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Vocabulary activities
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1. Read the extract given below and speak of the attitude to serious and pop music in Great Britain. Five sentences have been removed from the text. Choose from the sentences A-E the one which fits the gap.
England is famous for its painting, literature, theatre, but not for its great composers and classical music. 1 As for the composers of the XIX century one should remember that musical climate of Victorian England was not favourable for daring and bold composers. Among talented and important composers we should mention Edward Elgar, Frederick Delius, Benjamin Britten.
Since 1960 Britain has achieved a noted position in music, especially in popular music. And now Britain remains at the forefront of pop music.
In the 1960s, British artists had a great influence on the development of music in the modern, or ‘pop’ idiom. The Beatles and other British groups were the beginners of several innovations, which were then adopted by popular musicians in the USA, and the rest of the world. 2 The words of their songs also helped to liberate the pop idiom from its former limitation to the topics of love and teenage affection. Other British artists in groups such as Pink Floyd and Cream played a major part in making the musical structure of pop music more sophisticated.
Since the 1960s, popular music in Britain has been an enormous and profitable industry. 3 Within Britain the total sales of the various kinds of musical recording are more than 200 million every year – and the vast majority of them are of popular music. Many worldwide trends have come out of Britain and British “pop” artists have been active in attempting to cross the boundaries between popular music, folk music and classical music.
Other famous bands of the mid-1990s included Blur and Pulp, and also the Welsh Bands Super Furry Animals, Manic Street Preachers and Catalonia. The greatest danger such groups face is the pressure of success. 4
Thousands of British people are dedicated musicians and many public libraries have a well-stocked music section. Several British orchestras, soloists, singers, choirs, opera companies and ballet companies, and also certain annual musical events, have international reputations. 5
A) All over the country there are millions of people engaged in amateur music, art and theatre.
B) This was the fate of the Spice Girls, who attracted enormous coverage in 1996 – 1998.
C) The Beatles were awarded the honour of MBE (Member of the British Empire) for their services to British exports.
D) It includes the writing of words and music by the performers themselves, and more active audience participation.
E) Few classical musicians, whether British or foreign, became well known to the general public.
2. Read the following extract. Choose the most suitable word for each space.
Until the early part of this century there was certainly a distinction between popular music, the songs and dance (1) … of the masses, and what we have come to call (2) … music. Up to that point, however, there were at least some points of contact (3) … the two, and perhaps general recognition of what made a good voice, or a good song.
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With the development of (4) … entertainment, popular music split away and has gradually (5) … a stronger life of its (6) …, to the point where it has become incompatible with (7) … classics. In some respects, it is now dominated by the (8) … of youth culture, so that a concert by Elton John is just as much a fashion (9) …, and other artists may be promoting dance styles, or social (10) …. For this reason, it is impossible to talk about popular music as if it were a unified art. The kind of music you like may (11) … on what kind a person you are.
Curiously, there are now classical musicians and operatic singers who have (12) … the status of rock stars, and have been marketed in the same way. This seems to suggest that many young people enjoy classical music but do not wish to be associated with the (13) … of those who are traditionally supposed to enjoy it. Or it may simply be that recording companies have discovered that there is an insatiable (14) … for “sounds”, and that classical music is beginning to sound exciting to a generation (15) … on rock but now settling into affluent middle-age.
| a) halls | b) tunes | c) musicians | d)artists | |
| a) rock | b) modern | c) underground | d) classical | |
| a) with | b) between | c) by | d) of | |
| a) mass | b) live | c) recorded | d) the | |
| a) lived | b) founded | c) developed | d) suggested | |
| a) self | b) fans | c)supporters | d) own | |
| a) other | b) the | c) some | d) further | |
| a) tendency | b) discovery | c) promotion | d) survival | |
| a) as | b) however | c) event | d) design | |
| a) service | b) grace | c) protest | d) science | |
| a) be | b) identify | c) suppose | d) depend | |
| a) lost | b) admired | c) penetrated | d) achieved | |
| a) number | b) dislike | c) lifestyle | d) meaning | |
| a)desire | b) sale | c) interest | d) outlet | |
| a) raised | b) carrying | c) dependent | d) listening |
3. For Questions 1 – 15, read the text below and decide which answer А, В, С or D best each space. There is an example at the beginning (0).
Nobody knows for certain what the (0) A of music was. Music is certainly older than poetry and painting but as early man had no way of (1)... it, we can only (2)... what it sounded like. Watching a child (3)... on a drum with its hands or a (4)... of wood, it is easy to see that this is the simplest of instruments. It does not (5)... much effort to produce a rhythm on it.
Wall paintings show what some of the first instruments (6)... like. Early civilisations had already discovered the three basic (7) of producing music: blowing into a tube, striking an object, and scraping a string. We know that western music comes from the (8)... Greeks. The musical scales we use now are (9)... on certain sequences of notes which the Greeks used to create a particular (10)....
Until the XVI century, most players of instruments were (11)... performers, but as music became more (12)... orchestras and musical groups began to (13).... This (14)... about the writing of music to be played by several musicians at one time. This can certainly be (15)... the birth of modern music.
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| a) origin | b) age | c) spring | d)growth | |
| a) recording | b) playing | c) producing | d)performing | |
| a) think | b) reckon | c) guess | d) realize | |
| a) hitting | b) knocking | c) crashing | d) banging | |
| a) slice | b) point | c) piece | d) shape | |
| a) make | b) call | c) take | d) do | |
| a) looked | b) appeared | c) felt | d) sounded | |
| a) forms | b) manners | c) systems | d) ways | |
| a) ancient | b) old | c) aged | d) antique | |
| a) raised | b) based | c) established | d) supported | |
| a) spirit | b) temper | c) mood | d) humour | |
| a) separate | b) lonely | c) unique | d) single | |
| a) widespread | b) enlarged | c) expanded | d) extended | |
| a) turn | b) appear | c)spring | d) be | |
| a) produced | b) affected | c) caused | d) brought | |
| a) appointed | b) called | c) decided | d) named |
4. Read the text below. Use the word given in capitals at the end of some of the lines to form a derivative that fits the gap.
| Primary schools in London are trying out an (0) ambitious plan through which young children get an (1) ……… to serious music. The idea comes from a group of famous (2) ……… who are concerned about the (3) ……… of certain types of classical music. They see the plan as one possible (4) ……… to the problem of declining audiences at classical concerts. Their (5) ……… is that an interest in classical music should be developed in early (6) ………. They reject the idea that children are (7) ……… in serious music or necessarily find it boring. The group goes into a school and gives a live (8) ……… of a short classical piece and then this is followed by an (9) ……… of how the instruments work. These sessions have proved so (10)……… that they have now become a regular feature in some schools. | AMBITION INTRODUCE MUSIC SURVIVE SOLVE ARGUE CHILD INTEREST PERFORM EXPLAIN SUCCESS |
5. Read the text “Pop Musicals”. Use the word given in capitals at the end of some of the lines to form a derivative that fits the gap.
Pop Musicals
| Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, a man whose (0) compositions, eclectic rock based works, helped (1)......... British and American (2)......... theatre in the late XX century. As a student at Oxford University, a (3)......... was founded between Webber and Timothy Rice to put on dramatic productions. Their first (4)......... successful venture was “Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”, a pop oratorio for children that earned world-wide acclaim. It was followed by the rock opera, “Jesus Christ Superstar”, an extremely popular, though (5)......... work that blended classical forms to tell the story of Jesus' life. This show ran longer than any other similar show in British (6)......... history. Lloyd Webber’s last (7)......... collaboration with Rice was on “Evita”. “Cats” was his next major production, in which he set to music verses from a children’s book by T.S. Eliot. With two (8)......... Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe, he then composed a hugely successful version of “The Phantom of the Opera”. Lloyd Webber’s best works were flashy spectacles that featured vivid melodies and forceful and dramatic staging. He was able to blend such varied and (9)......... genres as rock and roll, English music-hall song, and (10)......... forms into music that had a wide mass appeal. | COMPOSE VITAL MUSIC PARTNER NOTE CONTROVERSY THEATRE ART LYRIC SIMILAR OPERA |
6. For Questions read the text about an English manager and think of the word which best fits each space.
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