THE SONG IS SO ROMANTIC THAT I HAVE LISTENED TO IT MANY TIMES

10/ The song is so romantic that I have listened to it many times. (such)

→ It _________________________________________________________.

VIII/ Read the passage and statements below carefully, and then say whether the statements are true

(T), false (F) or not given (N):

Music is part of every culture on Earth. Many people feel that music makes life worth living. We

can make music ourselves if we play an instrument or sing. We can hear music on CDs and on radio or

television. Music gives us pleasure. It can cheer us up, excite us, or soothe us.

WHAT IS MUSIC?

Music can be happy, sad, romantic, sleepy, spine-tingling, healing—all kinds of things. But what

is it? Some people define it as an artful arrangement of sounds across time. Our ears interpret these

sounds as loud or soft, high or low, rapid and short, or slow and smooth. The sounds need to continue

for a time in some sort of pattern to become music.

Music, like language, is a uniquely human form of communication. As with language, there are

many different kinds. In North America, people listen to jazz, rock, classical, folk, country, and many

other kinds of music. Each kind of music has its own rules and “speaks” to us in its own way.

What we think of as music depends on where we live. What Americans are used to listening to

might sound strange to someone from another culture, and vice versa. It might not even sound like

music. In Indonesia, gamelan orchestras play music on gongs, drums, and xylophones. These aren’t the

instruments you’d find in a typical orchestra in North America.

Today, modern communications make it possible for us to listen to music from all over the

world. Music from one part of the world influences music from another part. For example, gamelan

music from Indonesia influenced 20

th

-century American composers such as John Cage.

New vocabulary:

- to soothe (v.): làm dịu, làm nguôi (tình cảm…)

- spine-tingling (adj.): very special and exciting

- healing (adj.): để chữa bệnh, để chữa vết thương

- gamelan orchestra (n.): Indonesian percussion orchestra: an Indonesian orchestra that

consists mainly of percussion (sự đánh trống, sự gõ mõ) instruments such as chimes (chuông hòa âm,

chuông chùm), gongs (cái cồng; cái chiêng, kẻng), and wooden xylophones (đàn phiến gỗ, mộc cầm)