Many students often choose to listen to music while doing their homework or studying for exams. But is listening to music a smart choice for students who want to improve their learning?

Indeed, music makes life better in so many ways. It elevates(振奋) mood, reduces stress and eases pain. Music is heart-healthy, because it can reduce blood pressure and heart rate. It also connects us with others and deepens social relationships. Music can even enhance our enjoyment of challenging activities.

But the effect of music on cognitive tasks appears not to be “one-size-fits-all”. A new study by Manuel Gonzalez of Baruch College and John Aiello of Rutgers University suggests that for some students, listening to music while learning is a wise strategy, but for others, it is not.

Whether or not listening to music will benefit your mental work depends on your personality—specifically, on your need for external stimulation(外部刺激). People with a high requirement for external stimulation tend to get bored easily. They often do worse when listening to music while engaging in a mental task, while people with a low need for external stimulation, on the other hand, tend to improve their mental performance with music.

Moreover, before students decide to put on their earphones, though, they should carefully consider their musical selection. Complexity(复杂性) of the music seems to promote excitement, and it is suggested that a moderate level of excitement produces ideal performance. When there is too little or too much excitement, performance drops. Thus, the benefits of music for those with a low need for external stimulation could decrease or even disappear with the added complexity of music.

Similarly, the rise in the complexity of a cognitive task might also reduce or wipe out the benefit of music. With a highly challenging cognitive task, even those with a low need for external stimulation may fail to show such an effect with music.

The study brings to our notice that only with the right personality, music and task can the presence of music significantly improve cognitive functioning. So next time when you want to switch on the music before you study, please think twice.

Teenagers who enjoy listening to the same music often have a common look. Hip hop music, also called hip-hop or rap music, is one of the most popular kinds of music. It is a kind of modern dance music with spoken words and heavy beat(节奏). Typical hip-hop fashions are loose-fitting(宽松的)street clothes. The style（风格）includes baggy trousers, sweatshirts hiking boots, baseball caps( usually worn backward), jackets with sports logos and expensive sports shoes. In the hip-hop style, boys and girls often dress the same way.

African-American kids in Detroit and Chicago first made hip-hop fashions trendy(时髦的)more than 20 years ago. They wore baggy street clothes to dance clubs. Then the music lovers from North American and European bands also began dressing like this. Thanks to the popular music videos and movies, hip-hop soon became a fashion all over the world.

Many teens from different countries around the world now wear hip-hop clothing. Seventeen-year-old Melanie Borrow, from Manchester, England, said, "The things I care about most in life are my Levi's jeans." In the United States, teens spend a lot of money on hip-hop fashions. David Bowen, 17, from Evanston, Illinois, has five pairs of hiking boots, each costing around 100. David said, “They are popular because a lot of hip-hop performers wear them.”

Listening to songs is a great way to learn English. Here are a few reasons.

【小题1】 And when you are enjoying yourself, you learn without even realizing it. The best thing is that there are so many good songs in English and there are so many kinds of music, including pop, country, R&B, rock, soul and so on. Let David Bowie, Madonna, The Beatles, Alicia Keys...be your teachers!

【小题2】 Just take your MP3 player with your favorite tracks and press "play". And you can listen to them whenever and whatever you want, so you can learn English while you're walking, driving, doing sports or relaxing on the sofa.

【小题3】 While you're listening to songs, you are raising your awareness of language structures. And you're seeing how the structures are formed and used.

【小题4】 And after singing along to the songs several times, all those phrases and expressions will become firmly fixed in your long-term memory. Then later you'll find that you use them naturally when you're speaking or writing.

【小题5】 For example, the song American Pie is about the 1959 plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the The Big Bapper, which was an important event in US history.

So, load up your MP3 player, put on your headphones and press "play"!