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47. Which of the following would most likely be a hit cooking show in the ’90s?
(A) A show dedicated to European cuisine and gourmet food.
(B) A show sponsored by food companies advertising new products.
(C) A show hosted by a humorous chef presenting low-calorie dishes.
(D) A show with a professional cook demonstrating systematic ways of cooking.
Screaming is one of the primal responses humans share with other animals. Conventional thinking suggests that what sets a scream apart from other sounds is its loudness or high pitch. However, many sounds that are loud and high-pitched do not raise goose bumps like screams can. To find out what makes human screams unique, neuroscientist Luc Arnal and his team examined a bank of sounds containing sentences spoken or screamed by 19 adults. The result shows screams and screamed sentences had a quality called “roughness,” which refers to how fast a sound changes in loudness. While normal speech sounds only have slight differences in loudness-between 4 and 5 Hz, screams can switch very fast, varying between 30 and 150 Hz, thus perceived as being rough and unpleasant.
Arnal’s team asked 20 subjects to judge screams as neutral or fearful, and found that the scariest almost always corresponded with roughness. The team then studied how the human brain responds to roughness using fMRI brain scanners. As expected, after hearing a scream, activity increased in the brain’s auditory centers where sound coming into the ears is processed. But the scans also lit up in the amygdala, the brain’s fear center.
The amygdala is the area that regulates our emotional and physiological response to danger. When a threat is detected, our adrenaline rises, and our body prepares to react to danger. The study discovered that screams have a similar influence on our body. It also found that roughness isn’t heard when we speak naturally, regardless of the language we use, but it is prevalent in artificial sounds. The most aggravating alarm clocks, car horns, and fire alarms possess high degrees of roughness.
One potential application for this research might be to add roughness to alarm sounds to make them more effective, the same way a bad smell is added to natural gas to make it easily detectable. Warning sounds could also be added to electric cars, which are particularly silent, so they can be efficiently detected by pedestrians.
48. What is the first paragraph mainly about?
(A) Different types of screams.
(B) Human sounds and animal cries.
(C) Specific features of screams.
(D) Sound changes and goose bumps.
[題組:第48題到第51題]
49. According to the passage, which of the following is NOT a finding by Arnal’s team?
(A) Changes in volume make screams different from other sounds.
(B) Only humans can produce sounds with great loudness variation.
(C) Normal human speech sounds vary between 4 to 5 Hz in loudness.
(D) Drastic volume variation in speech can effectively activate the amygdala.
[題組:第48題到第51題]
50. What does “it” in the third paragraph refer to?
(A) The study.
(B) Language.
(C) Roughness.
(D) The amygdala.
[題組:第48題到第51題]
51. Which of the following devices may be improved with the researchers’ findings?
(A) Smoke detectors.
(B) Security cameras.
(C) Electric bug killers.
(D) Fire extinguishers.
Martha has been trying to ______ her roommate since their quarrel last week, as she doesn’t want to continue the argument.
(A) overgrow
(B) bother
(C) pursue
(D) avoid
As David finished the last drop of the delicious chicken soup, he licked his lips and gave out sounds of ______.
(A) contentment
(B) dominance
(C) explosion
(D) affection
After several rounds of intense fighting, the boxer punched his ______ right in the face, knocked him out, and won the match.
(A) performer
(B) attendant
(C) opponent
(D) messenger
Watch out! The bench has just been painted. You can fan the wet paint if you want to ______ its drying.
(A) fasten
(B) hasten
(C) lengthen
(D) strengthen
Warm milk ______ sleepiness. So if you have trouble falling asleep, try drinking some warm milk before going to bed.
(A) conceals
(B) recruits
(C) absorbs
(D) induces
