2. Complete with the words below.

album beat disc-jockey hit juke-box tune LP lyric single sleeves tempo

1. A ……. plays records in discotheques.

2. A small record is called a ……. .

3. A large record is called a(n) ……. .

4. Records are kept in ……. to preserve them from dust.

5. A long-playing record by a pop group is a(an) ……. .

6. In a pub records are played on a ……. .

7. The rhythm of the music is called the ……. .

8. The words of a song are called the ……. .

9. The melody of the song is the ……. .

10. The speed of the music is the ……. .

11. A song which is a great success is a ……. .

3. Read, translate and retell the text. Freddie Mercury

Nothing about Freddie Mercury was ordinary. He was born Frederick Bulsara on September 5^th 1946, in Zanzibar, the large island off the coast of Africa. His father was of Persian descent. Part of his childhood was spent in comfortable surroundings in India, where he attended boarding school. These were the exotic beginnings of an exotic life.

When Freddie was thirteen, the family moved to England, and in the sixties he went to art college in London. For a while, he was studying design and running his own clothes stall in a market at the same time. He was helped by a friend, Rodger Taylor, who also played drums in a band called Smile.

Freddie used to watch the band’s concerts, but he told Rodger and guitarist Brian May that they were wasting their time. He thought their group lacked visual impact and showmanship. These qualities were never a problem for Freddie and in 1970, when Smile split up, he invited Roger and Brian to join him in a new group, for which he suggested the name Queen. He acquired his own new name as well – Freddie Mercury. A bass-player, John Deacon, was brought in through a newspaper advertisement.

The formula worked well. The group created a sound like no other, with their combination of heavy rock energy and complex vocal harmonies. Mercury was not only their singer and pianist? But one of the group’s main songwriters and his love of opera made its presence felt. It was his song ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ that became the most famous of the group’s releases. The single was at number one in Britain for nine weeks in 1975. In 1976, all four of the group’s albums were in the top thirty of the British charts at the same time.

Queen continued to be popular well into the eighties. They played many stadium concerts. In 1986 Queen’s last tour included a concert in front of 80, 000 Hungarian fans in Budapest. But only a year later, rumours began to circulate that Freddie Mercury was HIV positive – that is, he had the virus responsible for Aids.

At first, Freddie denied this. He threw a gigantic birthday party, hiring a jet to take eighty of his friends to Spain. The celebrations included flamenco dancers, a fireworks display which flashed his name in lights across the sky, and a six-metre birthday cake.

But in the year that followed, Freddie lived a quieter, more secluded life. In 1990, he went into the studio with Queen, to record their last album, Innuendo. In early 1991, it entered the charts at number one. In the autumn, the group’s last single was released, and from he title and lyrics, ‘The Show Must Go On’ was obviously a good bye song. Freddie Mercury died of Aids on November 24^th 1991. He was forty-five.