A
You know the old phrase, “Practice makes perfect.” That may not always be true. According to a recent study published in Royal Society Open Science, there are other factors for reaching elite (最优秀的) levels of ability.
The researchers set out to replicate (复制) the process of a now-famous 1993 study of top-level violinists and pianists. On average, the earlier study found that top-ranked musicians had clocked over 10,000 hours of practice by the age of 20. It believed their success was due to the hours spent practicing, not because of natural talent, learning skills and other factors.
Author Malcolm Gladwell called 10,000 hours “the magic number of greatness”.
Questioning this conclusion, Brooke Macnamara and Megha Maitra, from Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, US, sought volunteers to put the 10,000-hour rule to the test.
The pair organized violinists into three groups, based on whether their tutors rated them as the best players, good players, or average players. They were then told to record how long they practiced every week.
They found that the “average” players had around 6,000 hours of practice. However, there was little separating the good from the best musicians. Both groups had approximately 11,000 hours of practice by the age of 20.
“Once you get to the highly skilled groups, practice stops accounting for the difference,” Macnamara told the Guardian. “Smaller factors then determine who goes on to that super-elite level.”
“The factors depend on the skill being learned: in chess it could be intelligence or working memory, in sport it may be how efficiently a person uses oxygen,” she said. She also pointed out the factor of motivation and the interactions of different factors.
It should be said that neither side discounts the value of making an effort. Even if you aren’t destined (命中注定的) to be the world’s greatest violinist, practice will make you a little bit better than you were yesterday.
21．What can we learn from the 1993 study?
A．The 10,000-hour rule applies to everything.
B．Practice is the key to mastering a skill.
C．Natural talent is particularly important for musicians.
D．It’s better to learn an instrument at a young age.
22．What did the study by Macnamara and Maitra find?
A．The three groups of violinists varied a lot in their practice times.
B．The mastering of different skills required different hours of practice.
C．Motivation and talent determined whether one could become an elite violinist.
D．Practice time didn’t make much difference between “the best” and “good” violinists.
23．The underlined word “discounts” probably means ______.
A．ignores B．proves
C．recognizes D．considers
