Nowadays, it is common to see ordinary people listening to music with headphones,     1     (absorb) themselves in their own world. Thanks     2     music, people become closer by sharing     3     string of appealing records with their friends. Moreover, music can transport us     4     a world of joy, thus helping us gain relief from grief and keep     5     (energy).

    6     some extent, music can be used as a cure for diseases. Listening to positive and peaceful music has an extremely positive impact, which results     7     many patients reducing pain. Often classical music     8     (combine) with medicine in cancer treatment to relieve aches and side effects.

Literally translated as the “Songs of Heroes” dance, Yingge Dance is 300-year-old folk dance that originated from the Chaoshan area of South China’s Guangdong Province.     1     (dress) in colorful costumes, performers wave wooden sticks in their hands     2     dancing in orderly formations to the music. Based on the stories of the 108 Heroes of Liangshan Mountain from the classic novel Outlaws of the Marsh, it is a folk art combining a variety of forms,     3     martial arts and Chinese operas to dance.

In recent years, Chaoshan Yingge Dance has     4     (gradual) come into the public eye through transformations in performance form, style optimization, and opening up of information channels. In the Spring Festival of the Dragon Year, Yingge Dance once again     5     (dominate) the screens,     6     (it) dazzling and fiery wave of popularity continuing throughout the holiday, even sparking     7     brilliant cultural passion overseas.

On the first and second days of the Lunar New Year, the Nanshan Yingge Team from Guangdong’s Puning made appearances at     8     (icon) British landmarks-the Burlington Arcade and Trafalgar Square--     9     (bring) New Year greetings from Guangdong to overseas Chinese and foreign friends alike. The performances attracted over seven hundred thousand spectators and received     10     (cover) from over a hundred media outlets.

Yangko, a rural Chinese folk dance with a history     1     (date) back thousands of years, originates from farming life in ancient times. The dance relates to sacrifices to the farmland god when people prayed for a good harvest. As time passed, the     2     (origin) dance developed, taking in various artistic forms and skills, including opera, acrobatics and martial arts, and eventually turned into the type of Yangko     3     is seen today.

    4     (preserve) this Chinese folk culture, it was included in the inaugural(首批的)items of national intangible cultural heritage in 2006. It is     5     (common) performed in northern China during festivals, especially for Chinese New Year and the Lantern Festival. Performances or competitions     6     (organize) in towns and villages to express people’s joy and their hope for a better life.

Yangko employs drumming, Suona, dancing and singing. Content is based     7     folk stories and legends. Costumes are richly-colored and opera-styled, enabling     8     (character) to be easily identified. During a performance, the actors will dance and sing, following lively rhythms. Highly. skilled and interesting acts such as stilt(高跷)walking     9     carrying a wedding sedan chair(花轿)are also included. As a part of traditional Chinese culture, Yangko     10     (concentrate) the group consciousness of the Chinese people, and has outstanding historical and cultural value.

Recently, Ma Xiaohui, a famous Chinese erhu     1     (perform) and composer with the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra, held     2     erhu concert with the theme of “Erhu Holding Hands with the World, New Music Trend, New Cultural Tour” in the Delegates’ Room at the UN headquarters in New York City.

Attendees from different backgrounds and participants in the World Madam Global Awards Ceremony were     3     (deep) moved by the unique charm of traditional Chinese musical instruments     4     (display) during the concert.

The concert began     5     the song “Woman Flower”. In the first movement, “Seven Colors of Erhu, Walking with Beauty, Colorful Silk Road,” melodies from Chinese and Western songs created an “ink painting” of the Silk Road.

In the next three     6     (movement), a classical repertoire (曲目) including “Butterfly Lovers”, “Thoughts on a Silent Night”     7     “The Spirit of My Erhu” attracted the audience. Next     8     (come) the theme song from the movie “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”,     9     beautifully celebrated the classic dialogue between erhu and cello (大提琴).

“This beautiful and     10     (inspire) concert wonderfully mixed classical, Chinese, and cross-cultural themes. It was a feast (盛宴) for the ears and souls,” multimedia artist Ranjit Bhatnagar said.

Beethov-hen’s first symphony

On a grey Friday morning at a Hawke’s Bay farm, members of New Zealand’s symphony orchestra dressed in black to perform their latest composition in front of a large crowd.

The music contained many marks of traditional classical music, but as it began, the instruments started to make loud, rough sounds more commonly     1     (hear) in chicken coops than in an auditorium.

However, no feathers were angered by this departure from tradition,     2     the audience that gathered to listen to the concert last week was, in fact, a couple of thousand chickens.

The piece of music – Chook Symphony No.1 –     3     (create) specifically for the birds out of an unlikely partnership between the orchestra and an organic free-range chicken farm which wanted a piece of chicken-friendly music to enrich its flocks’ lives.

“We’ve been playing classical music for the chickens for some years now because     4     is well researched that the music can calm the chickens down,” says Ben Bostock, one of the two brothers who     5     (own) the Bostock Brothers farm.

Research has shown animals can respond positively to classical music, and chickens are particularly responsive to baroque (巴洛克风格), according to some studies.

The composer, Hamish Oliver,     6     used the baroque tradition as a starting point and drew inspiration from composers such as Corelli, Bach, and Schnittke, wanted the piece to be playful by including sounds from a chicken’s world. “The trumpet imitates the chicken… the woodwind instruments are the cluckiest, especially if you take the reeds off.”

The early stages of composition were spent     7     (test) out which instruments and sounds the chickens responded to best.

“They didn’t like any big banging,” Bostock said, adding that when the birds respond positively to the music, they tend     8     (wander) farther among the trees. Bostock now hopes chicken farmers around the world will use the piece of music to calm their own birds.

For Oliver, having input from the farmers about     9     the chickens were responding to particular sounds and instruments was a highlight of the project.

The symphony has searched exhaustively     10     any other examples of orchestras making music specifically for chickens and believes this to be a world-first, says Peter Biggs, the orchestra’s chief executive.