(1) Question: After listening to a new song, why do we get it stuck in our heads?

Question

(2) Answer: A song stuck in your head is called an "earworm." (3) This is a song that replays on a loop in your head. (4) A study shows that earworms are quite common, but the reason for them remains a mystery that researchers are still trying to solve.

I Can't Get It Out Of My Head
(5) Can’t get that new song out of your head? (6) You’ve probably got an earworm. (7) According to Elizabeth Margulis, director of the Music Cognition Lab at the University of Arkansas, an earworm "tends to be this little fragment, often a bit of the chorus of the song, that just plays and replays like it’s stuck on loop in your head." (8) The quirky YouTube hit “What Does the Fox Say?” by Ylvis, Starship’s “We Built This City” and The Baha Men’s “Who Let the Dogs Out?” are just a few tunes known to spawn earworms, according to Margulis.
(9) The phenomenon is quite common. (10) For instance, a study from the Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition found that more than 91 percent of people reported having an earworm at least once a week, while about 25 percent had them more than once a day.

It's Really Got A Hold On Me
(11) As frequent as earworms may be, however, what triggers them and why they occur still remains mysteries. (12) That’s mainly because earworms—which tend to last eight seconds—are by definition involuntary, and therefore tracking them in a scientific setting can be nearly impossible. (13) Researchers have yet to develop consistent methods for inducing earworms in test subjects. (14) The data that researchers have collected on the subject so far comes from surveys of a few thousand people or from small diary studies. (15) But participants can be unreliable in recalling how often they get earworms, for how long, what they were doing at the time, and what might have caused the earworm to disappear.
(16) Music cognition research suggests that earworms could have something to do with how music affects the brain’s motor cortex, which controls voluntary movements. (17) When people listen to music, “there’s a lot of activity in the motor planning regions,” Margulis says. (18) “People are often imaginatively participating even while they’re sitting still.”

What is the most effective way to combine sentences 2 and 3?
A.A song that replays on a loop in your head is called an "earworm."
B.A song stuck in your head, called an "earworm," is a song that replays on a loop.
C.An "earworm" is a song stuck in your head, and it replays on a loop in your head.
D.A song stuck in your head is known as an "earworm," which replays on a loop in your head.

24.
What change needs to be made in sentence 11?
A.Change may be to is
B.Change remains to remain
C.Change triggers to triggered
D.Change however to therefore

25.
What change, if any, needs to be made in sentence 14?
A.Change collected to collectted.
B.Change diary to diarie.
C.Change subject to subjet.
D.No change needs to be made.

Answer 1

23. The most effective way to combine sentences 2 and 3 is: D. A song stuck in your head is known as an "earworm," which replays on a loop in your head.

This option succinctly combines the information while maintaining clarity and conciseness.

24. The change that needs to be made in sentence 11 is: B. Change remains to remain.

The subject of the sentence is plural ("what triggers them and why they occur"), so the verb should also be in the plural form ("remain") to maintain subject-verb agreement.

25. The change, if any, that needs to be made in sentence 14 is: D. No change needs to be made.

The sentence is grammatically correct as it is.