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  3. Mathematical ability and musical ability may not seem on the surface to be connected, but people who have researched the subject

Mathematical ability and musical ability may not seem on the surface to be connected, but people who have researched the subject

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问题     Mathematical ability and musical ability may not seem on the surface to be connected, but people who have researched the subject — and studied the brain — say that they are. Research for my book "Late-Talking Children" drove home the point to me. Three quarters of the bright but speech-delayed children in the group I studied had a close relative who was an engineer, mathematician or scientist — and four fifths had a close relative who played a musical instrument. The children themselves usually took readily to math and other analytical subjects — and to music.
    Black, white and Asian children in this group show the same patterns. However, looking at the larger world around us, it is clear that blacks have been greatly overrepresented in the development of American popular music and greatly under represented in such fields as mathematics, science and engineering.
    If the abilities required in analytical fields and in music are so closely related, how can there be this great disparity? One reason is that the development of mathematical and other such abilities requires years of formal schooling, while certain musical talents can be developed with little or no formal training, as has happened with a number of well-known black musicians.
    It is precisely in those kinds of music where one can acquire great skill without formal training that blacks have excelled—popular music rather than classical music, piano rather than violin, blues rather then opera. This is readily understandable, given that most blacks, for most of American history, have not had either the money or the leisure for long years of formal study in music.
    Blacks have not merely held their own in American popular music. They have played a disproportionately large role in the development of jazz, both traditional and modern. A long string of names comes to mind— Duke Ellington, Scott Joplin, W, C. Handy, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker.. .and on and on.
    None of this presupposes any special innate ability of blacks in music. On the contrary, it is perfectly consistent with blacks’ having no more such inborn ability than anyone else, but being limited to being able to express such ability in narrower channels than others who have had the money, the time and the formal education to spread out over a wider range of music, as well as into mathematics, science and engineering.
    There is no way of knowing whether Duke Ellington would have become a mathematician or scientist under other circum-stances. What is clearer is that most blacks have not had such alternatives available until very recently, as history is measured. Moreover, now that cultural traditions have been established, even those black who have such alternatives available today, and who have the inborn abilities to pursue them, may nevertheless continue for some time to follow well-worn paths.
It can be concluded from the passage that______.
选项 A、the development of all music talents need little or no formal training
B、abilities, such as mathematical ability, sometimes can not be developed with formal education
C、blacks are underrepresented in mathematics because they have no chances to receive formal education
D、blacks usually prefer music to mathematics, science and engineering
答案C
解析 本题为分析推理题。根据第三段“One reason is that the development of mathematical and other suchabilities requires…with a number of well-known black musicians．”可知，数学和其他能力需要数年的正轨训练，而某些音乐才能只需较少或不需正规训练。这种情况在很多知名的黑人音乐家身上体现出来。A选项为所有音乐才能，因此不准确，故排除。B选项说数学能力不能通过正轨教育：获得，与原文意思正好相反。A和C选项与原文意思正好相反，排除。C选项说黑人数学不好是因为没有机会接受正轨教育，符合原文意思。D选项说黑人喜欢音乐多过于数学、科学和工程学。文中只是很多黑人很擅长音乐，而不擅长数学。因此，D选项属无中生有。因此，C选项正确。
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