Đề thi IELTS Reading Paper ngày 29/3/2025: Viking Ireland, Egypt’s ancient boat-builders, Decision, Decision! How to make good decisions, When people are deaf to music

Viking Ireland

A recent excavation in Dublin challenges long-held ideas about when the Scandinavian raiders known as Vikings arrived in Ireland.

A. When Irish archaeologists working under Dublin’s South Great George’s Street unearthed the remains of four young men buried with fragments of Viking shields, daggers, and personal ornaments, in the excavation, appeared to be simply more evidence of the Viking presence in Ireland. At least 77 Viking burial sites have been found across the base of artifacts that accompanied them, and the South Great George’s Street burials seemed to be further examples. Yet when archaeologist Linzi Simpson sent the remains for analysis, the tests showed that the men had been buried in Irish soil for years, or even decades, before the accepted date for establishing the first year-round Viking settlement in Dublin.

B. Simpson’s findings are now adding new weight to an idea gaining growing acceptance that instead of a sudden, calamitous Invasion, the arrival of the Vikings in Ireland started with small-scale settlements and trade links connected Ireland with Northern Europe. Furthermore, those trading contacts may have occurred generations before the violent raids described in contemporary texts, works written by monks living in isolated monasteries. These were often the only places where literate people lived and were especially targeted by Viking raiders for their food suppliers and treasures. Scholars continue to examine the texts written by monks but are also considering their limitations. “Most researchers accept now that the raids were not the first contact, as the old texts suggest,” says Viking expert Gareth Williams. How did the Vikings know where all those monasteries were? It’s because there was already contact. They were already trading before those raids happened.”

C. Although the earlier dates for a Viking presence in Dublin that have been identified by Simpson and independent archaeologists differ from the later dates by only a few decades, when combined with other evidence, they are challenging the chronology of Viking settlement in Ireland. Since the 1960s, archaeologists have been gathering information about the mid-ninth-century settlement that lay under the sidewalks of Fishamble Street in Dublin. According to archeologist Ruth Jonson, the Vikings started with sporadic summer raids, but after some years of profitable plunder, they decided to stay and built settlements for the winter

D. Carbon dating, which measures the age of organic materials based on the amount of radioactive carbon 14 remaining in a specimen, usually gives a range of likely dates for the time of death. The older the material, the wider the range. In the case of the four individuals excavated at the South Great George’s Street site, Simpson found that two of them had a 95 percent probability of having died between 670 and 680, with a 68 percent probability of death occurring between 690 and 790. Thus, the entire most likely range was before the first documented arrival of Vikings in 795. A third individual lived slightly later, with a 95 percent probability of having died between 680 and 882. The dates were not what Simpson had thought they would be. These dates seem impossibly early and difficult to reconcile with the available historical and archaeological sources,” she says.

E. The fourth individual excavated at South Great George’s Street was the most intact of the group and revealed the most about the lives and hardships of Vikings at this time. A powerfully built man in his late teens or early 20s, he was approximately 1.70m. tall by the day’s standards, with the muscular torso and upper limbs that would have come from hard, ocean-going rowing. His bones showed streets associated with heavy lifting beginning in childhood. Unlike the three other men, he was not buried with weapons. Like one of the other men found at the site, he had a congenital deformity at the base of his spine, perhaps indicating they were relatives. Carbon dating gave a wider range for his lifetime, showing a 95 percent probability that he died between 786 and 955.

F. Tests were also carried out on the four South Great George’s Street men’s isotopic oxygen levels. Such tests indicate where a person spent their childhood based on a chemical signature left by groundwater in developing teeth. The results showed that the two men with the spinal had spent their childhood in Scandinavia. However, the other two had spent their childhoods in Ireland or Scotland, another sign of permanent settlement by Viking families and not just summer raids by warriors.

G. The evidence of an earlier-than-expected Viking presence in Ireland, based as it is on forensic tests conducted on a handful of burials, may seem slight. But seemingly small pieces of evidence can overturn well-established conventions in archaeology. Both Simpson and Johnson stress more excavations and tests will be needed before anyone can rewrite the history of Viking settlement, and such work is years away. Williams adds, There are two possibilities raised by (Simpson’s) work. Either there was Viking activity earlier than we’ve realized in Ireland, or there is something in the water or soil in Dublin skewing the data, and both possibilities need further research.” Nevertheless, Williams agrees with Simpson and others that the chronology of the Viking presence in Ireland is uncertain and that they were possibly trading or raiding in Ireland before 795. ‘It’s a poorly documented part of history, says Williams. But before there was Viking settlement, there was this big trading zone in the North Sea. Did it extend to the Irish Sea? We don’t have any evidence to say that, but it could be just a matter of time.”

Questions 14-19
Choose the correct heading for each section from the list of headings below. Write the correct number from i to vii.
LIST OF HEADINGS
i. A possible genetic link between the Vikings and the Irish
ii. An assumed similarity with previous discoveries
iii. The need for additional data
iv. An insight into the lifestyle of a particular Viking
v. Doubts about the truth of historical documents
vi. A research technique providing unexpected information
vii. The particular locations Vikings grew up
viii. A decision to remain in Ireland for longer periods
14. SECTION B
15. SECTION C
16. SECTION D
17. SECTION E
18. SECTION F
19. SECTION G

Questions 20-23
Match each statement with the correct expert, A, B, or C.
20. The Vikings were aware of the financial benefits of staying in Ireland.
21. Written accounts reporting when the Vikings arrived in Ireland may not be accurate.
22. The inconsistency in sets of data came as a surprise.
23. It may be the case that the archaeological evidence gathered so far is being affected by geological factors.

LIST OF EXPERTS
A. Linzi Simpson
B. Gareth Williams
C. Ruth Johnson

Questions 24-28
Choose ONE WORD for each given answer
THE FOURTH VIKING OF SOUTH GREAT GEORGE’S STREET
When the remains of the fourth Viking were excavated at South Great George’s Street, it became clear that they were of a male who was tall by the days’ ____24____ of that time. Due to strenuous physical activity, his ____25_____ as well as his arms were well-developed, but several of his bones indicated stresses that would have dated from his ____26_____. He also had a genetic abnormality in his lower _____27____. His burial differed from that of the other three Vikings discovered at the site, as no _____28_____ were included.

Egypt’s ancient boat-builders

Archaeological discoveries on Egypt’s Red Sea coast indicate that the region’s ancient inhabitants were a skilled seafaring people.

A
The scenes carved into a wall of an Egyptian temple dating from the 15th century BC, tell of a remarkable sea voyage from a mysterious land known as Punt, or Land of God. They show a fleet of ships bearing exotic cargo, navigating through high-crested waves on a journey. The exact meaning of these detailed carvings has divided Egyptologists ever since they were discovered in the mid-19th century. Some people have argued that Punt was not on the sea, or a fictitious place altogether, says Oxford University Egyptologist John Baines. However, a series of remarkable discoveries on a desolate stretch of Egypt’s Red Sea coast has settled the debate. These finds remove all doubt that you reach Punt by sea. ‘Baines says. The Egyptians must have had considerable seagoing experience.
B
The archaeologists behind these discoveries are Kathryn Bard of Boston University, USA, and Rodolfo Fattovich of Orientale University, Italy. From 2002 they spent several weeks each year examining a dried-up lagoon known in Egypt as Mersa Gawasis, and the coastal cliffs nearby. They were searching for signs of a harbour that might have sheltered merchant ships like those depicted in the wall carvings. Finally, in December 2004, Bard was clearing what she thought was the back wall of a rock shelter when she put her hand through the sand into an open space, and uncovered a hemispherical cave about 5 metres across and 2 metres high. The cave’s entrance was carved into an exact rectangle and was clearly not a natural formation. Inside, the archaeologists found shattered storage jars, broken boxes made from cedar planks, and five grinding stones. A pottery fragment inscribed with the name of Amenemhat III, a pharaoh who ruled Egypt around 1800 BC, helped the team pinpoint the cave’s age.
C
Not long afterwards, Bard and Fattovich came across a larger cave, reinforced with old wooden timbers and stone anchors, the first conclusive evidence of large-scale Egyptian seafaring ever discovered. Over the next few years, they uncovered the hidden remnants of an ancient boat-building and seafaring community. Many of the artefacts found were full of holes—the work of tiny marine animals known as shipworms. In addition to eight caves, Bard and Fattovich found remains of five mud-brick ramps that might have been used to ease ships into the water. One cave contained hundreds of metres of rope, expertly coiled and stacked.
D
Material connecting Mersa Gawasis to Punt accumulated both inside and outside the caves. A few hundred metres from the cliffs lie piles of crumbled stone and conch shells—most probably the remains of altars. Among these are stones carved with inscriptions that specifically mention missions to Punt. As if that weren’t enough, among the remnants found outside one cave were two planks marked with directions for assembling a ship. One of them bore an inscription still partly legible after 3,800 years: “Year 8 under his majesty the king of Upper and Lower Egypt…given life forever…of wonderful things of Punt.”
E
While the Mersa Gawasis artefacts have answered some questions, they have raised others. For instance, how did the expeditions to Punt actually work, and how did the Egyptians construct vessels that could make a round-trip voyage of over 3,000 kilometres? Cheryl Ward, a maritime archaeologist at Coastal Carolina University in South Carolina, USA, has gone some way to answering these questions. She spent three years building a full-scale reconstruction of a ship that would have docked in the lagoon of Mersa Gawasis. Ward has determined that unlike modern vessels, the Egyptian ship was essentially one giant hull. The Egyptian ships were also unique in that they were held together with fittings that needed no metal fasteners, and could be taken apart and put back together again. “From the very beginning, the Egyptians were building boats that could be disassembled, and that makes them different from anyone else,” Ward says.
F
For all the skill and craftsmanship evident in the Mersa Gawasis caves, ancient Egypt’s ocean voyages were most likely an exception to the usual modes of trade, born out of a necessity to obtain precious materials, such as incense and aromatic resins. For most of Egypt’s history these goods had moved along established routes across the eastern desert and through modern-day Sudan. But around the time Mersa Gawasis came into use, it seems a hostile new kingdom to the south cut Egypt off from its supply of exotic materials. “If they could have gone overland, it would have been much easier than bringing timbers from Lebanon, building ships on the upper Nile, taking them apart and carrying them across the desert,” Bard says. “They weren’t stupid—no one wants to do things the hard way. But geopolitically, they had no other choice.” Fattovich suggests that there were probably only 15 to 20 expeditions over some 400 years, about one every two decades. After that Mersa Gawasis fell out of use, probably because either there was no longer enough water in the lagoon to float ships, or overland links improved, or alternative sites were found. The last sailors to use the lagoon sealed up their equipment and shelters behind mud bricks and sand to await expeditions that never came.

Questions 14-17 Which paragraph contains the following information?
NB: You may use any letter more than once.
1. possible reasons why the site of Mersa Gawasis was abandoned
2. mention of a lack of agreement about an archaeological discovery
3. reference to a study which involved copying ancient Egyptian boat-building techniques
4. a reason why the ancient Egyptians needed to import goods by sea

Questions 18-21 Complete the sentences below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
1. Illustration of merchant ships sailing from Punt were found on wall carvings in an ancient ______ in Egypt.
2. Bard and Fattovich hoped to find evidence of a ______ in the area of Mersa Gawasis.
3. When Bard first discovered a cave at Mersa Gawasis, the shape of its ______ indicated that it was man-made.
4. Bard and Fattovich discovered a considerable number of objects that had been made by small sea creatures known as ______.

Questions 22-26 Look at the following statements (Questions 22-26) and the list of archaeologists below. Match each statement with the correct archaeologist A, B, C, or D.
NB: You may use any letter more than once.
22. Ancient Egyptian sea voyages were probably relatively infrequent
23. It is now certain that the ancient Egyptians sailed to Punt
24. During a certain period, Egyptians were forced to use sea rather than overland trade routes.
25. It has been suggested that Punt never existed.
26. The construction of ancient Egyptian ships was unlike any other.
List of archaeologists
A. John Baines
B. Kathryn Bard
C. Rodolfo Fattovich
D. Cheryl Ward

Decision, Decision! How to make good decisions.

Research explores when we can make a vital decision quickly and we need to proceed more deliberately.

A.
A widely recognised legend tells us that in Gordium (in what is now Turkey) in the fourth century BC an oxcart was roped to a pole with a complex knot. It was said that the first person to untie it would become the king of Asia. Unfortunately, the knot proved impossible to untie. The story continues that when confronted with this problem, rather than deliberating on how to untie the Gordian knot. Alexander, the famous ruler of the Greeks in the ancient world, simply took out his sword and cut it in two – then went on to conquer Asia. Ever since the notion of a ‘Gordian solution’ has referred to the attractiveness of a simple answer to an otherwise intractable problem.
B.
Among researchers in the psychology of decision making, however, such solutions have traditionally held little appeal. In particular, the ‘conflict model’ of decision making proposed by psychologists Irving Janis and Leon Mann in their 1977 book, Decision Making, argued that a complex decision-making process is essential for guarding individuals and groups from the peril of ‘group-think’. Decisions made without thorough canvassing, surveying, weighing, examining and reexamining relevant information and options would be suboptimal and often disastrous. One foreign affair decision made by a well-known US political leader in the 1960s is typically held us as an example of the perils of inadequate thought, whereas his successful handling of a water crisis is cited as an example of the advantages of careful deliberation. However, examination of these historical events by Peter Suedfield, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia, and Roderick Kramer, a psychologist at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, found little difference in the two decision-making processes; both crises required and received complex consideration by the political administration, but later only the second one was deemed to be the effective.
C.
In general, however, organizational and political science offers little evidence that complex decisions fare better than simpler ones. In fact, a growing body of work suggests that in many situations simply ‘snap’ decisions with being routinely superior to more complex ones – an idea that gained widespread public appeal with Malcolm Gladwell’s best-selling book Blink (2005).
D.
An article by Ap Dijksterhuis of the University of Amsterdam and his colleagues, Making the Right Choice: the Deliberation-without-attention Effect’, runs very much in the spirit of Gladwell’s influential text. Its core argument is that to be effective, conscious (deliberative) decision making requires cognitive resources. Because increasingly complex decisions place increasing strain on those resources, the quality of our decisions declines as their complexity increases. In short, complex decisions overrun our cognitive powers. On the other hand, unconscious decision making (what the author refer to as ‘deliberation without attention’) requires no cognitive resources, so task complexity does not Effectiveness. The seemingly counterintuitive conclusion is that although conscious thought enhances simple decisions, the opposite holds true for more complex decisions.
E.
Dijksterhuis reports four Simple but elegant studies supporting this argument. In one, participants assessed the quality of four hypothetical cars by considering either four attributes (a simple task) or 12 attributes (a complex task). Among participants who considered four attributes, those who were allowed to engage in undistracted deliberative thought did better at discriminating between the best and worst cars. Those who were distracted and thus unable to deliberate had to rely on their unconscious thinking and did less well. The opposite pattern emerged when people considered 12 criteria. In this case, conscious deliberation led to inferior discrimination and poor decisions.
F.
In other studies, Dijksterhuis surveyed people shopping for clothes (‘simple’ products) and furniture (‘complex’ products). Compared with those who said they had deliberated long and hard, shoppers who bought with little conscious deliberation felt less happy with their simple clothing purchase but happier with the complex furniture purchases. Deliberation without attention actually produced better results as the decisions became more complex.
G.
From there, however, the researchers take a big leap. They write: There is no reason to assume that the deliberation-without-attention effect does not generalize to other types of choices – political, managerial or otherwise. In such cases, it should benefit the individual to think consciously about simple matters and to delegate thinking about more complicated matters to the unconscious.
H. This radical inference contradicts standard political and managerial theory but doubtless comforts those in politics and management who always find the simple solution to the complex problem an attractive proposition. Indeed, one suspects many of our political leaders already embrace this wisdom.
I.
Still, it is there, in the realms of society and its governance, that the more problematic implications of deliberation without attention begin to surface. Variables that can be neatly circumscribed in decisions about shopping lose clarity in a world of group dynamics, social interaction, history and politics. Two pertinent questions arise. First, what counts as a complex decision? And second, what counts as a good outcome?
J.
As social psychologist Kurt Lewin (1890 – 1947) noted, a ‘good’ decision that nobody respects is actually bad, his classic studies of decision making showed that participating in deliberative processes makes people more likely to abide by the results. The issue here is that when political decision-makers make mistakes, it is their politics, or the relationship between their politics and our own, rather than psychology which is at fault.
K.
Gladwell’s book and Dijksterhuis’s paper are invaluable in pointing out the limitations of the conventional wisdom that decision quality rises with decision-making complexity. But this work still tempts us to believe that decision making is simply a matter of psychology, rather than also a question of politics, ideology and group membership. Avoiding social considerations in a search for general appeal rather than toward it.

Questions 1-5
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D. Write your answers in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.

1. The legend of the Gordian knot is used to illustrate the idea that
A. anyone can solve a difficult problem
B. difficult problems can have easy solutions
C. the solution to any problem requires a lot of thought
D. people who can solve complex problems make good leaders
2. The ‘conflict model’ of decision making proposed by Janis and Mann requires that
A. opposing political parties be involved
B. all-important facts be considered
C. people be encouraged to have different ideas
D. previous similar situations be thoroughly examined
3. According to recent thinking reinforced by Malcolm Gladwell, the best decisions
A. involve consultation
B. involve complex thought
C. are made very quickly
D. are the most attractive option
4. Dijksterhuis and his colleagues claim in their article that
A. our cognitive resources improve as tasks become more complex
B. conscious decision making is negatively affected by task complexity
C. unconscious decision making is a popular approach
D. deliberation without attention defines the way we make decisions
5. Dijksterhuis’s car study found that, in simple tasks, participants
A. were involved in lengthy discussions
B. found it impossible to make decisions quickly
C. were unable to differentiate between the options
D. could make a better choice when allowed to concentrate

Questions 6-9
Complete the summary using the list of words A-I below. Write the correct letter, A-I, in boxes 6-9 on your answer sheet.

Dijksterhuis’s shopping study and its conclusions

Using clothing and furniture as examples of different types of purchases, Dijksterhuis questioned shoppers on their satisfaction with what they had bought. People who spent 6 …………… time buying simple clothing items were more satisfied than those who had not. However, when buying furniture, shoppers made 7 ………….. purchasing decisions if they didn’t think too hard. From this, the researchers concluded that in other choices, perhaps more important than shopping. 8………………. decisions are best made by the unconscious. The writer comments that Dijksterhuis’s finding is apparently 9 ……………….. but nonetheless true.

A. more
B. counterintuitive
C. simple
D. better
E. conscious
F. obvious
G. complex
H. less
I. worse

Questions 10-14
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage?In boxes 10-14 on your answer sheet, write:
YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

10. Dijksterhuis’s findings agree with existing political and management theories.
11. Some political leaders seem to use deliberation without attention when making complex decisions.
12. All political decisions are complex ones.
13. We judge political errors according to our own political beliefs.
14. Social considerations must be taken into account for any examination of decision making to prove useful.

When people are deaf to music

A.
Music has long been considered a uniquely human concept. In fact, most psychologists agree that music is a universal human instinct. Like any ability, however, there is great variation in people’s musical competence. For every brilliant pianist in the world, there are several people we refer to as ” tone deaf”. It is not simply that people with tone deafness (or’ amusia”) are unable to sing in tune, they are also unable to discriminate between tones or recognize familiar melodies. Such a” disorder” can occur after some sort of brain damage , but recently research has been undertaken in an attempt to discover the cause of congenital amusia (when people are born with the condition), which is not associated with any brain damage, hearing problems, or lack of exposure to music.
B.
According to the research of Dr. Isabelie Peretz of the University of Montreat, amusia is more complicated than the inability to distinguish pitches. An amusia (a person who has the condition of amusia) can distinguish between two pitches that are far apart, but cannot tell the difference between intervals smaller than a half step on the Western diatonic scale, while most people can easily distinguish differences smaller than that, when listening to melodies which have had a single note altered so that it is out of key with the rest of the melody, do not notice a problem. As would be expected, amusics perform significantly worse at singing and tapping a rhythm along with a melody than do non-amusics.
C.
The most fascinating aspect of amusia is how specific to music it is. Because of music’s close ties to language, it might be expected that a musical impairment may be caused by a language impairment. Studies suggest, however, that language and music ability are independent of one another. People with brain damage in areas critical to language are often still able to sing, despite being unable to communicate through speech. Moreover, while amusics show deficiencies in their recognition of pitch differences in melodies, they show no tonal languages, such as Chinese, do not report having any difficulty discriminating between words that differ only in their intonation. The linguistic cues inherent in speech make discrimination of meaning much easier for amusics. Amusics are also successful most of the time at detecting the mood of a melody, can identify a speaker based on his or her voice and can discriminate and identify environmental sounds.
D.
Recent work has been focused on locating the part of the brain that is responsible for amusia. The temporal lobes of the brain, the location of the primary auditory cortex, have been considered. It has long been believed that the temporal lobes, especially the right temporal lobe, are most active when activity, so any musical disability should logically stem from here as well. Because it has been shown that there is no hearing deficit in amusia, researchers moved on to the temporal neocortex, which is where more sophisticated processing of musical cues was thought to take place. New studies, however, have suggested that the deficits in amusics are located outside the auditory cortex. Brain scans of amusics do not show any reaction at all to differences smaller than a half step, when changes in tones are large, their brains overreact, showing twice as much activity on the right side of the brain as a normal brain hearing the same thing. These differences do not occur in the auditory cortex, indicating again that the deficits of amusia lie mostly in hearing impairment, but in higher processing of melodies.
E.
So what does this all mean? Looking only at the research of Peretz in the field of neuropsychology of music, it would appear that amusia is some sort of disorder. As a student of neurobiology, however, I am skeptical. Certainly the studies by Peretz that have found significant differences between the brains of so-called amusics and normal brains are legitimate. The more important question now becomes one of normality. Every trait from skin color to intelligence to mood exists on a continuum-there is a great idea of variation from one extreme to the other. Just because we recognize that basic musical ability is something that the vast majority of people have, this doesn’t mean that the lack of it is abnormal.
F.
What makes an amusic worse off than a musical prodigy? Musical ability is culturally valued, and may have been a factor in survival at one point in human history, but it does not seem likely that it is being selected for on an evolutionary scale any longer. Darwin believed that music was adaptive as a way of finding a mate, but who needs to be able to sing to find a partner in an age when it is possible to express your emotions through a song on your IPod?
G.
While the idea of amusia is interesting, it seems to be just one end of the continuum of innate musical ability. Comparing this ‘disorder’ to learning disorders like a specific language impairment seems to be going too far. Before, amusia can be declared a disability, further research must be done to determine whether lack of musical ability is actually detrimental in any way. If no disadvantages can be found of having amusia, then it is no more a disability than having poor fashion sense or bad handwriting.

Question 1-5 Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D

1. What does the writer tell US about people with tone deafness (amusia) in the first paragraph?
• A They usually have hearing problems
• B Some can play a musical instrument very well
• C Some may be able to sing well-known melodies
• D They have several inabilities in regard to music

2. What is the writer doing in the second paragraph?
• A outlining some of factors that cause amusia
• B summarising some findings about people with amusia
• C suggesting that people with amusia are disadvantaged
• D comparing the sing ability of amusia with their sense

3. What does the writer say about the relationship between language ability and musical ability?
• A People who are unable to speak can sometimes sing
• B People with amusia usually have language problems too
• C Speakers of tonal languages like Chinese rarely have amusia
• D People with amusia have difficulty recognizing people by their voices

4. In the third paragraph, the writer notes that most amusics are able to
• A learn how to sing in tune
• B identify a song by its tune
• C distinguish a sad tone from a happy tune
• D recognise when a singer is not sing in tune

5. What is the writer doing in the fourth paragraph?
• A claiming that amusics have problems in the auditory cortex
• B outlining progress in understanding the brains of amusics
• C proving that amuisa is located in the temporal lobes
• D explaining why studies of hearing are difficult

Question 6-9 Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in the Reading Passage?
YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

6 Peretz’s research suggesting that amusia is a disorder is convincing.
7 People with musical ability are happier than those without this ability.
8 It is inappropriate to consider amusia as a real disorder.
9 People with amusia often have bad handwriting.

Question 10-14 Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-H below

10 The reason why some people are born with amusia is
11 One of the difficulties amusia experience is
12 For amusia, discrimination of meaning in speech is
13 Certain reactions in the brain of an amusia are
14 In most cultures, musical ability is

A an inability to hear when spoken language rises and falls.
B considered to be desirable.
C an inability to follow the beat of music.
D not a problem.
E not yet well understood.
F a result of injury to the mother.
G more marked that with other people.
H associated with intelligence.