Exercise 1: Guess the meaning of the words:

Exercise 2: Listen and fill in the blanks:

5 benefits of music
1. Music decreases depression & anxiety:
Researchers have revealed that listening to music can reduce stress and it can also reduce
symptoms of depression. Studies from the United States have proven that listening to meditative
and classical music can reduce 65% of people’s level of anxiety,
(1) _________ ___________ the majority of illnesses and diseases. This is because listening to
music can help your body lower the level of the stress hormone, cortisol,
(2) _________ ___________ to the decrease in a chronic stress.

2. It improves memory
Listening to music assists you to recollect information faster and better. Some research has
demonstrated the fact (3) ___________ music helps you to recall information faster. Research
carried out on patients without … discovered that listening to classical music is beneficial for
patients to recollect faster events (4) _________ happened at certain points in their lives.
Listening to music assists in drawing neurological patterns and past memories. Due to the rhythm
and lyrics (5) ___________ tend to stay in our minds for a very long time.

3. Music improves happiness

Music can make us cry, happy, excited or even have goosebumps. It can affect how strongly we
have an emotional reaction to certain event. In fact, research shows that our brain releases a feel-
good chemical whenever we listen to our favourite songs or melodies (6) __________ then
__________________ the positive emotions such as joy, excitement or happiness. Studies also
revealed that listening to music with high speeds tends to make us happy. While music with a
very slow tempo has the likelihood of making us feel sad.

4. Music boosts your immune system

 Listen to the music that you enjoy will help to lower the amount of cortisol, the stress hormone in
our body, (7) _____________ _____the enemy and weakens our immune system. It is said that
with only 15 minutes a day of listening to your favorite songs is enough to increase the amount of
antibodies (8) ___________ ________ to boost your immune system.

5. It helps to improve the quality of our sleep

Research has proven that students listening to relaxing music before they go to sleep had better
quality sleep during the night than their counterparts
(9) _________ ___________ ___________ to any music before sleeping. It is because with
music, our stress and anxiety are lowered with both of those factors being the primary causes of
insomnia and sleeplessness at night. Listening to music can help to improve your sleep. In fact, it
is found that listening to music at various times of the day can also improve our sleeping patterns
since we will have more deep sleep and being in a more relaxed state (10) ___________ it comes
to bedtime. In many countries in the world, currently, music is used as a therapy to treat
insomnia.