Cultural Notes：

Inside View

1. The West End is the area of central London which has many tourist attractions: For entertainment there are many  theatres, musical shows, cinemas and clubs around Leicester Square and Covent Garden. For shopping there are many large stores and fashionable shops in Oxford Street, Regent Street and Bond Street. There are also major art galleries and museums nearby – and the restaurants and shops of Chinatown near Leicester Square. The name, West End, Originated when it was west of the historic Roman and Medievalcity of London.

2. George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), an Irish playwright whomoved to London, was a witty, provocative and prolific writer. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925. His most popular play, Pygmalion (1912–1913), is a comedy which attacked conventional ideas about socialclass: The story is about a girl, Eliza, with a Cockney accent, whom Professor Higgins, a phonetician, bets he can pass off as a lady in society if he can teach her to change her accent. It was adapted for a Broadway musical, My Fair Lady (1956) and then adapted for the Oscar-winning 1964 musical film version of My Fair Lady.

3.  The Hippodrome is a theatre in Leicester Square in the West End of London, just round the corner from Chinatown.

4. La Clique is a very successful live show which combines a succession of different acts of skill, danger, comedy, and songs.The London show in 2008 followed performances in Edinburgh, New York, Montreal, Melbourne and elsewhere.

5. A high wire is a wire which is stretched high above an audience so that a tight-rope walker or high wire artist or aerial performer can balance, walk and perform tricks highup in the air.

6. A sword swallower is an entertainer who carefully puts a sword down inside their throat — a dangerous and skilful act. The same person may be a fire-eater who does tricks with fire, including putting burning sticks in their mouth or breathing out fire.

7. A rubber man / woman—also known as a contortionist — is someone who twists their body into unusual shapes or positions, as a way of entertaining people.

8.  A racquet/ racket is an object used for hitting the ball through the air in sports such as tennis. It has a long handle and a round part with strings. In La Clique, the strings of a tennis racquet have been removed so that the rubber man can pass his whole body through the frame of the racquet.

9. Family entertainment is a show, film or programme that is thought to be suitable for all the family, including children. Adult entertainment, in contrast, is thought to be suitable only for adults, not for children, usually because it is about sex or contains violence (eg an adult movie).

10. To keep an eye on something is to look after or take care of something (or someone).

11. A take here is a section of a film or TV programme that is recorded without stopping, so another take is another attempt to make abetter recording.

12. From the top means to do an activity from the beginning, especially a performance of something, eg take it from the top in music means to start from the top of the page.