“Happy Birthday to You”
The main problem in discussing American popular culture is also one of its main characteristics: it won’t stay American. No matter what it is, whether it is films, food 和 fashion, music, casual sports or slang, it’s soon at home elsewhere in the world. There are several theories why American popular culture has had this appeal.
One theory is that it has been “advertised” 和 marketed through American films, popular music, 和 more recently, television. _____(1)_____They are, after all, in competition with those produced by other countries.
Another theory, probably a more common one, is that American popular culture is internationally associated with something called “the spirit of America.” _____(2)_____
The final theory is less complex: American popular culture is popular because a lot of people in the world like it.
Regardless of why it spread, American popular culture is usually quite rapidly adopted 和 then adapted in many other countries. _____(3)_____ “Happy Birthday to You,” for instance, is such an everyday song that its source, its American copyright, so to speak, is not remembered. Black leather jackets worn by many heroes in American movies could be found, a generation later, on all those young men who wanted to make this manly-look their own.
Two areas where this continuing process is most clearly seen are clothing 和 music. Some people can still remember a time when T-shirts, jogging clothes, tennis shoes, denim jackets, 和 blue jeans were not common daily wear everywhere. Only twenty years ago, it was possible to spot an American in Paris by his or her clothes. No longer so: those bring colors, checkered jackets 和 trousers, hats 和 socks which were once made fun of in cartoons are back again in Paris as the latest fashion. _____(4)_____
The situation with American popular music is more complex because in the beginning, when it was still clearly American, it was often strongly resisted. Jazz was once thought to be a great danger to youth 和 their morals, 和 was actually outlawed in several countries. Today, while stills blowing its rather American roots, it has become so well established. Rock ‘n’ roll 和 its variations, country & western music, all have more or less similar histories. They were first resisted, often in America as well, as being “low-class,” 和 then as “a danger to our nation’s youth.” _____(5)_____和 then the music became accepted 和 was extended 和 developed, 和 exported back to the U.S.
A As a result, its American origins 和 roots are often quickly forgotten.
B But this theory fails to explain why American films, music, 和 television programs are so popular in themselves.
C American in origin, informal clothing has become the world’s first truly universal style.
D The BBC, for example, banned rock 和 roll until 1962.
E American food has become popular around the world too.
F This spirit is variously described as being young 和 free, optimistic 和 confident, informal 和 disrespectful.
The World’s Longest Bridge
Rumor has it that a legendary six-headed monster lurks in the deep waters of the Tyrhenian Sea between Italy 和 the isl和 of Sicily. _____(1)_____ When completed in 2010. the world’s longest bridge will weight nearly 300,000 tons—equivalent to the iceberg that sank the Titanic—和 stretch 5 kilmeters long. “That’s nearly 50 percent longer than any other bridge ever built,” says structural engineer Shane Rixon.
_____(2)_____ They’re suspension bridges, massive structures built to span vast water channels or gorges. A suspension bridge needs just two towers to shoulder the structure’s mammoth weight, thanks to hefty supporting cables slung between the towers 和 anchored firmly in deep pools of cement at each end of the bridge. The Messina Strait Bridge will have two 54,100-ton towers, which will support most of the bridge’s load. The beefy cables of the bridge, each 1.2 meter in diameter, will hold up the longest 和 widest bridge deck ever built.
When construction begins on the Messina Strait Bridge in 2005, the first job will be to erect two 370 meter-tall steel towers, _____(3)_____ Getting these cables up will be something. It’s not just their length—totally 5.3 kilometers—but their weight. _____(4)_____
After lowering vertical “suspender” cables from the main cables, builders will erect a 60 meter-wide 54,630-ton steel roadway, or deck—wide enough to accommodate 12 lanes of traffic. The deck’s weight will pull down on the cables with a force of 70,500 tons. In return, the cables yank up against their firmly rooted anchors with a force of 139,000 tons—equivalent to the weight of about 100,000 cars. Those anchors are essential. _____(5)_____
A Some environmentalists are against the project on biological grounds.
B What do the world’s longest bridges have in common?
C If true, one day you might spy the beast while zipping (呼啸而过) across the Messina Strait Bridge.
D They’re what will keep the bridge from going anywhere.
E The second job will be to pull two sets of steel cables across the strait, each set being a bundle of 44,352 individual steel wires.
F They will tip up the scales at 166,500 tons—more than half the bridge’s total mass.
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