lexandra Kloss

BBC Learning¹ EnglishPeople and PlacesAlexandra KlossSIG
William: Hello and welcome to People and Places, theprogramme from BBC LearningEnglish that introduces you to interesting people from aroundthe world.
　　TAGToday you're going to meet a very talented young musician,Alexandra Kloss.
　　Alexandra is living in London and studying at the prestigiousRoyal Academy² of Music. You’re going to listen to Alex talkabout her life and as you listen I want you to try to answerfour questions. You can see these questions on the People andPlaces webpage on bbclearningenglish dot com. But I’ll alsotell them to you now.
　　OK? Here are your four questions.
　　Number one – what instrument does Alexandra play?
　　CLIPThat was a hint³!
　　Number two – What languages does Alexandra speak?
　　Number three – What project has she been involved in, at theRoyal Academy of Music?
　　And, last one, number four – What kinds of music can oneplay on Alex’s instrument?
　　Right – I’ll shut up now, but at the end of the programme I’ll come back to tell you the answers…STINGAlexandra: My name is Alexandra Kloss, I’m fromGermany, I’m twenty years old, and since September last yearI’ve been studying at the Royal Academy of Musicin London… and I’m playing the recorder in the Early MusicDepartment there.
　　Fantasia no. 7 (G.P. Telemann)I’m actually half-German and half-Russian, so my mothercomes from StPetersburg and my father comes from Germany. So I speak bothlanguages… English is also my first foreign language.
　　Somehow, my two mother languages, they help me becausesomehow I understand the languages a bit, yeah, easier. Butmaybe also because German is so… yeah, so similar toEnglish.
　　Sonata⁴ no. 1 (F. Mancini)The Royal Academy is really a nice place. There are manydifferent peoplethere and different cultures, so, yeah, people fromeverywhere. And um, we’ve got loads of projects. First ofall, I’ve been involved in a very interesting project, um,with Baroque dance, where um, the students of the RoyalAcademy, we had to dance in costumes and play. And it was avery nice experience to dance in the costumes. Yeah, they arevery beautiful, but also very uncomfortable, to be honest!
　　Sonata no. 1 (F. Mancini)For a very long time, recorder was just an instrument forchildren or forschools to use it for the music lessons, but um, it’s not aninstrument like that, there are loads of different models ofrecorders, and there is, in fact, loads of music for it: allthe Baroque period, Renaissance⁵, Medieval⁶ stuff⁷ and now alsolots of modern music is composed for recorder. So, I think,yeah, it's getting better again…Sonata no. 1 (F. Mancini)STINGWilliam: That was words and music from AlexandraKloss. She was playing one of thetwelve Fantasias by GP Telemann, and then at the end, F.
　　Mancini’s first Sonata… and she was playing them on therecorder, which was the answer to the first question.
　　How about the second question – what languages can Alexandraspeak? Well, she is bilingual in Russian and German, becauseher mother comes from Russia and her father from Germany. Ofcourse, she can also speak English, which she calls her‘first foreign language’!
　　Question three: What project was Alexandra involved in? Well,she said shehad to dance wearing costumes, so, clothes, from the Baroqueperiod… and she had to play the recorder at the same time!
　　The Baroque period, by the way, was from around 1600 toaround 1750.
　　And, the last question - What music can be played on therecorder? - Alexandra said that there was loads of music forit, including Baroque music, Renaissancemusic and Medieval music. In addition, Alexandra says, lotsof modern musicis composed for the recorder… although I don’t think she’stalking about U2 orColdplay! Goodbye!
　　The Nightingale in Love (Fran?ois Couperin)

1 learning   

n.学问，学识，学习；动词learn的现在分词

参考例句：

• When you are learning to ride a bicycle,you often fall off.初学骑自行车时，常会从车上掉下来。
• Learning languages isn't just a matter of remembering words.学习语言不仅仅是记些单词的事。

2 academy   

n.(高等)专科院校；学术社团，协会，研究院

参考例句：

• This is an academy of music.这是一所音乐专科学院。
• I visited Chinese Academy of Sciences yesterday.我昨天去访问了中国科学院。

3 hint   

n.暗示，示意；[pl]建议；线索，迹象；v.暗示

参考例句：

• He gave me a hint that I was being cheated.他暗示我在受人欺骗。
• He quickly took the hint.一点他就明白了。

4 sonata   

n.奏鸣曲

参考例句：

• He played a piano sonata of his own composition.他弹奏了一首自作的钢琴奏鸣曲。
• The young boy played the violin sonata masterfully.那个小男孩的小提琴奏鸣曲拉得很熟练。

5 renaissance   

n.复活，复兴，文艺复兴

参考例句：

• The Renaissance was an epoch of unparalleled cultural achievement.文艺复兴是一个文化上取得空前成就的时代。
• The theme of the conference is renaissance Europe.大会的主题是文艺复兴时期的欧洲。

6 medieval   

adj.中世纪的，中古（时代）的

参考例句：

• This is a medieval story.这是一个中世纪的故事。
• The museum has a fine collection of medieval ivories.该博物馆收藏着一批精美的中世纪象牙制品。

7 stuff   

n.原料，材料，东西；vt.填满；吃饱

参考例句：

• We could supply you with the stuff in the raw tomorrow.明天我们可以供应你原材料。
• He is not the stuff.他不是这个材料。