Материал: bardinskaia_tr_angliiskii_iazyk_v_sfere_kulturologii

VIII. Choose the correct item.

1. Few questions provoke such ... (hot, heated, hearty) debate. 2. Works of art are appreciated for their... (intrinsic, inside, internal) value. 3. The earliest prehistoric art that we know was the ... (top, ceiling, culmination) of a long development. 4. The highest aspiration helps an artist to ... (make, create, do) a masterpiece. 5. We may say with assurance, that even today the artist may be called a... (wizard, nan, magician). 6. Artists regularly repeat symbols that can be regarded as ... (unique, universal, widespread). 7. Artistic creation based on the leaps of his imagination is too ... (subtle, thin, fragile).

IX. Learn some useful techniques for making up a dialogue. Read the following information about starting a conversation.

It is often difficult to make contact with strangers who speak another language. Unless, that is, you have a few opening gambits up your sleeve!

Here are some useful ways of starting a conversation with a stranger.

1.That a nice day, isn’t it? 2. Dreadful weather, don’t you think? 3. Excuse me, is anybody sitting here? 4. Excuse me, haven’t we met somewhere before? 5. Sorry, I couldn’t help overhearing - did you mention something about... ? 6. Excuse me, could you tell me the time? 7. Er, could you help me, I’m trying to find my way to...?

X. Use the expressions 1—7 mentioned above in the f ollowing dialogue.

A:(start with the “weather expression”).

B:It’s really wonderful, warm and sunny!

A:(ask if anybody sitting nearby).

B:Urn, no, no. I’ll just move my bag.

A:(thank a sitting person).

B:Oh, it’s my pleasure.

A:(ask if you met somewhere before).

B:If I’m not really sure. I am a home-sitter.

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A: (ask about the book the sitting person has).

B: It’s “The History of Art”. You see I am keen on studying arts.

A:(appreciate his / her choice and express your interest in arts).

B:Really! It’s fantastic! I mean most people like to visit museums, to enjoy art, not to study it.

A:(state that you are interested in studying arts, ask a permission to have a look at the book).

B:Here you are! I hope you’ll really enjoy it!

A: (express your gratitude and interest).

Make up your own dialogue using the expressions given in this exercise.

XI. Describe a masterpiece.

a)Speaking to the people try to show your own interest and use the exclamatory expressions.

1.Look here! It’s amazing!

2.How magnificent this piece of sculpture is!

3.What a vivid and lifelike picture it is!

4.Look at this incredible creation!

5.This exposition is fantastic!

6.It’s a fabulous place, isn’t it?

b)Use this brief information and describe the Hermitage with the help of exclamatory expressions.

The Hermitage

The Hermitage is the largest art museum in Russia and the second largest in the world. It occupies 5 buildings interconnected to each other: the Winter Palace (Rastrelli), the Small Hermitage (Vallen-de La Mothe), the Old or Large Hermitage (Velten), the Hermitage Theater (Quarenghi), the New Hermitage (Klentse).

The Winter Palace is a typical building of Russian Baroque style, decorated with

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mouldings and sculptures (176 sculptures and vases on the roof edge). The external decoration matches the beauty of interiors. Here one can see polished marble of various colours, lazuli, porphyry, jasper and the like, gilded carvings, bronze and crystal.

It contains about 3 000 000 exhibits. The works of art represent different ages, countries and peoples. There are a lot of pieces of sculpture, paintings, canvases and frescoes, castings, encrustations and other decorations.

XII. Check your memory.

1.What questions still provoke heated debates and why?

2.What is art for us?

3.What kind of object is art?

4.What is the definition of the word “aesthetic”?

5.What does art exist for?

6.Why are the precious examples of art are kept in museums and churches?

7.What man’s ability separates him from all other creatures?

8.How can a man use his imagination?

9.How long has a man been walking the earth?

10.How old are the first prehistoric pieces of art known to us? 11.Do you think that the art existed before?

12.Why cannot we trace the earliest art?

13.Who were the first artists?

14.What is a masterpiece?

15.What is art trying to say to us?

16.What gives the rise to the diversity of art?

17.Which trend of art is easier to understand: Realism or Impressionism?

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UNIT 1

THE OLD STONE AGE

Lead-in

1.Answer the questions.

1.Have you seen any films about prehistoric men?

2.Where did our prehistoric ancestors live?

3.How many statues of Venus can you name at a spot?

2.Discuss with your partner.

1.Objects of art are perishable, aren’t they?

2.Do you agree that only shamans with the help of primitive tools could make works of art?

3.Only objects that resembled people’s figures could be turned into figurines, couldn’t they?

It is during the last of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age, which began about 35 000 years ago, that we meet the earliest works of art known to us. Let’s remember where our ancestors lived. These men liked to live in caves or in the shelter of overhanging rocks wherever they could find them. Many such sites had been discovered, mostly in Spain and in the southwest France.

The most striking works of Paleolithic art are the images of animals, painted or sculpted, on the rock surfaces of caves, such as the wonderful “Wounded Bison” from the cave at Altamira in Spain. The dying animal has collapsed on the ground. We are amazed not only by the keen observation, the assured outlines, but even more by the power and dignity of this creature in its final agony.

Equally impressive are the painted animals in the cave at Lascaux in France. Bisons, deer, horses and cattle race across walls and ceilings. Some of them are simply outlined in black, others filled in with bright earth colours.

How did they survive over so many years? It’s easy to answer: the pictures never occur near the mouth of a cave, but only in the darkest places as far from the entrance as possible. Some can be reached only by crawling on hands and knees. Hidden away as they are these images must have served a purpose far more serious

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than simple decorations. No doubt, they were produced as part of a magic ritual, perhaps to ensure a successful hunt.

Apart from cave art the man of the Upper Paleolithic also produced small handsized carvings in bone, horn or stone, skillfully cut by means of the primitive tools. The earliest of these found are small figures of mammoth ivory from a cave in southwestern Germany made 30 000 years ago. They are graceful and harmonious. We should say they must be fruit of an artistic tradition.

Some of these carvings suggest that the objects may have originated with some chance resemblance. At an earlier stage, it seems, Stone Age men collected pebbles in which natural shape they could see something or somebody.

Thus, the so-called “Venus of Willendorf” in Austri a is one of many such female fertility figurines. We are amazed by natural roundness of her forms; her navel - the central point of the design is a natural cavity in the stone. It is exposed now in the Museum of Natural History, in Vienna.

EXERCISES

I. Enlarge your vocabulary.

Try to remember correct pronunciation of the new words.