Music produces profound and lasting changes in the brain. Schools should add music classes, not cut them. Nearly 20 years ago, a small study advanced the【C1】______that listening to Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major could boost mental functioning. It was not long【C2】______trademarked "Mozart effect" products began to appeal to anxious parents aiming to put little kids【C3】______the fast track to prestigious universities like Harvard and Yale. Georgia’s governor even【C4】______giving every newborn there a classical CD or cassette. The evidence for Mozart therapy【C5】______to be weak, perhaps nonexistent, although the【C6】______study never claimed anything more than a temporary and limited effect. In recent years,【C7】______, scientists have examined the benefits of a concerted【C8】______to study and practice music, as【C9】______to playing a Mozart CD or a computer-based "brain fitness" game【C10】______in a while. Advanced monitoring【C11】______have enabled scientists to see what happens【C12】______your head when you listen to your mother and actually practice the violin for an hour every afternoon. And they have found that music【C13】______can produce profound and lasting changes that【C14】______the general ability to learn. These results should【C15】______public officials that music classes are not a mere decoration, ripe for discarding in the budget crises that constantly【C16】______public schools. Studies have shown that【C17】______instrument training from an early age can help the brain to【C18】______sounds better, making it easier to stay focused when absorbing other subjects, from literature to mathematics. Those who are good at music are better able to【C19】______a biology lesson despite the noise in the classroom【C20】______, a few years later, to finish a call with a client when a colleague in the next office starts screaming at a subordinate. They can attend to several things at once in the mental scratch pad called working memory, an essential skill in this era of multitasking. 【C10】