Problem: Probably no other musical instrument is as popular as the guitar around the world. Musicians use the guitar for almost all kinds of music. Country and western music would not be the same without a guitar. The traditional Spanish folk music called Flamenco could not exist without a guitar. The sound of American blues music would not be the same without the sad cry of the guitar. And rock and roll music would almost be impossible without this instrument.

Music experts do not agree about where the guitar was first played. Most agree it is ancient. Some experts say an instrument very much like a guitar was played in Egypt more than 1,000 years ago. Most experts say that the ancestor of the modern guitar was brought to Spain from Persia sometime in the 12thcentury. The guitar continued to develop in Spain. In the 1700s it became similar to the instrument we know today.

Many famous musicians played the instrument. The famous Italian violins Niccole Paganism played and wrote music for the guitar in the early 1800s. Franz Schubert used the guitar to write some of his famous works. In modern times Spanish guitarist Andres Segovia helped make the instrument extremely popular.

In the 1930s, Les Paul began experimenting to make an electric guitar. He invented the solid-bodied electric guitar in 1946. The Gibson Guitar Company began producing its famous Les Paul Guitar in 1952. It became a powerful influence on popular music. The instrument has the same shape and the same six strings as the traditional guitar, but it sounds very different. Les Paul produced a series of extremely popular recordings that introduced the public to this music. Listen to this Les Paul recording. It was the fifth most popular song in the United States in 1952. It is called "Meet Mister Callaghan."
1. How popular is the guitar?
2. What kinds of music is it used in?
3. Do they know where the guitar first was played?
Answer: 1. Probably no other musical instrument is as popular
2. almost all kinds of music
3. no

Problem: Mosaic has a long history, starting in Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium BC. Pebble mosaics were made in Tiryns in Mycenean Greece; mosaics with patterns and pictures became widespread in classical times, both in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Early Christian basilicas from the 4th century onwards were decorated with wall and ceiling mosaics. Mosaic art flourished in the Byzantine Empire from the 6th to the 15th centuries; that tradition was adopted by the Norman kingdom in Sicily in the 12th century, by eastern-influenced Venice, and among the Rus in Ukraine. Mosaic fell out of fashion in the Renaissance, though artists like Raphael continued to practise the old technique. Roman and Byzantine influence led Jews to decorate 5th and 6th century synagogues in the Middle East with floor mosaics.

Bronze age pebble mosaics have been found at Tiryns; mosaics of the 4th century BC are found in the Macedonian palace-city of Aegae, and the 4th-century BC mosaic of The Beauty of Durres discovered in Durres, Albania in 1916, is an early figural example; the Greek figural style was mostly formed in the 3rd century BC. Mythological subjects, or scenes of hunting or other pursuits of the wealthy, were popular as the centrepieces of a larger geometric design, with strongly emphasized borders. Pliny the Elder mentions the artist Sosus of Pergamon by name, describing his mosaics of the food left on a floor after a feast and of a group of doves drinking from a bowl. Both of these themes were widely copied.
1. What is the starting date of Mosaic?
2. Where did it start?
3. Where have Bronze age pebble mosaics been located?
4. In what part of Greece were Pebble Mosaics made?
5. During what period did mosaic art flourish?
6. And what was the period's name?
7. What was the period between 6th to the 15th century named?
8. In which century were mosaics found in Macedonia ?
9. In what city?
10. At what location?
11. What was found in Durres?
12. When?
Answer: 1. the 3rd millennium BC.
2. Mesopotamia
3. in Tiryns
4. Mycenean
5. the 6th to the 15th centuries
6. unknown
7. during the Byzantine Empire
8. 4th century BC
9. Aegae
10. in the palace-city
11. The Beauty of Durres
12. 4th-century BC

Problem: Groups that emerged from the American psychedelic scene about the same time included Iron Butterfly, MC5, Blue Cheer and Vanilla Fudge. San Francisco band Blue Cheer released a crude and distorted cover of Eddie Cochran's classic "Summertime Blues", from their 1968 debut album Vincebus Eruptum, that outlined much of the later hard rock and heavy metal sound. The same month, Steppenwolf released its self-titled debut album, including "Born to Be Wild", which contained the first lyrical reference to heavy metal and helped popularise the style when it was used in the film Easy Rider (1969). Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (1968), with its 17-minute-long title track, using organs and with a lengthy drum solo, also prefigured later elements of the sound.

From outside the United Kingdom and the United States, the Canadian trio Rush released three distinctively hard rock albums in 197475 (Rush, Fly by Night and Caress of Steel) before moving toward a more progressive sound with the 1976 album 2112. The Irish band Thin Lizzy, which had formed in the late 1960s, made their most substantial commercial breakthrough in 1976 with the hard rock album Jailbreak and their worldwide hit "The Boys Are Back in Town", which reached number 8 in the UK and number 12 in the US. Their style, consisting of two duelling guitarists often playing leads in harmony, proved itself to be a large influence on later bands. They reached their commercial, and arguably their artistic peak with Black Rose: A Rock Legend (1979). The arrival of Scorpions from Germany marked the geographical expansion of the subgenre. Australian-formed AC/DC, with a stripped back, riff heavy and abrasive style that also appealed to the punk generation, began to gain international attention from 1976, culminating in the release of their multi-platinum albums Let There Be Rock (1977) and Highway to Hell (1979). Also influenced by a punk ethos were heavy metal bands like Motorhead, while Judas Priest abandoned the remaining elements of the blues in their music, further differentiating the hard rock and heavy metal styles and helping to create the New Wave of British Heavy Metal which was pursued by bands like Iron Maiden, Saxon and Venom.
1. how many Groups that emerged ?
2. what did blue cheer release ?
3. of what ?
4. whats is the name ?
5. was in in 1970 ?
6. what is the year ?
7. what is the ablum name ?
8. what did he release in the same month ?
9. who released it ?
10. what movie was it in ?
11. in 1970 ?
12. in what year ?
13. what was 17 mins long ?
14. in what year ?
15. what did it prefigured ?
16. how many alubums did the Canadian trio Rush put out ?
17. who gain international attention from 1976 ?
18. what was released in 1979 ?
19. who abandoned blues ?
20. when did lizzy form ?
Answer:
1. Four
2. crude and distorted cover
3. Eddie Cochran's classic
4. Summertime Blues
5. no
6. 1968
7. Vincebus Eruptum
8. Born to Be Wild
9. Steppenwolf
10. Easy Ride
11. no
12. 1969
13. Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
14. 1968
15. later elements of the sound
16. three
17. AC/DC
18. Highway to Hell
19. Judas Priest
20. late 1960s