P1
1. amphitheatres: roofless building with rows of seats on a slope that completely surrounds and rises above a central circular area.
2. The Chicago Amphitheater was packed, sweltering, rocking.
amphitheater: an unroofed theater with rising tiers of seats around an open space
packed: crowded with people
sweltering: literally it means “being oppressively hot” because there were too many people. But it really refers to the fervent atmosphere created by the zealous people.
rocking: the theater was shaking because many people were doing rock-and-roll to the music.
3. onstage: in this kind of outdoor performances, the stage is a raised platform installed somewhere in the middle of the open space (the arena)
4. rambler: person who walks from place to place for enjoyment
5. critic Don Heckman: this would normally be read as “Don Heckman, a critic…” To use words like “critic” as titles is typically journalistic. Other examples in question are “fan Chris Singer” and “sociologist Irving Horowitz”.
6. surge: wave, rush, move, flood, swell (be very much excited)
7. baptismal: sprinkling, of Christian sacrament; holy sprinkling sarcastic analogy)
P2
1. crunch: make or produce a crushing sound; rush up to …in a noisy way
2. were crunching up to the front: were crowding up noisily to the front
3. ghoul: spirit that takes dead bodies from the grave and eat them
4. America’s singing ghoul: this inserted comment by the author obviously represents the attitudes of American adults towards Alice Cooper. To them he was a horrible singer with weird and loathsome tastes and habits.
5. guillotine: machine used for cutting the head of some one (in France)
6. stand: support, be in favor of; endure, remain intact, tolerate, withstand, suffer
7. stuff: nonsense, stuff and nonsense, rubbish, foolishness, trash
P3
1. Uniondale, New York: a suburban community on Long Island, New York
2. tune up: to play a few notes to see if an instrument is in tune
3. pilgrimage: a journey made to visit a place of one’s personal respect (or a religious holy place)
4. a pilgrimage: a journey made to some sacred place to show religious devotion. It is a feature of many religions. Moslems make pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, the birth place of their prophet Mohammed. Jews make an annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem, so do Christians. They both consider Jerusalem their holy city. People who go on a pilgrimage are called pilgrims.