Some things belong to the unexplained mysteries of life. They are often inconvenient, frequently useless, (1) ___ boring, yet we are called (2) ___ to admire them just because they are there. Among these mysteries I have always (3) ___ Grand Opera. On the rare occasions (4) ___ I have been obliged to attend such performances, (5) ___ has always seemed strange to me that an otherwise (6)___ person who, for example, wants an urgent message (7) ___, should find it necessary to make his (8) ___ in song at the top of his (9) ___. In fact it often takes five minutes or so (10) ___ a message of this sort is properly understood by the person who is to (11) ___ it. A simple statement such as, "Please tell the Countless I (12) ___ for her by the fountain at midnight," would not take five seconds to say. Even more strange is the behaviour of persons taken prisoner in Grand Opera. A supposedly dangerous spy, or (13) ___ like, will keep his guards calmly waiting, even joining in (14) ___ chorus, while he indulges in an aria which (15) ___ has little or nothing to do with the plot. It doesn't stop there. (16) ___ in Gail, prisoners, particularly those who have been wrongly imprisoned, are given to singing arias in voices of (17) ___ power that it is a wonder the other prisoners do not complain, and even more surprising that the guards do not arrive to see what all the noise about. Most peculiar of all, however, is the conduct of heroines, (18) ___ dying or about to commit suicide. Stabbed through the heart, preparing to drink poison or leap from castle walls, these ladies can still announce in song their departure from this world (19) ___ effortlessly to top notes, even on occasion providing an encore for (20) ___ audiences.

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