Question

【題目】For a 400-year-old art form, opera had a bad fame: overweight actresses singing the words which were hard to understand in one of those romance languages you were supposed to learn in high school. And with tickets costing as much as＄145 a performance, opera goers also had a certain appearance in people’s mind: rich, well-dressed and old.

But now opera companies around the country are loosening their ties and kicking off their shoesin an attempt to keep opera alive and take it to a younger and not so wealthy audience.

Opera producers have found that to attract this crowd, they need to associate opera with common people. Because young people don’t or won’t come to the opera, companies are bringing the opera to them, giving performances in such unusual places as parks, libraries and public schools.

The Houston Grand Opera’s choice is the public library, where it performs “mobile operas”, shortened version(劇本) of child-friendly operas. This summer’s production isHansel&Gretel. By performing smaller versions of large productions, producers are able to make people interested while keeping costs at a reasonable level. The San Francisco Opera, which will be celebratingits 75thanniversary this year, is stagingCinderellafree of charge, keeping costs down by employing students from its Young Artists’ Training Program.

【1】Which of the following is the main idea of this passage?

A. Opera is famous for its long history.

B. Opera is only performed for rich people.

C. Opera companies are trying to keep operas alive.

D. Young people are not interested in opera.

【2】The underlined phrase in the second paragraph means ________.

A. breaking up the old rules B. changing the dresses

C. making the audience at ease D. advertising themselves

【3】Opera companies prefer to perform short versions because ______.

A. they can be performed in public libraries

B. short versions are easy to perform

C. it is hard to find long versions

D. they can make more people come to opera

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】C

【2】A

【3】D

【解析】和中國的京劇一樣，西方的歌劇也面臨著如何吸引年輕觀眾的困惑。歌劇給人的傳統(tǒng)印象是晦澀難懂、票價昂貴，但是今天為了吸引年輕人的眼球，它不得不降低身價。

【1】主旨大意題，根據(jù)第三段“Opera producers have found that to attract this crowd, they need to associate opera with common people. And because young people don’t or won’t come to the opera, companies are bringing the opera to them, giving performances in such usual places as parks, libraries and public schools.”以及從第一段介紹的歌劇給人的傳統(tǒng)印象可以得出答案C。

【2】語義猜測題。第一段介紹的是歌劇以前晦澀難懂、票價昂貴，是供貴族享用的，而再加上第二段的"take it to a younger and not so wealthy audience"，第三段的"to associate opera with common people"和最后一段的'staging Cinderella free of charge"可以推知A項正確

【3】細(xì)節(jié)理解題，由最后一段第三句By performing smaller versions of large productions, producers are able to make people interested while keeping costs at a reasonable level.可知，這樣做的目的是降低演出成本，同時吸引更多觀眾來觀看演出。 歌劇做的許多改變都是為了吸引更多的觀眾。故選D。