CAMBRIDGE C1 READING & USE OF ENGLISH PART 3

For questions 17 – 24, read the text below. Use the word given in capitals at the end of some of the lines to form a
word that fits in the gap in the same line. There is an example at the beginning (0).
Write your answers IN CAPITAL LETTERS on the separate answer sheet.

Does taste in music reflect personality?

If you have a strong (0) LIKE (liking) for uncomplicated, relaxing and acoustic music, the chances are you will be an extrovert. At least, this is what the (17) FIND (findings) of research into the links between musical taste and personality suggest.

Psychologists conducted worldwide online surveys with over 20,000 voluntary (18) PARTICIPATE (participants) of different ages and backgrounds. Each volunteer completed a standard test that rates the five main components of personality – openness, extroversion, agreeableness, neuroticism and conscientiousness – and was asked to state their (19) PREFER (preferences) from a selection of 25 pre-categorised musical excerpts.

The surveys showed that open personalities liked dynamic music, but were relatively (20) IMPRESS (impressed) by slow, mellow music. They also revealed that extroverts, who are very (21) TALK (talkative) and energetic, tended to like unpretentious music. Perhaps (22) PREDICT (unpredictably), agreeable people usually rated most music they listened to highly, (23) REGARD (regardless) of genre, while neurotics did the reverse.

Conscientiousness was the only trait which revealed no (24) CORRELATE (correlation) with musical type.

So the researchers concluded that if you know someone’s musical taste, you can have a good guess at their personality – and vice-versa.