Reading Comprehension 1 (Well Read) Chapter 4

1. Visual Aids by Laurette P. Simmons Ph.D. and LeRoy F. Simmons Ph.D.

2. a c
d e f
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5. What's Your Favorite Kind of Music?
Helen, 45, college professor: I love rock, especially oldies such as the Beatles
and the Rolling Stones. I don’t like the pop groups of today very much, though.
Danielle, 13, student (Helen’s daughter): My favorite type of music is rock, too.
I like the same stuff that my mom likes, but I like cool stuff, too. Like, I have
Green Day and The White Stripes on my iPod. Wanna listen?
Marcus, 22, college student: I like jazz and classical music. I’m an art major,
and I listen to music while I work, jazz and classical music inspire me; they
help me to think and to be creative.
Pat, 33, musician: 1 perform in the local symphony orchestra, so of course, I love
classical music. I play the violin in the orchestra, but I play all kinds of stringed
instruments. I love to listen to stringensembles4 like the Eroica Trio.
Rob, 21, waiter: My favorite type of music is world music. I like music from lots
of cultures. I like music from the Caribbean, especially reggae. I also like music
from Latin America, like salsa and Asian fusion. That’s traditional Asian music
mixed with modern music.
Chris, 27, computer graphics designer: I like just about every kind of music. I
love hip-hop and rap—that’s what I listen to at work. The only kinds of music
I absolutely do not like are country music and opera. I can’t listen to them!

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c, d, f
c, f
e
a, b, f
a, b, f
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11. music from the Caribbean
Eroica Trio: a group with more than one player
violin
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15. The Earth Harp: The World’s Largest Stringed Instrument
1. Imagine a giant stringed musical instrument: it’s over 1,100 feet high and 80 feet long. Now,
imagine the player of the instrument: She hangs upside down, inside the instrument. A belt
attaches her to it. She gently moves her fingers across the strings of the instrument with gloved
hands. The player is like an acrobat. She moves just like a circus entertainer as she spins around
and rubs other strings. The instrument makes a loud, thunderous sound.
2 This is an Earth Brooks, and her husband, Bill Close, invented the instrument. A long time ago,
Close read this Andrea Brooks playing the Earth Harp quote by the American architect1 Frank
Lloyd Wright: “Architecture2 is frozen music.” This idea inspired him to combine architecture
and music and invent new instruments.
3. Just one of Close’s instruments can make the sound of an entire string section many stringed
instruments playing together. Close builds these giant harps in many places. He sets them up
outdoors or in theaters. Close likes to combine parts of the instrument with the environment.
Outside, in a plaza, for example, the harp strings can travel across the open space and attach to
surrounding buildings. Close also likes to include the people who are listening. For example, in
theaters, the strings sometimes go over the heads of the audience and attach to the back wall. This
way, the audience members feel like they are inside the harp.
4. Close performs with his wife and his team, the MASS (Music Architecture Sonic Sculpture)
ensemble. They play the giant stringed instruments, along with traditional instruments such as
violins, cellos, flutes, and drums. They also play other invented instruments. Some of the team
members dance as they play. MASS performs many types of music—including pop and classical
music—at many venues, including theaters, museums, and open spaces around the United States
and Mexico.

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21. an entertainer, usually in a circus, who makes difficult or dangerous
very loud, like thunder
the surrounding area; outside
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body movements

22. outdoor spaces; open spaces; surrounding buildings
people who are listening (to a performance)
instruments that are not new such as violins, cellos,
flutes and drums
theatres, museums, open spaces
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23. the player
Bill Close
the MASS ensemble
the MASS ensemble
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26. The Top Ten Selling Singles in the World
Rank, Song Title, Artist, Global Sales (millions)
The ten singles that have sold the most copies
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28. Paul Anka
10
I Want to Hold Your Hand; Hey Jude
Hey, Jude, It’s Now or Never, I Will
Always Love You (10); Hound Dog, Diana (9); I’m a Believer, (Everything I Do)
I Do It For You (8)
The Beatles, Elvis Presley,
Whitney Houston (5); Elvis Presley, Paul Anka (8), The Monkees, Bryan Adams (10)
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29. 2
The Monkees and Bryan Adams
Candle in the Wind ‘97
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31. 1.Hip-hop is both a culture and a style of I I pop music. As a style of music, hip-_L hop
includes rapping (or MC-ing) and DJ-ing. Rapping is speaking or singing rhyming words
to music. DJ-ing is mixing sections from two or more records and/or scratching the
records while they play. Hip-hop also includes an acrobatic dance style called
breakdancing.
2. The Birth of Hip-Hop
When people think about the beginning so f hip-hop music, they often think of the song
“Rapper’s Delight.” The Sugar Hill Gang recorded it in 1979. In fact, “Rapper’s
Delight” was one of the first hip-hop numbers ever recorded. However, hip-hop actually
started almost ten years before.
3 Hip-hop was born in the South Bronx (New York City) in the early 1970s. Originally,
it was a live performance art. It wasn’t recorded. People performed hip-hop in clubs
and at parties, and especially outdoors—for example, in parks.
Many hip-hop historians agree that DJ Cool Here is the father of hip-hop. In fact, DJ
Cool Here invented most of the performance styles that we call “hip-hop” today.
4 Hip-Hop’s Jamaican Roots DJ Cool Here was bom in Jamaica. (His real name is Clive
Campbell.) He came to the United States in 1967, and his family lived in the Bronx.
When DJ Cool Here was a child in Jamaica, he listened to reggae music. People drove
vans with loud sound systems around the towns and cities and broadcasted2 reggae
music. This was a popular kind of entertainment because many Jamaicans didn’t have
their own stereo systems.
musical and cultural style called hip-hop.

32. 5 DJ Cool Here loved the music vans of Jamaica. They gave him an idea. He set up a
sound system in the basement o f his family’s apartment in the Bronx and started DJ ing
on his sound system. Here specialized in finding very rhythmic sections of records.
When he played these, it made people want to dance. These breaks—sections on the
records—-started a new type of dancing called “breakdancing.”
6. Later, while he was performing at a club, Here invented the “merry-go-round.” With
the merry-go-round, Here put two records on separate turntables at the same time. He
went back and forth between the two records and played the rhythm breaks on each
one. This created long sessions of danceable music.
7.The Beginnings of Rapping Here also shouted out to the audience. He encouraged
them to dance. This shouting also came from Jamaica. In Jamaica, it’s called “toasting.”
In Jamaica, an MC rode in the sound system van and shouted out to the listeners.
Here’s shouting was the beginning of rapping, the rhyming chants that go with hip-hop
music.
8. Many other musicians in the Bronx copied Here and added to his inventions. Some of
these were Afrika Bambaataa (Kevin Donovan) and Grandmaster Flash (Joseph
Saddler). They all contributed to the musical and cultural style called hip-hop.

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38. a culture and a style of pop music
speaking or singing rhyming words to music
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39. mixing sections from two or more records and/or scratching the records while
they play
an acrobatic dance style SB page 72

40. people
hip-hop
DJ Cool Herc
toasting
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