Question

Ballet as a charming dance form has fascinated audiences for many years. It is a form of dance that combines beauty and grace to tell a story in a dance form. Generally performed in theatres, ballet has always been a favored dream of many little girls. While ballet dancers need to work very hard for many years to perform in a professional ballet company, this does not discourage the girls.

Many people think that ballet originated in France, due to the ballet steps that all have French names. However, ballet can be traced back to Italy during the Renaissance period of the 1400s. While this was really just a pioneer to the classical ballet, the dances performed in Italy during this time led to the further development of ballet in France. The first ballet company arose in France and was called The Queen's Ballet Company.

In the 1800s the romantic style of ballet appeared, thanks in part to the ballet La Sylphide. La Sylphide made much use of the toe dancing technique and brought about many changes to ballet.

All romantic ballets focused on women and this encouraged women to take on increasingly to become ballerinas. While ballet prospered in other nations, it started declining in France. The decline could be because ballet was seen as being very worldly with mythical (神話的) steps.

The shift from mythical steps to more reasonable style that could be co-related to human movements came about in the twentieth century. This was because of the many different styles of dance that were becoming increasingly popular. The change that started in the twentieth century continues to transform ballet even today where it mixes different styles of dance.

Some ballets today have even gone so far as to combine another style of dance into the ballet. In 1944 a ballet was introduced called Fancy Free that use Jazz dance with the ballet steps to create a revolutionary ballet, and it was well received.

With time, ballet has developed and changed in many forms. A ballet by professionals continues to charm audiences despite the fact that most of us cannot even dream of performing most of the steps and moves of a ballet dancer.

1.Why do people think ballet comes from France?

A. Because Frenchmen introduced ballet to Italy.

B. Because Frenchmen created many ballet steps.

C. Because the ballet steps are all named in French.

D. Because the first ballet company was founded in France.

2.When did the romantic ballet appear?

A. In the 14th century. B. In the 19th century.

C. In the 15th century. D. In the 2lth century.

3.From the last paragraph, we can know ballet becomes more_______________.

A. reasonable B. romantic

C. popular D. professional

4.The passage mainly talks about _______________.

A. the development of classical ballet

B. the popularity of classical ballet

C. the meaning of classical ballet

D. the techniques of ballet dancing

Answer 1