World News for Students of English

13-07-2016 15:00

A delighted-looking man rings a huge bell – it can only be the opening of the ninth biennial world choir games. Thousands of choral singing fans have flocked to the Black Sea resort of Sochi for what’s known as the Olympics of choral music where choirs from around the globe face off in a war of harmonies.

Running until July 16th, the games will see 283 choirs take part with a total of 12,000 participants from 36 countries. Offering everything from synchronised dance, dramatic solo performances, and mass choir ensembles, the crowds are loving it already. There’s even been a Mexican wave of sorts.

Founded in the year 2000, the competition includes 29 categories of performance with countries such as Spain and Sweden, Afghanistan, Israel and Iraq taking part under the theme of togetherness and choirs, obviously.

Difficult words: huge (very big), biennial (taking place every other year), flock (come), harmonies (the combination of musical notes sounded at once to produce a nice effect), ensembles (a group of musicians), of sorts (of an unusual kind), found ( start something).

Source: www.ondemandnews.com