41. This passage is about ____.
(A) Jazz in general and one specific type of jazz
(B) The various sources of jazz
(C) The life of Scott Joplin
(D) The major characteristics of jazz

American jazz is a conglomeration of sounds borrowed from such varied sources as American and African folk music, European classical music, and Christian gospel songs.

-->講American jazz的由來

One of the recognizable characteristics of jazz is its use of improvisation: certain parts of the music are written out and played the same way by various performers, and other improvised parts are created spontaneously during a performance and vary widely from performer to performer.

-->講jazz的一種特性：improvisation (即興演奏)

The earliest form of jazz was ragtime, lively songs or rags performed on the piano, and the best-known of the ragtime performers and composers was Scott Joplin. 

-->講jazz最早出現的形式：ragtime，及ragtime最有名的演奏家 

-->(A) Jazz in general and one specific type of jazz

American jazz is a conglomeration of sounds borrowed from such varied sources as American and African folk music, European classical music, and Christian gospel songs. One of the recognizable characteristics of jazz is its use of improvisation: certain parts of the music are written out and played the same way by various performers, and other improvised parts are created spontaneously during a performance and vary widely from performer to performer. The earliest form of jazz was ragtime, lively songs or rags performed on the piano, and the best-known of the ragtime performers and composers was Scott Joplin. Born in 1868 to former slaves, Scott Joplin earned his living from a very early age playing the piano in bars along the Mississippi. One of his regular jobs was in the Maple Leaf Club in Sedalia, Missouri. It was there that he began writing the more than 500 compositions that he was to produce, the most famous of which was “The Maple Leaf Rag.”

*conglomeration聚集物；混合體
a large group or mass of different things all collected together in an untidy or unusual way
There was a strange conglomeration of objects on the mantelpiece.

*gospel福音

*improvisation（演員）即興表演；（音樂家）即興創作
a performance that an actor, musician, etc. has not practised or planned
There are classes in movement, dance, and improvisation.
 *spontaneously自發的
in a way that is natural, often sudden, and not planned or forced
This story may prompt you to burst spontaneously into uncontrollable sobs.

*ragtime拉格泰姆音樂