Speaking a native language that requires tones appears to boost perception(感知) of melody, but at the cost of rhythm, researchers report April 26 in Current Biology. The massive global study hints at how language skills seep into other areas of cognition. Tonal(声调的) languages use pitch to distinguish words that otherwise might sound the same. In Mandarin, for instance, mǎ means horse whereas mā means mother. Nontonal languages like Spanish sometimes include pitch changes to suggest emotion, for example, but not to change a word’s meaning.
As a Mandarin speaker and flutist, Liu Jingxuan wondered about the crossover between language and music. While studying psychology as an undergraduate at Duke University, Liu helped analyze the musical abilities of nearly half a million people from 203 countries. Her colleagues had launched an online game in which participants completed several musical tasks, including identifying matching melodies at different pitches and finding beat tracks that fit songs’ rhythms.
On average, native speakers of the 19 represented tonal languages were better at the melody task compared with speakers of 29 nontonal languages. And the effect wasn’t small—a tonal first language enhanced melodic perception by about half the amount that music lessons did, which was also surveyed. But tonal language speakers tended to be worse at the rhythm task.
Humans must be choosy about what they pay attention to. Pitch patterns are vital in tonal languages, which might explain the musical trade-off. “You’ve got a finite resource of attention, and you’ve got to allocate that somehow,” says study co-author Courtney Hilton, a cognitive scientist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand.
Prior research on language and music often compared just two tongues, usually English and Cantonese or Mandarin. But other cultural influences, such as Eastern and Western music styles, could have affected results. By examining a wide range of people, the new study included languages never assessed in this way and reached more general conclusions. “Our result here is showing that the language someone speaks—which is an important part of culture—also shapes cognition,” Hilton says.
()12. What does the underlined phrase “seep into” in the first paragraph mean?
A. Enter gradually.
B. Control constantly.
C. Damage slightly.
D. Understand completely.
()13. What information can we get from the musical tasks of Liu Jingxuan’s colleagues?
A. Tonal languages determine our music abilities.
B. Tonal first languages can take the place of music lessons.
C. Tonal language speakers perform better in the rhythm tasks.
D. Tonal languages help native speakers to better acquire melody.
()14. Which of the following statements does Courtney Hilton most agree with?
A. The musical trade-off enhances human cognition.
B. The musical abilities boost human perception of melody.
C. A limited span of attention accounts for human musical trade-off.
D. English and Cantonese or Mandarin affect human musical abilities.
()15. What does the text mainly tell us?
A. Native language influences human culture.
B. Native language might shape musical ability.
C. Native language is an important part of culture.
D. Native language enhances human melodic perception.

12.A 13.D 14.C 15.B
【语篇解读】本文是一篇说明文。带有音调的语言可以提高母语者的旋律感知能力，但是也会在一定程度上降低他们的节奏感。文章介绍了关于这个理论的相关实验来证明这一点。
12. A 解析:词义猜测题。根据第一段中的“Speaking a native language that requires tones appears to boost perception of melody”可知，带有音调的语言可以影响人们的旋律感，即语言技能是会影响人们其他领域的认知能力的。由此猜测，seep into意为“慢慢进入”，即语言的影响会渗透，或进入其他领域。故选A。
13. D 解析:细节理解题。根据第三段中的“On average, native speakers of the 19 represented tonal languages were better at the melody task compared with speakers of 29 nontonal languages.”可知，带有音调的语言的使用者在旋律感上更有优势。故选D。
14. C 解析:推理判断题。根据第四段中的“You've got a finite resource of attention, and you've got to allocate that somehow.”可知，人类的注意力是有限的，而且很短暂，人们只能选择自己感兴趣的东西去关注，所以不是任何音乐天赋都可以随意获得的，这和人类的注意力有限有关系。由此推知，Courtney Hilton可能会同意有限的注意力范围解释了人类在音乐上的取舍。故选C。
15. B 解析:主旨大意题。通读全文，尤其是根据文章第一句“Speaking a native language that requires tones appears to boost perception of melody, but at the cost of rhythm, researchers report April 26 in Current Biology.”可知，文章主要介绍了带有音调的语言可以提高母语者的旋律感知能力，但是也会在一定程度上降低他们的节奏感，即母语可能塑造音乐能力。故选B。