Chapter 3 The sound of music

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Question 1: Her mother remembers noticing something was wrong when the eight-year-old Evelyn was waiting to play the piano. “They called her name and she didn’t move. I suddenly realized she hadn’t heard,” says Isabel Glennie. For quite a while Evelyn managed to conceal her growing deafness from friends and teachers. But by the time she was eleven her marks had deteriorated and her headmistress urged her parents to take her to a specialist.

1. What made Isabel suspect Evelyn’s hearing ability ?

2. Why did Evelyn’s headmistress advised her parents to consult a specialist?

3. Find the word/phrase in the passage which means the same as “to hide”.

Answer:   

1. Isabel had a doubt about Evelyn’s hearing ability when she did not move when her name was called to play on the piano.

2. Evelyn’s headmistress advised her parents to consult a specialist when her marks deteriorated.

3. Conceal.

Question 2: As for music, she explains “it pours in through every part of my body. It tingles in the skin, my cheekbones and even in my hair”. When she plays the xylophone, she can sense the sound passing up the stick into her finger tips. By leaning against the drums, she can feel the resonances flowing into her body. On a wooden platform, she removes her shoes so that the vibrations pass through her bare feet and up her legs.

1. How does Evelyn hear the sound of xylophone ?

2. Why does she remove her shoes on a wooden platform during her performance ?

3. Find a word from the passage that means “‘take off”. 

Answer:

1. Evelyn hears the sound of xylophone through her finger tips.

2. She removes her shoes on a wooden platform during her performance so that she can feel the vibrations of music through her feet to legs.

3. Removes.

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Question 3: She never looked back from that point onwards. She toured the United Kingdom with a youth orchestra and by the time she was sixteen, she had decided to make music her life. She auditioned for the Royal Academy of Music and scored one of the highest marks in the history of the academy. She gradually moved from orchestral work to solo performances.

1. What did Evelyn decide when she was sixteen years old ?

2. How did Evelyn get right to the top ?

3. Which word in the passage means the same as “gave a short performance so that the director could decide whether she was good enough” 

Answer:

1. When Evelyn was sixteen years old, she decided to make music her life.

2. Evelyn got to the top by hard work, motivation and determination.

3. Auditioned.

Question 4: For quite a while, Evelyn managed to conceal her growing deafness from friends and teachers. But by the time she was eleven, her marks had deteriorated and her headmistress urged her parents to take her to a specialist. It was then discovered that her hearing was severely impaired as a result of gradual nerve damage. They were advised that she should be fitted with hearing aids and sent to a school of the deaf.

1. Why did headmistress urge her parents to take her to the specialists ?

2. At what age were symptoms of deafness noticed in Evelyn ?

3. Trace the word that means “damaged”. 

Answer:

1. Evelyn’s school’s headmistress urged her parents to take her to a specialist because she had a hearing problem.

2. At the age of eleven the symptoms of deafness were noticed in Evelyn.

3. Impaired.

Question 5: Rush hour crowds jostle for position on the underground train platform. A slight girl, looking younger than her seventeen years, was nervous yet excited as she felt the vibrations of the approaching train. It was her first day at the prestigious Royal Academy of Music in London and daunting enough for any teenager fresh from a Scottish farm.

1. Who is the ‘girl’ in the above lines ?

2. Where was she going ?

3. Find the word from the extract that means “frightening”.    

​Answer:

1. Evelyn Glennie.

2. She was going to the prestigious Royal Academy of Music in London.

3. Daunting.