"Gangnam Style" by singer Psy from Korea, is a popular song, but its extraordinary global success is really the result of its music video, which is a great piece of genius. On September 22nd, Guinness World Records listed "Gangnam Style" as the most-liked video in the history of YouTube. It's been performed at West Point (West-Point Style), and Google's CEO, has done the "Gangnam Style" horse dance at the company's office in Seoul. Even Samsung is trying to make Psy the new model for the latest type of fridge.
The song's global popularity is such that the vast majority of people who enjoy it don't speak Korean, and have no idea what it is about. That's fine --- part of what makes "Gangnam Style" so fun is, like international pop music, the difficulty in understanding it. When we sing along, "Hey, sexy lady", we don't really know what we're singing about.
The joy of incomprehensibleness is familiar to anyone who loves pop music from elsewhere. Anthony Lane, in his 2010 review of the Eurovision Song Contest, Only Mr. God Knows Why, used "Eurovision English" as one of its chief pleasures. It's "a complex tongue, spoken nowhere else, which raises the heartfelt poetry (???) but absolute nonsense to a level of what sci-fi writers could only have dreamed. " In similar ways, "Gangnam Style" is just an over-the-top video where a fat man does a funny dance and sings repetitive words that don't make sense to most of us.
But on the other, the magic of the song also lies in its funny dance, which reflects not just cultural morals specific to Korea, but cultural values easily recognizable to western viewers. This song's words may be in Korean, but its scenes are in clear American. The dance moves are simple enough to copy.
Nonsense, in other words, forces us to let down our guards. It makes us relax, and asks us to let in all sorts of feelings from which, otherwise, we might distance ourselves. "Gangnam Style" happens to be so interesting because of its incomprehensibleness.
1.Some complex languages are used in pop music because _______.
A. singers regard it as one of the chief pleasures at the concert
B. they make the music hard to understand but poetic and attractive
C. the music can sound more pleasant and beautiful to the audience
D. people like listening to the music which makes special sense to them
2.What is true about the popularity of "Gangnam Style"?
A. It was considered as the most popular video on the Internet.
B. It makes people amused and removes their emotional guards.
C. Its dance only reflects cultural and morals specific to Korea.
D. Psy, its singer, has been the new model for Samsung .
3.What does the underlined word "incomprehensibleness" mean in Paragraph 3?
A. Being interesting to listen to. B. Being simple enough to copy.
C. Being complex and repetitive. D. Being difficult to understand.
4.The text is mainly about ________.
A. how "Gangnam Style" becomes popular among the youths
B. why "Gangnam Style" is popular even if few people understand it
C. how Psy gains worldwide success through his talent and hard work
D. what emotions and cultural morals Psy wants to convey with his song
1.B
2.B
3.D
4.B
【解析】
试题分析:
江南style如此流行,而喜爱这首歌的人大多不懂其歌词。原因何在?其实,人们喜爱这首歌的原因正是人们不懂歌词。歌词的无意义可以让人放松身心;人们喜爱这首歌的另一个原因是那简单而易模仿的舞蹈动作。
1.细节题。由第三段The joy of incomprehensibleness is familiar to anyone who loves pop music from elsewhere以及a complex tongue, spoken nowhere else, which raises the heartfelt poetry (诗意) but absolute nonsense等文字可知,流行音乐中的歌词“完全无意义但富有诗意”。选择.B项。
2.细节题。第一段…listed "Gangnam Style" as the most-liked video in the history of YouTube提示排除A项;倒数第二段which reflects not just cultural morals specific to Korea,提示排除C项;第一段Samsung is trying to make Psy the new model for the latest type of fridge说明Psys尚未成为Samsung的new model,排除D项。由最后一段Nonsense, in other words, forces us to let down our guards.和"Gangnam Style" happens to be so interesting because of its incomprehensibleness.等文字可知,江南style之所以流行就是因为其不可理解性,这种不可理解性或无意义让人们身心放松。故选择B项。
3.词义推断题。由第二段the vast majority of people who enjoy it don't speak Korean, and have no idea what it is about.及后面的叙述可知,人们喜爱江南style是因为他们不懂其歌词的意思,这种因不懂歌词意思而获得的乐趣与其他地区的流行歌曲是相似的。故选择D项。
4.主旨大意题。文章首先介绍了一种现象:喜爱江南style的人大多不懂韩语,不理解歌词的意思;接着解释正是这种对歌词的不解让人们喜爱这首歌曲,原因是对于歌词的不解可以让人放松身心。人们喜爱这首歌曲的另一个原因是其简单易模仿的舞蹈动作。故B项正确。
考点:议论文。
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