It is acknowledged that the modem musical show is America's most original and dynamic cont

ribution toward theater. In the last quarter of 20th century, America has produced large 【21】______ of musical plays that have been popular abroad 【22】______ at home. 【23】______ , it is very difficult to explain 【24】______ is new or 【25】______ American about them, for the 【26】______ are centuries old.

Perhaps the uniqueness of America's contribution to the 【27】______ can best be characterized through brief descriptions of several of the most important and best-known musicals. One of these is surely Oklahoma by Richard Rogers and Oscar Hamerstein. It burst 【28】______ popularity in 1943. Broadway audience and critics were 【29】______ by its 【30】______ , vitality and excitement. This "new" type of musical was 【31】______ as kind of 【32】______ theater in which the play, the music and lyrics, the dancing, and the scenic background were assembled not merely to provide entertainment and 【33】______ , but to 【34】______ in a single unifying whole to contribute to its unique feature. 【35】______ , it meant that the songs and dances should 【36】______ naturally out of the situations of the story and play an important part in carrying the action 【37】______ . In Oklahoma, an American folk-dance style. was organically combined with classical ballet and modem dance. It is fight to say that the musical was a brilliantly integrated performance by the talented dancers and singing actors.

Oklahoma also marked a new 【38】______ in the choice of story on which a musical is based. Writers and composers began to abandon the sentimentally picturesque or aristocratic setting 【39】______ more realistic stories in authentic social and cultural 【40】______ Oklahoma was based on a "folk" whose story dealt not only with young love but also with the opening of the American West.

【21】

A．number

B．amount

C．quantity

D．numbers