Select the correct text in the passage.
Which two sentences in the excerpt suggest that Policles loved quality music?
The Contest
by Arthur Conan Doyle (adapted excerpt)
The blue-clad player struck several chords upon
bench and gazed :
his lyre, and then burst suddenly out into the "Ode of Niobe," and Policles sat straight up on his
the stage in amazement. The tune demanded a
rapid transition from a low note to a high, and had been purposely chosen for
this reason. The low note was a grunting, a rumble, the deep discordant growling of an
ill-conditioned dog. Then suddenly the singer threw up
face, straightened his figure, rose upon his tiptoes, and with wagging head and scarlet cheeks emitted a howl. All the while the
his
thrummed, sometimes in front of and sometimes behind the voice of the singer. But what amazed Policles most of all was the effect of this lyre twanged and all
performance upon the audience. Every Greek was a trained critic, and as unsparing in his hisses as he was lavish in his applause. Many t singer
far better than this absurd fop had been driven from the platform, but now, as the man stopped and wiped the abundant sweat from his face, the
for it was surely whole assembly burst into a delirium of appreciation. The shepherd held his hands to his bursting head and felt that hts reason must be leaving him, those
dreadful musical nightmare, and he would wake soon and laugh at the remembrance. But no, the figures were real, the faces were
of his neighbours, and the cheers which resounded in his ears were indeed from an audience which filled the theatre of Olympia.
The whole
chorus was in full blast, the hummers humming, the shouters bellowing, the tappers hard at work upon the benches, while every now and then came
a musical cyclone of "Incomparable! Divine!" from the trained phalanx who intoned their applause, their united voices sweeping over the tumult as
musical justice the drone of the wind dominates the roar of the sea. It was madness--insufferable madness! If this were allowed to pass, there was an end of all
Greece. Policles' conscience would not permit him to be still. Standing upon his bench with waving hands and up-raised voice, he
protested with all the strength of his lungs against the mad judgment of the audience.
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