High 2 · Reading series
Lesson 7 · What Our Experiment Could Not Show
Audio track 07
Listen first
Listen once before opening the English passage.
Open the English passage and hover for word help
We tested whether background music improved concentration. Half our class solved word puzzles in silence, while the others listened to the same playlist. The music group finished slightly faster, and we were ready to claim that music helped.
Then we noticed a problem. Most students in the music group had chosen their seats near the windows, where the room was cooler. Some also knew the puzzles from an earlier club activity. We had changed more than one condition at once.
For a second trial, we used new puzzles and asked each student to work once with music and once without it. The differences were small and varied from person to person. Our experiment could not prove a general rule, but it revealed a better question: when might music help a particular learner?
In our report, we included the first flawed result. Hiding it would have made the story simpler, but showing the revision explained how our thinking improved. A limitation can be part of an honest discovery.
Check your understanding
After reading, state the main idea in one sentence and find a line that supports it.
Chinese translation
我们测试背景音乐能否提高注意力。半个班在安静环境里解文字谜题，另一半听同一份播放列表。音乐组完成得稍快，我们正准备宣布音乐有效。
随后发现了问题：音乐组的大多数同学选了靠窗座位，那里更凉快；有些人还在先前的社团活动中做过类似谜题。我们一次改变了不止一个条件。
第二次试验，我们换了新题，让每个学生分别在有音乐和没有音乐时做一次。差异很小，而且因人而异。实验无法证明一条普遍规律，却提出更好的问题：对某个特定学习者，音乐在什么时候可能有帮助？
报告里，我们也写进第一轮有缺陷的结果。把它藏起来，故事会更简单；把修订过程呈现出来，才能说明我们的思考如何改进。局限也能成为诚实发现的一部分。
Key words and expressions
Key terms have Chinese explanations. Hover over dotted words in the English passage for word help and pronunciation when available.
- concentration
- 注意力；实验想研究的能力。
- slightly
- 略微地；音乐组只快了一点。
- claim
- 宣称；第一轮还不能下定论。
- condition
- 条件；座位与旧题也有影响。
- trial
- 试验；第二轮重新设计。
- varied
- 因人而异；结果并不一致。
- general rule
- 普遍规律；实验尚无法证明。
- flawed
- 有缺陷的；第一轮控制不足。
- revision
- 修订；改进了实验方法。
- limitation
- 局限；诚实报告应说明。
Background notes (Chinese)
比较实验应控制其他可能影响结果的条件。第一轮音乐组与安静组在座位温度和题目熟悉程度上也不同；第二轮改用新题并让同一人体验两种条件。