Arakin 4 kurs new 001 176. indd

COMMENTARY
1. 
Ragtime
: the form of music, song and dance of black US origin, 
popular in the 1920’s in which the strong note of the tune comes just 
before the main beat of the music played with it (sincopation)
2. 
A new model T-Ford
: the model T-Ford, of which 15 million were 
sold, was the automobile that changed the pattern of life in the United 
States. It first appeared in 1908 and was one of the first cars to be made 
by assembly line methods and was the first gasoline-operated car sold 
at a price that many Americans could afford. The name of its builder, 
Henry Ford, became a household word around the world.
3. 
Theodore Roosevelt
: (1858—1919), twenty-sixth president of 
the United States of America (1901—1909)
4. 
Manhattan
: one of the five boroughs that make up New York 
City. It has a reputation as the cultural centre of the nation.
5. 
Wall Street
: a street in New York City, extending from Broadway 
to the East River, financial center of the United States
6. 
Scott Joplin
: (1868—1917), American composer of ragtime 
music, who was known as the “King of Ragtime”. The son of a railroad 
laborer who had been a slave, Joplin showed musical ability by the 
time he was seven. He taught himself to play the piano and eventu-
ally became an itinerant musician, playing in cafes and honky-tonks 
and learning the music of the blacks in the Mississippi Valley.
7. 
Carrie Jacobs Bond
: (1862—1946), songwriter, author of about 
170 published songs, including
“I Love You Truly” and “The End of a Perfect Day”

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8. 
coon songs
: White American Negro (Black) folksongs
9. 
minstrel show
: stage entertainment featuring comic dialogue, 
song and dance, in highly conventionalized patterns. Performed by a 
group of actors in blackface comprising of an interlocutor, two end 
men, and a chorus; developed in the United States in the early and 
mid-19th century.