Question

【题目】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(剧本) 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】和中国的京剧一样，西方的歌剧也面临着如何吸引年轻观众的困惑。歌剧给人的传统印象是晦涩难懂、票价昂贵，但是今天为了吸引年轻人的眼球，它不得不降低身价。

【1】主旨大意题，根据第三段“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.”以及从第一段介绍的歌剧给人的传统印象可以得出答案C。

【2】语义猜测题。第一段介绍的是歌剧以前晦涩难懂、票价昂贵，是供贵族享用的，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项正确

【3】细节理解题，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，这样做的目的是降低演出成本，同时吸引更多观众来观看演出。 歌剧做的许多改变都是为了吸引更多的观众。故选D。