Musical chills:The power of“ skin excitement”

廣東 王雪云

當人們聽到喜愛的歌曲時會起雞皮疙瘩，這被科學家稱為“肌膚興奮”。研究發現，擁有這樣反應的人往往情感更強烈，情商更高。

主題語境：音樂 篇幅：330 詞 建議用時：7分鐘

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

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

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

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

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

Reading Check

Detail1.What can we learn about“ skin excitement” in the text?

A.It helps to produce dopamine.

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

C.It can be experienced by every music listener.

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

Detail2.What does the new study by Harvard researchers mainly find?

A.The percentage of music lovers in students.

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

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

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

Inference3.What are people with cold-prone brains like?

A.Beautiful and intelligent.

B.Emotional and dishonest.

C.Imaginative and sensitive.

D.Brave and strong-minded.

Gist4.What does the text mainly focus on?

A.Responses to music vary among people.

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

C.Your favorite music reveals your personality.

D.Favorite music may bring forth goose bumps.

Language Study

Ⅰ.Difficult sentence in the text

In a new study published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience,Harvard researchers performed brain scans on 10 students who said they reliably got cold when listening to music, and 10 students who didn't.在發表于《社會認知與情感神經科學》雜志的一項新研究中，哈佛大學的研究人員對10 名聲稱在聽音樂時確實感到寒冷的學生以及10名沒有這種感受的學生進行了腦部掃描。

【點石成金】本句是一個主從復合句。主句是Harvard researchers performed brain scans on 10 students；從句為who said they...who didn't，其中who said...是由who 引導的定語從句，修飾先行詞10 students；they reliably got cold when listening to music 是省略了引導詞that 的從句，從句作動詞said 的賓語；when listening to music 相當于when they were listening to music。在時間狀語、條件狀語、讓步狀語等從句中，當主句和從句的主語一致時，可將從句中的主語和be動詞同時省略。

Ⅱ.Text-centered chunks

skin excitement 肌膚興奮

a drop in temperature 溫度下降

goose bumps 雞皮疙瘩

brain scan 腦部掃描

emotional intelligence 情商

active imagination 活躍的想象力

reflect deeply 深思熟慮

appreciate nature 欣賞大自然

stronger degree 更強的程度

type of music 音樂類型

strong emotional memory 強烈的情感記憶

summer camp 夏令營