The National Center for Voice and Speech

Tutorials - Information for Young Explorers

What's Your Vocal IQ?

Let's find out. Select on answer for each question, then press the 'I am done with the test' button to find out how you did! Each question currently has the first item selected, but that is not always the correct answer, be sure to choose which one you think is best!

Let's get started....................

1.	Voice is produced when air goes by the vocal folds, causing them to:
	Shrink
	Vibrate
	Sweat
	Flex

2.	The main reason dogs can't talk like people is:
	Dogs don't have vocal folds.
	They could, if somebody were patient enough to do the training.
	Talking is complicated, and dogs' brains aren't sophisticated enough.
	They can't get enough air sucked into their lungs.

3.	Which of the following statements is false?
	A rubber band stretched tightly will make a high sound when plucked
	Interestingly, the strings inside a piano create either high or low notes, although they are the same size.
	Different musical pitches in horns are made by pressing keys that open or close holes, making the air column inside the tube longer or shorter.
	Musical sounds are created by vibrations, either from air (as in the flute) or strings (as in the guitar).

4.	Whispering is the same as talking, except that when we whisper, air from the lungs isn't powerful enough to start the vocal folds vibrating.
	True
	False

5.	The larynx (voice box) is a complicated organ, made up of bone, cartilages, muscle and moist skin.
	True
	False

6.	A hiccup is:
	A quick inhalation (sucking in) of air
	Out of a person's control
	Usually noisy, because the vocal folds are forced open quickly, and they start vibrating
	All are true

7.	The main difference between singing and speaking is:
	We use a different set of vocal folds for singing than we do for talking.
	We hold the vowel sounds longer and at a specific pitch in singing, as compared to speaking.
	We use air from the lungs for speaking, but use air from the diaphragm for singing.
	We use resonance (from the air spaces in the head) for singing, but not for speaking.

8.	Articulators shape voice into speech. Which of the following is NOT an articulator?
	The soft palate
	The lower lip
	The tongue
	The lungs

9.	Which brief explanation most accurately describes how humans make voice?
	Air from the stomach is gently "belched" up into the mouth, where we form speech or song, and sounds are let loose through the lips.
	Air from the lungs is chopped and shaped by the vocal folds inside the larynx, then further shaped by our articulators and released through the mouth in sound waves.
	Air from the lungs freely floats through the voice box, where it causes many rope-like vocal cords to twist and shake; only the highest-pitched words are heard as they are freed into the surrounding air.
	Vibrating sound molecules begin at the diaphragm, travel up the esophagus, and are simply released when we open the throat and mouth.

10.	Burping often creates a sound because air from the stomach coming up to the mouth passes by the vocal folds and makes them vibrate (just as in speaking).
	True
	False

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The National Center for Voice and Speech is a Division of The Denver Center for the Performing Arts and a Center at The University of Iowa.
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