A Song On The Brain Reading Answers

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16-09-2025

A Song On The Brain Reading Answers

Find A Song on the Brain reading answers provided below for your reference.

1. B 5. D 9. G 13. F
2. A 6. F 10. E  
3. D 7. B 11. D  
4. E 8. I 12. A  

After checking your answers, try some other question types for further practice. We have included a reading passage on the same topic with three different question types. Try them for a better understanding.

IELTS aspirants must use the Song on the Brain reading answers that we have designed since it contains solutions with thorough explanations and locations. Students must practise difficult questions and be aware of the explanations for the answers to get a good band score in the IELTS reading test.

The Song on the Brain reading answers is for the IELTS academic reading practice test . In this blog you will see three question types: Locating Information, Matching features and Multiple Choice Questions. If you’re new to the IELTS reading module, there are 14 IELTS reading question types to assess your English reading skills.

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Strategies for solving the “A Song on the Brain”

Before solving the Song On The Brain reading mock test consider the given strategies to improve your band score.

  • A Song On The Brain passage describes the phenomenon known as a song-in-hand syndrome, in which a song you hear repeatedly plays in your head until you become irritated by it.
  • Point out the names and accomplishments of people mentioned in the passage as it will help to locate your answers easily while solving the matching features question type.
  • You must develop skills such as skimming and scanning to answer questions that require you to locate information inside a passage.
  • To answer Multiple choice question types correctly you must identify and eliminate the incorrect answers.
  • You will not get any extra time to transfer your answers to your answer sheet, hence you must manage your time effectively.
  • To improve your reading abilities and self-assurance, this blog includes the Song on the Brain reading answers with locations that are identical to the actual IELTS test.
  • Find the Song on the Brain reading pdf included in this blog for your better practice experience.

Before attempting the passage A Song On The Brain IELTS reading answers kindly refer to the IELTS reading tips.

IELTS reading passage - A Song On The Brain

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on Reading Passage 2 below. After you've attempted all of the questions, review your answers using the provided A Song On The Brain reading answers with location.

A Song on the Brain

  1. Everyone is familiar with the experience of being unable to get a song out of their brain. You hear a pop song on the radio - or even just read the song's title - and it haunts you for hours, replaying in your head until you're sick of it. The medical term for this ailment is now known as"song-in-head syndrome.”
  2. However, why does the mind irritate us in this way? Nobody can say for sure, but it's likely due to the brain's superior ability to retain information over its worse ability to discern what information is crucial. It's a representation of a memory feature that is typically helpful to us, but in this situation, it might be annoying, according to Roger Chaffin, a psychologist at the University of Connecticut.
  3. This brain's propensity for eager acquisition may have assisted our ancestors in the past in recalling the crucial information. These days, musicians rely on it to memorise challenging compositions, and students utilise it to master new material. However, if this helpful feature malfunctions, you risk becoming stuck on a song. Unfortunately, shallow, repetitious pop songs are more likely to become classics than creative music because of their very character.
  4. The auditory cortex is likely where the unpleasant playback starts. This area, which is at the front of the brain, is in charge of both listening to music and playing it back. By having participants repeatedly play the theme from the television show Dallas in their brains, neuroscientist Robert Zatorre of McGill University in Montreal demonstrated this several years ago. According to brain imaging studies, this engaged the same area of the auditory cortex that was active when the participants heard the song.
  5. However, not every musical memory that has been stored returns to consciousness. Which thoughts are put away and which ones become conscious is a decision made by the frontal lobe of the brain. According to Susan Ball, a clinical psychologist at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, it can turn tired or depressed, which is when people most frequently experience song-in-head syndrome and other intrusive thoughts. It's also challenging to bury the undesirable music once it comes to the surface. Ball asserts that you become more aware of thought the more you attempt to suppress it. The pink elephant phenomenon is what we refer to as. You can assure that the brain will stop thinking about pink elephants by telling it to.
  6. Simply avoiding some musical genres can be helpful for people who are not seriously affected. According to Steven Brown, a former classical pianist who is now a neuroscientist at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, "I know some pieces that are kind of "sticky" to me so I will not perform them in the early morning for fear that they will go around in my head all day." He claims that he always has a tune playing in his head, and to make matters more bothersome, the music never appears to finish. It often consists of brief segments between, say, 5 and 15 seconds. He claims that they occasionally appear to become looped for hours.
  7. According to Caroline Palmer, a psychologist at Ohio State University in Columbus, Brown's experience with repeated musical loops might be a case of a process known as "chunking," in which people retain musical lines as a single memory chunk. The majority of listeners have little control over which passages they recall. If you hear specific portions frequently or if they adhere to certain recognisable patterns, like the chord sequence in rock 'n' roll music, they may become very "sticky." According to Palmer's research, a musical composition is simpler to remember the more closely it resembles certain patterns. Because of this, pop music melodies are more likely to haunt you than those by a classical composer like J. S. Bach.
  8. But in addition to being annoying, this power can be used for good. By putting their lessons to music, teachers can take advantage of memory reinforcement. According to Sandra Calvert, a psychologist at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, students who heard a history book presented as the lyrics of a popular song remembered the words better than those who simply read them.
  9. Even the birth of music may be explained by this kind of memory improvement. According to Leon James, a psychologist at the University of Hawaii, humans memorised history in songs before it could be recorded in writing. And it's possible that music played an even bigger role. According to him, "every song has a message." The message states, "This message serves to standardise people's cognitive processes in society and to unite society."

A Song On The Brain reading questions

Questions 1 - 6

The Reading Passage has nine paragraphs labelled A-I.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter A-l in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.
NB. You may use any letter more than once.

  1. a claim that music strengthens social bonds.
  2. two reasons why some bits of music tend to stick in your mind more than others
  3. an example of how the brain may respond in opposition to your wishes
  4. the name of the part of the brain where song-in-head syndrome begins
  5. examples of two everyday events that can set off song-m-head syndrome
  6. a description of what one person does to prevent the song-in-head syndrome

Click to know more about IELTS reading locating information

Questions 7 - 10

Look at the following theories (Questions 7-10) and the list of people below. Match each theory with the person it is credited to.

Write the correct letter A-F in boxes 7-10 on your answer sheet.

List of people:

  1. Roger Chaffin
  2. Susan Ball
  3. Steven Brown
  4. Caroline Palmer
  5. Sandra Calvert
  6. Leon James

7. The memorable nature of some tunes can help other learning processes.
8. Music may not always be stored in the memory in the form of separate notes.
9. People may have started to make music because of their need to remember things.
10. Having a song going around your head may happen to you more often when one part of the brain is tired.

Click to know more about IELTS reading matching features

Questions 11 - 13

Choose the correct answer, A, B, C or D.
Write your answers in boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet.

11. According to the author, the song-in-head syndrome may happen because brain

  1. confuses two different types of memory.
  2. cannot decide what information it needs to retain.
  3. has been damaged by harmful input.
  4. cannot hold onto all the information it processes.

12. A tune is more likely to stay in your head if

  1. it is simple and unoriginal.
  2. you have musical training.
  3. it is part of your culture.
  4. you have a good memory.

13. Robert Zatorre found that a part of the auditory cortex was activated when volunteers

  1. listened to certain types of music.
  2. learned to play a tune on an instrument.
  3. replayed a piece of music after several years.
  4. remembered a tune they had heard previously.

Click to know more about IELTS reading multiple choice questions

A Song On The Brain reading answers with explanation

A Song On The Brain reading answers with explanations can assist you in rectifying errors and identifying the required information for your answer.

(Note: The text in italics is from the reading passage and shows the location from where the answer is taken or inferred. The text in the regular font explains the answer in detail.)

1. I 

Location: Paragraph I, last 2 lines
Explanation: The answer to the question is very clear when we read paragraph I. The readers can figure out that music tends to strengthen social bonds. So, at times songs are used to standardize the thinking of the entire society.

2.  G

Location: Paragraph G
Explanation: Sometimes, it usually happens that certain music or lyrics tend to get stuck in your mind. The readers get this information after reading paragraph I of the above passage.

3. E 

Location: Paragraph E, last 4 lines
Explanation: The information given in paragraph E, shows that when you try to suppress the thought you get more thoughts about it. The brain most of the time, responds opposite to what your wishes are.

4. D

Location: Paragraph D, first 2 lines
Explanation: The auditory cortex is placed in the front of the brain because of which the irritating playback of the songs takes place. The song keeps on repeating itself in the brain which is caused due to song-in head syndrome.

5. A

Location: Paragraph A, first 3 lines.
Explanation: The reader can find the example of everyday events that can help people get rid of the song-in-head syndrome given in paragraph A of the passage. Examples are listening to pop songs either on the radio or even reading the title of the song.

6. F 

Location: Paragraph F, first 4 lines
Explanation: To avoid song-in syndrome, one should try to avoid playing that song in the early morning. Further, Steve Brown mentioned that if you are not much affected by this syndrome, only then prevention of playing songs in the early morning will be beneficial.

7. E

Location: Paragraph H, lines 3-5
Explanation: The above passage reveals that Sandra Calvert believes that the learning process can be benefitted from certainly memorable tunes.

8. D 

Location: paragraph G, first 3 lines
Explanation: After reading the statement, we can easily make out that Caroline Palmer is the speaker. She said that it is not a compulsion that music is always stored in a different form of notes only.

9. F 

Location: Paragraph I, lines 1-3
Explanation: The songs or music can turn out to be effective measures to remember things for a longer time as said by Leon James. Now, most people have started to make songs to remember things for a longer time.

10. B

Location: Paragraph E. lines 1-5.
Explanation: Susan Ball claims that song-in-head syndrome makes people think of a song and it revolves in their brain almost all the time. Along with song-in-head syndrome, people get intrusive thoughts. So, the answer, in this case, would be Susan Ball.

11. B

Location: Paragraph B, lines 2-3.
Explanation: As per the passage, usually the song-in head syndrome occurs due to the inability of the brain to decide which information should be retained.

12. A

Location: Paragraph C, lines 2
Explanation: The unoriginal and simple tune will stay in your brain for a longer time as compared to complex and original tunes. Even, if the singer has done certain inventions in the tone of the music, then it might not stay for longer in your mind.

13. D 

Location: paragraph D, lines 4-6
Explanation: Once the volunteer remembers the tune they had heard earlier, only then does the part of the auditory cortex get activated. The information in the passage and question matches with option D.

Check the other reading passages

Click to check the other important reading passages listed below,

Conclusion

The "A Song on the Brain reading answers" were utilised by IELTS candidates to assess their responses. They used our practice exam to evaluate their reading and time management skills. To finish the IELTS test in the allotted time, effective time management is also necessary. Use our other practice exams to manage your time effectively.

Roshan.webp

About Author Roshan Sunthar

Roshan Sunthar is a study abroad expert as well as a renowned writer and author in international education. His academic excellence and 5+ years of work experience give him in-depth knowledge of international standardised exams and test preparation in IELTS, TOEFL, GRE, PTE, SAT, etc. The study materials he prepares incorporate exam-like questions. He’s also an expert in writing Statement of Purposes (SOPs) and Letter of Recommendations (LORs) for college admissions. He usually spends his leisure time watching English classics and documentaries, travelling, etc.

More Articles Post by Roshan Sunthar

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