The second part of the Reading Task 3
Read the article about favourite songs. For questions 1–4, choose the answer that you think fits best based on the text. You can download and read the full text here.
Read the article about favourite songs. For questions 1–4, choose the answer that you think fits best based on the text. You can download and read the full text here.
WHY IS THAT YOUR FAVOURITE SONG?
We all have favourite songs. Some music sticks in our heads immediately and reverberates in our memory for hours or days, but we don’t really like it. Effective advertising jingles fit this description. And then there are songs or music that you consciously return to again and again through your playlist, or the ones that immediately make you smile when they spontaneously fill your environment. Why do we develop favourite songs? And why is it so individual and unpredictable which ones will stick with us, while others do not?
We know intuitively that music triggers both an aesthetic and an emotional response. We may find certain music beautiful, but that is not enough for it to become a favourite. My son, for example, explains that his favourite song simply “makes me happy”, despite recognising that the beat and lyrics are only average. Functional brain imaging research has shown that our brain picks up music and processes it in a variety of specific locations, each of which codes different aspects ranging from abstract sounds, rhythms, lyrics, and language. These separate brain regions then send information to yet additional regions with different functions that form complex, interdependent associations that bring about both the aesthetic experience and the emotional result. The brain generates strong emotions from musical stimuli through the activation of a particular neurologic circuit called the Papez circuit.
One school of thought is that our favourite music is largely due to its emotional impact, such as the effect when we are at a live concert of our favourite group. It remains unclear whether a favourite song creates something new emotionally or simply triggers pre-existing pathways. Another of my sons has paid attention to his emotional response to music and has curated a go-to playlist that he can source to improve or change his mood to suit whatever situation he is about to face. He relies on these favourite songs to handle the emotional demands of the teenage world. This conscious use of music to extract an emotional dividend can be employed to motivate us during exercise, to relax customers at a spa, to rally a crowd during a sporting event, and more. These songs can become favourites as we wish to recreate that atmosphere later.
Another school of thought is that there are songs that become favourites not so much for the musical structure or lyrics that generate a specific emotion, but rather for what that song represents in our memory. Music is heard in unique contexts and becomes integrated in our memories. The human brain possesses
different systems for storing those memories, and it processes music in a distinctive manner. When we hear music, our brain stores both the actual sound (similar to remembering a melody) and its meaning (similar to our ability to recall poetry). Additionally, our emotional responses become linked to these musical memories and the circumstances in which we experienced them. Consequently, the brain encodes music as a component of our multifaceted memory of a moment or experience.
The intricate relationship between music and memory explains why AI algorithms from streaming services cannot quite get our music preferences right. The algorithms model the users’ behaviour when picking playlists but are only able to process the artistic components of selected music. The associations and memories connected to music are uniquely individual and not necessarily related to its aesthetic quality. In other words, our taste in music does not necessarily define the songs we identify as favourites. Fortunately or unfortunately, even other humans cannot replicate our individual experience, and we are left with discovering our favourites through chance and luck.
Adapted from psychologytoday.com
We all have favourite songs. Some music sticks in our heads immediately and reverberates in our memory for hours or days, but we don’t really like it. Effective advertising jingles fit this description. And then there are songs or music that you consciously return to again and again through your playlist, or the ones that immediately make you smile when they spontaneously fill your environment. Why do we develop favourite songs? And why is it so individual and unpredictable which ones will stick with us, while others do not?
We know intuitively that music triggers both an aesthetic and an emotional response. We may find certain music beautiful, but that is not enough for it to become a favourite. My son, for example, explains that his favourite song simply “makes me happy”, despite recognising that the beat and lyrics are only average. Functional brain imaging research has shown that our brain picks up music and processes it in a variety of specific locations, each of which codes different aspects ranging from abstract sounds, rhythms, lyrics, and language. These separate brain regions then send information to yet additional regions with different functions that form complex, interdependent associations that bring about both the aesthetic experience and the emotional result. The brain generates strong emotions from musical stimuli through the activation of a particular neurologic circuit called the Papez circuit.
One school of thought is that our favourite music is largely due to its emotional impact, such as the effect when we are at a live concert of our favourite group. It remains unclear whether a favourite song creates something new emotionally or simply triggers pre-existing pathways. Another of my sons has paid attention to his emotional response to music and has curated a go-to playlist that he can source to improve or change his mood to suit whatever situation he is about to face. He relies on these favourite songs to handle the emotional demands of the teenage world. This conscious use of music to extract an emotional dividend can be employed to motivate us during exercise, to relax customers at a spa, to rally a crowd during a sporting event, and more. These songs can become favourites as we wish to recreate that atmosphere later.
Another school of thought is that there are songs that become favourites not so much for the musical structure or lyrics that generate a specific emotion, but rather for what that song represents in our memory. Music is heard in unique contexts and becomes integrated in our memories. The human brain possesses
different systems for storing those memories, and it processes music in a distinctive manner. When we hear music, our brain stores both the actual sound (similar to remembering a melody) and its meaning (similar to our ability to recall poetry). Additionally, our emotional responses become linked to these musical memories and the circumstances in which we experienced them. Consequently, the brain encodes music as a component of our multifaceted memory of a moment or experience.
The intricate relationship between music and memory explains why AI algorithms from streaming services cannot quite get our music preferences right. The algorithms model the users’ behaviour when picking playlists but are only able to process the artistic components of selected music. The associations and memories connected to music are uniquely individual and not necessarily related to its aesthetic quality. In other words, our taste in music does not necessarily define the songs we identify as favourites. Fortunately or unfortunately, even other humans cannot replicate our individual experience, and we are left with discovering our favourites through chance and luck.
Adapted from psychologytoday.com
1. What does the author suggest about the emotional effects of live concerts?
2. How does the article describe the relationship between music and memory?
3. What does the author say about the role of aesthetic appreciation in forming favourites?
4. The author of the article concludes that
Atsauce:
https://www.viaa.gov.lv. Centralizētais eksāmens angļu valodā (optimālais mācību satura apguves līmenis), 2025
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