Question

[Lê Quỳnh Anh]

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.

Accustomed though we are to speaking of the films made before 1927 as “silent”, the film has never been, in the full sense of the word,silent. From the very beginning, music was regarded as an indispensable accompaniment; when the Lumiere films were shown at the first public film exhibition in the United States in February 1896, they were accompanied by piano improvisations on popular tunes. At first, the music played bore no special relationship to the films; an accompaniment of any kind was sufficient. Within a very short time, however, the incongruity of playing lively music to a solemn film became apparent, and film pianists began to take some care in matching their pieces to the mood of the film.

As movie theaters grew in number and importance, a violinist, and perhaps a cellist, would be added to the pianist in certain cases, and in the larger movie theaters small orchestras were formed. For a number of years the selection of music for each film program rested entirely in the hands of the conductor or leader of the orchestra, and very often the principal qualification for holding such a position was not skill or taste so much as the ownership of a large personal library of musical pieces. Since the conductor seldom saw the films until the night before they were to be shown (if, indeed, the conductor was lucky enough to see them then), the musical arrangement was normally improvised in the greatest hurry.

To help meet this difficulty, film distributing companies started the practice of publishing suggestions for musical accompaniments. In 1909, for example, the Edison Company began issuing with their films such indications of mood as “pleasant”, “sad”, “lively”. The suggestions became more explicit, and so emerged the musical cue sheet containing indications of mood, the titles of suitable pieces of music, and precise directions to show where one piece led into the next.

Certain films had music especially composed for them. The most famous of these early special scores was that composed and arranged for D.W. Griffith’s film Birth of a Nation, which was released in 1915.

What can be inferred that the passage about the majority of films made after 1927?

A. They were truly “silent”.

B. They were accompanied by symphonic orchestras

C. They incorporated the sound of the actors’ voices

D. They corresponded to specific musical compositions

Answer 1

[Dương Hoàn Anh]

Đáp án C.

Keywords: inferred (suy luận), the majority of films, after 1927.

Clue: “Accustomed though we are to speaking of the films made before 1927 as “silent”, the film has never been, in the full sense of the word,silent. From the very beginning, music was regarded as an indispensable accompaniment…”: Mặc dù chúng ta đã quen thuộc khi nhắc tới những bộ phim được sản xuất trước năm 1927 là “phim câm” thì những phim này chưa bao giờ thực sự là phim câm cả. Ngay từ khi mới bắt đầu, âm nhạc đã được xem là thứ đồng hành không thể thiếu…

Phân tích:

A. They were truly “silent”: Chúng thực sự im lặng.

B. They were accompanied by symphonic orchestras: Chúng được chơi cùng dàn nhạc giao hưởng.

C. They incorporated the sound of the actors’ voices: Chúng được kết hợp chặt chẽ với âm thanh từ giọng của diễn viên.

D. They corresponded to specific musical compositions: Chúng tương ứng với một tác phẩm âm nhạc cụ thể.

Những bộ phim câm trước năm 1927 trên thực tế không hoàn toàn im lặng bởi luôn có âm nhạc đồng hành. Dù cho diễn viên không nói nhưng âm nhạc lại được kết hợp với phần diễn của diễn viên để miêu tả được phần diễn đó. Do đó, sau năm 1927 chắc chắn là film đã được lồng tiếng nên đáp án đúng là C