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The Meaning of Sound
声音的含义
Hello, I'm Marina Santee.
And I'm Elizabeth Lickiss. Welcome toSpotlight. This programme uses a special English method of broadcasting. It iseasier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
Imagine you are walking by the sea. Youfeel the soft white sand under your feet. You breathe in the fresh sea air. Thesounds of nature make you feel peaceful. But then ...
A group of young people arrive. They sitnear you. And they have their loud music player with them. Suddenly the placefeels very different. Everything still looks the same. You have not moved. Youare still surrounded by the beauty of nature. But this new sound destroys thepeaceful setting. You put your hands over your ears! You think, "What ahorrible sound!"
But is it? Is the sound really horrible?Imagine the setting a little differently. The young people with the music areyour friends. You go to the seaside together. You plan to sit and listen toyour music. So, now you are prepared for the sound! And, you are lookingforward to it! The sound is no longer horrible. It is fun!
Conditions and environment can stronglyinfluence how a person reacts to sound. Having control over noise seems to makeit better. In today's programme, we look at the way people react to horriblesounds - and why.
There are not many studies of horriblesounds. There was one in the 1980's. This was a joint research project. It waswritten by D. Lynn Halpern, Randolph Blake and James Hillenbrand. Theypublished their research. They called the study, "Psychoacoustics of a ChillingSound." In other words, "What makes a sound seem bad to us?"
The scientists performed experiments onwilling people. They chose one of the most disliked sounds. Do you recogniseit? Can you remember sitting in a classroom at school? The teacher would standat the front. She would write on a blackboard. There was always someone whowaited for the teacher to leave the room. They would run to the front of theroom. And then, they put their fingers at the top of the black board. Theymoved their fingernails slowly down the board. Listening to this sound stillmakes you feel horrible!
The scientists wanted to know if this isthe most disliked sound. So, they chose sixteen different kinds of noises. Someof these sounds were nice - like flowing water. And other sounds were not -like rubbing metal on something sharp. The scientists asked the people tochoose the worst recorded sound. Fingernails on a blackboard won! This was theworst sound.
Next, the scientists made the sound into acomputer signal. This permitted them to make changes to the sound. Theyexperimented with high and low versions of the sound. They played the newrecordings to the group of people. They were surprised with their findings.
Removing the lower sounds from therecording improved it. The people said the sound was not as horrible. But theydid not see any effect from removing the higher sounding parts. So, theexperiments showed that it was the lower sounds in the original noise thatproduced the horrible feeling. This was surprising. It is usually higher soundingnoise that people say they do not like.
"Bad Vibes" is a science projectfrom Salford University, England. Researchers are examining"horrible" sounds and people's reactions. They have designed awebsite to help with their research. People can listen to different sounds.Then they vote which is the worst one. Professor Trevor Cox is leading theresearch. He said,
"We will examine people's votes. Thiswill teach us more about the way people hear different sounds. We hope to learnabout the worst sound in the world — and maybe why it is the worst sound."
Part of the researchers' work involves studying the reasons for so called"negative" or "bad" feelings. One such emotion is"disgust." Disgust is the emotion that you feel when you step into apile of dog waste. Yuck!
Exactly what disgusts us depends partly onour culture. Imagine someone eating a piece of bread. They have their mouthopen. You watch the bread move around their mouth. You can hear the sound asthey open and close their mouth. In some cultures people would find thisdisgusting!
But why do sounds disgust us? Imaginethe sound of someone being sick. Or, imagine the sound of a deep cough.
Disgust is a strong human emotion. It canlower blood pressure. And it can cause feelings of sickness. Researchers saythat this emotion is in our nature. And the main reason for it is to protect usfrom disease! This may also explain why women feel this emotion more. They havean in-built desire to protect their children as well as themselves.
The researchers at Salford University alsoexamined fear and sound. Fear is another powerful emotion. Particular soundscan cause fear.
Imagine you are walking through a quietcountry forest. Suddenly you hear the sound of an airplane. It sounds veryclose - much closer than it should be. It gets louder and louder. You fear itwill crash! As you hear the plane passing right over, you bend close to theground - your hands over your head. This is your natural reaction. The fearcaused you to act quickly to protect yourself.
Sometimes, our immediate reaction to afrightening sound is to freeze. At this point, our senses become more able.When we know where the danger comes from we react more quickly. Usually, ourbodies naturally prepare to act in the best, fastest way.
So, the reasons why we do not likeparticular noises make sense. But researchers are still unclear as to whatexactly makes a noise horrible. It will be interesting to read the results ofmore research. Until then, do not feel stupid when you react strongly to somesounds! Your natural, God given, reactions are there for a reason - humansurvival!
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