L3

讲座

1. What does the professor mainly discuss?

A study about the difficulty of writing opera parts for sopranos

Evidence showing that many opera singers prefer to sing high notes

A technique for making opera singing easier to understand

Reasons why European operas were not often written in English

2. Why does the professor introduce a recent study?

To comment upon a complaint some people have about opera

To explain the similarities between theater and opera

To find out if the students completed their reading assignment

To point out that it examines the stories operas tell

3. Why does the professor discuss the vocal tract?

To show why different signers have different pitch ranges

To explain how distinctive vowel sounds are produced

To explain how speaking is different from singing

To demonstrate a technique singers use to produce beautiful sounds

4. Why are a soprano’s words sometimes unclear when she sings?

Singing high notes causes the vocal cords to tire.

Many older concert halls were not designed to carry the sound of high notes.

Sopranos do not always pronounce the endings of words.

Sopranos open their jaws more than they should in forming certain words.

5. According to the professor, why might Wagner have been more likely to use vowel-pitch matching than other composers?（多选题）

His stories contain fewer repetitive passages.

His compositions are more varied in pitch.

His music is challenging to perform.

He composed more often for soprano voices.

He composed for larger orchestras.

6. What is the professor’s opinion about the composers in the study?

Wagner was the best composer of the group.

Each of the composers had his own strengths.

The composers would all have benefited from using more complicated plots.

The composers were more interested in telling a story than in producing great music.