130729144614 130729 witn sound of music for pdf elt

BBC Learning English
Words in the News

Sound of Music auction

29 July 2013

_____________________________________________________

Words in the News

Page 1 of 2

bbclearningenglish.com

A collection of costumes from the classic 1965 film, The Sound of Music, have sold for

$1.3m at an auction in California. They included the dress worn by the film's lead

character Maria, played by Julie Andrews, when she sang "Do Re Mi." Peter Bowes

reports for the BBC:

There was intense interest in the iconic costumes as they went under the hammer.

Potential buyers, gathered in a Los Angeles auction house, faced competition from

bidders on the phone and the internet.

The central piece was Maria's outfit, described by the auctioneers as "a heavy brown

homespun Austrian-style dress with a wheat-coloured homespun blouse." The floral

lederhosen worn by the Von Trapp children were also part of the collection. The identity

of the successful bidder has not been revealed.

The Sound of Music costumes were sold as part of a two-day auction of Hollywood

memorabilia. Other items included an original cane used by Charlie Chaplin in the

comedy Modern Times and, a month after his death, the clothes worn by James

Gandolfini in the final scene of the final episode of The Sopranos, sold for $22,000.

Words in the News

Page 2 of 2

bbclearningenglish.com

Vocabulary and definitions

intense

extreme

iconic

famous and well known

under the hammer

for sale at auction

bidders

people who offer to buy things at an auction

homespun

(here) traditional cloth made at home

lederhosen

shorts made of leather, traditionally worn by men in

alpine regions of Europe

revealed

made known to people / made public

memorabilia

objects that are collected because they belonged to

someone famous

Read and listen to the story and the vocabulary online: