Text4Materialculturereferstothetouchable,material“things”—physicalobjectsthatcanbeseen,held,felt,used—thatacultureproduces.Examiningaculture’stoolsandtechnologycantellusaboutthegroup’shistoryandwayoflife.Similarly,researchintothematerialcultureofmusiccanhelpustounderstandthemusic-culture.Themostvividbodyof“things”init,ofcourse,aremusicalinstr uments.Wecannothearforourselvestheactualsoundofanymusicalperformancebeforethe1870swhenthephonographwasinvented,sowerelyoninstr umentsforimportantinformationaboutmusic-culturesintheremotepastandtheirdevelopment.Herewehavetwokindsofevidence:instr umentswellpreservedandinstr umentspicturedinart.Throughthestudyofinstr uments,aswellaspaintings,writtendocuments,andsoon,wecanexplorethemovementofmusicfromtheNearEasttoChinaoverathousandyearsago,orwecanoutlinethespreadofNearEasterninfluencetoEuropethatr esultedinthedevelopmentofmostoftheinstr umentsonthesymphonyorchestr a.
Sheetmusicorprintedmusic,too,ismaterialculture.Scholarsoncedefinedfolkmusic-culturesasthoseinwhichpeoplelearnandsingmusicbyearratherthanfromprint,butr esearchshowsmutualinfluenceamongoralandwrittensourcesduringthepastfewcenturiesinEurope,BritainandAmerica.Printedversionslimitvarietybecausetheytendtostandardizeanysong,yettheystimulatepeopletocreatenewanddifferentsongs.Besides,theabilitytoreadmusicnotationhasafar-reachingeffectonmusiciansand,whenitbecomeswidespread,onthemusic-cultureasawhole.
Musicisdeep-rootedintheculturalbackgroundthatfostersit.Wenowpaymoreandmoreattentiontotr aditionalorethnicfeaturesinfolkmusicandarewillingtopreservethefolkmusicaswedowithmanytr aditionalculturalheritage.Musiciansallovertheworldarebusywithrecordingclassicmusicintheircountr yforthesakeoftheiruniqueculture.Asalways,people’saspirationwillalwaysfocusontheirindividualityratherthanuniversalfeaturesthataresharedbyallculturesalike.
Onemoreimportantpartofmusic’smaterialcultureshouldbesingledout:theinfluenceoftheelectr onicmedia—radio,recordplayer,taperecorder,andtelevision,withthefuturepromisingtalkingandsingingcomputersandotherdevelopments.Thisisallpartofthe“information-revolution”,atwentiethcenturyphenomenonasimportantastheindustr ialrevolutioninthenineteenth.Theseelectr onicmediaarenotjustlimitedtomodernnations;theyhaveaffectedmusic-culturesallovertheglobe.
第36题：Whichofthefollowingdoesnotbelongtomaterialculture?
［A］Instr uments.
［B］Music.
［C］Paintings.
［D］Sheetmusic.
正确答案：B本题考查推理引申。第一段首句对“物质文化”下定义为：文化中产生的能看到、摸到、感觉到和使用的自然物体。接着该段第三、四句提到，音乐文化中最生动的物质载体是乐器。从第一段末句可知，图片、文字记载以及乐器都是研究音乐文化的物质手段。第二段首句接着指出，乐谱也是物质文化。因此［A］、［C］和［D］都是物质文化，只有［B］不是。
