The next time you have a song stuck
in your head, reach for the chewing gum. The very act of grinding it around
your mouth might be enough to kick that annoying earworm out of your brain,
scientists have claimed.
Songs are less likely to re-appear
in your head if you're chewing, according to a study at the University of
Reading. People chewing gum are less likely to think about "sticky"
songs, and less likely to hear them after they've stopped, the researchers
found. The findings could even show that chewing gum could also be used to keep
annoying or recurrent thoughts from popping into people's heads.
At least 90 per cent of people
experience earworms, which comes from the German word "ohrwurm", and
15 per cent of people would call them disturbing, according to research.
"The majority of us experience
them for only short periods - perhaps just a few minutes - but others can
experience them for two or three days which can be extremely frustrating and
debilitating," said Phil Beaman, from the university's school of
psychology and clinical language sciences, who led the study. "We wanted
to explore whether a simple act like chewing gum could help."
Participants in the study were
played Play Hard by David Guetta and Payphone by Maroon 5. They were then told
not to think about the songs, and hit a key whenever they did. The people who
were doing so chewing gum hit the key a lot less than those that were told to
do nothing or tap their finger, the research found.
"Interfering with our own
'inner speech' through a more sophisticated version of the gum-chewing approach
may work more widely.," Beaman said. The study is the first to examine the
effects of chewing gum on earworms, and it suggests it could also be used to
stop other unwanted or intrusive thoughts. "However more research is
needed to see whether this will help counter symptoms of obsessive-compulsive
and similar disorders," Beaman said. In a previous study by University of
Reading in 2009, it was found that almost any song can become an earworm.
Question
1 (2 points) Indicate whether the following statements are true or false and
write down which part of the text justifies your answer.
a. People will definitely stop hearing the earworm
after chewing gum.
b. Everyone who has been affected by earworms has said
that they are a negative thing.
c. People who didn’t chew gum in the study were not
allowed to move after they had heard the two songs.
d. This is the first time that the effect of chewing
gum on earworms has been researched.
Question
2 (2 points) Answer the following questions in your own words.
a. How long do people experience earworms?
b. How did the University of Reading test the effect
of chewing gum on earworms?
Question
3 (1.5 points) Find words or phrases in the text that correspond in meaning to
the words and definitions given.
a. remove
(par.1) b. investigators
(par. 2) c. annoying
(par.4)
d. every time
(par.5) e. fight against (par.6)
Question
4 (1.5 points) Complete the following sentences without changing the meaning.
a. Chewing gum
can help you get rid of earworms.
If …………………………………………………………………………………………………..
b. The
majority of people only experience earworms for short periods.
Earworms
……………………………………………………………………………………………..…………..
c. “More
research is needed to see whether this will help counter symptoms of
disorders”, said Beaman.
According to Beaman,
……………………………………………………………………....
Question
5 (3 points) Write a short essay (120-150 words) on the following topic:
“Music is a very important part of our lives and it
can be used in lots of different ways.”
Do you agree?
