For a 400-year-old art form, operas had a bad fame: overweight actresses singing the words which are 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 have 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 shoes in an attempt to bring the opera to the audience. It needs to keep it alive, the young and not-so-rich.

Opera producers have found that to attract this crowd, they need to make the opera closer to common people. That means no formal suits, old-styled theatre or band-breaking ticket prices. And 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 versions (剧本) of child-friendly operas. This summer’s production is Hansel & 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 celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, is staging Cinderella free of charge, keeping costs down by employing students from its Young Artists’ Training Program.   

Which of the following is the main idea of this passage?

       A.Opera is famous for is history.                                   

       B.Opera is only for rich people.

       C.Opera companies are trying to keep opera alive.                            

       D.Young people are not interested in opera. 

The underlined part in Paragraph 2 most probably means          .

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

       C.making the audience at ease    D.advertising themselves

Opera companies prefer to perform smaller 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 people interested

The San Francisco Opera employs young students in order to        .

       A.attract young people               B.reduce the cost

       C.celebrate its 75th anniversary   D.make Cinderella popular

What can you infer from the passage?

       A.The tickets for opera are very expensive at present.

       B.Opera is performed in a language difficult to understand.

       C.Opera is not so popular an art form today.

       D.Students enjoy performing operas very much.

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