Test 4
Part 2
For questions 9 – 10, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0). Write your answers IN CAPITAL LETTERS.
Esto es una muestra. Cada test del libro tiene ocho huecos; aquí te dejamos dos para que pruebes el formato. Los otros seis van ya resueltos dentro del texto.
Example:
0. FOND
The Hall as Instrument
A concert hall, as musicians are (0) ____ of saying, is the orchestra’s final instrument. For centuries, halls were designed by imitation, there (9) ____ no reliable theory to tell architects why some rooms flattered music and others smothered it. Only around 1900 (10) ____ it become possible to predict with any precision how long sound would linger in a room. This lingering, or reverberation, is measured by how long a sound takes to fade to a millionth of its original intensity. As a rough rule of thumb, about two seconds suits orchestral music, whereas speech needs far less.
Over and above reverberation, it matters where sound comes from. Reflections from the side walls seem to envelop listeners, which may explain why several narrow, rectangular ‘shoebox’ halls built in the late nineteenth century remain among the world’s most admired. Even the audience alters the result, which is why seats are upholstered to mimic the sound absorption of a seated listener.
Yet no single factor can make or break a hall. Computer models are all well and good, but they cannot settle disagreements among listeners, who often struggle to say what it is that they admire in one hall and dislike in another. Acoustics has become a science, but one in which the ear still has the final say.
Over and above reverberation, it matters where sound comes from. Reflections from the side walls seem to envelop listeners, which may explain why several narrow, rectangular ‘shoebox’ halls built in the late nineteenth century remain among the world’s most admired. Even the audience alters the result, which is why seats are upholstered to mimic the sound absorption of a seated listener.
Yet no single factor can make or break a hall. Computer models are all well and good, but they cannot settle disagreements among listeners, who often struggle to say what it is that they admire in one hall and dislike in another. Acoustics has become a science, but one in which the ear still has the final say.
