for all humans to have it but lose it, and the question of why specific associations occur.

When a person suffers a serious stroke or brain injury/infection, they may develop amnesia and forget their past, their skills, and who they are. Sacks observes that music can break through the wall of amnesia and bring people back to life who had seemed lost in an abyss. This was the case for Clive Wearing , who forgot almost everything except his wife and his love of music. Clive only seemed like himself while he played, as if while all else had been wiped out, his passion and skill for music remained. Aphasia, a condition leads to challenges in speech communication, responds well to music, and sometimes those who have lost the power of speech can find their words through singing. In a unique case, one woman wrote to Sacks about a patient who rocked and made lurching sounds; she was able communicate with him by rocking along with him. Tourette’s syndrome is another neurological condition which responds to music, as people with Tourette’s find the rhythmic nature of music therapeutic. Many of them report that their tics only vanish when they play music. Both Sacks and another woman he knew were able to recover from nerve injuries through music; the rhythm and structure of music allowed them to find rhythm in their legs that had been lost in the injury. Similarly, Sacks worked with many patients with Parkinson’s who found that the rhythm and predictable structure of music helped quell and direct their bodies into intentional movement. The neurological basis of music is also shown in the phantom limb phenomenon, as was shown in a pianist who could feel his left (missing) hand playing notes as vividly as if it were there. Sometimes, the overuse of musical skills can lead to harmful effects; this is the case in musician’s dystonia, in which a person’s nerves and muscles slowly refuse to respond and perform the actions they once did. In pianists, this can manifest in the form of a gradual but relentless curling of the fingers.

In the final portion of his book, Sacks explores the more personal, philosophical, and emotional aspects of music. This begins with a discussion of the way music often permeates peoples’ dreams and thus their subconscious. Unlike other aspects of dreams, which are often confused, blurry, or mixed up, music comes through clearly and accurately. Sometimes, people even dream up new compositions. Next, Sacks details the differences in peoples’ passions toward music, as people usually appreciate music both intellectually and emotionally, but some either one or the other (or even none at all). Occasionally, brain injuries can include symptoms of an indifference toward music or an inability to respond emotionally to it. It can also result in a person losing their technical perception of music. Music also has the power to heal grief by bringing it to the forefront of the mind, as happened to Sacks twice in his life. It can act as an individualized therapy to level out the extreme moods of bipolar disorder, and it can express emotions that words cannot. Harry S., a favorite patient of Sacks’, suffered damage to his frontal lobes and could no longer feel emotion except when he was singing; the same has been found in people with sociopathy, who lack a general ability to feel certain emotions. The temporal lobes bear a direct connection with peoples’ emotional responses to music, and somewhat ironically, frontotemporal dementia is often associated with a sudden emergence of musicality that was not there before. As one brain area which previously acted to inhibit another deteriorates, it often leaves remaining brain areas in a state of extreme excitation. Sacks also refers to the hypermusicality of people with Williams syndrome , who almost always share a deep passion for music and who are often skilled in it despite lacking proficiency in other areas. Sacks attended a camp for people with Williams syndrome in which he learned of the power of music for them and for forming community between them. He also speaks of Gloria Lenhoff, a woman with Williams syndrome who could sing opera in 30 languages and whose father helped found the camp. Sacks concludes his exploration of musical neurology by discussing his experiences with people with Alzheimer’s and dementia. In this degenerative brain disease, it is often as if people have lost who they are, but music is one thing that can bring back emotion, memory, thought, and thus the self, if only for a moment. He concludes by musing on the innateness of music in humans, and how it is clear that much is yet to be uncovered about its relationship to our neurology.

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Music Therapy in Disease IELTS Reading Passage with Answers

Reading Passage 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40 which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.

Musical Maladies

Norman M. Weinberger reviews the latest work of Oliver Sacks on music.

D The book consists mainly of detailed descriptions of cases, most of them involving patients whom Sacks has seen in his practice. Brief discussions of contemporary neuroscientific reports are sprinkled liberally throughout the text. Part, “Haunted by Music,” begins with the strange case of Tony Cicoria, a nonmusical, middle-aged surgeon who was consumed by a love of music after being hit by lightning. He suddenly began to crave listening to piano music, which he had never cared for in the past. He started to play the piano and then to compose music, which arose spontaneously in his mind in a “torrent” of notes. How could this happen? Was the cause psychological? (He had had a near-death experience when the lightning struck him.) Or was it the direct result of a change in the auditory regions of his cerebral cortex? Electroencephalography (EEG) showed his brain waves to be normal in the mid-1990s, just after his trauma and subsequent “conversion” to music. There are now more sensitive tests, but Cicoria, has declined to undergo them; he does not want to delve into the causes of his musicality. What a shame!

Questions 27-30 Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D. Write your answers in boxes 27-30 on your answer sheet.

27 Why does the writer have a mixed feeling about the book?

A The guilty feeling made him so. B The writer expected it to be better than it was. C Sacks failed to include his personal stories in the book. D This is the only book written by Sacks.

28 What is the best part of the book?

A the photo of Sacks listening to music B the tone of voice of the book C the autobiographical description in the book D the description of Sacks’ wealth

29 In the preface, what did Sacks try to achieve?

A make a herald introduction of the research work and technique applied B give a detailed description of various musical disorders C explain why he needs to do away with the simple observation D explain why he needs to do away with the simple observation

30 What is disappointing about Tony Cicoria’s case?

A He refuses to have further tests. B He can’t determine the cause of his sudden musicality. C He nearly died because of the lightening. D His brain waves were too normal to show anything.

Questions 31-36 Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 3? In boxes 31-36 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the views of the writer FALSE if the statement contradicts with the views of the writer NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

31 It is difficult to give a well-reputable writer a less than totally favorable review. 32 Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata is a good treatment for musical disorders. 33 Sacks believes technological methods is of little importance compared with traditional observation when studying his patients. 34 It is difficult to understand why music therapy is undervalued 35 Sacks held little skepticism when borrowing other theories and findings in describing reasons and notion for phenomena he depicts in the book. 36 Sacks is in a rush to use new testing methods to do treatment for patients.

Questions 37-40 Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-F, below. Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet.

37 The content covered dissociations in understanding between harmony and melody 38 The study of treating musical disorders 39 The EEG scans of Sacks’ patients 40 Sacks believes testing based on new technologies

A show no music-brain disorders. B indicates that medication can have varied results. C is key for the neurological community to unravel the mysteries. D should not be used in isolation. E indicate that not everyone can receive a good education. F show a misconception that there is a function centre localized in the brain

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Book Review: Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks

"It really is a very odd business that all of us, to varying degrees, have music in our heads."

― Oliver Sacks, Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain

How much do you like music? How much of a role does music play in your life? Do you wish to be more musical? What if music is part of your being as the form of brain disease? What if music becomes part of you that cannot be turned off?

Physician and professor of neurology Oliver Sacks wrote about fascinating stories about human brain; his The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (1985) and The Awakenings (1973) are among the best-known books by him. In Musicophilia, Sacks tells stories on the close connection between music and brain.

In the book, a deaf lady heard music due to the brain's compensation for the lack of auditory stimulation. The music played incessantly in the brain; it could not be turned off and kept switching to different tunes and different styles.

A man heard music―vivid, live music that sounded like it was from inside the room. The next thing he knew was that he was being questioned by an emergency medical technician. It turned out he was having a seizure.

Suffering from Amusia, another woman could not perceive music at all. A simple tune sounded like noise to her. She could not listen to orchestra, because the sound seemed to be coming from all directions and would overwhelm her.

These complicated and sometimes mysterious brain problems confirmed the deep root of music in the brain. When I was reading the book, Sack's engaging writing style brought me into this strange but yet fascinating world, in which I was an observer watching the strangest phenomena vividly happening in front of my eyes. If you like music and science, this book might be a great read as it was for me.

Take a peak at the book here . Listen to Oliver Sacks talk about his book here .

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You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1 -13 , which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.

Facial Expression 1

A facial expression is one or more motions or positions of the muscles in the skin. These movements convey the emotional state of the individual to observers. Facial expressions are a form of nonverbal communication. They are a primary means of conveying social information among aliens, but also occur in most other mammals and some other animal species. Facial expressions and their significance in the perceiver can, to some extent, vary between cultures with evidence from descriptions in the works of Charles Darwin.

Humans can adopt a facial expression to read as a voluntary action. However, because expressions are closely tied to emotion, they are more often involuntary. It can be nearly impossible to avoid expressions for certain emotions, even when it would be strongly desirable to do so; a person who is trying to avoid insulting an individual he or she finds highly unattractive might, nevertheless, show a brief expression of disgust before being able to reassume a neutral expression. Microexpressions are one example of this phenomenon. The close link between emotion and expression can also work in the order direction; it has been observed that voluntarily assuming an expression can actually cause the associated emotion.

Some expressions can be accurately interpreted even between members of different species – anger and extreme contentment being the primary examples. Others, however, are difficult to interpret even in familiar individuals. For instance, disgust and fear can be tough to tell apart. Because faces have only a limited range of movement, expressions rely upon fairly minuscule differences in the proportion and relative position of facial features, and reading them requires considerable sensitivity to the same. Some faces are often falsely read as expressing some emotion, even when they are neutral because their proportions naturally resemble those another face would temporarily assume when emoting.

Also, a person’s eyes reveal much about hos they are feeling, or what they are thinking. Blink rate can reveal how nervous or at ease a person maybe. Research by Boston College professor Joe Tecce suggests that stress levels are revealed by blink rates. He supports his data with statistics on the relation between the blink rates of presidential candidates and their success in their races. Tecce claims that the faster blinker in the presidential debates has lost every election since 1980. Though Tecce’s data is interesting, it is important to recognize that non-verbal communication is multi-channelled, and focusing on only one aspect is reckless. Nervousness can also be measured by examining each candidates’ perspiration, eye contact and stiffness.

As Charles Darwin noted in his book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals: the young and the old of widely different races, both with man and animals, express the same state of mind by the same movements. Still, up to the mid-20th century, most anthropologists believed that facial expressions were entirely learned and could, therefore, differ among cultures. Studies conducted in the 1960s by Paul Ekman eventually supported Darwin’s belief to a large degree.

Ekman’s work on facial expressions had its starting point in the work of psychologist Silvan Tomkins. Ekman showed that contrary to the belief of some anthropologists including Margaret Mead, facial expressions of emotion are not culturally determined, but universal across human cultures. The South Fore people of New Guinea were chosen as subjects for one such survey. The study consisted of 189 adults and 130 children from among a very isolated population, as well as twenty-three members of the culture who lived a less isolated lifestyle as a control group. Participants were told a story that described one particular emotion; they were then shown three pictures (two for children) of facial expressions and asked to match the picture which expressed the story’s emotion.

While the isolated South Fore people could identify emotions with the same accuracy as the non-isolated control group, problems associated with the study include the fact that both fear and surprise were constantly misidentified. The study concluded that certain facial expressions correspond to particular emotions and can not be covered, regardless of cultural background, and regardless of whether or not the culture has been isolated or exposed to the mainstream.

Expressions Ekman found to be universally included those indicating anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, and surprise (not that none of these emotions has a definitive social component, such as shame, pride, or schadenfreude). Findings on contempt (which is social) are less clear, though there is at least some preliminary evidence that this emotion and its expression are universally recognized. This may suggest that the facial expressions are largely related to the mind and each part on the face can express specific emotion.

READING PASSAGE 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14 - 26 , which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.

Aqua Product: New zealand ‘s Algae Biodiesel

The world’s first wild algae biodiesel, produced in New Zealand by Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation, was successfully test-driven in Wellington by the Minister for Energy and Climate Change Issues, David Parker. In front of a crowd of invited guests, media and members of the public, the Minister filled up a diesel-powered Land Rover with Aquaflow B5 blend bio-diesel and then drove the car around the forecourt of Parliament Buildings in Central Wellington. Green Party co-leader, Jeanette Fitzsimons was also on board. Marlborough-based Aquaflow announced on May 2006 that it had produced the world’s first bio-diesel derived from wild microalgae sourced from local sewage ponds.

“We believe we are the first company in the world to test drive a car powered by wild algae-based biodiesel. This will come as a surprise to some international bio-diesel industry people who believe that this break-through is still years away,” explains Aquaflow spokesperson Barrie Leay. “A bunch of inventive Kiwis and an Aussie have developed this fuel in just over a year”, he comments. “This is a huge opportunity for New Zealand and a great credit to the team of people who saw the potential in this technology from day one.”

Bio-diesel based on algae could eventually become a sustainable, low cost, cleaner-burning fuel alternative for New Zealand, powering family cars, trucks, buses and boats. It can also be used for other purposes such as heating or distributed electricity generation. There is now a global demand for billions of litres of biodiesel per year. Algae are also readily available and produced in huge volumes in nutrient-rich waste streams such as at the settling ponds of Effluent Management Systems (EMS). It is a renewable indigenous resource ideally suited to the production of fuel and other useful by-products. The breakthrough comes after technology start-up, Aquaflow, agreed to undertake a pilot with Marlborough District Council late last year to extract algae from the settling ponds of its EMS based in Blenheim. By removing the main contaminant to use as a fuel feedstock, Aquaflow is also helping clean up the council’s water discharge – a process known as bio-remediation. Dairy farmers, and many food processors too, can benefit in similar ways by applying the harvesting technology to their nutrient-rich waste streams.

Blended with conventional mineral diesel, bio-diesel can run vehicles without the need for vehicle modifications. Fuel derived from algae can also help meet the Government B5 (5% blended) target, with the prospect of this increase over time as bio-fuel production increases. “Our next step is to increase capacity to produce one million litres of bio-diesel from the Marlborough sewerage ponds over the next year,” says Leay. Aquaflow will launch a prospectus pre-Christmas as the company has already attracted considerable interest from potential investors. The test drive bio-diesel was used successfully in a static engine test at Massey University’s Wellington campus on Monday, December 11.

Today Algae are used by humans in many ways; for example, as fertilizers, soil conditioners and livestock feed. Aquatic and microscopic species are cultured in clear tanks or ponds and are either harvested or used to treat effluents pumped through the ponds. Algaculture on a large scale is an important type of aquaculture in some places. Naturally growing seaweeds are an important source of food, especially in Asia. They provide many vitamins including A, B, B2, B6, niacin and C, and are rich in iodine, potassium, iron, magnesium and calcium. In addition, commercially cultivated microalgae, including both Algae and Cyan-bacteria, are marketed as nutritional supplements, such as Spirulina, Chlorella and the Vitamin-C supplement, Dunaliella, high in beta-carotene. Algae are national foods of many nations: China consumes more than 70 species, including fat choy , a cyanobacterium considered a vegetable; Japan, over 20 species. The natural pigments produced by algae can be used as an alternative to chemical dyes and coloring agents.

Algae are the simplest plant organisms that convert sunlight and carbon dioxide in the air around us into stored energy through the well-understood process of photosynthesis. Algae are rich in lipids and other combustible elements and Aquaflow is developing technology that will allow these elements to be extracted in a cost-effective way. The proposed process is the subject of a provisional patent. Although algae are good at taking most of the nutrients out of sewage, too many algae can taint the water and make it smell. So, councils have to find a way of cleaning up the excess algae in their sewerage outflows and then either dispose of it or find alternative uses for it. And that’s where Aquaflow comes in.

Unlike some bio-fuels which require crops to be specially grown and thereby compete for land use with food production, and use other scarce resources of fuel, chemicals and fertiliser, the source for algae-based biodiesel already exists extensively and the process produces a sustainable net energy gain by capturing free solar energy from the sun.

READING PASSAGE 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27 - 40 , which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.

Book review on Musicophilia

Norman M. Weinberger reviews the latest work of Oliver Sacks on music.

Music and the brain are both endlessly fascinating subjects, and as a neuroscientist specialising in auditory learning and memory, I find them especially intriguing. So I had high expectations of Musicophilia, the latest offering from neurologist and prolific author Oliver Sacks. And I confess to feeling a little guilty reporting that my reactions to the book are mixed.

Sacks himself is the best part of Musicophilia. He richly documents his own life in the book and reveals highly personal experiences. The photograph of him on the cover of the book-which shows him wearing headphones, eyes closed, clearly enchanted as he listens to Alfred Brendel perform Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata-makes a positive impression that is borne out by the contents of the book. Sacks’ voice throughout is steady and erudite but never pontifical. He is neither self-conscious nor self-promoting.

The preface gives a good idea of what the book will deliver. In it, Sacks explains that he wants to convey the insights gleaned from the “enormous and rapidly growing body of work on the neural underpinnings of musical perception and imagery, and the complex and often bizarre disorders to which these are prone.” He also stresses the importance of “the simple art of observation” and “the richness of the human context.” He wants to combine “observation and description with the latest in technology,” he says, and to imaginatively enter into the experience of his patients and subjects. The reader can see that Sacks, who has been practicing neurology for 40 years, is torn between the “old-fashioned” path of observation and the new-fangled, high-tech approach: He knows that he needs to take heed of the latter, but his heart lies with the former.

The book consists mainly of detailed descriptions of cases, most of them involving patients whom Sacks has seen in his practice. Brief discussions of contemporary neuroscientific reports are sprinkled liberally throughout the text. Part, “Haunted by Music,” begins with the strange case of Tony Cicoria, a nonmusical, middle-aged surgeon who was consumed by a love of music after being hit by lightning. He suddenly began to crave listening to piano music, which he had never cared for in the past. He started to play the piano and then to compose music, which arose spontaneously in his mind in a “torrent” of notes. How could this happen? Was the cause psychological? (He had had a near-death experience when the lightning struck him.) Or was it the direct result of a change in the auditory regions of his cerebral cortex? Electroencephalography (EEG) showed his brain waves to be normal in the mid-1990s, just after his trauma and subsequent “conversion” to music. There are now more sensitive tests, but Cicoria, has declined to undergo them; he does not want to delve into the causes of his musicality. What a shame!

Part II, “A Range of Musicality,” covers a wider variety of topics, but unfortunately, some of the chapters offer little or nothing that is new. For example, chapter 13, which is five pages long, merely notes that the blind often has better hearing than the sighted. The most interesting chapters are those that present the strangest cases. Chapter 8 is about “amusia,” an inability to hear sounds like music, and “dysharmonia,” a highly specific impairment of the ability to hear harmony, with the ability to understand melody left intact. Such specific “dissociations” are found throughout the cases Sacks recounts.

To Sacks’s credit, part III, “Memory, Movement and Music,” brings us into the underappreciated realm of music therapy. Chapter 16 explains how “melodic intonation therapy” is being used to help expressive aphasic patients (those unable to express their thoughts verbally following a stroke or other cerebral incident) once again become capable of fluent speech. In chapter 20, Sacks demonstrates the near-miraculous power of music to animate Parkinson’s patients and other people with severe movement disorders, even those who are frozen into odd postures. Scientists cannot yet explain how music achieves this effect

To readers who are unfamiliar with neuroscience and music behavior, Musicophilia may be something of a revelation. But the book will not satisfy those seeking the causes and implications of the phenomena Sacks describes. For one thing, Sacks appears to be more at ease discussing patients than discussing experiments. And he tends to be rather uncritical in accepting scientific findings and theories.

It’s true that the causes of music-brain oddities remain poorly understood. However, Sacks could have done more to draw out some of the implications of the careful observations that he and other neurologists have made and of the treatments that have been successful. For example, he might have noted that the many specific dissociations among components of music comprehension, such as loss of the ability to perceive harmony but not melody, indicate that there is no music center in the brain. Because many people who read the book are likely to believe in the brain localisation of all mental functions, this was a missed educational opportunity.

Another conclusion one could draw is that there seem to be no “cures” for neurological problems involving music. A drug can alleviate a symptom in one patient and aggravate it in another or can have both positive and negative effects in the same patient. Treatments mentioned seem to be almost exclusively antiepileptic medications, which “damp down” the excitability of the brain in general; their effectiveness varies widely.

Finally, in many of the cases described here the patient with music-brain symptoms is reported to have “normal” EEG results. Although Sacks recognises the existence of new technologies, among them far more sensitive ways to analyze brain waves than the standard neurological EEG test, he does not call for their use. In fact, although he exhibits the greatest compassion for patients, he conveys no sense of urgency about the pursuit of new avenues in the diagnosis and treatment of music-brain disorders. This absence echoes the book’s preface, in which Sacks expresses fear that “the simple art of observation may be lost” if we rely too much on new technologies. He does call for both approaches, though, and we can only hope that the neurological community will respond.

Questions 1-5

Complete the Summary paragraph below. In boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet, write the correct answer with NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

The result of Ekman’s study demonstrates that fear and surprise are persistently and made a conclusion that some facial expressions have something to do with certain . Which is impossible covered, despite of and whether the culture has been or to the mainstream.

Questions 6-11

The reading Passage has seven paragraphs A-H

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter A-H , in boxes 6-11 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once .

6. A B C D E F G H the difficulty identifying the actual meaning of facial expressions

7. A B C D E F G H the importance of culture on facial expressions is initially described

8. A B C D E F G H collected data for the research on the relation between blink and the success in elections

9. A B C D E F G H the features on the sociality of several facial expressions

10. A B C D E F G H an indicator to reflect one’s extent of nervousness

11. A B C D E F G H the relation between emotion and facial expressions

Questions 12-13

Choose two letters from the A-E

Write your answers in boxes 12-13 on your answer sheet

Which Two of the following statements are true according to Ekman’s theory?

Questions 14-18

Reading Passage contains seven paragraphs A-G.

Which paragraph stales the following information?

Write the appropriate letter A-G , in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

14. A B C D E F G It is unnecessary to modify vehicles driven by bio-diesel.

15. A B C D E F G Some algae are considered edible plants.

16. A B C D E F G Algae could be part of a sustainable and recycled source.

17. A B C D E F G Algae biodiesel is superior to other bio-fuels in a lot of ways.

18. A B C D E F G overgrown algae also can be a potential threat to the environment

Questions 19-23

Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage.

Using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 19-23 on your answer sheet.

Bio-diesel based on algae could become a substitute for in New Zealand. It could be used to vehicles such as cars and boats. As a result, billions of litres of bio-diesel are required worldwide each year. Algae can be obtained from with nutrient materials. With the technology breakthrough, algae are extracted and the is removed from the settling ponds. Dairy farmers and many food processors can adopt such technology.

Questions 24-26

Choose words from the passage to answer the questions 24-26 .

Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.

What environmental standard would bio-diesel vehicles are to meet?

What is to do like the immediate plan for coming years for Aquaflow?

Through what kind of process do algae obtain and store energy?

Questions 27-30

Choose the correct letter, A , B , C or D .

Write your answers in boxes 27-30 on your answer sheet.

Questions 31-36

Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage?

In boxes 31-36 on your answer sheet, write

31. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN It is difficult to give a well-reputable writer a less than totally favorable review.

32. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata is a good treatment for musical disorders.

33. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN Sacks believes technological methods is of little importance compared with traditional observation when studying his patients.

34. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN It is difficult to understand why music therapy is undervalued

35. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN Sacks held little skepticism when borrowing other theories and findings in describing reasons and notion for phenomena he depicts in the book.

36. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN Sacks is in a rush to use new testing methods to do treatment for patients.

Questions 37-40

Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-F , below.

Write the correct letter, A-F , in boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet.

37. A B C D E F The content covered dissociations in understanding between harmony and melody

38. A B C D E F The study of treating musical disorders

39. A B C D E F The EEG scans of Sacks’ patients

40. A B C D E F Sacks believes testing based on new technologies

Book review: Musicophilia

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain , by Oliver Sacks. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007

The latest book of essays on neuroscience by Oliver Sacks looks at various aspects of brain function as they relate to music. He focuses not just on how the brain processes and understands music but what music means to us and how it makes us who we are. I admire the compassion and humanity that always seem to fill Sacks’s writing, and this book illustrates those qualities beautifully.

Sacks often writes about people who have suffered an injury or illness or congenital condition that in some way limits their ability to live a normal life. You would think that reading a series of essays about such people would be depressing, leading as it does to a horrified realization of the fragility of our brains and the frightening possibilities for the loss of mental faculties that we rely on and that in some cases even seem to define us. Sacks has the gift of somehow making this material uplifting, of emphasizing the joys of being human even as he shows us the hazards.

Partway through this book, it’s true, I started to wonder about the strength of the thread that tied together these tales of loss and the ways they illuminate brain functions. But as I continued to read, I saw that the theme of the book was indeed strong enough to tie together the stories and make the book seem like more than the sum of its parts—and that the theme is not just music, but identity.

The book contains four sections, each covering some facet of music and the brain. The first section examines cases of music taking over the brain in one way or another: musical hallucinations, earworms (tunes that you can’t get out of your head), epilepsy that is triggered by music, and an astonishing case of a man’s life being utterly transformed by an intense passion for music that developed after he was struck by lightning. The second section looks at different aspects of musical ability, where they arise and how they vary from person to person. The stories here are not all about disabilities; Sacks also discusses people with synesthesia, a sensory blending in which input from one sense bleeds over into the perception of another. Sometimes I feel envious of synesthetes, and the associations some of them have between, for example, musical pitches or keys or timbres and colors are fascinating.

In the third section, Sacks looks at the connections between music, memory, and movement–this is where he tells the story of Clive Wearing, whose severe amnesia dissects his life into seconds-long fragments of consciousness unconnected with each other–except when he’s playing or conducting music, which provides a thread that links his moments. He also tells of people with Parkinson’s, Tourette’s, and other movement disorders, and how music can help them regain fluidity, focus, and control.

The last section makes explicit the connection between music and identity that is also explored elsewhere in the book. This was in some ways the most moving section of all for me. In fact, when I first brought the book home, I turned immediately to the essay on music and depression. As is the case throughout the book, Sacks weaves his own experiences into the stories he’s telling, and I found so much that rang true from my own experiences of depression. It feels very good to see someone else articulate something that you have felt but haven’t been able to put into words, and this chapter was full of moments like that for me.

I was particularly struck by his observation that while sad music “makes one experience pain and grief more intensely, it brings solace and consolation at the same time.” This paradox explains why listening to recordings of the Requiems by Mozart or Brahms or FaurÃ© can make me feel so much better. When you tell someone that you’re listening to a Requiem to make yourself feel better, it can sounds like a perverse undertaking, but it does work.

The final chapter of the book is about music and dementias like Alzheimer’s. I was surprised to learn about the ways that music therapy can help people with dementia and touched by the observation that music can still reach people after most of their other connections to who they were have gone. For some reason the closing of the book called to mind some lines from a Wendell Berry poem: “Only music keeps us here, each by all the others held.”

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I've just posted my review of Oliver Sacks' newly published book Musicophila on my blog. This very interesting book explores the effects of various brain traumas and abnormalities on the production and experience of music and the ways they respond. It functions in an interesting counterpoint to Levitin's This is Your Brain on Music which I also reviewed. For those of us who find music at the center of our lives, the two books together help us to understand its role and our own frustration and joy in learning to make it. - Ted

Ted Lehmann http://www.tedlehmann.blogspot.com

Both books are on deck for me. Looking forward to some "light" reading after finishing Robert Fisk's comprehensive (and at times, agonizing) Middle East tome, "The Great War for Civilisation".

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Although the Sacks book has good stories in it, I personally found it less interesting than the Levitin book. Fundamentally, it tells us less about how the brain works musically than about how exceptional brain states can produce anomalous processing with respect to music. The people described certainly have moving experiences, which Sacks shares. At times it seems to border on voyeuristic, although I don't think that's Sacks's motive at all. I think he's a compassionate and professional guy. But I was reminded a bit of my Abnormal Psych courses, in which the strangeness of others' behavior always seemed a little too close to entertainment rather than enlightenment. I may be overstating this and, as I said, I don't question Sacks's motives. But having worked with people with severe neurological impairments, I felt just a little bit of discomfort. Still, there are some interesting accounts of very unusual clinical syndromes and my personal reactions shouldn't prevent others from reading this book. But I don't think it will provide many insights into normal music processing in neurologically intact humans, although, as I said, the stories are good.

Bob DeVellis

Originally Posted by ...explores the effects of various brain traumas and abnormalities on the production and experience of music... So it's about banjo players?

i was hoping the book would explore why it is - what mental process - allows some people to understand the structure of music easily while others, like myself, find it nearly incomprehensible. from the couple of reviews i've read so far, the book seems to be a list of anecdotes relating to how music effects people - their experiences - rather than how it works.

Actually, I agree with Bob about both the Levitin book and much of what he says about Sacks. Levitin actually gives lots of help in understanding the why and how of learning an instrument and has much to say that will help those of us hoping to improve. Bob is correct in saying that Sacks' account of unusual clinical cases seems hard to relate to. I also had difficulty finding a central idea to help me understand better my own experience either as a listener or musician. - Ted

My folks gave me the Levitin book for Christmas; I'm really looking forward to sitting down and reading it. Maybe today, even. On the 26th, the Kojo Nnamdi show (on WAMU in DC) devoted an hour to this topic, and had both Levitin and Sacks on the air for an interview. I just turned on the radio (driving to a friend's house to play music), and there was the author of the book I'd just received. How's that for a coincidence? The show is archived online , and it's definitely worth a listen.

I've been reading Sacks' book as well, but I'm not yet through it. I would agree that it is somewhat unfocused, but the fascinating qualities of each case more than justify lack of unifying theme.

"Bang your heads, you ingrates" - Devin Townsend

Oliver Sacks best books explore the effects of various brain abnormalities to illuminate the human condition--what are the connections between our thought processes and our humanity? Musicophilia is narrower in focus, so it offers less depth than his best work, but it may be of interest to people with a specific interest in music and the brain.

Object to this post? Find out how to ignore me here !

I read both books too! I like to read scentific books outside of my field (jet fuel). Like you, I found the Levitin book more of a package. Sack's seemed to be a collection of individual stories to a theme. I read Levitin first and I'm glad I did. I think that made Musicophilia more understandable. Funny how one concept can sometimes stick. In Levitin, early in the book, he allows how picking up the beat is something the typical computer just can't do. Near the end he describes the process of developing a computer that could. You have to understand how the human computer works before you can digitize it. Reading Sacks did provide some personal insight on musical interactions, some of a personal nature even. Ted, in your blogs you promised a lengthier review of Levitin oriented to Bluegrass. I did not see it. Did I miss or are you still working on it, maybe including references to Sachs in the text.

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MUSICOPHILIA

Tales of music and the brain.

With the same trademark compassion and erudition he brought to The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat , Oliver Sacks explores the place music occupies in the brain and how it affects the human condition. In Musicophilia , he shows us a variety of what he calls “musical misalignments.” Among them: a man struck by lightning who suddenly desires to become a pianist at the age of forty-two; an entire group of children with Williams syndrome, who are hypermusical from birth; people with “amusia,” to whom a symphony sounds like the clattering of pots and pans;

more …

Illuminating, inspiring, and utterly unforgettable, Musicophilia is Oliver Sacks’ latest masterpiece.

Vintage Books
September 2008
9781400033539

Buy the Book

About the Author

Discussion Questions

About oliver sacks.

Dr. Oliver Sacks spent more than fifty years working as a neurologist and writing books about the neurological predicaments and conditions of his patients, including The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Musicophilia, and Hallucinations. The New York Times referred to him as “the poet laureate of medicine,” and over the years he received many awards, including honors from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and the Royal College of Physicians. His memoir On the Move was published shortly before his death in August 2015.

“Powerful and compassionate. . . . A book that not only contributes to our understanding of the elusive magic of music but also illuminates the strange workings, and misfirings, of the human mind.” —The New York Times

“Curious, cultured, caring. . . . Musicophilia allows readers to join Sacks where he is most alive, amid melodies and with his patients.” —The Washington Post Book World

“Sacks has an expert bedside manner: informed but humble, self-questioning, literary without being self-conscious.” —Los Angeles Times

“Sacks spins one fascinating tale after another to show what happens when music and the brain mix it up.” —Newsweek

In the preface Sacks presents differing views on the origins and evolution of the music instinct. On first reading, which explanation is the most persuasive? Did the book change or confirm your opinion?

Discuss the style and structure of Musicophilia . How does Sacks blend personal anecdotes, case histories, theories, and empirical research into an engaging narrative? How does he bring out the humanity of the patients he describes? What do the explanations of complex brain functions add to the portraits of each individual?

Tony Cicoria “grew to think [that he] . . . had been transformed and given a special gift, a mission, to ‘tune in’ to the music that he called, half metaphorically, ‘the music from heaven'”. Is art by its very nature a “spiritual” endeavor? Does Sacks’s conclusion that “even the most exalted states of mind, the most astounding transformations, must have some physical basis or at least some physiological correlate in neural activity” belittle the value of artistic expression?

In chapter four (Music on the Brain: Imagery and Imagination) and chapter five (Brainworms, Sticky Music, and Catchy Tunes), Sacks explores normal musical imagery, which almost everyone experiences, and the pathological version, when “music repeats itself incessantly, sometimes maddeningly, for days on end”. Do his explanations of the psychological and neurological components of these phenomena support his suggestion that people are more susceptible to brainworms today because of the pervasiveness of music in our lives? Does Anthony Storr’s theory that even unwanted music has a positive effect mitigate Sacks’s darker outlook?

The stories of musical hallucinations demonstrate the disruptive power of music. Using these stories as a starting point, discuss the distinction between the “brain” and the “mind.” What accounts for the different ways people react to involuntary mental intrusions? What do the various coping mechanisms people employ reveal about biological determination and the exercise of choice and free will?

“Musicality comprises a great range of skills and receptivities, from the most elementary perceptions of pitch and tempo to the highest aspects of musical intelligence and sensibility…” What do Sacks’s descriptions of extreme conditions like amusia and disharmonia show about the many factors—neurological, cultural, and experiential—that shape an individual’s response to music?

Sacks also introduces people who represent the “highest aspects of musical intelligence and sensibility.” What insights do these examples of extraordinary or unusual gifts offer into average musical sensibilities? What do his examinations of absolute pitch and synesthesia, as well as his stories about musical savants and the high level of musicality among blind people, reveal about the brain’s innate strengths and weaknesses?

The story of Clive Wearing is one of the most memorable tales in Musicophilia. While it illustrates the persistence of musical memory with clarity and precision, it is much more than a well-written “case history.” How does Sacks capture the emotional impact of Wearing’s devastating amnesia without descending into melodrama or sentimentality? What details help create a sense of Wearing as a distinct and sympathetic individual? What is the significance of Deborah’s description of Clive’s “at-homeness in music” and their continuing love for one another?

Music therapy is used to treat conditions ranging from Parkinson’s and other movement disorders to Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. In what ways does music therapy represent the perfect intersection of scientific knowledge and deep-seated personality traits like intuition, creativity, and compassion?

The relationship between music and universal human activities is a central theme in Musicophilia . Sacks writes, for instance, “The embedding of words, skills, or sequences in melody and meter is uniquely human. The usefulness of such an ability to recall large amounts of information, particularly in preliterate culture, is surely one reason why musical abilities have flourished in our species”. Drawing on the stories and studies presented in Musicophilia and on your own experiences, discuss the roles music plays in human society. Talk about its importance in creating a sense of community, evoking spiritual or religious feelings, and stimulating sexual desire, for example.

In a review for The New York Review of Books [March 6, 2008] Colin McGinn noted “Sacks generally confines himself to classical music, saying little specifically about jazz and rock music.” How do the emotional, psychological, and physical reactions to popular music differ from those elicited by classical music? Do you think a familiarity with or preference for certain kinds of music might influence a reader’s reaction to Musicophilia ?

What does Musicophilia show about science’s ability to resolve intriguing quirks and mysteries? What do the new technology Sacks describes portend for future discoveries about how the brain works?

Does Musicophilia offer a new way of understanding what makes us human? Which facts, theories, or speculations did you find particularly compelling?

An illustration of Ada Limon shows a woman in her 40s with shoulder-length black hair, parted on the side, wearing a pink blouse and dangling earrings.

By the Book

Ada Limón Won’t Let Prose Touch the Poetry on Her Shelves

“I mean that as an organizing principle,” says the U.S. poet laureate, who has edited a new anthology of nature poetry called “You Are Here,” “and also as a slight against prose.”

Credit... Rebecca Clarke

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What books are on your night stand?

My night stand doesn’t speak to me anymore. That’s because, here’s the truth: I don’t read at night. The night stand is where books go to die. I think that I’ll read something before bed and then I immediately fall asleep, so the real question is, what books are on my desk? Right now that’s “Eve,” by Cat Bohannon; “Martyr!,” by Kaveh Akbar; Mosab Abu Toha’s “Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear”; “You Can Be the Last Leaf,” by Maya Abu Al-Hayyat; and an advance copy of “The Backyard Bird Chronicles,” by Amy Tan.

How do you organize your books?

I put them in piles during my busy travel months, then I cry and stomp when the piles feel unwieldy, and then my husband ponders if I should get rid of a few, but I will not do that, and then, very methodically I alphabetize them. I also separate them by genres. Prose cannot touch poetry in my little world. And I mean that as an organizing principle and also as a slight against prose.

Describe your ideal reading experience (when, where, what, how).

I’d be reading a book in some sun-filled spot outside, while knowing every human being is safe, cared for, fed, beloved, and all wars have ended. And in our new manifested world that celebrates humanity, interconnectedness, nature and peace, I can sit outside under the oak trees and savor every line of a poem. And the music of the poem will sing back to the music of the world. That’s my ideal reading experience.

Are you able to write outside, in nature, or only at a desk?

I love writing outside. When I’m home in Kentucky, I write on my screened-in porch, that is if it’s warm enough. I love to fill the feeder and watch the birds in between writing lines of poems. Through the years, I’ve trained myself to write anywhere. Planes, hotel rooms — anywhere, really. Though it helps if there is silence. Or sounds of nature.

How did you decide whom to commission for the new anthology?

I chose the poets that I knew had recently been working in interesting ways with the subject of nature. I feel so lucky with the final collection. It’s even more powerful than I imagined.

Did anyone say no? What reason did they give?

There were exactly four poets that said no. They are all wonderful writers who were torn in too many directions by the demands of life to produce something new for the anthology. Life doesn’t always allow writers to write.

Did you line-edit or advise on specific language choices?

Along with the wonderful editor (and poet) Bailey Hutchinson, I went through each poem and made a few minor suggestions. For the most part, just gentle nudges here and there. All of these poets are excellent and sent in gorgeous, complete poems.

“A place I love is about to disappear,” one poem begins. Did you expect the collection to be so melancholy?

I don’t think the book is melancholy at all. The word “melancholy” often infers no obvious cause, just a general sort of sadness. That’s not present in this book. I do think it’s full of solastalgia, which is defined as the “distress caused by environmental change,” and I also think the book is full of an urgent praise, the way you can love something so dearly because it’s leaving or changing.

What’s the last book that made you cry?

“Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts” by Crystal Wilkinson is a cookbook and a memoir combined that celebrates generations of Black women in Appalachia. Wilkinson always has a way of saying it true and making me weep.

Do you count any books as guilty pleasures?

Oh yes, Anne Rice was a great guilty pleasure of mine. All things vampires and witches, anything with magic. What a gift those books were for me as a teenager. In some ways they were as foundational as some of the canonical books I read in school.

What’s the most interesting thing you learned from a poem in this volume?

One wonderful thing I learned about was from Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s poem, “Heliophilia”: Rhubarb makes a wild popping or crackling noise when it grows in the dark. Now I’ve seen videos of this occurrence and I love it. We have yet to truly understand the language of plants.

Did any of the poems make you want to travel to their settings?

Many: Victoria Chang’s poem set in Alaska, for example, and the desert landscape poems by Eduardo C. Corral and Rigoberto González. But for the most part the poems make me want to pay attention to wherever I am right now, to look deeply at what’s around me, and not miss it.

Explore More in Books

Want to know about the best books to read and the latest news start here..

Stephen King, who has dominated horror fiction for decades , published his first novel, “Carrie,” in 1974. Margaret Atwood explains the book’s enduring appeal .

The actress Rebel Wilson, known for roles in the “Pitch Perfect” movies, gets vulnerable about her weight loss, sexuality and money in her new memoir.

“City in Ruins” is the third novel in Don Winslow’s Danny Ryan trilogy and, he says, his last book. He’s retiring in part to invest more time into political activism .

Jonathan Haidt, the social psychologist and author of “The Anxious Generation,” is “wildly optimistic” about Gen Z. Here’s why .

Do you want to be a better reader? Here’s some helpful advice to show you how to get the most out of your literary endeavor .

Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .

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Book Review: Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks

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Book Review on Musicophilia IELTS Reading Answers
Answers of Book Review on Musicophilia Reading Answers With Explanation Read further for the explanation part of the reading answer. 1 Answer: B. Question type: Multiple Choice Question Answer location: Paragraph A, line 2-line 3 Answer explanation: In the given location, it is given that "So I had high expectations of Musicophilia, the latest offering from neurologist and prolific author ...
Book review on Musicophilia
8 It is difficult to understand why music therapy is undervalued. Answer: NOT GIVEN. 9 Sacks held little skepticism when borrowing other theories and findings in describing reasons and notion for phenomena he depicts in the book. Answer: YES. 10 Sacks is in a rush to use new testing methods to do treatment for patients.
Book review on Musicophilia
Book review on Musicophilia. IELTS Academic Reading Passage. A. Music and the brain are both endlessly fascinating subjects, and as a neuroscientist specialising in auditory learning and memory, I find them especially intriguing. So I had high expectations of Musicophilia, the latest offering from neurologist and prolific author Oliver Sacks.
Book Review On Musicophilia| Reading Answers
👉No.1 IELTS READING SPECIALIZED INSTITUTE IN PUNJAB👉Reading PDF :- https://t.me/Milestoneielts/2858👉Book Review On Musicophilia| Reading Answers | Explana...
Book Review on Musicophilia Reading Answers
Book Review on Musicophilia Reading Answers comprises14 questions that have to be answered in 20 minutes. Book Review on Musicophilia Reading Answers comprises question types, namely- choosing the correct letter, true/false/not given and complete the sentence. For true/false/not given, candidates must read the passage and understand the ...
Cambridge 13 Reading Test 4 Passage 3
This post can simply guide you the best to figure out every Reading answer without trouble. Finding IELTS Reading answers is a step-by-step routine and I hope this post can assist you in this topic. Cambridge 13 Reading Test 4 Passage 3: The headline of the passage: Book Review. Questions 27-29: (Multiple Choice Questions)
Reading Practice Test 27
READING PASSAGE 3. You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40 which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.. Book review on Musicophilia. Norman M. Weinberger reviews the latest work of Oliver Sacks on music. A. Music and the brain are both endlessly fascinating subjects, and as a neuroscientist specialising in auditory learning and memory, I find them especially intriguing.
book review on musicophilia (1-9) Flashcards
to culture bacteria. to grow bacteria. effluents. A treated or untreated wastewater discharge from an industrial facility. combustible substances. chất dễ đốt. inflow of foreign capital. influx of foreign capital. capital outflow.
Questions 27
This absence echoes the book's preface, in which Sacks expresses fear that "the simple art of observation may be lost" if we rely too much on new technologies. He does call for both approaches, though, and we can only hope that the neurological community will respond. Questions 27 - 30. Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D.
Musicophilia: Tales of music and the brain by Oliver Sacks
by Oliver Sacks. THE cover of Oliver Sacks's new book shows the author listening to Beethoven's Pathétique Sonata. He looks ecstatic, which is appropriate for his exploration of the marvels ...
Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks
Oliver Sacks, a neurologist and amateur musician, has long been fascinated by "musicophilia," the affinity for music that "lies so deep in human nature that one is tempted to think of it as innate" [p. x]. In Musicophilia, Sacks draws on his medical expertise and his love of music in a collection of tales about people affected by music ...
Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain
Inspired by Musicophilia. Musical Minds is a one-hour NOVA documentary on music therapy, produced by Ryan Murdock. Originally broadcast June, 23 2009 on PBS stations. Based on the 2008 BBC documentary by Alan Yentob and Louise Lockwood. This version has additional footage, including fMRI images of Dr. Sacks's brain as he listens to music.
(Update 2024) Book review on Musiccophilia
Norman M. Weinberger reviews the latest work of Oliver Sacks. A. Music and the brain are both endlessly fascinating subjects, and as a neuroscientist specialising in auditory learning and memory, I find them especially intriguing. So I had high expectations of Musicophilia, the latest offering from neurologist and prolific author Oliver Sacks.
Musicophilia Summary and Study Guide
Subscribe for $3 a Month. Summary. Musicophilia is a scientific, philosophical, and experiential exploration of humanity's physiological connections to music. Each chapter discusses a different and unique neurological experience of music and the neurological conditions, both genetic and acquired, that make that experience possible.
Music Therapy in Disease IELTS Reading Passage with Answers
Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-F, below. Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet. 37 The content covered dissociations in understanding between harmony and melody. 38 The study of treating musical disorders. 39 The EEG scans of Sacks' patients.
Book Review
A simple tune sounded like noise to her. She could not listen to orchestra, because the sound seemed to be coming from all directions and would overwhelm her. These complicated and sometimes mysterious brain problems confirmed the deep root of music in the brain. When I was reading the book, Sack's engaging writing style brought me into this ...
Book review on Musicophilia Archives
Reading Practice Test 27. READING PASSAGE 1 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on Reading Passage 1 below. The coming back of the "Extinct" Grass in Britain A It's Britain's dodo, called interrupted brome because of its gappy seed-head, this unprepossessing...
IELTS Mock Test 2023 October Reading Practice Test 1
Book review on Musicophilia. ... Using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 19-23 on your answer sheet. Bio-diesel based on algae could become a substitute for in New Zealand. It could be used to vehicles such as cars and boats. As a result, billions of litres of bio-diesel are required ...
Musicophilia
It can connect the stories of people of different ages, backgrounds and cultural histories, bringing them together to construct a sonic narrative of how we experience the world. Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks. ISBN-10: 0330523597. ISBN-13: 978-0330523592. Try checking the availability of this book at your school or local library or explore second ...
Book review: Musicophilia
Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, by Oliver Sacks. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007. The latest book of essays on neuroscience by Oliver Sacks looks at various aspects of brain function as they relate to music. He focuses not just on how the brain processes and understands music but what music means to us and how it makes us who we are.
Musicophilia by oliver sacks
260. I've just posted my review of Oliver Sacks' newly published book Musicophila on my blog. This very interesting book explores the effects of various brain traumas and abnormalities on the production and experience of music and the ways they respond. It functions in an interesting counterpoint to Levitin's This is Your Brain on Music which I ...
Reading Practice Book review on Musicophilia Norman M. Weinberger
expectations of Musicophilia, the latest offering from neurologist and prolific author Oliver Sacks. And I confess to feeling a little guilty reporting that my reactions to the book are mixed. B Sacks himself is the best part of Musicophilia. He richly documents his own life in the book and reveals highly personal experiences. The photograph of ...
MUSICOPHILIA
Dr. Oliver Sacks spent more than fifty years working as a neurologist and writing books about the neurological predicaments and conditions of his patients, including The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Musicophilia, and Hallucinations. The New York Times referred to him as "the poet laureate of medicine," and over the years he received many awards, including honors from the Guggenheim ...
Interview: By the Book with Ada Limón
Describe your ideal reading experience (when, where, what, how). I'd be reading a book in some sun-filled spot outside, while knowing every human being is safe, cared for, fed, beloved, and all ...

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