КУЛЬТУРА И ОБЩЕСТВО
учебно-методическое пособие по английскому языку по теме

Федеральное агентство по образованию РФ

Государственное образовательное учреждение высшего

профессионального образования

 «Мурманский государственный педагогический университет»

CULTURE AND SOCIETY

Пособие по английскому языку для студентов старших курсов,

обучающихся по сокращённой программе.

Мурманск

2007

Рецензенты: Е.А. Беличенко, канд. филол. н., доцент, зав. кафедрой английской филологии (МГПУ),

                         Н.А. Музычук, канд. филол. н., доцент, зав. кафедрой филологии Мурманского гуманитарного института.

Составители: О.В. Путистина, старший преподаватель кафедры английской филологии (МГПУ),

                           Е.Е. Селиванова.

Culture and Society.  Пособие по английскому языку для студентов старших курсов, обучающихся по сокращённой программе. – Мурманск: МГПУ, 2007. – с.

Данное учебное пособие по английскому языку предназначено для использования на занятиях по практике устной и письменной речи на старших курсах, обучающихся по специальности «Иностранный язык» по сокращённой программе.

Пособие охватывает следующие культурные и социальные темы: «Кино», «Театр», «Музыка», «Живопись», «Средства массовой информации», «Проблемы семьи и молодёжи», «Защита окружающей среды».

ISBN                                             © Мурманский государственный

педагогический университет (МГПУ), 2007

Предисловие

Учебное пособие «Culture and Society» предназначено для использования преподавателями и студентами, обучающимися по специальности «Иностранный язык» по сокращённой программе, на практических занятиях по английскому языку.  Пособие ориентировано на студентов и преподавателей, у которых родным языком или языком-посредником является русский язык.

Учебное пособие выполнено в русле межкультурного подхода к изучению иностранного языка и охватывает различные стороны культурной и социальной жизни, что позволяет студентам наряду с усвоением обширного лексического материала по изучаемым темам приобрести знания по культуре и социальным явлениям в Великобритании, США и России.  Тексты, упражнения и задания, представленные в учебном пособии, нацелены на комплексное развитие у студентов навыков и умений, необходимых для успешного осуществления межкультурного общения по предложенным в пособии культурным и социальным темам.

В связи с тем, что пособие ориентировано на студентов, обучающихся по сокращённой программе, в рамках которой значительная часть материала предназначена для самостоятельного изучения, в пособии в рамках каждой темы широко представлены задания для самостоятельной работы студентов в разделе “On Your Own”, даны ссылки на аутентичные печатные и электронные источники.

Учебное пособие включает в себя 7 тем, каждая из которых представлена несколькими уроками.  Каждый урок пособия состоит из вводной части (Lead-in), лексического раздела (Vocabulary), раздела, направленного на развитие навыков чтения и говорения (Reading & Speaking) и раздела для самостоятельной работы (On Your Own).

Структура пособия даёт возможность преподавателям варьировать использование материала в рамках одной темы во время аудиторных занятий, а студентам возможность использовать пособие для самостоятельной подготовки дома.

Данное учебное пособие может оказаться интересным и полезным не только преподавателям и студентам, обучающихся по специальности «Иностранный язык» по сокращённой программе, но и аспирантам, а также студентам вузов, изучающим английский язык как дополнительную специальность.

Topic: Cinema.

Unit 1.

Cinema and Art.

I. Lead-in.

1. How often do you go to the cinema?  Do you like going to the cinema?
2. Where do you prefer to sit in the cinema?
3. Have you ever been to an open-air cinema? If yes, when and where?
4. Do you like to spend you free time watching films?  Do you prefer to go to the cinema or stay at home at watch film on  DVDs?
5. Can you imagine your life without cinema? watching films?

Il.Vocabulary.

  Arrange the words and  phrases of the Topical Vocabulary given below under the following categories:

To portray a character, to give a
convincing (memorable, captivating, warm, brilliant, superb) portrayal
of... , to give a magnificent performance as ... (in), to take (gain) the
best actress (actor) award (title), to be dubbed in Russian, movie, popular scientific (or science)
film, feature film, science fiction film, animated cartoon, adventure film,
musical, puppet film, thriller, comedy, horror film, crime film,
children's film, theatrical film, wide-screen, colour (black-and-white,
mute, sound, dubbed, full-length, short-length) film; short, two (three)
part film, wartime epic, newsreel, serial, "X" film, star-studded film, the
screen version (adaptation) of the novel, scene, outdoor (indoor) scene, the opening scene,
the final scene, crowd scene, still, shot, long shot, close-up,
caption, subtitle, flash-back(s),  open-air theatre, drive-in-theatre, to mar a film; to leave smb. cold; to co-star, to shoot-shot-shot- (produce, make) a film, to make a screen
version (adaptation) of a novel, to screen a novel (play, story), to adapt a
novel for the screen, to film a novel, to play (act) on the screen, to
release a picture, film goers, audience, to watch the film, a comedian, an actor of great promise, to come out (about a film), to
remake a film, a (motion) picture, wide (large, broad)
screen, entrance (exit), showing
(performance, programme) begins at ... (ends at...), colour poster, the
box office, to book tickets, a documentary, a leading actor, star, to play the main (leading, title, key) or small
(supporting, minor) role, to outshine everybody else, to star
in a role, to be miscast (ill-chosen), to be cast to advantage, the film deals with (depicts, presents, tells), the   message   of  the   film;   to   win   universal   acclaim; to leave a deep and lasting impression on; to appeal so
much to the audience; to be (make) a hit with the public; a delightful,
amusing comedy; entertaining (powerful, gripping, absorbing, vividly
dramatic, technically brilliant, sad, depressing, slow-moving, dragged-
out) film; co-production (joint production), directed by.... scenery
and costumes by.... the songs set to music by...., producer, film director, art director, camera
man, script-writer, animator, costume designer, make-up artist, to create a true-to-life image, to make the most of the role, to bring to life on the screen, empty of serious content; a
flop; a film not without flaws; a run-of-the-mill film; not a film to
everyone's taste; not an easy film to watch; obscure and complex ideas.

3. Reading and Speaking.

   a) Read the following text. Comment on the meaning of the words in bold.

IS CINEMA A KIND OF ART?

By Eisenstein S. M.

Again and again will all the advantages of the cinema flash out if we can picture the arts arranged according to the degree in which they are adapted to their chief task- the reflection of reality and the master of this reality— man.

How narrow is the diapason of sculpture which in most cases is obliged to tear man from his inseparable environment and society in order to hint — by his features and posture — at his inner world which is a mirror of the world around him. A diapason bereft of word, colour, movement, the changing phases of drama and progressive unfolding of events.

How frustrated have been those efforts by composers — Richard Strauss in particular — to burden music with the task of conveying specific images.

How bound is literature, capable of penetrating into the most subtle coils of man's consciousness, as well as into the movement of events and epochs, but can only hint at that amplitude of the senses, called for by every line and every page.

How imperfect and limited, too, is the theatre in this respect! Only by external "physical action" and behaviour is it able to convey to the spectator the inner content, the inner movement of consciousness and feelings, the inner world in which live the characters and the author himself...

The full embrace of the whole inner world of man, of a whole reproduction of the outer world cannot be achieved by anyone of them.

Where the "previous arts" have failed to achieve this, the cinema will succeed.

b) Complete the following task:

• Study the text and single out the main idea of the author. Find the
  major argument by which the author supports his statement.
• Consider all the arts mentioned by the author. Pick out the arguments
  by which the author proves that they are limited and imperfect as compared to cinema.
• Do you consider cinema a kind of art or a form of entertainment?  Explain your attitude.  What are the functions of cinema?
• What role does cinema play in your life?  What effect do different films have on your emotional state/ education? Which kinds of films do you choose for different purposes?  Do you usually watch alone or with other people?  
• You may use the phrases from the box.

IV. On Your Own.

   Do you agree with the following quotes?  Why/Why not?  Get ready to discuss your ideas with your groupmates.

1) "Why should people go out and pay money to see bad films when
they can stay at home and see bad television for nothing?" S. Goldwyn.

2) "I am a great friend to public amusements, for they keep people
from vice." S. Johnson.

3) "The real character of a man is found out by his amusements."
J. Reynoldys.

Unit 2.

History of Cinema.

I. Lead-in.

Which of the questions below on the history of cinema can you answer now? At the end of this unit return to these questions and make sure you can answer all of them.

1) Who and when invented the first machine that allowed to show moving pictures?

2) When was the first film shown to the audience on the wide screen?  

3) What was the name of the first film?

4) Where did the first public showing of the film take place?

5) Who are considered to be the “fathers” of cinematography?  Why?

6) How long were the first films?  

7) What stars of the “silent” films do you know?

8) When did the first  films with sound appear?  What was the first film with sound?

9) When did the first colour films appear?

10) What are the names of the first film studios?

II. Vocabulary.

1. Give English equivalents of the Russian in brackets.

1. (Экранизация) of the novel "War and Peace" a great success with (зрителей). 2. It takes a lot of time (дублировать фильм). 3. The work of the (оператора) was excellent. 4. Many (звезды) were in the cast. 5. The film (идет) at the Aurora. 6. Very much depends on the (постановщика) of the film. 7. It's a very old film, it's not dubbed, it's (с титрами). 8. Where can I check up the time of the (сеанса)? 9. (Научно-популярные) films can be very interesting.

b) Translate into English using the Topical Vocabulary.

1) Этот фильм совместного производства Италии и Великобритании был выпущен на экраны в 1999 году и завоевал всеобщее признание.

2) На церемонии вручения «Оскара» Мел Гибсон получил награду за лучшую мужскую  роль, сыграв в фильме «Храброе сердце».

3) Часто иностранные фильмы дублирую самые знаменитые российские актеры.

4) Экранизация фильма «Унесённые ветром» завоевала всеобщее признание.

5) Успех фильма зависит не только от работы режиссера и актёров, но и от профессионализма и таланта оператора, гримёра и сценариста.

6) Кто выиграл в номинации за лучшую женскую роль в этом году?

7) Фильм потряс меня захватывающей идеей, блестящими спецэффектами и удачным подбором актёров.

8) Звезда немого кино Чарли Чаплин так убедительно изображал своих персонажей на экране, что и сейчас мало кто из актёров может затмит его талант.

9) Американская кинокомпания «Юниверсал» ежегодно выпускает сотни комедий, триллеров, детективов и приключенческих фильмов.

10) Документальные фильмы в нашей стране не так популярны, как художественные.

III. Reading and Speaking.

a) Before reading the text look at the underlined proper names in it and say which of them are familiar to you.  What are these people famous for?  Then read the text and check your answers.  

HISTORY OF CINEMA

Cinema came into existence more than a hundred years ago and still remains one of the most popular public entertainments.  

In the early 19th century scientists took note of a visual phenomenon: a sequence of individual still pictures, when set in motion, can give the illusion of movement.  So, in 1877 English inventor Eadweard Muybridge discovered a way to take photos very quickly, one after the other.  Eleven years later an American called George Eastman produced the first celluloid film on a roll.  By 1890 it was possible to take up to 40 photos per second.

One of the first cinema films was made by Thomas Edison who invented the “kinetoscope”. But the intervals between his photographic-exposures were too short -about forty-eight photographs taken (and shown) to the second. The human eye could not see them so fast and the movements therefore appeared very jerky. This made the eyes tired.  The kinetoscope was also noisy, the pictures it produced were very low quality and only one person could watch a kinetoscope at a time.

When Edison's machine was brought to France to show
films, it was seen there by Auguste and Louis Lumiere, two brothers from the city of Lyons. These
two brothers soon made a camera and projector that worked at
about 16 photographs per second. This reduced jerkiness
very much, and in December 1895 in a Paris cafe the Lumiere brothers gave
the world's first real cinematograph show. Their film was called
”The. Arrival of a Train at a Station”. The film was so good that
some of the audience almost expected the train to rush out at
them from the screen.        

In 1903 one of Edison's cameramen made a new long picture. It was called "The Life of an American Fireman". People liked it and asked for more; and so more films of this kind were made.  

More cinemas were built. These first films were shot, they ran no longer than 10 to 12 minutes, and they had no sound. When it was necessary, printed words were thrown on the screen to explain what was happening or what people were saying. Usually music was played during the showing of a film. If the film was showing moonlight on the sea, the music was gentle and sweet. If there was a fight or a storm, the music was loud and noisy.  This was “the silent era” which made movie-making a successful new industry with the establishment of Hollywood in 1912 in California.  This was the era of Charlie Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino, Clara Bow, Douglas Fairbanks and Buster Keaton.

Recorded sound ended the silent era in 1927.  That’s when Al Jolson both spoke and sang in “The Jazz Singer”.  The impact on cinema goers was enormous.  They loved “The Jazz Singer” and demanded more and more talking pictures.  Only 31 years after the Lumieres’ first film-show, modern movies had arrived.

In 1932 Technicolour arrived.  Coming only five years after the sound revolution it made cinema more popular than ever.  So popular, in fact, that the next 20 years  are often called Hollywood’s “golden age”.  In the 30s and 40s, millions queued every week to see films produced by the top studios.  These included Paramount, RKO, Warner Brothers and – most successful of all – Metro Goldwyn Mayer.  Run by Louis B Mayer, MGM’s motto was “more stars than there are in heaven”.  During the 30s and 40s, MGM’s family included The Marx Brothers, Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Spencer Tracy, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly.  It was an impressive list, but only one of several.  All the other “dream factories” had stables of top box office names, too.  In fact, competition was an important part of Hollywood’s success.  After 1948, though, movie tycoons like Louis B Mayer began to face another kind of competition.

It was America’s TV revolution which began in the years following World War Two.  These days, though, cinema and television live side-by-side.  Modern films usually have three lives instead of one.  First, they appear in the cinema, then on DVDs, and finally they are shown n TV.

b) Complete the following chart on the history of cinema.

c) Look back at the questions in the “Lead-in” and make sure you now can answer all of them.    

d) Discuss the following questions with your group.

1) Have you ever watched silent or black and white films?  

2) Are you fond of watching silent or black and white films? Why/why not?

3) Have you ever watched modern black and white films that are often shown at cinema festivals? 4) Why do you think today  some modern film makers and directors like shooting black and white films?  

 4. On Your Own.

    Prepare a short report on one of the outstanding actors of the silent era.  Talk about his biography, career, the films he starred in, his most prominent roles.

Unit 3.

Cinema Preferences.

I. Lead-in.

a) What kinds of films appeal to you most?  Explain your preferences.

b) What is your favourite film? What is it about?

c) Who is your favourite actor/actress?

d) What do you like better: watching a screen adaptation of a famous
novel or reading the novel itself? Give your reasoning.

II. Vocabulary.

Read the text below.  Use the words in brackets to form a word that fits in the space.

MAKING AN ALTERNATIVE SCENE

An underground film is a motion picture made and distributed outside the commercial film industry, usually as a (create) expression of its maker.  Underground films display greater (free) in form, technique, and content than films directed towards a mass audience.  The term came into common use in the 1950s, when the greater (available) of good-quality 16-millimetre film stock and (equip) permitted an increasing number of non professionals to engage in cinema art.  The term was also (apply) to earlier films that were considered too (experiment) for the general public.  As opposed to a high-budget film maker, the underground film maker (ordinary) uses such production methods as filming with a 16-millimetre or 8-millimetre camera, which are quite (expense).  The film vary (consider) in length.  Robert Breer’s “A Miracle” (1954) is 14 seconds long while Andy Warhol’s “Empire” (1964) lasts eight hours.  During  the 1920s, film making was stimulated by the Dadaist, Cubist, and Surrealist movements.  Little of comparative interest was produced until the late 1950s, when a host of new cinema artists arose in the United States.  Unlike their (run), they were strongly influenced by the techniques and personal expression of anti-commercial art films by directors such as Fererico Fellini.  Since the 1970s, underground film continues to be explored by film makers from the (art) world.

III. Reading and Speaking.

2. On the right are some of the ways we classify films. On the left
   are some film titles. Match each title with the most appropriate kind of film from the column on the right.

3. Here are some of the categories for the annual Academy Award
   Winners. Each winner gets an Oscar. Look back over the past
   few years — not just this year — and note down who you
   would give your awards to for as many as you can of the categories below. If you don't know the name of the person involved, then just give the name of the film. If you are working in a group, compare and discuss your notes with a partner.

Best film

Best Actor

Best Actress

Best Supporting Actor

Best Supporting Actress

Best Director

Best Original Screenplay (script)

Best Screen Adaptation

Best Cinematic Photography

Best Editing

Best Special Effects

Best Original Score (music)

Best Costumes/Wardrobe

с) You are going to read some examples of film (movie)  reviews.  What is the purpose of a review?  Where can you find the examples of film reviews?  Read the information below and compare you answers.

Movie reviews are a wonderful way of evaluating movies.  Regardless of the type of movies or the age of the movie, movie reviews allow people to determine whether or not they think they might like a movie before ever seeing it.  Examples of movie reviews can be found in newspapers, magazines, or on the World Wide Web.  

Read the following film reviews and write out the phrases that are used in them to describe a film/ director’s, actors’ work/etc. Which of the reviews do you like most of all in terms of its structure, style, language, coherence?

ON THE WATERFRONT

Directed by: Elia Kazan

Marlon Brando is a superb actor and in “On the Waterfront” he gave his finest performance.  It is his best-known role.  The cast also included Eva Marie Saint and Karl Malden and the film’s director, Elia Kazan, never made a better film.  Parts of the film were shot in the studio in Hollywood, but a lot was made on location in the streets of New York, which makes it at times like a documentary.  The critics loved the film but it was not only a critical success.  It was a great box office success as well, and made an enormous profit.  The plot is about a young man’s attempt to be a boxing champion.

FROM DUSK TILL DAWN

Directed by: Robert Rodriguez

When are they going to stop pretending that Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez are "independent" directors of the B-movie genre?

It's rather like claiming that Walt Disney's cartoons were little more than a hobby or Spielberg is just biding his time for that big break on Broadway.

The Tarantino crew are right in the thick of the mainstream now — and up to their elbows in blood. Movies like "Pulp Fiction" and "Desperado" proved to the bookkeepers that both directors are capable of massive box-office successes and even their weaker efforts are going to be the center of excited speculation. No surprises then that Rodriguez' "From Dusk Till Dawn" has already been accorded "must-see" status. The movie features plenty of added bonuses: Tarantino's first major acting role, a high profile cast led by the latest superstar-in-waiting, George Clooney, and enough violence and gore to satisfy the Marquis de Sade. Suffice it to say that special effects have been provided by the same crew (KNB) that staged the ear-slicing scene in "Reservoir Dogs."

"From Dusk Till Dawn" is a no-holds-barred tale of vampires which never pretends to be anything but straight entertainment. You'll have as a good a time watching it as they obviously had making it.

SAVING PRIVATE RYAN

Directed  by Steven Spielberg

Tom Hanks stars in “Saving Private Ryan” (released in the USA in 1998), arguably the most powerful film of his career.  It’s a bitterly realistic epic about World War II, directed by Steven Spielberg and can be a hard film to watch at times.

The film plot is simple but intense: three of the four Ryan’s brothers have been killed in combat within 48 hours and their mother faces receiving the news on the same day.  Her surviving son, Private James Ryan (played by Matt Damon), is trapped behind enemy lines.  Hank’s character, Captain John Miller, and his unit is ordered to find him back.

Here we see a very different Hanks to the one we’re used to.  This time he isn’t playing an overgrown schoolboy (“Big”), a loveable romantic (“Sleepless in Seattle”), a sportsman (“A League of Their Own”) or an astronaut (“Apollo 13”).  His character in “Saving Private Ryan” reveals a completely new side of him.  Tom identifies strongly with the film that these were ordinary men forced into war to oppose Nazis.  Tom himself admitted that he was totally unprepared for the effect that “Saving Private Ryan” would have on him.  The intensity of the film meant Tom wanted to see the pre-launch alone, because the movie had hit him in the way he wasn’t prepared for.

4. On Your Own.

    Give a review of a film you have recently seen and liked (disliked). Make use of the following outline. Remember: a mere telling of the story is not a review.

    The following outline offers the basic elements that should be found in any good movie review.  Not all the elements listed below may be applicable to all movies, however, these criteria provide a general overview for all components that should be included in a basic movie review.

OUTLINE FOR MOTION PICTURE REVIEW

1. Title of a review.  Name of a film being reviewed.
2. Location of cinema/ movie theatre where a film was seen.
3. Type of a film: feature film, comedy, black-and-white, short, etc.
4. Production: What studio released the film?  When was the opening date? Was it co-production? Was the film dubbed?
5. Length of a film.
6. Story (plot): Is it by a well-known author? Is the story original?
   True to life? What is the climax of the story? Is the ending logical? (Give a brief summary of the plot … but do not spoil the ending!)
7. Direction: Who directed the film? Was the introduction of characters and scenes skillful? Are useless scenes included?
8. Photography: Is it artistically done? Are there good shots? Are
   close-ups used effectively?
9. Acting: Name the leading characters. Are the characters in the film easy to understand? Are there any stars? Any
   outstanding performances of minor roles? True-to-life interpretation of characters?
10. Sound effects. Does speaking or acting predominate? Does the
    dialogue seem real? Do actors speak effectively? Are characteristic noises
    employed? Is the music suitable?
11. Critics: What do critics say about the picture? Are their opinions
    sound? Do you share their points of view?
12. General impression and conclusion: The impression the film
    made on you. How was the effect achieved? Do you think this film is worth
    seeing?

Unit 4.

British vs. American Cinema.

1. Lead-in.

1) Which do you prefer? American films, British films, films made in your country?

2) What percentage of films shown at your local cinemas are made in the USA, UK and in your country?

3) What are your favourite American and British film actors/actresses?

II. Vocabulary.

a) Translate the following into English using the topical vocabulary.

Большинство театров и кинотеатров Нью-Йорка расположено на Бродвее и на Таймс Сквер.  Это -театральный район города.

Ежегодно в США выпускается огромное количество фильмов.  Выпускаемые в Голливуде фильмы различны по своему жанру и художественной ценности.  Голливуд справедливо упрекали в том, что он создаёт на экране мир грёз, который не имеет ничего общего с действительностью.  Сейчас продукция Голливуда изменилась.  Сегодня большинство американских фильмов современны и реалистичны.  Они поднимают важные социальные вопросы, стоящие перед современным обществом.  Экран исследует причины криминальных поступков и высказывает мысль о том, что отрицательные персонажи порождаются окружающей обстановкой.  Научно-популярные фильмы акцентирую предположение, что огромные научные достижения человечества могут в конечном итоге привести мир к катастрофе.

III. Reading and Speaking.

a) Read the text about the British cinema and answer the questions below.

BRITISH CINEMA

 Going to the cinema is very popular in Britain, especially with young people.  Today about 90 per cent of 15 to 24-year-olds in Britain go to the cinema.  In 1984 the figure was only 59 per cent.  Since 1984, many multiplexes, cinema complexes with up to 14 screens showing a wide range of modern  films, have been built.  These multiplexes have encouraged more people to go to the cinema.

London is foil of cinemas and cinema clubs, some of
them showing a large number of continental films. Cinema-
going is a regular habit for a considerable number of people in
London; the number of cinema-goers is much larger than that of
theatre-goers.

If you want to know which films are on, there are many publications to help you. Any daily newspaper will have a short  list of films and shows; some newspapers on sale in the middle of the day give the full list of films supplied with the hour when they begin.

Some cinemas show films in the afternoon, early evening and late evening; others have continuous programmes from about two o'clock in the afternoon till late at night.

British men and women have different tastes in films.  In a survey, most men liked action films which they watched on television or on a DVD.  Women preferred films which dealt with human relationships between friends or between women.  

Unfortunately, the cinema in Britain is looked
upon as rather an entertainment than "the arts". As a result,
comparatively few films of international standard of quality are
shot in Britain, and if they are, they are often a commercial
failure.        

Hollywood dominates the cinema in Britain.  The British film industry does exist, but is very small.  In the 90s only 2,5 per cent of all the money taken at cinema box offices was for British films.

British films, as a rule, do not have budgets and cannot compete with American films.  The new films that are made by British film companies usually receive some money from American companies.  This means that British films often have to use American actors to appeal to the American cinema-going audience.

British people who want to make films often go to America.  Hollywood is full of British actors, directors, writers, editors and camera people.

1. Is cinema going a popular leisure activity in Britain? Is it as popular as theatre going?  What has contributed to the popularity if cinema going in Britain recently?
2.   How can you find out which films are on in English cinemas?
3. Do British men and women have the same tastes in cinema according to the surveys?  How do they differ?
4. How can you assess the role of Britain in the international film industry?

b) Read the text about the American cinema and complete the gaps in it with suitable words and phrases.  The initial letters of all words are given

AMERICAN CINEMA

Movies, or the c_____, have been an integral part of American culture throughout the twentieth century and is continuing to play an important role.

The 1920s was the great era of the s_____ film, the period from the 1930s to the beginning of World War II was called “the golden era” of American cinema.  In 1941 came the production of Orson Welles’ “Citizen K_____”.  The most important figure in the 1950’s cinema was James D_____ with his movies “Rebel without a Cause” which explored the alienation of youth.  The movie industry of the late 50’s and early 60’s concentrated on the multimillion dollar spectacular: “Ben H_____”, “Cleopatra”, “West-Side Story”, “My Fair L_____”, and “The Sound of Music”.

Today a great number of various films are r_____ in the USA every year. Hollywood-released films differ in genre as well as in a_____ value. Hollywood's early films were w_____ (with their fast action, uncomplicated heroes, and clear-cut conflicts between good and evil); h_____ films (with their mysterious and supernatural happenings, ghosts and monsters); c_____ (very often not in good taste and even vulgar). Then there were r_____ films (which showed life as it could be lived in one's imagination and made the viewer escape from reality into a dream world).

Musicals (which like westerns are a wholly American production, created and developed in Hollywood) are still popular with the cinema-goers.

There are films based on novels (so-called a_____, that is novels adapted for the screen) and films which deal with historical events. In such films you see the familiar characters brought to life and you feel satisfied if they look exactly as you have pictured them.

Hollywood, that was justly accused of creating a d_____ world which had nothing in common with reality, has changed greatly since the time of westerns. American films of today are realistic and up-to-date. For instance, science f_____ films, which took the place of horror films, offer the viewer flying saucers, extraterrestrial living beings, space battles and explosions of planets. They introduced to lovers of science fiction computers and robots going mad and attacking their creators, ugly creatures born of mutation and devastating superweapons. Gangster films are often inspired by the gloomy front page stories. Many of the films raise urgent problems facing contemporary society and give food for t_____t. The screen examines the causes of criminal behaviour and suggests that bad characters are often the result of the circumstances and the environment. The idea that science threatens man is often stressed. It is suggested that human control of science may cause great disasters and in the end lead to the destruction of the world.

Most American films are made with great professional skill. C_____ work, setting and a_____ are usually excellent. But there are also cheap s_____-rate films, which critics call stupid, badly written and badly directed. Such films, as they say, are neither instructive nor entertaining. Well, c_____ know best, but one thing is certain: there is too much sex, cruelty and violence on the American screen.

Today, when a New Yorker, for example, goes to the cinema, he expects to see a large program: a newsreel (which is usually the first item on the program), a cartoon, a documentary and a f_____ film (a full-length film in a cinema program). Sometimes two feature films are included in the program.  Foreign films are shown with s_____ or are d_____ into English.

In some American cinemas there is a continuous showing of the program from opening till closing time. In that case exact show times are not fixed and the s_____ are not reserved. You may enter or leave the hall any time during the show and take any seat you like.

There is always a parking ground attached to big cinemas. For those who want to see a film without leaving the c____ there are drive-in cinemas (so-called drive-ins).

Most of the New York big cinemas and theatres are situated in B_____ and Times S_____, which is the theatrical district of the city.

c) Compare British, American and Russian cinema in terms of:

1) popularity within the country and outside;

2) variety;

3) quality;

4) the most popular topics and genres;

5) other peculiarities.

4. On Your Own.

For further reading on the topic of British cinema you may refer to:

www.users.aber.ac.uk/jwp/cinemas

Topic: Theatre.

Unit 1.

The Art of Theatre.

1.  Lead-in.

1. Are you a regular theatre-goer? How often do you go to the theatre?
2. The theatre is one of the greatest kinds of art.  What is its place among other arts in modern life?
3. What are the main problems of theatre today?
4. Do you think the theatre is dying?  Is it losing its significance in the social life of people?
5. Do other media such as radio, cinema and television posses any real advantages over the theatre?  Has the theatre any advantages of its own?  Do you think these media can coexist with the theatre?

2. Vocabulary.

1. Study the Topical Vocabulary, divide all the words and phrases into groups and make up a heading for each group.    As you go through the topic make a list of your Personal Vocabulary related to «Theatre».

Interval, the curtain falls (drops), to drop the curtain, to ring down the curtain, to ring up the curtain, to draw the curtain (on, over), good curtain, behind the- curtain, footlights, to smell of the footlights, the lights go up (down), dressing-room, prompt-box, prompter, the stage door, attendants, cloak-room, check, opera-glasses, to command a view, gangway seats, the front row, the back row, the circle of tier, Row L, D, F (in English theatre), the stalls, the pit, the dress circle, the upper circle, the balcony, the gallery, the box, to book a seat, gangway (aisle), Booking-office, Box-Office, the House is sold out, players, the theatrical company, acting world, leading performers, minor characters, cast, to be in the cast, to act, to create a role, to play a role, curtain call, to receive a curtain call, encore, make-up, to rehearse, rehearsal, dress-rehearsal, on tour, gala, first night, repertoire, script, libretto, stage directions, programme, stage version, scenery/settings, to do the decor, to have a long/short run, to revive, stage-manager (director), musical director (conductor), lyrics, fight (battle, etc.) arranged by..., the performance is a success (a failure), the scene.

2. Learn the names of the theatrical edifices.

The Comedy Theatre - театр комедии

The Drama theatre - драматический театр

The Musical Comedy Theatre - театр музыкальной  комедии

The Opera House - оперный театр

The Theatre for Young Spectators - театр юного зрителя

The Puppet Theatre - кукольный театр

The Philharmonic Society - филармония

The Conservatoire - консерватория

The Art Theatre - Художественный театр

The Drama Theatre named after ... - Театр драмы имени...

3. Reading and Speaking.

a) Read the text below about the nature of theatre and write out the phrases that describe the role of theatre and its place among other kinds of art.  Then complete the tasks after the text.

What Is Theatre?

Over the last years the Theatre has had to meet four challenges – from radio, cinema, television and the Internet.  All four are produced for a mass audience and possess important advantages.  All of them can be enjoyed at home, with a minimum of effort, and cinema ant television can offer casts of players that only the best theatres could afford.

But the theatre is the parent of all these new dramatic forms and entertainments.  

In a very good restaurant we have a dinner that is specially cooked for us; in a canteen we are merely served with standard portions of a standard meal.  And this is the difference between the living Theatre and the mass entertainment of films, radio, television and the Internet.  In the Theatre the play is specially cooked for us.  Those who have worked in the Theatre know that a production never takes its final shape until it has an audience.  

With films, radio, television, the vast audience can only receive what it is being offered.  But in the Theatre the audience might be said to be creatively receptive; its very presence, an intensely living presence, heightens the drama.

Theatre is a remarkable world.  It enriches our inner world, it is a prolific source of enjoyment.  Theatre consolidates the foundations of our moral. But we ought too try to understand what the Theatre is all about and why it has lasted so long, what it means to us.  We know that it offers amusement and pleasure, but then so do lots of other things.  Is there something special in itself that it offers us?  Clearly there is, otherwise the Theatre would not have gone so long in so many different places.  But what is it that is special about the Theatre?

What does the Theatre has to offer its spectators that other public gatherings and other forms of amusement cannot offer them?  Is there some kind of experience that we enjoy at a play and nowhere else?

When we see a play we see it with a number of other people; we form part of an audience.  This is important, because we behave differently when we part of an audience.  If the play is funny, we laugh more than we should if we were by ourselves.   If it is pathetic, we are more deeply moved just because a lot of other people are being moved too.  Everything is heightened and felt more because in such an audience there is a collective response.   We have to share the feelings of a great many other people to enjoy a play properly, and this in itself is a good thing, particularly these days, when too many people, usually living in large cities, feel separate and lonely.

Unfortunately, the film, the favourite choice of so many people, as J.B. Priestly once wrote,  “has nothing like the same unifying and heightening effect upon the spectators as the play has.  There is, of course, an audience reaction to a film and a certain collective broadening of the responses to humour or pathos.  Nevertheless, the people in a cinema are not really an audience in the Theatre sense; they never achieve a kind of collective personality, playing a part, they are not dominated, as theatre audience are, by one huge mood; they are just a lot of people who are there to look at photographs and listen to recorded sounds.  Notice how we feel miserable in a theatre which is more than half empty, whereas we care nothing if there is nobody in the cinema but ourselves.”  

At the same time, the Theatre offers audiences the unique type of experience which we can call dramatic experience as everything bellowing to the Theatre has a double aspect: on the one hand, we are conscious of being in a theatre, watching and listening to real actors, on the other hand, we follow the fortunes of the imaginary characters and accept the imaginary life of a play.  

A great theatrical production may have a great impact on our imagination and provide food for thought.  In a good theatrical production we are offered a piece of life so shaped and coloured that everything in it, down to the smallest detail, is significant.  The shape and colour of the room, the way the light falls through the window, the choice of furnishings, the very relationship between a chair and a stool, all mean something.  A sudden laugh, a startled look, a cough, a turn of the head, none of these is accidental and each has its own significance.  In the theatre, author and director and players bring together all their knowledge, experience, intuition and imagination, and labour for weeks in one of the most delicate pieces of co-operative effort to make us enjoy the play.  The better the production is, the more of our undivided attention it will claim and the sharper will be our delight.

b) Find in the text the arguments the author gives to illustrate the following statements:

a) Over the last years the Theatre has had to meet four challenges

b) In the Theatre the play is specially cooked for us.

c) The theatre is a special kind of pleasure and amusement.

d) To enjoy the theatre we have to join it.

e) Everything bellowing to the Theatre has a double aspect.

f) Nothing in a good theatrical production is accidental.

c)  Which of the ideas of the text do you agree/disagree with?  Give arguments.

4. On Your Own.

Have you ever thought that the professions of a teacher and an actor have much in common?  Express your opinion on that. Then read the text below and then complete the chart that follows.  Add your own arguments as well.

Teachers and Actors

To be a good teacher, you need some of the gifts of the good actor; you must be able to hold the attention and interest of your audience; you must be a clear speaker, with a good, strong, pleasing voice which is fully under your control; and you must be able to act what you are teaching, in order to make its meaning clear.

Watch a good teacher, and you will see that he does not sit motionless before his class: he stands the whole time he is teaching; he walks about, using his arms, hands and fingers to help him in his explanations, and his face to express feelings. Listen to him, and you will hear the loudness, the quality and the musical note of his voice always changing according to what he is talking about.

The fact that a good teacher has some of the qualities of a good actor does not mean that he will indeed be able to act well on the stage; for there are very important differences between the teacher's work and the actor's. The actor has to speak words which he has learnt by heart; he has to repeat exactly the same words each time he plays a certain part; even his movements and the ways in which he uses his voice are usually fixed before. What he has to do is to make all these carefully learnt words and actions seem natural on the stage.

A good teacher works in quite a different way. His audience takes an active part in his play: they ask and answer questions. The teacher, therefore, has to understand the needs of his audience, which is his class. He cannot learn his part by heart, but must invent it as he goes along.

I have known many teachers who were fine actors in class but were unable to take part in a stage-play...

Unit 2.

The History of Theatre.

1.  Lead-in.

a) Why do you think the theatre has survived for so long?

b) Do you know when the first professional theatres appeared in Europe?

c) Do you know any names of the first British professional actors?

d) Do you think the theatre has changed over the last hundred years?  If, yes, in what way?

2. Vocabulary.

Vocabulary expansion.  Fill in the missing letters.

1. Types of theatre: a nation*l / commer*ial / frin*e theatre;a repert*ry theatre.

2. Theatrical genres: a trag*dy; a f*rce; a bal*et; a p*ychological play; a vari*ty-show.

3. Theatrical performance: a box-office suc*es*; a scene; an interv*l – an intermis*ion (Am); a curta*n call/*ncore; matine*; (at) rehe*rsal; What’s on the reperto*re?

4. Theatre workers: a playwri*ht; a prom*ter;  an att*ndant; an us*er / us*eret*e.

5. Actors & Acting: an amate*r; a debu*; a vers*tile actor; the techniq*e of acting; to be in the c*st; the theatre staf*; a sup*rb acting; artifi*ial.

6. Theatre goers: a theatrical a*di*nce; to ap*la*d; a sp*re ticket.    

7. Theatrical attributes: sc*n*ry; mis*-en-sc*ne; pr*perties / f*rnishing; d*cor.

8. Int*ri*r of a theatre: an a*ditor*um; the seating c*p*city of...; a seating c*art; (in) the st*lls (Br.) / orc*estra (Am); a circle of t*er; a balc*ny;  a gall*ry; to dr*w / to low*r the curtain; a fo*er; a ga*g-way / an ai*le (Am).

9. Effect Impression: to com*and a (good) view of the stage; to call for *nsp*ration; to conc*ive an idea of...; to il*uminate the stage; to display m*rvels of artistic transformation; to ar*use much c*ntroversy on account of; to receive a tr*mendo*s a*clamation (from the packed audience); to be s*t*rated in humo*r.

3. Reading and Speaking.

a) Read the text below on the history of British Theatre and make a chronology of the development of the British theatre and arrange your notes in the following way:

The Art of Acting.

The Birth of English Theatre • Acting • The Theatre in the Elizabethan ■ The Puritans and the Theatre • From Artificial .to Naturalistic Acting David Garrick 'Acting in Modern Theatre

Britain has a long tradition of drama.  But from the fall of the Roman Empire until the 10th century, acting hardly existed as an art in Western Europe; only the wandering minstrels gave entertainments in castles and at fairs. British theatre began in the thirteenth century, the first real actors were amateurs who performed Miracle and Morality or Mystery Plays which were, religious in character.  Even today, every four years in York and Chester, ordinary people still perform these plays.

In the Elizabethan age, the first professional theatres were opened. At the time of Shakespeare there were at least six companies of actors. Shakespeare himself joined the Earl of Leisester's company, which under James I became known as the "King's Men". There were also companies of boy actors. All the women's parts were played by boys. It was very difficult for most actors to earn a living on the stage, even in a London company, and many of them fell into debt. When Shakespeare arrived in London in 1586, the acting was very crude and conventional. There was almost no scenery, and the actors were dressed in the costumes of their day. But when 'The Globe' was opened to the public in 1599, it started the golden age of the theatre in England.

In the first half of the 17th century the influence of the Puritans was bad for the popular theatre, and it was not before the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 that theatre-going again became a popular habit. The most popular plays were comedies. The first part played by an actress was that of Desdemona. Nell Gwyn was the first English actress.

By the beginning of the 18th century the most popular type of play was the sentimental comedy. The acting was artificial probably due to the influence of French actors.

But, later, under the influence of David Garrick and some other actors, acting became much more naturalistic.

David Garrick was one of the greatest actors known. But even at his time acting was not very popular. An actor whose acting had offended the audience had to ask pardon on his knees before a fall house before he could continue in his profession.

During the 19th century acting became more and more naturalistic. Like in Shakespeare's time, the best actors understood the importance of the team work of the company. One of the most famous actors of that time was Henry Irving. He was the first actor to be knighted.

By the J920s naturalistic acting reached a peak in the performance of Sir Gerald Du Maurier. He hardly appeared to be acting at all.

At present most acting still continues to be naturalistic. Designers make the settings as realistic as possible. Modem producers and directors: Peter Hall, Peter Brook and others are trying out new styles of acting. Some go back to Greek methods, with a revival of the chorus, others are making use of the audience in helping to interpret the play.

Contemporary British playwrights who have received international recognition include: Harold Pinter – “The Caretaker”, “The Homecoming”; Tom Stoppard – “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead”, “Jumpers”; Caryl Churchill – “Serious Money”, “Top Girls”; and Peter Shaffer – “Equus”, “Amadeus”.

The musicals of Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber have been highly successful in Britain and overseas; well known examples include “Jesus Christ Superstar”, “Evita” and “Cats”.

Many British performers who enjoy international reputation include Sir John Guilgud, Sir Alec Guinness, Vanessa Redgrave, Sir Ian McKellen, Derek Jacobi, Albert Finney, Dame Judi Dench, Brian Cox, Dame Maggie Smith.

b) Say how these people are connected with the history of the British theatre and what they are famous for.

Elizabeth I, W. Shakespear, the Puritans, Nell Gwyn, David Garrick, Henry Irving, Sir Gerald Du Maurier, Peter Hall, Peter Brook .

4. On Your Own.

 a) To find out more about how the British theatre has changed over the years refer to “Britain Explored” by Paul Harvey, Rhodri Jones - Longman.

 b) Prepare a short report about any of the people mentioned in 3b or any other outstanding figure in the history of theatre and tell your group more about their contribution to the development of theatre.   Prepare a task for your group to check what they have understood from your report.  Remember to present the task before the report.

Unit 3.

Theatre Preferences.

1.  Lead-in.

a) What kind of plays do you prefer?

b) Where do you prefer to have seats?

c) Do you prefer evening performances to matinees or matinees to evening performances?

d) What theatre is considered the best in your town? Is the standard of
its performance high? Is it always easy to get tickets?

e) What kind of plays are on the repertoire at the theatres in your town?  Are they popular with the audience?

2. Vocabulary.

1. Complete the following sentences.

1. Let's take opera glasses ... . 2. I enjoyed the play greatly because ... . 3. The best seats are ... . 4. I'll try to get tickets ... . 5. Let's buy a programme ... . 6. The public admires him ... . 7. It's not easy to get tickets for this play as ... . 8. I'd have enjoyed the play much more if... . 9. The bell is ringing, let's ... . 10. Let's ask the usher .... 11. The play is very popular ... . 12. The performance was a failure because ....

2. Give the English for the following words and expressions and use them in sentences of your own.

Состав исполнителей; любитель театра (театрал); пользоваться большим успехом; сидеть в партере; утренний спектакль; премьера; декорации; главная роль; ставить пьесу; быть в ударе; получить удовольствие от спектакля; пьеса провалилась.

3. Change the following sentences into the opposites.

They say his new play is a complete failure with the public.

Everybody agrees that X. was at the worst yesterday.

This play is still on at the Art Theatre.

My friend said that he had enjoyed every minute of play.

N.'s acting was true to life.

When one sits on the front rows one has a good view of the
stage.

3. Reading and Speaking.

a) Read the dialogue below.  What are Jane and Alice’s impressions of their visit to the theatre? Think over your last visit to the theatre. Were the impressions the same?

After the performance

Alice:     Well, how did you find the performance?

Jane:      The cast was just excellent.

Alice:     No wonder, with so many stars in it. You can call it an all-star cast.

Jane: N's acting impressed me greatly. He is always very good, but tonight he was at his best. Don't you think so?

Alice: Agree. I greatly enjoyed the last scene of the second act when he finds out the truth about his brother. His acting was very convincing.

Jane: The actress who played his wife was not bad either, was she?

Alice: I think she might have been a bit more natural. There was something stilted about her acting.

Jane: Was there? I'm afraid I can't agree with you. And did you like the scenery?

Alice: It was splendid. It contributed very much to the success of the performance.

Jane: I'm very thankful to you for this lovely evening. After all, it was your idea to see the play.

Alice:     Nothing to speak of.

b) Talk about your last visit to the theatre using the sentences below as a plan.  Fill in the gaps in the sentences.

1. When last _____ we decided to go to the theatre, taking into consideration, that we hadn’t been there for _____, we first looked through _____ to find out what is on.

2. As sometimes it is difficult to get tickets to _____ theatre, we decided to book them at the _____ in advance so that not to ask for a _____ ticket at the entrance when all the tickets had been _____ out.

3. As I don’t like to have seats far from the stage, we got the tickets for the _____ so that to command a good _____ of the stage.

4.  At the entrance to the theatre an _____ tore our tickets into halves.  He/she gave us our halves back so we could find our _____ by their numbers.

5. We left our coats in the _____ and then we bought a _____ to see who was in the cast and who was playing the _____ role in the performance.

6. We entered the auditorium and the _____ showed us our seats.

7. As our seats were in the _____ row we didn’t need to take the _____ on hire.

8. A few minutes before the beginning the auditorium seemed to be full.  Spectators were everywhere: in the _____, _____, _____ and in the _____.

9. Everybody’s attention was drawn to the stage and we could hear the _____ tuning up.

10. Soon after the third bell rang to tell everyone that the play was about to begin, the lights _____ down, the curtain _____ up and the performance began.

11. The play caught hold everybody’s _____ entirely. The audience was _____ .

12. The acting was _____, the staging was _____, the scenery was _____ and the music was _____.

13. During those _____ hours we lived in the world of a wonderful fairy-tail of the performance.

14. When the ______ came, the great majority of the spectators remained sitting on their seats, being under the impression of what they had already seen.

15. When the performance ended, at first there was a deathlike silence in the hall and then burst of roaring storm of _____.  

16. The actors were rewarded with getting curtain _____ .

17. On our way home we were discussing the performance a lot, but in general we were of the same opinion and considered it _____.

c) Read three examples of performance reviews.  Write out the phrases that may be of use when writing your own review.

My Fair Lady.

A review.

“My Fair Lady” has come triumphantly to Broadway by way of Gabriel Pascal’s cinema version of Shaw’s “Pygmalion” and the adapting ministrations of Mr. Alan Jay Lerner (book and lyrics) an Mr. Frederic Loewe (music).  The combination of Shavian and musical comedy romance has produced an elated critical verdict. “My Fair Lady”  should keep the vast Mark Hellinger Theatre’s 1,565  seats filled for many months to come.  In Broadway parlance the show is a smash hit.

It is also an entertainment of wit, beauty, elegance, and taste.  While retaining the main essentials of Shaw’s anti-romantic comedy about the elocutionary triumph of Eliza Doolittle, Mr. Lerner has stripped away sufficient dialogue to make room for some 15 musical numbers.  Mr. Loewe’s score is consistently agreeable and sometimes more than that.  Indeed, “My Fair Lady”  amounts to one of those rare theatrical collaborations in which everyone seems to be functioning at top form.  Mr. Moss Hart’s direction is extraordinarily smooth, light and deft.  Mr. Oliver Smith’s complicated production moves with magic fluidity from scene to ever more entrancing scene.  And Mr. Cecil Beaton’s costumes constantly delight the eye, whether he is clothing an assortment of raffish Cockney buckers or composing an Ascot pageant in white, black, and grey.  

An Event In the Theatre World.

The French Cultural Mission is quite active in St. Petersburg.  One of its objectives is to work with people who learn French.  Every year the activists from the Cultural Mission organize theatre festivals.  When several plays are shown during one evening, you have the possibility to compare and arrive at some conclusions.  That’s what I did on 29th  April when three plays were shown in St. Petersburg Actor’s House as a part of the Festival of Amateur Theatres.

The first play was brought from Novgorod.  The most important thing about it was that it was an amateur production.  The students wrote a play using the contents of some French songs.  They wrote a forty-minute play about the woman’s life.  The play was written in the French language.  Its title was They.   “They” meant “Women”.  We saw on the stage the birth, childhood, marriage and divorce.  At times we were even shocked at some scenes, showing the French spirit of the performance.  

The second play was Let’s Play Phedra.  It was staged by a school theatre of Earth and Universe from St. Petersburg.  It was a daring interpretation of Phedra by Racine.  Sometimes it seemed to us that we were present at the rehearsal, because the actors were quarreling, criticizing the author and the director, and pretended that they forgot their words.  I couldn’t stop laughing.  The acting was wonderful.

The third play was so long and boring after a brilliant school performance but it showed an example of a very good French.

The French Festival let me understand a very important thing: they plays written and staged by amateur playwrights, directors and actors are often more interesting and entertaining than plays produced by some professionals.

(Olga, a student of the French-English Department)

“Woe From Wit”

Oleg Menshikov’s production of Woe From Wit, the classic satire of Moscow mores, brings with it all the crush and glitter that only Russia’s top actor could inspire.  With this production, Menshikov, who acts and directs, confirms his status as one of Russia’s leading celebrities.  ha has been one of the country’s top stage performers throughout the 90’s .  he has twice performed in major London productions, winning the 1992 Laurence Olivier award for his interpretation of the poet Sergey Esenin opposite Isidora Duncan in When She Danced.

No wonder, then, that the Moscow opener of Woe From Wit drew a crowd studded with the familiar faces of Oleg Yankovsky, Alexander Kalyagin, Michail Kazakov and countless others.

What about the show?  The good news is that this Woe From Wit, written in1824 by Alexander Griboyedov, is strong, well-calibrated and generally well-acted.  The beautiful neo-classical music by Valery Gavrilin is used with admirable restraint.  The excellent set by Pavel Kaplevich becomes a full-fledged character in itself.  The costumes by Kaplevich, with aid fron Igor Chapurin, who created the apparel for the ball scene, are elegant and simple.  The lightning by Sergey Scornetsky plays with colours, shadows and silhouettes.

Yes, it was beautiful.  Yes, it was often entertaining.  Yes, we saw that Menshikov can not only draw together a talented theatrical team.  But the highlights remained too isolated and the performance too cold to raise this show from the realm of a beau monde event to that of an artistic achievement …

Menshikov’s failure is that he offers a slick, clean-cut façade rather than going down inside and coming out with something new to say.  I couldn’t help wishing that some contemporary writer in attendance would go home and write a comedy about a Russian “tusovka”, circa 1999, that could really communicate to us something of interest.

d) Compare the three reviews above in terms of:

- content;

-structure and composition;

-style and language;

-range of vocabulary;

-effect on the reader.

4. On Your Own.

Write your own short review in which you present your opinion of the performance you have seen.  Use the outline for a motion picture review as a plan.  In presenting your opinion also remember the following:

-The first important thing is to present or introduce the point clearly.

-While presenting the main point you should attract the reader’s attention by something interesting, controversial or even shocking.

-The next stage is to present your arguments.  Some of the ways of presenting your arguments:

• putting forward arguments or counter arguments without using the first person.  for example: They say that …  People who … argue that … etc.
• a statement of your personal opinion, using “I” or “In my opinion” etc.
• questions, which are asked for effect rather than information.

Unit 4.

British vs. American Theatre.

1.  Lead-in.

1)  Do you know any British theatre actors, directors, playwrights?

2) Which British theatres have you heard of?  Have you been to any of them?

3) Do you think theatre-going is still a popular leisure activity in Britain?  What do you judge by?

2. Vocabulary.

Render the following text into English.

Истоки театрального искусства Англии восходят к древним обрядовым играм, сохранившимся в английских деревнях до 19 века.  В средние века в Англии распространились жанры церковной драмы – мистерия и моралите.  В эпоху Возрождения ренессансная драма в Англии в отличие от ряда других европейских стран не порвала со средневековыми традициями.  

В конце 16-начале 17 в. театральное искусство Англии переживает эпоху бурного расцвета.  В Лондоне одна за другой возникают актерские труппы, игравшие для простого народа сперва во дворах гостиниц, а затем в специальных театральных зданиях, первое из которых было построено в 1576 г. и называлось «Театр».  Затем в английской столице появляются и другие театры со звучными названиями – «Лебедь», «Фортуна», «Надежда».  На сцене знаменитого «Глобуса» шли пьесы Уильяма Шекспира, и трагик Ричард Бёрбедж (ок. 1567-1619) стал первым в мировом искусстве Гамлетом, Отелло, Лиром.

3. Reading and Speaking.

a) Read the text below. Be ready to say what you have learnt about British theatres using the phrases below.

• Millions of tourists
• The enthusiasm of new drama in Britain
• the Royal Shakespeare Company
• The National Theatre
• British musicals
• the Palladium
• The Player’s Theatre
• Agencies
• critics

Theatre

Millions of tourists visit Britain every year and most of them visit London theatres. The enthusiasm of new drama in Britain is expressed in new ways — by manipulating speech rhythms, by experimenting with forms, by probing the potential of unfamiliar regional accents, by shocking audiences and ridiculing conventionalities and institutions.

The anglers protested. And the government — controlled Arts Council was given to cultivate minority tastes.

A visit to Stratford-on-Avon, this gentle tourist town, and a chance to see any of the productions of the Royal Shakespeare Company will stay in the memory for many years. There is the brilliant comic interpretation of Gogol "The Inspector General.

The National Theatre, under the directorship of Sir Laurence Olivier, has become a national institution. Its introduction of Othello was so popular that it has been preserver intact in the form of a film.

British musicals have become more like American product, and there have been some notable hits such as "Oliver"!

There is still the Palladium where you can see variety acts in the form of vaudeville or revues.

The Player’s Theatre offers old-fashioned Victorian music-hall comics, sentimental singers, acrobats and Christmas pantomimes — to an audience that is familiar with every routine and is howling in unison with the master-of-ceremonies the words of his predictable instructions.

To get to a theatre you must contact the ticket box-office. If the show is popular the telephone is nearly always engaged. Most large hotels have representatives of these agencies, so you can telephone them.

It's not a good idea to ask the representatives of the agencies for the recommendations. Their enthusiasm for a show often coincides with the interest the agency has in the particular play or musical. Agencies often guarantee certain shows a specific number of sold seats.

The enthusiastic phrases from critical reviews should not determine your choice. It is best to be guided by these critical extracts when the actual name of a critic is quoted. A name is a better guarantee of the authenticity not only of  the awoke but also of the spirit of the notice.

There are a large number of critics functioning in London on because the metropolis has many daily and Sunday racers.

The most authoritative notices in the daily papers come from The Times, the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph and others. All London theatres have bars. They vary from the luxurious to the unfortunate supervised

Some provincial towns organize festivals. Then there is a summer season of special plays.

The British feel much more comfortable being conventional, orthodox and institutional.

   b)  Read the text and name the well known theaters of Britain.  What is in their repertoires? Which British theatre would you particularly like to visit? Why?

British Drama Theatre Today

Britain is now one of the world's major theatre centres. Many British actors and actresses are known all over the World. They are Dame Peggy Ashcroft, Glenda Jackson, Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud and others.

Drama is so popular with people of all ages that there are several thousand amateur dramatic societies.

Now Britain has about 300 professional theatres. Some of them are privately owned. The tickets are not hard to get but they are very expensive. Regular seasons of opera and ballet are given at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London. The National Theatre stages modern and classical plays, the Royal Shakespeare Company produces plays mainly by Shakespeare and his contemporaries when it performs in Stratford-on-Avon, and modern plays in its two auditoria in the City's Barbican Centre in London.  These theatres receive money from the government so that they can perform several different plays a year.  In spite of this money from the government, many theatres, including the national Theatre and the Barbican, find it difficult to survive.

Shakespeare's Globe Playhouse, about which you have probably read, was reconstructed on its original site. Many other cities and large towns have at least one theatre.

There are many theatres and theatre companies for young people: the National Youth Theatre and the Young Vic Company in London, the Scottish Youth Theatre in Edinburgh.

The "Old Vic" - one of the oldest theatres of London, it is the chief home of Shakespeare in the capital. People sometimes wonder why this unpretentious old playhouse should have established itself as one of Britain's national theatrical company. Most of the credit for this surprising development must go to Lilian Baylis, who was manager of the Old Vic, or the Royal Victoria Hall as it was originally known, for many years. She was determined to transform the Vic from a somewhat disreputable music-hall into a respectable theatre where Shakespeare, opera, and later the ballet, would be offered to the ordinary working folk of London at prices well within their limited means. Such artists as Sir Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, Sir John Gielgud were proud to appear on the Old Vic stage. Every year the Old Vic produces on its stage a first-class repertory of Shakespearean and other classical productions.

There are many smaller theatre groups in Britain.  Some of them receive money from the government to perform plays which are contemporary and experimental.

Most British cities have a theatre, but London, of course, has the greatest number.  There are over 50 theatres in London’s West End, the area in London with most theatres, and about 35 smaller fringe theatres.

In recent years, musicals have been very successful.  About 5,5 million people, many of them tourists, go to see a musical every year in London.  

Going to the theatre in Britain is not only popular, but also expensive.  Not many young people can afford to go.  It is possible to get cheaper tickets by going to afternoon performances called matinees or by buying stand-bys, half-price tickets which are sold half an hour before a performance starts.

c) Read the text and compare the US and UK theatres in the chart that follows.

AMERICAN VS BRITISH THEATRES

1. The theatre in America is less popular than the cinema. With the popularity of television, the theatre lost a great deal of its attraction. Besides, theatre tickets are so expensive that the theatre is a luxury.

Not many theatres risk staging serious intellectual plays. Producers avoid them as unprofitable. They are sure that the public will not like them to see in the theatre to relax. They think that if people do not expect to be entertained and amused at the theatre, they would rather stay at home.

Most new plays are presented first on Broadway. Plays shown off Broadway, though modestly staged in small theatres, rank sometimes with the best Broadway performances in professional skill.

If a play is a hit, it may have a long run (that is it may be shown „for a very long time), which is the case with a great number of musicals.

The nation's leading opera and ballet companies are situated in New York in Lincoln Centre for the Performing Arts, which also houses a symphony orchestra, a theatre and a libfary museum. Touring ballet companies also perform in Madison Square Garden (which is not a garden but a show place and a stadium). Classical music can be heard in Carnegie Hall. Films coupled with a stage show may be seen in Radio City Music Hall, one of the world's largest theatres seating over six thousand people.

2. In London one can see drama, opera, musicals, ballet and variety.

The chief theatres, music halls and cinemas are in the West End. The oldest concert hall in London is the nineteenth century Albert Hall. Well-known foreign musicians give performances there when they are in London. The Albert Hall saw very many outstanding conductors. London's most acoustically perfect concert hall is the Royal Festival Hall, which is part of London's modern Cultural Centre.

Opera can be heard in Covent Garden (the Royal Opera House) and at English National Opera (the former Sadler's Wells theatre).

The famous Royal Shakespeare Theatre is situated outside London, at Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace.

If one does not feel like queuing for tickets at the box-office or at a theatre agency, one can reserve them by telephone several days in advance.

The best seats are those in the stalls and in the dress circle. Then comes the pit, and last of all the balcony and the upper balcony. Ticket prices vary according to the seats. Seats in the upper balcony are the cheapest, those in the boxes are the most expensive. Tickets for afternoon performances are cheaper than those for evening performances.

4. On Your Own.

Are you a keen theatre-goer? Then study the repertoire of the well known British theatres and choose for yourself what you would like to see.  Compare your choice with your groupmates.

www.londontheatre.co.uk

www.nationaltheatre.org.uk

www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk

www.uktheatre.net

www.victoriatheatre.com 

www.uktw.co.uk

Topic: Music.

Unit 1.

The Role of Music.

1.  Lead-in.

1. What musical genres do you know?
2. What is meant by the terms classical or serious music, pop, rock, jazz and contemporary music? What genre do you prefer?
3. What role does music play in your life? Do you want music just to make you happy or does the music that you prefer vary with your mood? How does it vary?
4. What is your favourite instrument? Can you play it? Does it help you to relax?

2. Vocabulary.

1. Here are the names of notes, comment on its linguistic difference:

2. Study the topical vocabulary dividing it into the groups below:

Classical music (instrumental, vocal, chamber, symphony), opera, operetta, musical, ballet,
blues, ragtime, jazz, pop, rock, folk (country) music, electronique music, background music, incidental music, piece, movement, sonata, area, fantasy, suite, rapsody, concerto, solo, duet, trio, quartet, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon; (brass group), trumpet, turn-table, made up) concert, recital, jam session, festival, competition, major, flat, quintet, sextet (etc.), French horn, tuba; percussion, piano, accordion, guitar, player, equalizer, (loud) speaker, chorus, polka, waltz, march, blues, ragtime, jazz, swing, bassanova, sambo, disco, rock, (string group): violin, viola, celo, bass, harp; (wind group), baton, team, band, orchestra, to write authentically Russian music, to compose, bow, drum sticks, under the baton, single, album, track, record jacket (sleeve), score, spiritual, beat, video-clip, syncopation, saxophone, synthesizer, acoustic, electronique, electric instruments, composer, conductor, musician, soloist,  minstreller group, to arrange, to transcribe, make music, to perform, to improvise, to interpret, to accompany
to complete, tape-recorder, video cassette-recorder, tuner, amplifier, harmony.

3. Reading and Speaking.

     a) Read the text below and make up a list of your Personal Vocabulary with the phrases that will be of use when talking about the role and the place of music in people’s and your life.  Compare your lists with your group mates.

Understanding Music

Whether we are professional artists or not, the creative arts play an important role in our lives.   Art is all around us all the time. Through the attention we pay to colours, materials, shapes, and sounds when we select our clothes and decorate our homes, our creative instincts are continually at work as we express our identity and make our mark in the world.

If we were asked to explain the purpose of music, our immediate reply might be "to give pleasure". That would not be far from the truth, but there are other considerations.

We might also define music as "expression in sound", or "the expression of thought and feeling in an aesthetic form", and still not arrive at an understanding of its true purpose. We do know, however, even if we are not fully conscious of it, that music is a part of living, that it has the power to awaken in us sensations and emotions of a spiritual kind.

It is also through creativity – through the language of music, for example – that people reach out and connect with each other.  Music allows people to share emotions and feelings that are common to all of us.  It is also a comfort in or a refuge from a world that is sometimes cruel and hard to understand.

Listening to music can be an emotional experience or an intellectual exercise. If we succeed in blending the two, without excess in either case, we are on the road to gaining the ultimate pleasure from music. Having mastered the gift of listening to, say, a Haydn symphony, the ear and mind should be ready to admit Mozart, then to absorb Beethoven, then Brahms.

Music, like language, is a living, moving thing.

Music can also provide a soundtrack to our lives, and contribute to our memories of certain events or occasions.  For instance, we may associate an event in our lives with a song that was playing at the time, and every time we hear the song in the future, it will evoke the feelings we had at the time we first heard it.  The music we hear as we go about our daily business can also affect our mood and make us feel happy, sad or energetic, depending on the rhythm and tune of what we hear.  Many people, for example, like to listen to the radio when they are getting ready for work in the mornings, and the songs they hear influence their mood for the rest of the day.

b) Discuss the following questions:

• What is the purpose of music according to the text?  Do you agree?
• When do you think music serves as a comfort or a refuge?
• Can you think of the examples from the history of mankind when music helped people to survive or resist the hardships?
• In addition to comfort, what other emotions does music evoke?

с) Read the text and put in these paragraph headings.

• Music and plants
• Music for healing
• The effect of music
• Music all around us

Nowadays it's almost impossible to escape from music, even if we want to. It thunders out of every high-street shop, hisses horribly from other people's stereos on public transport, and blasts out of open car windows.

Although many of us enjoy music, very few of us have any real idea of the effect music has on us. Most people assume that musical tastes are subjective - that one person will like jazz while another prefers classical. In fact, recent research in America and Australia has shown that appreciation of music is not a matter of individual taste. Certain types of music will have a particular effect on our minds and bodies, whether we like them or not. For instance, early classical music will help us feel relaxed and peaceful. Other types of classical music, such as the music of J.S. Bach and Mozart, are stimulating to the brain, encouraging curiosity and alertness. While classical music promotes loving feelings, hard rock music is a particularly good example of music that makes us feel hate, jealousy, and violence.

As a result of this research, music is being used in hospitals, and doctors have found that 20 minutes of soothing music is often far more effective than tranquillizers. For example, after a recent operation, Fiona Richmond was not allowed to listen to her favourite heavy metal group. Instead, she was made to listen to gentle classical music because it was good for her.

Scientific work on the healing power of music started with plant research in the 1970s. Interestingly, many types of classical music speeded plant growth, whereas heavy metal caused plants to draw away from the speakers and die.

d) Which facts from the text above have surprised you most of all?

4. On Your Own.

   To learn more about the effect of music on a person’s  emotional and mental development you may refer to “Arts and Entertainment.  Пособие для изучающих английский язык на продвинутом этапе. – Мурманск: МГПИ, 2001. – 104 с.”, p. 95-102.

Unit 2.

The History of Music.

1.  Lead-in.

1)  What was the first musical gene?

2) What were the first musical instruments like?

3) Do you know who wrote the first music? Who invented the musical scale?

2. Vocabulary.

The basic musical genres are described below. Read the info and name them. 

………………is used of short classical works which
are easy to listen to, either because the composer's aim was simply
to entertain.

……………….It is sometimes used as a synonym of
classical music. Serious music is a wider concept than classical
music. It includes classical music, folk music and jazz.

………………It includes light classical music, popular
tunes and songs from different Sources, both traditional and new,
dance music, film music and so on.        

……………..Popular music first played by Negro groups in the
Southern USA in the early 20th century characterized by
improvisation and strong rhythms, called traditional jazz; similar
music played by large bands for dancing, a later variation much
influenced by the blues to produce an unhurried emotive style
called modern jazz.

…………….is modem music of an uncomplicated character,
played mainly on electric guitars' and drums often with a singer.

……………..is music used for dancing including jazz
and pop music.        

…………….is any music played softly as a
background for conversation, etc. Some people put on records as
background music when friends come to see them and such music
is increasingly heard in public places in Britain: hotel foyers, airports,
supermarkets, etc.        

…………….is orchestral, written for a chamber
orchestra, but the category also includes works for smaller groups
of instrumentalists or vocalists or soloists.

3. Reading and Speaking.

a) Read the text below. Summarize the text in five paragraphs specifying the development of:

• opera
• operetta and musicals
• instrumental music
• jazz
• rock.

In early times organised music belonged to the church; later it became the property of the privileged few. Noble families took the best composers and the most talented performers into their service.

While the status of professional musicians advanced, amateur musicians found in music a satisfying means of self- expression, and that form of expression broadened in scope to embrace forms and styles more readily digested by the masses.

It is noteworthy that operas at first were performed privately; that the first "commercial" operatic venture took place early in the seventeenth century, this leading to the opening of opera houses for the general public in many cities.

By the middle of the nineteenth century, composers were finding more and more inspiration of their heritage. The time had come to emancipate the music of their country from the domination of "foreign" concepts and conventions.

One of the first countries to raise the banner was Russia, which had various sources of material as bases of an independent musical repertory, Russian folk songs and the music of the old Russian Church.

The composer to champion this cause was Glinka, who submerged Western-European influences by establishing a new national school.

Glinka's immediate successor was Dargomizhsky, then Ba-lakirev. His own creative output was comparatively small; he is best remembered as the driving force in establishing "The Mogutschaya Kuchka", a group which included Borodin, Cui, Moussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov.

Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) worked independently and was the first Russian composer to win widespread international recognition.

It is a narrow line that divides Operetta from Musical Comedy, both blending music and the spoken word. When we think of operetta, such titles come to mind as The Gipsy Baron (Johann Strauss), The Merry Widow and The Count of Luxembourg (Lehar). Of recent years these have been replaced in popular favour by "Musicals" which placed more emphasis on unity and theatrical realism, such as Oklahoma, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music and West Side Story.

In early times instrumental music broke away from occasions associated with sacred worship into secular channels. In succeeding generations instrumental players were engaged to provide music for various public functions. Humble bands of Players developed into small orchestras, these in time to sym-Phony orchestras. Later, orchestras of the cafe type assumed increased numerical strength and more artistic responsibility, "giving the public what it wants"For many generations Band Music — music played by military bands, brass bands, and pipe bands on the march, in public parks, and in concert halls — has held its place in public favour, especially in Great Britain.

At the turn of the present century American popular music was still clinging to established European forms and conventions. Then a new stimulus arrived by way of the Afro-Americans who injected into their music-making African chants and rhythms which were the bases of their spirituals and work songs.

One of the first widespread Afro-American influences was Ragtime, essentially a style of syncopated piano-playing that reached its peak about 1910. Ragtime music provided the stimulus for the spontaneous development of jazz, a specialized style in music which by the year 1920 had become a dominating force in popular music, and New Orleans, one of the first cities to foster it.

In the early twenties America became caught up in a whirl of post-war gaiety. The hectic period would later be known as the Jazz Era. Soon jazz had begun its insistent migration across the world. While Black musicians of America were recognised as the true experts in the jazz field, the idiom attracted white musicians, who found it stimulating and profitable to form bands to play in the jazz style. Prominent among these white band-leaders were Paul Whiteman and George Gershwin, whose 1924 Rapsody in Blue was the first popular jazz concerto.

While many self-appointed prophets were condemning jazz as vulgar, and others smugly foretelling its early death, some notable European composers attempted to weave the jazz idiom into their musical works. These included Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, Shostakovich.  (Here one is reminded that several composers, including Debussy, Ravel, Liszt, Bizet and Richard Strauss, befriended the much-maligned saxophone, invented about the middle of the nineteenth century, and introduced it into the concert-hall.)

Before we leave George Gershwin, we should mention his Porgy and Bess which brought something daringly different to opera: the music, Gershwin's own, sounds so authentically Afro-American, that it is surprising that this rich score was written by a white American.

We are forced to contemplate the fact, that notwithstanding the achievements of Debussy, Stravinsky and many others, the experience of music in the western art tradition remains essentially unchanged. It's still composed by highly trained specialists and played by professional musicians in concert halls.

There was a time in the sixties when it looked as if the situation was about to be broken up by a new and revolutionary popular music of unprecedented and unexpected power. The so-called "Rock Revolution" began in fact in the mid-fifties, and was based firmly on the discontent of the younger generation who were in revolt against the values of their elders; naturally they espoused new musical values, and equally naturally these values represented a negation of everything in the musical world their elders inhabited — the virtual elimination of harmony, or at least its reduction to the few conventional progressions of the blues, an emphasis on the beat, new type of voice production owing much to sophisticated use of amplification and simplification of instrumental technique.

There followed rapidly an extraordinary musical eruption based on the percussive sound of the electric guitar, the rock'n'roll beat and blues harmony.

We should remember that the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and many other leading groups and individual performers from the early sixties onward based their music on the sound of electric guitars and percussion.  Now what? In this technological age it is not surprising that electronics should have invaded the field of music. This new phase has brought experiments intended to give music of the popular genre a new sound. Though many may be alarmed at such explorative tampering with sound, it must be admitted that the possibilities of electronically-produced music are immense. Never before has music — all kinds of music — been so popular. Never before has the world had greater need of its stimulation and comfort. We find the ultimate satisfaction in music, be it "classical" or "popular", when we have learnt how to reject the spurious and accept the genuine; when we have learnt how to listen.

b) Read the texts below to find out what were the first musical instruments and who wrote the first music.

Students A:  read the Text «What Was the First Musical Instrument? »

Students В:  read the Text« Who Wrote the First Music? »

Then work in pairs and swap the information.  

WHAT WAS THE FIRST MUSICAL INSTRUMENT?

There is a legend about it, but it is pure fancy. According to a Greek myth, Pan invented the first musical instrument - the shepherd’s pipe.

One day he sighed through the reeds on a riverbank and heard breath produce a mournful wall as it passes through them.   He broke them off in unequal lengths, bound them together, and had the musical instrument.

The fact we can never trace the first musical instrument because Primitive people all over the world seem to have made music of that sort.  It was usually music that had some religious significance and was shared in by the spectators who would dance, drum, or clap hand and sing with the music. It was done more than for pleasure alone. The Primitive music had a meaning as part of the lives of the people.

The legend of Pan and the reeds suggests, however, how man first had the idea for making various musical instruments. He may have imitated the sound of nature, or used articles of nature all about him to create his music.

The first instruments were of the dram type. Later, man invented wind instruments made from the horns of animals. From these crude wind instruments developed modern brass instruments. As man trained his musical sense, he began to use reeds and thus produced more natural tones of greater delicacy.

Last of all, man discovered the use of strings and invented the simple lyre and harp from which developed the instruments played with a bow. In the Middle Ages, the Crusaders brought back many curious oriental instruments. These, combined with the folk instruments that already existed in Europe, developed into many of the instruments now in use.

WHO WROTE THE FIRST MUSIC?

All primitive people seem to have made music of some sort. But the sounds they made were very different from those of modern music. This music often consisted of long and loud exclamations, sighs, moans, and shouts. Dancing, clapping, and drumming went along with the singing.

Folk music has existed for centuries, passed from generation to generation by being heard, not by being written down.

Composed music is many centuries old. Ancient civilisations such as the Chinese, Hindu, Egyptian, Assyrian, and Hebrew all had music. Most of it was unlike ours. The Greeks made complicated music by putting tones together similar to present-day scales. For notation they used the letters of the alphabet written above the syllables of the words.

After the Greeks and Romans (who copied Greek music), the early Christian church was important in the growth of the art of music. Saint Ambrose and Saint Gregory began a style of music known as «plain song».

This was a type of chant sung in unison. Tones followed one another in a way similar to the method developed by the Greeks. Churchmen also learned to write music down. The modern method of writing music developed from their system.

In 1600, the first opera, «Eurydice» was produced by Jacopo Peri. Later on, men like Monteverde wrote not only operas but also music for instruments, such as the violin.   Music began to be written for court.

4. On Your Own.

    Prepare a report about the development of any musical genre that appeals to you most of all.  In your report cover the following points:

- the origins (where and how the genre appeared);

- the most outstanding musicians performing in this genre;

- the popularity of this genres in modern times (where, among whom).

Accompany your report with a musical illustration.  Select the most outstanding musical pieces of this genre and let your group enjoy them.

Prepare a task fro your group so then to check what they have understood and remembered from your report.

Unit 3.

Musical Preferences.

1.  Lead-in.

1) What are your favourite genres of music?

2) Do you like to listen to music on the radio, on disks or do you prefer live music at concerts?

3) Have you got any favourite musicians, group, composers?  What kind of music do they play?

4) Have you got any favourite song?  What is it about?

5) How have your musical preferences developed?  What or who has influenced your musical preferences?

2. Vocabulary.

Render the following  texts into English.

МУЗЫКА - МОЯ ПОВЕЛИТЕЛЬНИЦА

Экспрессивный язык джаза - язык особого рода. Его упоительная, чувственная, опьяняющая красота создает удивительное по богатству оттенков настроение, позволяющее слушателю проникнуть в мир души музыканта.

Джаз как искусство не скован расовыми или национальными рамками. Это свойство большого искусства и больших художников. Таким художником был Эдвард Кеннеди Эллингтон - один из величайших музыкантов мира, получивший прозвище - Дюк - герцог - за элегантность манер.

Музыка была его профессией и досугом, работой и счастьем музыку в одном из стихотворений он назвал "своей повелительницей".

Дюк Эллингтон оставил после себя огромное наследие: сотни песен, десятки концертов, сюит, симфоний, опер и балетов.

Недаром выдающаяся американская певица Элла Фицджералд считает, что "Дюк Эллингтон - это энциклопедия музыки. У него можно научиться всему. Душа, чувственность, джаз, искусство и любовь - все это есть в гении Эллингтона, в его музыке".

CИМФОНИЧЕСКИЙ ДЖАЗ

Выдающийся американский композитор Джордж Гершвин не получил систематического образования. Он брал уроки музыки, в дальнейшем занимался самообразованием. К двадцати пяти годам он приобрел известность как автор эстрадных джазовых песен, оперетт, ревю, мюзиклов.

Гершвин - виднейший представитель симфонического джаза. Особенность его стиля • в сочетании традиций и импровизационного джаза, элементов афро-американского музыкального фольклора и легкого жанра с формами европейской музыкальной классики - оперной, симфонической, концертной.

Искусству Гершвина свойственны гуманизм, демократичность; его музыкальный язык отличается непосредственностью, красочностью, острым юмором, чертами гротеска. В духе гротеска написана им программная симфоническая сюита "Американец в Париже". Известность приобрели эстрадные лирические песни, особенно джазового типа.

3. Reading and Speaking.

   a)  Here is the article about one of the most famous pop stars. Read it and make a plan of the text.

DIANA ROSS

There are lots of superstars these days, but one person who really deserves the name is Diana Ross. At thirty-nine, she's been making hit records for nearly twenty years. Her career began in the 1960's with The Supremes. Then she left The Supremes and became a solo performer. Now, in the 1980's, Diana Ross is more successive than ever before. She describes the 1980's as: "The Golden Age. There's so much opportunity. This is the information age, the computer age, the age of the future."

Things haven't always looked so good. Diana Ross started singing with school groups in a very poor area of Detroit, the home of America's motor industry. Together with two friends she approached the Motown record label. The Supremes, as they were called, impressed Motown's boss, Berry Cordy, and decided to add them to the other artists on his label.

It was the start of an enormously successful period for Motown. Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops, Marvin Gaye and The Temptations were just some of their stars in the 1960's. But none were as successful as The Supremes.

Diana Ross was the lead singer from the start, and after The Supremes became The Supremes, no one was surprised when Diana Ross decided to go solo at the end of the 60's. In the years that followed she made TV appearances, three movies and recorded several albums. But it wasn't until she moved into disco in the late 70's that Diana Ross caught the public's imagination.

Songs like "My Old Piano", "Upside Down" and "Work that Body" were big international hits. So, at an age when many performers begin to think about slowing down, Diana Ross' career seems to be at its peak. She's married with three children, needs only six hours sleep per night and is working harder than ever. She will star in a new film called "Josephine Baker", the story of a Parisian cabaret singer. She also has plans for records, tours and TV work.

Many people have tried to define what makes Diana Ross a superstar. Her voice? Her looks? Her elegance? Her ability to make you feel emotion? Diana Ross herself doesn't know the answer. About her long and varied career she says: "I just know that I'm still here and I'm still working."

b) Read the text below about a visit to a rock festival.  Say what kind of impressions the narrator had his visit.  Then give your impressions of a concert (recital) you have recently attended.
Use the topical vocabulary.

Visit to a Rock Festival.

My visit to a three-day rock festival last week was quite a revelation.  I realized that the impression I had of this type of occasion (received in my childhood from my elder siblings who had first-hand experience) were in fact somewhat misleading.  I had imagined something shiny, gleaming, and magical, in idyllic surroundings.  What I wasn’t prepared for was the sheer chaos of the whole affair: the lack of anywhere to sit and the discomfort that entailed, the mud (it seemed to pour with rain continuously the whole weekend) and the terrible crush of the huge number of  people in a rather limited space (though the park in question had always seemed to me quite sizeable – that was when it was empty of course).  All in all, the whole experience was a delightful one, in that I learnt a lot, but why so many young people should choose to spend a weekend in such appalling conditions remains incomprehensible to me!

Outline for giving impressions:

1. Type of event.

2. What orchestra, group performed?

3. Programme. Were the musical pieces well-known, popular, new, avant-guard, etc.?

4. Who was the conductor?

5. Was the event interesting and enjoyable in your opinion?

6. Name the soloists.

7. What did critics say about the event? Do you share their points of view?

 8. What impression did the event make on you? Did you take a solemn oath never to attend one again?

4. On Your Own.

    Make use of the  article about Diana Ross to  prepare your own report about the singer you like. Use your plan.

    What are your preferences? Jazz, R & B, Rock or Pop? You are welcome to visit the fan sites of your favourites getting info about themselves and the style they play. Refer to:www.mtv.com, www.uk.launch.yahoo.com,

www.bbc.co.uk/music, www.realukmusic.co.uk, www.futuremusic.co.uk

www.sonymusic.com.

Unit 4.

British vs. American Music.

1. Lead-in.

1) What are your favourite British and American singers or groups?

2) Do you know British or American composers who wrote/write classical music?

3) Do you think the British/the Americans/the Russians are a musical nation?  What are your criteria?

2. Vocabulary.

Use the words in brackets to form a word that fits in the space.

MUSIC IN SCHOOLS

Primary schools in London are trying out an (ambition) plan through which young children get an (introduce) to serious music.  The idea comes from a group of famous (music) who are concerned about the (survive) of certain types of classical music.  They see the plan as one possible (solve) to the problem of declining audience at classical concerts.  

Their (argue) is that an interest in classical music should be developed in early (child).  They reject that children are (interest) in serious music or necessarily find it boring.  The group goes into school and gives a live (perform) of a short classical piece and then this is followed by an (explain) of how the instruments work.  These sessions have proved so (success) that they have now become a regular feature in some schools.

3. Reading and Speaking.

a) Read the text below. Write out the names of British music basic leaders.

MUSIC AND MUSICIANS IN BRITAIN

The people living in the British Isles are very fond of music, and it is quite natural that concerts of the leading symphony orchestras, numerous folk groups and pop music. The Promenade concerts are probably the most famous. They were first held in 1840 in the Queen's Hall, and later were directed by Sir Henry Wood. They still continue today in the Royal Albert Hall. They take place every night for about three months in the summer, and the programmes include new and contemporary works, as well as classics. Among them are symphonies and other pieces of music composed by Benjamin Brittan, the famous English musician.

Folk music is still very much alive. There are many folk groups. Their harmony singing and good humour win the friends everywhere.

Rock and pop music are-extremely popular, especial among younger people. In the 60s and 70s groups such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd became very popular and successful.

The Beatles, with their style of singing new and exciting, their wonderful sense of humour became the most successful pop group the world has ever known. Many of famous songs written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney are still popular.

Some of the more recent rock groups are Eurhythmics, Dire Straits, Black Sabbath.

British groups often set new trends in music. New stars and styles continue to appear. One of the most popular con temporary musicians and composers is Andrew Lloyd Webber.. The musicals and rock operas by A. L. Webber have been a great success both in Britain and overseas.

b) Read the following text and add new pieces of information about British music. Answer the questions:

1. Why cannot we describe Britain as "the land without music"?
2. Who are the great singers of the British Isles?
3. What kind of music is popular in Britain?

MUSIC IN BRITAIN

As you know, music as an art is very rich in our country. Russian composers and musicians are well known all over the world. We have a lot of concert halls in which concerts of different kinds of music are held, music is played over the radio and TV, and there are thousands of music schools all over the country, where children and young people are taught to sing and play different musical instruments.

And what about music in Britain?

Early in this century, Britain was described by foreigners as "the land without music". It is difficult to believe this now. First-class concerts are given in London; big provincial towns have their own orchestras; several music festivals are held every summer; and concerts of serious music can be heard on the radio.

Choral singing is very popular in Britain, and especially in the North of England and in Wales. The Welsh are the great singers of the British Isles, and their beautiful voices are very well suited to choral work.

Music of all kinds is popular in Britain, both in live performances' and on gramophone records. It may be an individual singer or pianist, or small bands playing various kinds of "pop" or dance music. There also may be choirs and orchestras with over a hundred performers. "Pop" — popular — music is liked very much by young people. Pop singers receive a great deal of admiration.

c) Read the text below. Complete the chart:

LONDON AND MUSIC

From time to time, Londoners proclaim that London is not only a world musical center, but the center of the world's music, no less. Handel who visited London in 1710 liked it so much that he returned and became an English resident. Bach wrote seven operas for London in the 20 years he lived there.

Mozart came as a boy of eight. There he wrote two symphonies. Haydn wrote his first set of six "London " symphonies. On his second visit he wrote the second series of "London " symphonies. Cherubim wrote four operas for London in 1780-s and a symphony for the Philharmonic Society of London in 1815. In the XIX century London was the address of Mendelssohn, Weber, Rossini, Verdi. Berlioz worked as a conductor and as an observant correspondent for a newspaper. Wagner was conducting a series of concerts for the Philharmonic Society.

London's churches play a great musical part in the life of the Londoner, especially in the City and the West End, where organ recitals and performances of recorded music are a regular and well-attended lunch-time feature. Many of the churches serve as concert halls at night for the performance of secular music by the numberless small orchestras and chamber ensembles. The musical repertoire of the royal chapels of the Royal Hospital is naturally limited psalms, hymns, interludes...

In the concert hall Londoners observe a religious silence, and applause after the performing breaks the tension and gives the soloist a chance to relax for a moment.

The Catholic churches in XX century revolutionized the catholic musical repertoire. The new age of singing of the carols is a little too personal and emotional for Anglican taste.

Another unique musical activity in London is mg in the parks. From May to September military bands play on Sundays in Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, Regent's Park, and Greenwich Park. Bands play in the winter months too, but not in the Parks. One of the 5 Guards Bands marches daily to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the Guard and plays on its way.

A great deal of London's musical life has become decentralized. Cinemas, museums, institutes, schools, libraries. church halls, lecture halls — all have to serve as improvised concert halls to satisfy the Londoner s gargantuan appetite for music.

One can observe a Victorian style in the musical life of London: the concert hall is dominated by German music, the opera by Italian.

There are semi-professional organizations that identify themselves as "groups". They do not perform in theatres. They use their local town halls .These opera "groups" produce opera in a form which is best defined as "Town Hall Opera". Their repertoire is sensibly different from that of the professional opera houses.

The Grand Opera Societies which have regularly performed Gounod's Faust since their formation, when it was one of the most popular operas, are now performing a rarity.

The rest of the groups concentrate mostly on operas that have never been particularly popular but which in an ideal world would be part of the everyday opera repertoire.

The busiest and most ambitious manifestation of opera-group activity is at Arts Festival. The operatic Policy of this festival since its foundation in 1955 has been the performance of typically unfamiliar operas presented by various "groups" and sponsored by the Libraries and /Irt Committee of the Borough. The principal singers in these productions are professional; the orchestras are also usually professional, but the choruses are not.

d) Read the text below about American music and say which forms and styles of music developed in the USA and what they are like.

American Music

Unique forms and styles of music have developed in America.  Ragtime, blues, jazz, coutry-western, rock’n’roll, and the musical are all American-born.

The black American music tradition produced and influenced a variety of genres.  Ragtime was the first black American music to gain wide popularity.  Composer Scott Joplin (1868-1917) helped develop ragtime from simple parlor piano music into serious genre.  Ragtime is most important fro its association with the blues, which  then inspired jazz, America’s most original music form.

The blues evolved from African folk songs and church music.  Sung by soloists or featuring solo instruments, blues often expresses disappointment or regret.

Jazz, now recognized as a world-wide art form, originated around the turn of the century among black musicians in the American South.  The music was inspired by African Culture but evolved directly from spirituals, ragtime, and blues.  Jazz is characterized by improvisation and a lively attention to rhythm, something famous jazz musician Duke Ellington (1988-1974) called “swing”.

By 1920, jazz had spread from the South, and in the 1930s, it reached its heyday of mass popularity as big band music.  Louis Armstrong, (1900-1971) a trumpeter and soloist, was one of the first well-known jazz singers.  Other early jazz leaders were Duke Ellington, “Dizzy” Gillespie and Charlie Parker.

Although the improvisational style of early jazz still survives today, jazz has moved on to new frontiers.  In the 1960s and 70s, jazz musicians began combining the rhythms of rock’n’roll and electronic instruments with traditional elements of jazz to form a blend of music called “fusion.”  Today, jazz is extremely popular in America and abroad.  Jazz concerts draw thousands of listeners every year.

The influence of jazz is found in many types of American music.  The music of George Gershwin (1898-1937), one of America’s most popular song writers and composers, was strongly influenced by jazz.  The concerto “Rhapsody in Blue” and the opera “Porgy and Bess” were two of his works which incorporated jazz.

Another popular type of music which came out of the American South is country-western.  However, its cultural origin and musical sounds are totally different from jazz.  The style of country western music has its roots in the folk songs and ballads of the early Scottish and English settlers in the southern colonies.  The music developed over a long period with melodies and lyrics reflecting rural life in the Southeast and Southwest.  The distinctive sound of country music depends on the guitar, banjo and fiddle.  Lyrics generally focus on the sorrows of love or the economic hardships of poor whites.

In the 1930s another native American-born art form emerged.  The musical was a new form of entertainment which combined acting, music, and ballet.  The musical was inspired by the Anglo-Irish musical theatre, the central European operetta, and the American vaudeville minstrel show.  Basically entertainment in character, most early screen musicals were lavish and glamorous escapist fantasies.  Dreams of success came true for characters who overcame hardships by faith and hard work, with some spectacular singing and dancing along the way.

Later musicals, such as Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma” and Sondheim and Bernstein’s “West Side Story”, included serious themes and social criticism.  “A Chorus Line”, first performed in 1975, is still one of the most popular musicals today.

Rock music has dominated the popular music scene ever since America was inundated with the new sound in 1950s.  Rock’n’roll developed as a mixture of black blues and white country-western.  The music quickly won intense and sustained appeal with young people not only in America, but all over the world.  Early rock musicians such as Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan were idolized by millions of teenagers.

4. On Your Own.

a) To find out more about the history of English music refer to “Arts and Entertainment.  Пособие для изучающих английский язык на продвинутом этапе. – Мурманск: МГПИ, 2001. – 104 с.”, p. 79-83. and to “Speaking about art. Пособие по устной практике английского язык. – Мурманск:МГПИ, 2000. – 93 с. ” , 68-93 . Pay attention to the names of Henry Purcell (1659-1695),  Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934), Frederik Delius (1862-1934), Ralph Vaugham (1872-1958), Benjamin Britten (1913-1976).  What kind of music did these people write?

b) To find out more about the history of American music refer to:

Eckhard Fiedler, Reimer Jansen, Mil Norman-Risch.  America In Close-Up. – Longman, 2000. 

Unit 1.

The Art of Painting.

1.  Lead-in.

a) What types of visual art do you know/ enjoy?

b) How is visual art present in your everyday life and what effect does it have?

What makes good art? Do you think art can be great if it is
not linked with the people's lives, their interests and ideals.
Give your reasons.

c) How does art help us understand the outside world?  What purposes does true art serve?

d) Share your opinions: real art appeals to the heart and mind
of man, to his feelings and ideals and it proclaims life. Art is
life, pretence of art is death.

e) How were you taught to appreciate or create art?

2. Vocabulary.

1. Learn the following. Work in pairs: student A gives the definition of the word, student B guesses the term, then swap the roles.

Painting: painting, picture, canvas.

The name of the artist can be used like a common noun to denote a work by him. A Picasso means a work by him.

Genres of painting. A landscape is a picture representing a tract of country with the various objects it contains. In the context of art landscape generally denotes a picture and not a view depicted there. When speaking of the view use scenery, countryside.

A seascape is painting or other artistic representation of the sea. A portrait is a painting, picture or representation of the person, especially of a face generally drawn from life.

Sitter, subject, model is a person who is having his portrait painted.

A still life is a painting of such unanimated subjects as fruit, flowers and other decorative things.

A fresco is a picture on a wall or ceiling where a plast is still wet or damp.

Genre painting is a painting which represents scenes from every day life in a more or less realistic way.

A scene is used in various expressions specifying the subject of the picture: street scene; city scene; country scene; hunting scene; historical scene; battle scene.

Scene is often followed by from ... life.

A piece is used as a general term meaning "work", "picture".

2. Translate the words arranging them under the following types:

PAINTING

    COLOUR                                     EFFECT                     IMPRESSION

Air, appeal, arrangement, brilliance, light and shade, primary colours, riot of colours, to convey, craftsmanship, delineation, effect (atmosphere effects, colour effects), to execute, exquisite, to produce impression, intensity, highlights, complete command of colours, diffused light, relations of tone and colour, to render, to represent, statement of form and colour, subject, subject matter, semi-tones, to treat, out of value, to fade, design, poetic in tone and atmosphere, abundance, accuracy, to acquire, to affect, affirmation, animation, apotheosis, life-asserting art, to attain, austere, combination of colours, facial expression, to glorify, infinite, personification, to render, pure/vivid/brilliant/intense/soft/delicate colours, to evoke, conception, to radiate, spirituality, range of colours, to command attention, to penetrate, finished technique, expressiveness, emotional impact, harmony of colours, individual traits, skill, message, to radiate, immediacy, luminous, secondary colour, at one stroke, subdued colours, to be silhouetted against, to catch/to capture/to seize, splashes of colour, fluid/fluent, to anticipate, crystal-clear.

3. Study the topical vocabulary and name the categories of the groups:

1. to evoke, intense, to capture the sitter's vitality, to paint
   from life, penetrating studies of a character, special insight
   into the psychology, immediacy, spontaneity;
2. conception, brilliant, to portray ...with moving sincerity,
   poetic in tone and atmosphere, to anticipate, investigation
   of colour, range of colours, coloured patches;
3. vivid, life-like, supreme mastery of technique, to achieve
   lightness of tone, high artistic quality, to be impressed by, to
   retain freshness, to be fascinated by the subject;
4. pure, vivid, to break with the tradition, to place the figure
   against the landscape background, to look natural, intensity,
   to emphasize;
5. appeal, brilliance, primary colours, to convey, to produce
   impression, to acquire, to affect, to glorify, to render;
6. to render, soft, delicate colours, elegant gesture, spiritual
   face, a brilliant colourist, the impression of, airness and
   lightness;
7. to radiate, spirituality, to combine form and colour,
   harmonious unity, romantic, poetic in tone and atmosphere,
   to ignore the rules, the purest lyricist;
8. emotion, natural and characteristic pose, sharp psychological
   expressiveness, feeling of air, to convey, finished technique,
   to produce impression, to penetrate.

3. Reading and Speaking.

1. Read the statements below.  How do you understand them?  Which ones do you agree with? Which ones  do you strongly disagree with?

• The excellency of style is not on the surface, but lies deep.
  It is the florid style which strikes at once. There is no need to
  be ashamed of one's apparent dullness.
• The habit of looking at good pictures is in itself a means by
  which taste can be formed and the scope of one's enjoyment
  widened and developed.
• The acquisition of good taste is a matter of time. Painting
  in this respect doesn't differ from other arts.
• A great painting enriches our experience of life, just as a great poem does or a great musical composition.

• Great painters make us see and think a great deal more
  than the objects before us, they teach us to look at a scene
  through their eyes.
• The masterpieces of painting, like the masterpieces of
  music and poetry transform experience; they are a source
  of beauty.
• Art is long, life is short.
• Art has no enemy except ignorance.
• Painting is very therapeutic and has an effect similar to that of meditation – this quiet concentration on a simple object has the effect of stilling the mind, especially for people who come from a busy work environment

b)  In what ways can involvement in painting help children develop their personality?  Share your ideas with your group mates then read the text below and find more arguments.

Art can play a great role in helping children to develop their personalities.  When children become involved in an artistic project, they learn how to express heir inner feelings through different media.  By painting or drawing, they can show their moods and thoughts. Young children are expressive and uninhibited, and painting can help them express what they don’t have the words for. This can give them a sense of freedom and can also help others to understand their frame of mind.  A child can express its fears through painting a picture.  There are plenty of child psychologists, for example, who ask children to draw or paint an episode or person in their lives in order to get an idea of what is on the child’s mind.  Sometimes the child may not even be aware that they are trying to express anything, but art nevertheless provides an outlet for their feelings.

Children can also experience a sense of achievement when they take part in an artistic activity.  They feel proud of the things they create, particularly when their handiwork is displayed in a prominent place by their parents or teacher.  This can also help to build their self-confidence and help them to overcome shyness, as they feel that others appreciate their creations.

Another important way in which art can aid children’s personal development is by teaching them to be creative.  Having the freedom to paint or draw whatever they like gives children the opportunity to use their imagination and come up with original ideas.  Through being able to choose their own colours, shapes and styles, they learn different ways of creating pictures and patterns, and learn new artistic skills.  This innate creativity in children is so easily developed through art, and can then lead into other areas, like language development, even science and mathematical skills.

All children should experience the feeling of possibilities which a blank sheet of paper and a box of colours can offer.  And not only develop their personalities, but open up a whole new area of satisfaction and fulfillment.  It’s something like being able to play a musical instrument, it provides the child with a great source of enjoyment.

d) Which of the above is true for adults?

4. On Your Own.

What are your views on the role of painting in modern life?  Choose any of the statements below which correspond to your own feelings, and think over why you feel this way.

- It is only for snobs and intellectuals.

- It is something I create myself, for my own pleasure.

- It helps people to get in touch with their emotions.

- It should aim to shock people and challenge their assumptions.

- It should be first of all decorative and pleasant to look at.

- It is no longer necessary in an age when are surrounded with a lot of visual images coming from the screens of TV, the Internet, bill-boards, glossy magazines and other sources.

- It is only an investment for the rich.

-I am completely indifferent to it.

Unit 2.

Art Galleries.

1. Lead-in.

a) Do you ever visit art galleries?  Why? / Why not?

b) What could be done to make art galleries more attractive to the general public?

c) Should schools place more emphasis on teaching art?

d) How can governments encourage people to enjoy the art of painting?

e) How important is the art of painting in your community?

2. Vocabulary.

a) Match the names of the artists in column A with the names of the paintings in column B.

Answers: 1-f; 2-b; 3- d; 4-a; 5-c; 6-e; 7-g; 8-I; 9-h; 10-j.

b) Which of the paintings above have you seen in the original?  Which of them do you like most of all?

3. Reading and Speaking.

a) Have you ever been to the State  Tretyakov Gallery?  If not, would you like to visit it?  Read the text below and fill in the words from the box in the appropriate spaces.

150th Anniversary of the State  Tretyakov Gallery

The State Tretyakov Gallery is a national 1) _____ of Russian fine arts and one of the greatest museums in the world. It is located in Zamoskvorechye, one of the oldest regions of Moscow, not far from the Kremlin. The Gallery 2) _____ consists entirely of Russian art by artists who have made a contribution to the history of Russian art or have been closely connected with it.

It is generally accepted that the gallery was founded in 1856, when the young Moscow 3) _____ and industrialist Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov (1832-1898) first acquired works by contemporary Russian artists with the aim of creating a collection, which might later grow into a 4) _____ of national art. "For me, a true and ardent lover of painting, there can be no finer wish than to found a universally accessible 5) _____ of the fine arts, which will benefit many and give pleasure to all," wrote the collector in 1860, adding "I should like to leave behind a national gallery, that is, a gallery with pictures by Russian 6) _____."

The years passed and the young collector's desire was brilliantly put into 7) _____. In 1892 Tretyakov presented the city of Moscow with a large and already famous gallery containing about 2,000 paintings, drawings and sculptures - genuine works of Russian art.

Today, the collection contains more than 130 000 8) _____ - works of painting, sculpture and graphics – created throughout the centuries by successive generations of Russian artists. The museum is organized into Early Russian Art, 18th Century Art, Art of the First Half of the 19th Century, Art of the Second Half of the 19th Century, Late 19th to the Early 20th Century Art, and 20th Century Art. Two separate buildings at different locations - in Lavrushinsky Pereulok and on Krymsky Val - house the works selected for 9) _____.

Russian art works ranging from the 1lth century to the early 20th century, are on display in the historic Gallery building in Lavrushinsky Pereulok. Here one can see the outstanding collection of Medieval Russian 10) _____ painting, works by the best-known Russian artists from the 18th century to first half of the 19th century, and masterpieces of national art dating from the second half of the 19th century to the early 20th century.

The gallery complex located in Lavrushinsky Pereulok includes the Engineering Building, which regularly hosts temporary 11) _____, and the Church of St. Nicholas in Tolmachi museum, a masterpiece of 17th - 19th century architecture. The latter, contains a collection of 15th - 19th century icons, and the Russian national masterpiece - The Vladimir icon of the Mother of God (12th century).

The new building of the Tretyakov Gallery on Krymsky Val houses a unique museum exhibition of national 20th century art.

(http://www.tretyakovgatlery.ru)

b) What kind of masterpieces of art can you find in the State  Tretyakov Gallery?  Which collections of the gallery would you be particularly interested in?

c) Read the text about the most famous art galleries in Great Britain  and answer the questions:

1. What are the most known art galleries in Great Britain?

2. Does the word "national" mean that the Gallery contains only national
paintings?

3. What were the first pictures that the National Gallery housed? When was the
Gallery opened?

4. What collections are there at the Tate Gallery?

ART GALLERIES

If you stand in Trafalgar Square with your back to Nelson's Column, you will see a wide horizontal front in a classical style. It is the National Gallery. It has been in this building since 1838 which was built as the National Gallery to house the collection of Old Masters Paintings (38 paintings) offered to the nation by an English private collector, Sir George Beamount.

Today the picture galleries of the National Gallery of Art exhibit works of all the European schools of painting which existed between the 13th and 19th centuries. The most famous works among them are 'Venus and Cupid' by Diego Velazquez, 'Adoration of the Shepherds' by Nicolas Poussin, 'A Woman Bathing' by Harmensz van Rijn Rembrandt, 'Lord Heathfield' by Joshua Reynolds, 'Mrs Siddons' by Thomas Gainsborough and many others.

In 1897 the Tate Gallery was opened to house the more modern British paintings. Most of the National Gallery collection of British paintings were transferred to the Tate, and only a small collection of a few masterpieces is now exhibited at Trafalgar Square. Thus, the Tate Gallery exhibits a number of interesting collections of British and foreign modern painting and also modern sculpture.

The collection of Turner's paintings at the Tate includes about 300 oils and 19,000 water-colours and drawings. He was the most traditional artist of his time as well as the most original: traditional in his devotion to the Old Masters and original in his creation of new styles. It is sometimes said that he prepared the way for the Impressionists.

The modern collection includes the paintings of Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall and Salvador Dali, Francis Bacon and Graham Sutherland, Peter Blake and Richard Hamilton, the chief pioneers of pop art in Great Britain. Henry Moore is a famous British sculptor whose works are exhibited at the Tate too. One of the sculptor's masterpieces—the 'Reclining Figure’—is at the Headquarters of UNESCO in Paris.

d) Read the text The Wallace Collection.  Explain the meaning of the words in bold.  Then explain what The Wallace Collection is famous for.

THE WALLACE COLLECTION

The Wallace Collection displays superb works of art in probably the most sumptuous interiors of any museum in London. Many people regard it as their favourite place in the capital.

The Collection was bequeathed to the nation by Sir Richard's widow in 1897 and is displayed on the ground and the first floors of Hertford House, the family's main London residence.

There you can see unsurpassed collections of French eighteenth-century painting, furniture and porcelain together with Old Master paintings by, among others, Titian, Canaletto, Rembrandt, Hals, Rubens, Velazquez and Gainsborough. The finest collection of arms and armour in England outside the Tower of London is shown in four galleries and further displays of gold boxes, miniatures, French and Italian sculpture and medieval and Renaissance works of art including Limoges enamels, maiolica, glass, silver, cuttings from illuminated manuscripts and carvings in ivory, rock crystal and boxwood.

The Wallace Collection owes its splendid display of eighteenth-century French painting, particularly Watteau, Boucher and Fragonard and its important collection of pictures by French and English artists of the early nineteenth century including Delacroix and Bonington. The collection of miniatures numbers more than three hundred.

The spectacular collection of eighteenth-century French furniture contains a number of pieces made for royal residences including the chest of drawers made for Louis XV's bedroom at Versailles in 1739 and the secretaries made for Queen Marie-Antoinette by the leading cabinet-maker of the period, Riesener. Among the best loved objects in the entire Collection are the many beautiful clocks including a gilt-bronze musical clock which plays thirteen different tunes. At Hertford House you can see the finest museum collection of Sevres in the world, including exquisite pieces once owned by Louis XV and his mistress Madame de Pompadour.

The Wallace Collection is particularly strong in finely decorated pieces of armour for parade, tournament and use in the field, and in the series of sixteenth and seventeenth-century swords

The Wallace Collection is a five-minutes walk from Bond Street underground station and Oxford Street. The admission is free.

e) Which exhibits of The Wallace Collection impress you most of all?

f) Which of the galleries/exhibitions mentioned in this unit you would like to visit most of all?

4. On Your Own.

a) Make your own report about the gallery/museum  you would like to visit.

b) You can make your virtual excursion clicking on the following sites:

www.nationalgallery.org.uk, www.paintquality.co.uk, www.portraitpaintinguk.com

c) Work with your partner and act out any of the following situations:

A.  Your friend wants to see the Wallace collection, but he/she doesn’t know much about it.  Could you be her guide?

B.  You are in the State Tretyakov Gallery with your friend.  Decide together which pieces of art you would like to see.  

C.  You can’t decide which museum in London to visit and when.  You call to the national Gallery and want to find out as much information as possible from the guide of this museum.

Unit 3.

British vs. American Painting.

1.  Lead-in.

a) What English painters do you know?  What genres or styles do/did they paint in?

b) What American painters do you know?  What genres or styles do/did they paint in?

c) Who do you think contributed more to the development of different styles and genres of painting: the English or the Americans?  What makes you think so?

2. Vocabulary.

    Read the text below.  Use the word given in brackets to form a word that fits in the space.

POP ART

Pop art was an (convention) art style in which commonplace objects such as comic strips, soup cans and road signs were used as subject matter and were often incorporated into the work.  The pop art movement was largely a British and American cultural phenomenon of the late 1950s and 1960s.  Art critic Lawrence Alloway, (refer) to the prosaic iconography of its painting and sculpture, named the movement pop art.  It represented an attempt to return to a more (object) and universally acceptable form of art after the (dominate) in both the United States and Europe of the highly personal abstract expressionism.  The art form was iconoclastic, rejecting both the (supreme) of the “high art” of the past and the (pretend) of other contemporary avant-garde art.  Pop art became a cultural institution because of its close reflection of a particular social situation by the mass media.  Although the critics of pop art described it as sensational and non-aesthetic, its proponents saw it as an art that was democratic and not (discriminate), bringing together both connoisseurs and untrained, (experience) viewers.  Even though public reaction to pop art was (favour), it found critical acceptance as a form of art suited to the highly (technology), mass media-oriented society of western countries.

3. Reading and Speaking.

    a) Read the text below and say which of the English artists mentioned in it you have heard before . Then complete the chart that follows the text.

ENGLISH PAINTING

Painting in England in the 17th-19th centuries is represented by a number of great artists and during that period it was greatly influenced by foreign painters. The Flemish painter Van Dyck was really the father of English portrait school. The English king personally invited Van Dyck to London and during his first year in England the painter spent most of his time painting the King and the Queen. Van Dyck created the impressive, formal type of portrait and such masters as Reynolds, Gainsborough, Lawrence and Raeburn owed much to their study of his works. He created a genre of aristocratic and intellectual portrait which influenced much the development of English painting. Van Dyck created the type of portrait which helped him to convey the sitter's individual psychology.

During the 18th century the truly national school of painting was created, William Hogarth was the first great English painter who raised British pictorial art to a high level of importance. Hogarth (1697-1764) wasn't a success as a portrait painter. But his pictures of social life which he called "modern moral subjects" brought him fame and position. Among his favourite works are six pictures united under the title "Marriage a la Mode". This famous series is really a novel in paint telling the story of the marriage of an earl's son and city merchant's daughter, a marriage made for reasons of vanity and money. Despite the satirical, often amusing detailes, the painter's purpose is serious. He expects his pictures to be read and they are perhaps full of allusions. At the same time Hogarth remained an artist and passages

The works of the Scottish painter Henry Raeburn bear a certain resemblance to those of Reynolds and his school. But Raeburn's portraits are done with greater feeling and he achieves this depth by the effective use of shadow and light (Portrait of Mrs. Raeburn).

Thomas Gainsborough, one of the greatest masters of the English school, was a portraitist and a landscape painter. His portraits are painted in clear tones. Blue and green are predominant colours. One of the most famous works is the portrait of the Duchess of Beufort. He managed to create a true impression of the sitter. Gainsborough greatly influenced the English school of landscape painting. He was one of the first English artists to paint his native land ("Sunset" , "The Bridge") and others. He was the first English artist to paint his native countryside so sincerely. His works contain much poetry and music. He is sometimes considered the forerunner or the impressionists. Gainsborough was the antithesis of the businesslike Reynolds. He was very poetic by his nature, he abhored rules and cares little about the old masters. By necessity a portraitist he was by inclination a landscapist.

John Constable an English landscape painter painted many well-known works ("A Cottage in a Cornfield», "The Loch"). He is the first landscape painter who considered that every painter should make his sketches direct from nature that is working in the open air. His technique and colouring are very close to the impressionists. Constable ignored the rules established by Reynolds. He insisted that art should be based on observation of nature and feeling. He was the herald of romanticism. But the realistic qualities of his art are sensed very strongly.

The furious apostle of the philosophy of romanticism was William Blakes who was strongly opposed to the rules of Reynolds proposing that the guiding force for creative spirit should come from imagination not reason.

A complete expression of romantic ideal can find itself in the pictures of Turner. Joseph Turner was an outstanding painter whose most favourite topic was to paint sea ("The Shipwreck"). He painted waves and storms, clouds and mists with a great skill. Although his talent was recognized immediately he deliberately turned his back to the glittering social world of London. Victorian England which found it more important that a man be a gentleman in the first place and only in the second a genius, never forgave him.

2. Complete the following chart:

c) In what way has England contributed to the development of the art of painting?  Whose contribution do you think was the most significant?

d) Read the text about the development of America’s visual arts and say how the American artists contributed to the development of visual arts.

America’s Visual Arts.

Until the 1940s, America’s visual arts – painting and sculpture – were primarily influenced by European trends.  American art developed mainly through subject matter and skills, as artists imitated the established styles of the European masters.  The most significant developments in American art emerged in the years following the Second World War.

Abstract expressionism, which was begun by a group of New York artists in the 1940s, became the first American art movement to command the attention of artists abroad.  Revolting against traditional graphic styles, the artists of this movement sought to remake the goals and methods of art.  Abstract expressionists rejected traditional subject matter, such as the human body, still life, or rural scenes.  Instead, they focused on such things as the utilization of space, dimension, and surface texture, and the interrelationships of colours.  The international influence of America’s abstract expressionists was so great that the painting centre of the world shifted from Paris to New York.

Among the movement’s leaders were Jackson Pollack (1912-54), who is famous for his turbulent paint-splattered canvases; Willem de Kooning, who used savage brush strokes and intense colours; and Mark Rothko, who is known for the blood blocks of colour that dominate his huge canvases.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, young artists reacted to abstract expressionism to produce works of “mixed” media.  Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns integrated everyday objects such as photographs and newspaper clippings into their painting.

The reaction to abstract expressionism continued with a movement called “pop art”.  The members of this movement attempted to produce works of art that would reflect the pervasive influence of mass marketing, mass media, and other trends in American popular culture.  Important in the pop-art movement were Andy Warhol (1930-1987), famous for his multiple rows of soup cans and multiple portraits of Marilyn Monroe; and Roy Lichtenstein, recognized for his mimicry of well-known comic strips.

4. On Your Own.

Prepare a report about any famous English, American or Russian artist and his contribution to the development of the art of painting.  Accompany your report with the reproductions of the most outstanding works by this artist.

Prepare a task for your group so that to check what they have understood and remembered from your report.  Remember to present your task before your presentation!

Unit 4

Describing a picture.

1.  Lead-in.

a) Which genre/style of painting appeals to you most of all?

b) Have you got a favourite artist?  What is he/she famous for?  What is his contribution to the development of painting?

c) Do you know any artists in your region?  Where are their paintings depicted?

2. Vocabulary.

Read the description of the picture below and think of the word which best fits each space.

The Bathers

One of my favourite works of (1) ….. is by Seurat (1859-1891). It is called "The Bathers" ("Une Baignade") and it is one of his most famous (2) …... It shows a scene in an industrial suburb in Paris called Asnieres.

(3) ... the background, we can just make (4) ... some factory chimneys, but the picture as a whole is full of light, peace and harmony. It gives you that feeling of a hot summer's day when you -just for a moment - escape from grim (5) …...

But (6) ... is it that makes it so calm and relaxing? Perhaps the first thing that (7) ….. our eye is the pile of clothes and boots next to the central figure, right in the middle of the foreground. Notice how clearly the objects are (8) …..; a perfect balance between light and dark. Notice also the hats; hats of different kinds, which seem to have just been left lying around - it's all very casual. Just looking at the hats makes you feel just (9) ... hot it must be. In the (10), we can make out trees and the sails of boats. The man up (11) ... the left, with his trousers rolled up, and the man in the foreground, lying with his back (12)... us, also add to the stillness of the picture. The picture is dominated by the young man more or (15) ... in the middle of the picture, sitting lazily in the sun, his feet dangling in the water.

3. Reading and Speaking.

1. Here are two examples of the painting description. Read them attentively drawing attention to the algorithm of the presentation.   Then write out all the phrases that can be used in the description of other  pictures, for example, a typical group portrait, a portrait in the style of etc.

"Lady Elizabeth Delme and Her Children"

"Lady Elizabeth Delme and Her Children" by Reynolds is a typical family group portrait in the Grand Style of English portrait painting. Lady Delme was the wife of a member of Parliament and belonged to the privileged class of the landed nobility. Here, with an air of apparently casual-informality, she is shown on the terrace before her country-house, while behind stretch the broad acres of her family estate.

Reynolds has taken care that the gestures, facial expressions, and poses of his subjects are appropriate to their age, character, and social status. "The joy of a monarch," Dryden once wrote, "for the news of a victory must not be expressed like the ecstasy of a harlequin on the receipt of a letter from his mistress." So, in this portrait, Lady Delme is dignified and gracious, secure in the knowledge of her beauty and wealth. Her son John, aged five, as if sensing the responsibilities of manhood, gazes sternly toward the distant horizon. Her other son, Emelias Henry, in unmasculine skirts as befits his three years, is coy and winsome. The fourth member of the group, the unkempt Skye terrier, is the embodiment of loyal affection. Note the simplicity of the pyramidal design and the low-keyed colour scheme. These features were for Reynolds symbols of dignity and good taste.

"Dedham Lock and Mill"

This is a brilliant example of Constable's view painting at its complete maturity. The salient features of the landscape are treated in sharp relief — even those not strictly necessary — yet they merge perfectly under a serene, perfect light. This painting contains, in synthesis, all the elements of landscape which Constable loved best: the river, the boats, the soaked logs, the river vegetation, the sun shining through the foliage of the tall trees, the scenes of rural life and, above all, Dedham Mill. The cultural origins of this work are apparent in the traditional composition, in the use of chiaroscuro, in the way the landscape fades into the distance, after the Dutch manner, and in the complex, laboured palette. The compact tree mass in the foreground is blocked in against a sky filled with movement, reflected in the calm and transparent waters over which plays a pallid sun, as we find in Ruisdael. 

“Golden Autumn” and “Spring Great Water”.

The best tradition of the landscape painting were brilliantly generated and developed by the works of an outstanding Russian artist Isaac Levitan.  This artist enlarged the Russian painting of the 19th century by the great diversity and depth of feelings and emotions so clearly guessed throughout his canvasses.  All the colourful riches of the Russian landscapes are reflected in his masterpieces.  Let us remember the brightest and most touching of them.  For example: “Golden Autumn”.  In this painting Levitan creates an atmosphere of joy and happiness.  Or I would rather remind you one more great Levitan’s landscape “Spring Great Water”.  The main topic of this work is the artist’s poetic and convincing representation of the revival of the nature, wonderful purity of the early spring and especially of the young virgin and fragile birches which are so bare and wiry in spring.  The canvas is full of the springtime air and light.  In fact, the great water reminds me of the overturned sky, it seems to be a mirror reflecting even the most unnoticeable details such as a cobweb.  In this painting the sunny sky and a mild air gives the nature so clearly seen the freedom of renovation and eternity.

And one knows many songs are devoted to the famous Russian birches and indeed, aren’t they poetic in this painting?  Like wax candles they go to the sky, their roots dissolve in the water and their branches merge in the deep blue sky.  This reflection is like a calm echo of their timid existence.  There are no men in the canvas but their presence is vivid: an old painting boat, left by a peasant and far away wooden huts on the horizon.

Levitan’s technique is unique.  You judge it from the brilliant solution of the perspective in the painting.  From the beginning till the end of the work over the landscape Levitan didn’t change its contents.  He was only perfecting the colourful concord of the light and shade.  And these are the main features which made the landscape one of the most lyrical among the works painted by the great Russian artist Isaac Levitan.

(from Попок Н.В. Экзамен по английскому языку. – Мн.: ТетраСистемс, 2000.)  

“Boyarynya Morozova”

“Boyarynya Morozova” is one of he best and brightest Surikov’s paintings.  He took the subject for his picture from the Russian dissident history and the religious uprisings of the 17th century.

The fate of a historical figure, the inner philosophical drama, the strength of will are the main topics of the canvas “Boyarynya Morozova”.  It was finished by 1887 and is considered the work of great feeling and effect.  It is a real artist’s masterpiece.  If you look at the picture, you can see a damp winter day, grey blue haze that wraps up the Red Square, in the background you can see thatched dilapidated roofs of Moscow poor people’s huts and golden onion-looking domes of the churches.  In the middle of the painting there is a sledge surrounded by the crowds of people and it moves along the snowy road.  Boyarynya Morozova sits in the sledge.  Her sister, princess Urusova stands beside her as a true symbol of deep suffering.  Morozova in her fanatizm is ready to sacrifice for the sake of her religious outlook though she is sure, she’ll die, nothing can stop her.  And Surikov imparts a deathlike hue to her face.  Her dark wide open eyes seem to flare with religious passion.  Surikov uses the contrast of a pale face and dark attire which vividly connects Morozova with other women’s images in the canvas.  And we can notice quite easily that her face is the solo bright spot in the picture: somber, strained and astoundingly expressive.

The colour used in this picture harmonise with its tragic contents.  The canvas is done in a realistic and somewhat daubing manner.  It is mostly done in bright colours, but there are some dark patches in it.  This painting revives in my heart the feeling of sorrow, though the impression of the canvas is great and deeply convincing.  The depth and fineness of psychological characteristics, precise definition of the national type, genuine realism place Surikov’s Morozova among the best images in the world painting.  This canvas must be and is among the best treasures of Russian Art.

(from Попок Н.В. Экзамен по английскому языку. – Мн.: ТетраСистемс, 2000.)  

b) Have you seen any of the pictures described above?  If yes, were your impressions the same?

c)  Read the description of the painting below and find examples of these features:

-expressions describing different parts of the picture;

-background information;

-personal information and reactions

Monet was one of the most important Impressionist painters. My favourite painting is his "Venice: Palazzo de Mula". The first time I set eyes on this painting I found it quite breath taking. I had been looking for a present for a friend of mine when I noticed a poster of it in a shop window. The first thing that caught my eye were the colours because they were so vivid and powerful.

The painting shows a palace in Venice. The canvas is divided into two parts: the canal and the building. In the center of the picture there are two arches which seem to be the entrance to the palace. In front of these, there are two gondolas. At the top of the painting are two balconies.

Above the central arches there are a couple of windows of a strange, dark-red colour -perhaps it is the reflection of the sunset. At the bottom of the picture, the water in the canal is still and, as I gaze at it, I feel a sense of peace and calm.

4. On Your Own.

    Write a description of a painting you like which shows a landscape (in the city or in the country) or a portrait painting. You may use this plan and the phrases that you have written out from the descriptions of pictures above.

• THE GENERAL EFFECT.

(The title and the name of the artist. The period or trend represented. Does it appear natural and spontaneous or contrived and artificial?)

• THE CONTENTS OF THE PICTURE.

(Place, time and setting. The accessories, the dress or environment. Any
attempt to render the emotions of the model/the atmosphere of nature. What does the  artist accentuate in his subject?

• THE COMPOSITION AND COLOURING.

In a portrait:

(How is the sitter represented? Against what background? Any prevailing format? Is the picture bold or rigid? Do the hands (head, body) look natural and informal? How do the eyes gaze?

In a portrait or in a landscape:

Does the painter concentrate on the analysis of details? What tints predominate in the colour scheme? Do the colours blend imperceptible? Are the brushstrokes left visible?).

What is the first thing that catches your eye?

What can you see in the background?

What can you see in the foreground?

• INTERPRETATION AND EVALUATION.

(Does it exemplify a high degree of artistic skill? What feelings or ideas does it evoke in the viewer?) What feelings and emotions does the painting give you?

Topic: Mass Media.

Unit 1.

The Mass Media In The Modern World.

1. Lead-in.

a) What are mass media?

b) What is your favourite medium? Which do you dislike? Is there any you detest?

c) What is the part of the media in the world market nowadays? Does it influence people’s viewpoint greatly?

2. Vocabulary. 

Read and translate the words in bolds. Build up your Topical Vocabulary using these words.

News and entertainment are communicated in a number of different ways, using different media. The media include print media such as newspapers and magazines, and electronic media such as radio, television or the Internet.

Programmes on radio and television may be referred to formally as broadcasts; and they may be referred to formally as shows.  Programmes or shows on radio and television are often presented or hosted by a programme host. Popular music programmes are presented by disc jockeys or DJs.

News programmes may be hosted, fronted, or anchored by anchors famous in their own right, sometimes more famous than the people in the news. In more traditional news programmes, the news is read by a newsreader. Reporters and correspondents, or television journalists, make reports. They and the camera operators who go with them are news gatherers. Together they form TV crews.  Programmes and reports are transmitted or broadcast lives in a live broadcast, with events seen or heard as they happen, or recorded for broadcastlater. A recording of an event can be referred to as footage of that event.

A news programme might include: dramatic footage of events such as war or disasters; interviews and studio discussions; vox-pop interviews, getting the reactions of ordinary people, often in the street or clips, or extracts, of any of these things.  People sometimes say that today news programmes are infotainment, a mixture of information, and entertainment, something that people watch or listen to for pleasure. Another example of infotainment is docudrama where real events are dramatised and reenacted by actors. This is a combination of documentary and drama.

There is, of course, a lot of competition between broadcasting organizations. Most TV and radio networks want to increase the size of their audience or their ratings, at the expense of other networks.

Good ratings are especially important during prime-time or peak-time, the time of day, or slot, when most people watch TV.  High audience figures attract more advertising or commercials to be shown in commercial breaks between programmes. Commercials are also known as spots. People watching TV are viewers. Viewers who watch a lot of television without caring what they watch are coach potatoes.

If you zap between channels, you use your remote control or zapper to change channels a lot, perhaps looking for something interesting to watch, and perhaps not succeeding.

The press usually refers just to newspapers, but the term can be extended to include magazines. Newspapers are either tabloid, a format usually associated in the English-speaking world with the popular press, or broadsheet, associated with quality journalism. Tabloids are sometimes referred to as the gutter press by people who disapprove of them.

Tabloids often have very large circulations and even bigger readerships. Papers such as these are often referred to as mass circulation papers.  Newspapers run or carry articles or stories. Articles other than the most important ones can also be referred to as pieces.  Editorials give the paper's opinion about the news of the day. In a quality newspaper, the most important editorial is the leading article or leader. These, and the other editorials, are written by leader writers.

Celebrities usually complain about intrusive reporting techniques like the use of paparazzi, photographers with long-lens cameras who take pictures without the subject's knowledge or permission. Other intrusive methods include doorstepping, waiting outside someone's house or office with microphone and camera in order to question them, and secretly recording conversations by bugging rooms with hidden microphones, or bugs.

3. Reading and Speaking.

a) Read the following text, name the people and the agencies that work for mass media. Think over their place in the structure of the media.

WHAT ARE THE MASS MEDIA?

A message can be communicated to a mass audience by many means: hardly an American lives through a day without feeling the impact of at least one of the mass medium aimed at the sense of sound, whereas television and motion pictures appeal both to the visual and auditory senses.

The reader turns to his newspaper for news and opinion, entertainment, and the advertising it publishes. In the weekly the focus is upon the reader's own community; in the daily the focus is upon the nation and the world as well. Magazines give him background information, entertainment, opinion, and the advertising; books offer longer range and more detailed examination of subjects, as well as entertainment; pamphlets, direct mail pieces, and billboards bring the views of commercial and civic organizations. Films may inform and persuade as well as entertain. Television and radio offer entertainment, news and opinion, and advertising messages and can bring direct coverage of public events into the listener's home.

There are important agencies of communication which are adjuncts of the mass media. These are (1) the press associations, which collect and distribute news and pictures to the newspapers, television and radio stations, and news magazines; (2) the syndicates, which offer background news and pictures, commentary, and entertainment features to newspapers, television and radio, and magazines; (3) the advertising agencies, which serve their business clients, on the one hand, and the mass media, on the other; (4) the advertising departments of companies and institutions, which serve in merchandising roles; and the public relations departments, which serve in information roles; (5) the public relations counseling firms and publicity organizations, which offer information in behalf of clients, and (6) research, individuals and groups, who help gauge the impact of the message and guide mass communicators to more effective paths.

Who are the communicators who work for and with these mass media? We think of the core as being the reporters, writers, editors, announcers, and commentators for newspapers, news magazines, television and radio, press associations, and syndicates. But there are many others: news photographers; book and publication editors and creative personnel in the graphic arts industry; advertising personnel of all types; public relations practitioners and information writers; business management personnel for the mass media; radio-television script and continuity writers; film producers and writers; magazine writers and editors; trade and business paper publication writers and editors; industrial publication editors; technical writers in such fields as science, agriculture and home economics; specialists in mass communications research; and teachers of journalism. Actors in television and motion pictures also are communicators in a special sense, adding emotional impact to the written script.

b) Read the text below, explain how you understand the phrases in bold and distinguish the role of mass media in the modern society.

GROWING UP WITH THE MEDIA

What do you remember most about your childhood? Running through the long dewy grass of a meadow or the Saturday morning TV cartoons? Sitting in the kitchen watching your mother cook supper or sitting in the living-room watching Captain Kangaroo! Now bring your memories up to date. What did you and your friends talk about, at least part of the time, before class? An item from a newspaper? An ad that you noticed in a magazine or a television commercial? An episode from a popular TV series? A movie? A new computer game? Or a new record that you heard on the radio?

If your answers are parallel to those of most young people, you add to the proof that mass media play large and influential role in your life. Your answers also prove just how casually you accept the media, just as you accept the house you live in, cars, electricity, telephones, your school, and your family as part of and teachers agree that all young people growing up with the media learn from them sometimes more than adults wish you to. (And this is the cause for alarm.)  If the use of them referring to media in the last sentence seems strange, remember that the word media linguistically is plural. When people make a fuss about the media being a bad influence, they usually are talking about television, the most powerful medium of all. Maybe calling television the media can be justified technically because, as a medium, it embraces functions of several media such as newspapers, magazines, movies, and recordings.

One of the problems facing us today is being reached by the media when we really don't choose to be. Do you sometimes find it difficult to locate a moment of complete silence in your environment or a time when your eyes are not presented with signs, billboard, or pictures demanding attention?

Another meaning the word mass suggests is "the people"; a phrase too often associated with adjectives like dull-witted, credulous, ill-informed, uncritical, and passive. Or are the mass of people well-informed, sophisticated, thoughtful, and active? Which are you? How much of what you know about yourself has been taught you by the media? Is this good or bad?

An experiment recently conducted in Europe by the Society for Rational Psychology showed that watching television is psychologically addictive. The idea of becoming addicted to television brings up questions involving subtle conditioning and brainwashing.

In a commercial society the media's ability to stimulate motivation to buy — almost as though people were puppets on strings — builds other people's power.

All these negative aspects of growing up with the media need consideration, at the same time you are enjoying the positive aspects of immediately knowing what's going on in the world, sharing great entertainment and historical events with everyone else in our "global village", and having the fun of trying out a new product that you wouldn't have known about without advertising.

According to a recent research report, more than a third
of all children by the age of three are viewing TV with some
regularity and more than half are listening to books read to
them. Before they are old enough for school — a third of the
children are looking through magazines, 40 percent are listening to radio, and 80 percent are viewing television or playing computer games. You are one of these children. As you grew, you absorbed uncritically, as children do.

And what did you absorb? Hundreds of items of  information, most of them accurate as far as they went. With all this, you also absorbed ideas about behaviour, about right and wrong, good and bad, the permissible and the forbidden. These ideas were presented to you — and still are — directly and indirectly with the entertainment, advertising, and information. The most powerful ideas are the ones you absorb indirectly.

Another indicating of media influence is in the language we use. Whole new vocabularies come into existence with new inventions. Look back at the first two paragraphs of this chapter. How many expressions can you identify that came into popular usage with the development of a medium? How about TV cartoons? Or the abbreviated version of the word television?

The impact of the mass media is very strong. It changes our language, stimulates our emotions, informs our intellect, influences our moral values, and attitudes.    

When you were young and absorbing uncritically, you could not possibly know that the majority of the material you saw and heard was designed to produce specific responses from you. Some adults, for that matter, either do not know or refuse to admit the following basic fact of media production: the MAJORITY of material is chosen or designed to produce a predetermined response. Even that part of media output called "entertainment" is chosen to keep you quiet, unquestioning, available, and receptive to commercial messages inserted throughout. This is evident whether the entertainment is a TV drama with commercials every few minutes or a newspaper or magazine article with columns of type wrapped around the advertisements.

The journalism, urgent issues, news, or information-giving portion of media output is selected, edited, produced, placed in time slots or positioned in the newspaper or magazine to reflect and support the Owner’s policies. However, no reporter, photographer, film or copy editor, script or continuity writer in either print or electronic media has ever needed to be told specifically what the boss's policies are. You pick them up through your pores within a week or two of accepting a job, and you work accordingly.

We — counted in the millions, the mass audience of mass media — are then programmed to buy, vote, contribute, believe, and support other people's interests, interests which may be commercial, political, charitable, philosophical, or educational. Sometimes these interests will coincide with your own; sometimes they won't.  Some of the media's output has long lasting value and worth; some is not only cheap, tawdry, and superficial stuff, but physically, emotionally, and intellectually harmful.

c) Point out the positive and negative effect in mass media influence. Complete the following table:

4. On Your Own.

Learn more about the British Mass Media from the Encyclopaedia Britannica Deluxe Edition 2004 (electronic version). Analyse the facts and compare the situation with the situation in Russia.  

Electronic Media.

1.  Lead-in.

a) What are your favourite TV programmes?

b) What qualities do you look for in a television programme?

c) What are the programmes that appeal to specific age groups, in your opinion?

d)What is the amount of weekend TV time devoted to different
programmes?

e)What genres of programmes seem to dominate prime-time viewing?

f)What advantages, if any, does the television have over radio and the Internet?
g) How often do you listen to the radio? What sort of radio channels do you usually listen to?

h) Is radio a way to get information or do you prefer other media?

i) Do you think radio today is as popular as it was 50 years ago?

j)Are you keen on the Internet?  How often do you use it? What do you usually use it for?

2. Vocabulary.

a) Study the Topical Vocabulary, translate the words and phrases into Russian and relate the vocabulary blocks to the proper groups:

2. Study the following information. Be ready to explain the terms:

Magazine programme - programme which is a mixture of "hard" and feature items;

Wild life programme - programme showing animals, birds, etc. in their natural environment;

Quiz programme - programme on which members of the audience are asked questions, in case of correct answer they receive prizes; sitcom (situational comedy)    - short film providing entertainment;

"Soap" opera-play (an afternoon television regular feature) which originally appeared on the radio and was sponsoured by soap advisers, continuing from day to day, presenting emotional and melodramatic situations like many operas of the 19th century (thus named "soap" operas);

Video clip - minifilm, about the length of a song, interpreting or dramatizing a song;

Western - uniquely American film presenting myths about pioneering, courageous Americans.

3. Reading and Speaking.

a) How much do you know about the history of Television?  Before reading the text make up the questions that you would like to find the answers to in the text about the history of television.  Then read the text and see which of them have been answered.  

The Story So Far

The idea of a machine able to broadcast both sound and vision goes back to 1875. But it wasn't until 1926 that a Scottish engineer turned the idea into a practical reality. Now, his invention dominates the modern media. This is its story.

John Logie Baird produced the first television pictures just eight years after the First World War. They were in black and white and were not very clear, but he had proved that the principle worked. Early sets made in the years Baird's breakthrough cost as much as a small car and not many were sold. Soon, though, his original system was improved and in 1936 Britain's first regular TV programme went on the air. "Here's Looking At You" was broadcast by the BBC from north London's Alexandra Palace studios twice a day for a weekly budget of one thousand pounds. But Great Britain wasn't the only country producing programmes. Other European nations, including Germany, were also involved in the early days of television. As, of course, was America — and it's there that the real TV revolution began after World War Two.

US television boomed in the late '40s. Commercial stations began to open in almost every city, and national networks made programmes which were seen from coast to coast. One of the American networks — CBS — even developed a colour service as early as 1951. Two years later, TV took another important step when it covered its first major international event — the coronation of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. It was the first time that a worldwide audience of millions had seen history take place in their own homes.

By the end of the decade, TV culture was rapidly becoming a fact of life on both sides of the Atlantic. Even so, it was still a very young medium — lots of people didn't have sets — and many experts thought it wouldn't last. That all changed in the '60s and '70s, though, as television started to satisfy the public's desire, not just for entertainment, but also for rapid, accurate information. As more and more sets were sold, the importance of TV news quickly grew. After all — what other medium could show you live — as TV did in 1969 — Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon?

Since 1980 there have been four more major developments. The first is video, which has given viewers the power to control what they watch and when they watch it. These days, fifty per cent of homes have a VCR (video-cassette recorder) and millions more are being sold every year.

The second is satellite TV. Thanks to DBS (direct broadcast satellites), dozens of new channels are now available to anyone who buys a receiving "dish". Many of these new channels specialize in one kind of programme — e. g. news, sport, cartoons, music, movies.

The third development is cable — a system of hi-tech wires, which provides even more channels at a price. But not only that. Cable also makes it possible for you to communicate through your TV, not just the other way around. More about that in a moment.

Fourthly, there's HDTV (high definition television), which now offers a much clearer and more realistic picture than was possible even a few years ago.

So  more channels, more choice, more clarity. What is there left for TV to achieve in the future? The answer to that is 1 two-way communication. Modern technology means that twenty-first century televisions will be linked to computer databanks. This way, viewers will be able to ask questions (via remote control) about what they're watching and the answers will appear on their screens. This idea is called "hyper-media" and it's still at an early stage. But then, as we've just seen, TV has come a very long way in a very short time. The hyper-media revolution could happen sooner than many people think.

Find in the text the English equivalents to the following:

передавать звук и изображение; восходить к; превратить в реальность; прорыв; выйти в эфир; претерпеть бурный рост; в конце 40-х годов; общенациональные сети; цветное ТВ; освещать событие; Десятилетие; быстрая и точная информация; показывать в прямом эфире; видеомагнитофон; спутниковое телевидение; "тарелка"; за определенную цену; двусторонняя связь; дистанционное управление; телевидение прошло очень длинный путь за очень короткое время.

b) Read the text below, comment on the meaning of the phrases in bold, then and complete the chart below.

TELEVISION IN MODERN LIFE

How do people usually answer to questions like "What are you going to do tonight?" or "What are you doing at the weekend?" In other words, how do people spend their free time?

Some twenty or thirty years ago the usual answers used to be: "We're going to the theatre (or to the cinema)" or "We're going to a party" or "We're having some friends round". Now you very often hear "We're going to stay at home and watch the telly!"

Television hasn't been with us all that long, but we are already beginning to forget what the world was like without it. Before we admitted the one-eyed monster into our homes, we never found it difficult to occupy our spare time. We used to enjoy civilized pleasures. For instance, we used to have hobbies, we used to entertain our friends and be entertained by them, we used to go outside for our amusements to theatres, cinemas, restaurants and sporting events. We even used to read books and listen to music and broadcast talks occasionally. All that belongs to the past. Now all our free time is regulated by the "goggle box". We rush home or gulp down our meals to be in time for this or that programme. We have even given up sitting at table and having a leisurely evening meal, exchanging the news of the day. A sandwich and a glass of beer will do - anything providing it doesn't interfere with the programme. The monster demands and obtains absolute silence and attention. If any member of the family dares to open his mouth during a programme, he is quickly silenced. Whole generations are growing up addicted to the telly. Food is left uneaten, homework undone and sleep is lost. The telly is a universal pacifier. It is now standard practice for mother to keep the children quiet by putting them in the living-room and turning on the set. It doesn't matter that the children will watch rubbishy commercials or spectacles of sadism and violence - so long as they are quiet.

Modern television offers the viewers several programmes on different channels. In addition to regular newscasts you can see plays and films, operas and ballets, and watch all kinds of contests, quizzes, and sporting events. You can also get a lot of useful information on the educational channel. A good serial (perhaps, a detective story or a screen version of a classical novel) can keep the whole family in front of the telly for days, and don't we spend hours and hours watching our favourite football or hockey team in an important international event?

We also like to watch television programmes dealing with animals and birds and all kinds of living things in their natural surroundings, as well as to watch sporting events in actual progress. Above all, we love seeing dramatic entertainments of all kinds: the plays of many leading dramatists; dramatized versions of the works of famous novelists; lovely one-act plays, comic turns, and amusing episodes of all sorts.

We can hear symphony concerts, operas and oratorios and popular melodies all transmitted with lifelike clarity. We have an opportunity of hearing well-informed talks on archeology, history, geography, science and technology. We hear critics talking about new books, films, plays, works of art. We hear living poets reading their own poems

Television most definitely plays a very important part in people's lives. But is this a good thing or a bad one? Haven't we become lazier because of television? Don't we go out less often than we used to? Don't we read less?

We talked to various people from different countries about their attitudes to television. Does TV educate and stimulate? Or is it a drug, a tranquilliser, used to control the population? Here are some views:

"Television has been the greatest instrument of social democracy in Western European societies," says Mr Anthony Smith of the British film Institute. Mr Neville Jayawera from SriLanka disagrees. 90% of the TV programmes in his country are foreign, and mostly inferior, material. He feels that TV has disrupted local culture and social ties.

TV is a very expensive medium, and some countries do not have the technology, the expertise or the money to make their own television programmes. The result is that these countries are dependent on British or American television. It's easier and cheaper to buy inferior foreign products, mainly American "soap" operas. So, a lot of people feel that TV is a danger to local cultures in poorer countries. It could be an even greater threat to national identity than colonialism.

Besides that, there is a limit to the amount of creative talent available in the world. Every day, television consumes vast quantities of creative work. That is why most of the programmes are so bad: it is impossible to keep pace with the demand and maintain high standards as well. When millions watch the same programmes, the whole world becomes a village, and society is reduced to the conditions which obtain in pre-literate communities. We become utterly dependent on the two most primitive media of communication: pictures and the spoken word.

Television encourages passive enjoyment. We become content with second-hand experiences. It is so easy to sit in our armchairs watching others working. Little by little, television cuts us off from the real world. We get so lazy, we choose to spend a fine day in semi-darkness, glued to our sets, rather than go out into the world itself.

Some may argue that television may be a splendid medium of communication, but it prevents us from communicating with each other. We only become aware how totally irrelevant television is to real living when we spend a holiday by the sea or in the mountains, far away from civilization. In quiet, natural surroundings, we quickly discover how little we miss the hypnotic tyranny of King Telly.

On the other hand, to some people the statement, for example, that the great boom in television's popularity is destroying "the art of conversation" seems to be at best irrelevant, and at worst  false. How many conversations does one hear prefaced with the remarks, "Did you see so-and-so last night? Good, wasn't it!" which suggests that television has had a beneficial rather than a detrimental effect on conversational habits: at least people have something to talk about! More disturbing is the possible effect on people's mind and attitudes. There seems to be a particular risk of television bringing a sense of unreality into all our lives.

Most people, it is probably true to say, would be horrified to see someone gunned down in the street before their very eyes. The same sight repeated nightly in the comfort of one's living-room tends to lose its impact. What worries many people is that if cold-blooded murder — both acted and real — means so little, are scenes of earthquakes and other natural disasters likely to have much effect either?

Such questions are, to a large extent, unanswerable, and it is true to say that predictions about people's probable reactions are dangerous and often misleading. But if television is dulling our reactions to violence and tragedy, it can also be said to be broadening people's horizons by introducing them to new ideas and activities — ideas which may eventually lead them into new hobbies and pastimes. In the last few years there has been a vast increase in educative programmes. Already then people have a lot to thank the small screen for, and in all probability the future will see many more grateful viewers who have discovered new pursuits through the telly's inventive genius.   

Television, arguably the most important invention of the twentieth century, is bound to be exerting a major influence on the life of the modern man for as long as one dare predict: that it will also continue to grow in popularity as the years go by is virtually certain.

At any time between four in the afternoon and midnight, millions of viewers  are sure to be watching television. This figure can be enourmous at peak viewing hours. And with such large numbers involved, there are those who would maintain that television is in danger of becoming a national disease in many countries or even an international disease in the world.  So, is it really so?

The Influence of Television on People

c) Read the text below about the Internet and say which of the tools and applications mentioned in it you either used before or use regularly.

What Is the Internet?

Like many of the modern conveniences we now take for granted, the Internet had primitive beginnings.  Most of the current text-only Internet tools are leftovers from a bygone era of more primitive computer technology.  As the Net incorporates more and more multimedia features some of these text-only applications become obsolete, some are superseded by more user-friendly programmes, and others are adapted.

The key text-based applications that remain are:

-E-mail: This is the electronic postal service.  The most obvious benefit of using e-mail is speed.  It is also a cost-effective, reliable form of communication that lets you sent notes to other Internet users around the globe from your own computer.  You can also attach enormous documents to that same note so you do not need to send these through the post either.  Some e-mail programmes even feature voice-mail so you can listen to your message.

-Mailing lists: These are an automated exchange of e-mail messages about a chosen topic, each one being a kind of supervised discussion group.  They are often called discussion lists or listservs.

- Chat: This kind of programme is a popular way to communicate in real time.  Whatever you type into a chat programme is immediately visible to other participants on their computers.  You can chat to strangers from around the world who share your hobbies or interests, or even arrange to meet family or friends for a virtual reunion.

Multimedia uses of the Internet require up-to-date computers and several extra bits of hardware and software, and they have been the real force behind the growth of the Internet over the past several years.  Among the multimedia applications and tools of the Internet are, for example:

-Videoconferencing: This is communicating via a live video link over the Internet.  Conferencing usually cost no more to use than a local phone call, whether you are speaking to someone across the town or on the other side of the world.  However, they require a very fast, stable connection to the Net, special software; and of course, a video camera, microphone and speakers.

The World Wide Web (WWW or Web for short):  This is a multimedia resource and communication tool based on hypertext, a system of clickable links.  You can read your e-mail, view newsgroup messages, do videoconferencing – and gain entry to many other useful programs directly through your web browser.

(from “How to Use the Internet in ELT”)

What are the functions of the Internet?  What opportunities does it provide?

d) Do you think the modern technologies improved or diminished the quality of our life?  In what ways?  Read the article below and say which ideas of the article you agree/disagree with.  Before reading make sure you understand the meaning of the words and  phrases in the box.

Stop the World!

The fax is spewing out a 50-page document, the answering machine is flashing six messages, the mobile phone is ringing again, there are 20 e-mails to respond to and the Internet has found 11,000 articles on the subject you are researching.  No wonder information-overload syndrome is the latest ailment to strike office workers.

A survey commissioned by Reuters Business Information found that half of 1,300 managers questioned were suffering from information overload and that new technology, instead of making their job easier, was causing stress, less job satisfaction and greater degree of illness, such as headaches and stomach pains.  Almost half the managers believe the Internet is making the situation worse and admitted they were unable to handle the amount of information they receive on a daily basis.  An even higher number blamed the information tidal wave for a deterioration in their home life and personal relationships, and said that dealing with so much information frequently meant staying late at work or having to take work home.

Our ability to generate information has simply exceeded our ability to review and understand most of it, let alone to decide on priorities.  And prioritizing is vitally important when you consider how much information we are exposed to – more information has been produced in the past 30 years than in the past five millennium.  The fact that not all of it is of equal importance means that it needs to be sifted first.  Likewise, it is crucial that we avoid getting caught up in the urgency culture, where everything has to be done by yesterday.

The growth of computers technology is also fuelling a worldwide “epidemic” of shyness, the psychologist Professor Zimbardo said yesterday.  He believes we are at the beginning of a new “ice age” of non-communication.  The growing use of e-mail and the disappearance of jobs such as shop assistants means that face-to-face conversations are becoming a rarity and it may well soon be possible to go through the entire day without talking to another person directly.  Less and less time is spent on personal hobbies, holidays and with friends and relations.

We are sending information but not conveying emotion.  Zimbardo’s theory is that there is much less small talk that forms the social glue which holds communities together.  Computers have eroded the opportunity for small talk and this means that people now feel they need a serious reasons to start an everyday conversation.

How could we deal more effectively with a large amount of information?

Do you agree that “small talk” is becoming less common in our society because of the development of modern technologies?

Do you think men or women are more affected by the impact of technology?

e) Read the extract below from a magazine about home entertainment and express your opinion on the questions raised in it:

4. On Your Own.

    Get ready to take part in the debate devoted to the subject of “Violence in the Media”.  Think about the effect of violence on children.  Consider children’s exposure to violence through different media: computer games, TV, the Internet etc.  Suggest what can be done to protect children from violence in the media.

    For additional information on the topic you may listen to the following recording:

1) Fiona Scott-Barrett.  Proficiency Listening & Speaking. – Longman, 2000. P. 76-77.

2) John and Liz Soars. Headway Advanced. St. Book. – Oxford University Press, 1995. P. 151-152.

In the discussion you may use the phrases from the box.

Unit 3.

British vs. American Mass Media.

1. Lead-in.

1) Have you ever watched any British or American TV channels?  If yes, how does the variety and the quality of programmes on differ from the Russian ones?

2) Have you ever listened to any British or American radio stations?  If yes, what were they?

3) Have you ever read British or American newspapers or magazines?  If yes, how do they differ from the Russian ones?

2. Vocabulary.

a) Fill in the gaps in the sentences below with the phrases from the box.

BBC World Service Radio

The BBC World Service………… by radio worldwide, using English and 37 other languages, for 820 hours a week. The main objectives are to give unbiased news, reflect British opinion and project British life, culture and developments in science and industry. News bulletins, current affairs programmes, political commentaries and topical magazine programmes form the main part of the output. These are supplemented by a sports service, music, drama and general entertainment. Regular……. are estimated to number 120 million.

        The languages in which the World Service broadcasts and the length of time each is………… are prescribed by the Government. Otherwise the BBC has full responsibility and is completely independent in determining the content of news and other programmes.

        There are broadcasts by radio for 24 hours a day in English, supplemented at …………….. by programmes of special interest to Africa, East Asia, South Asia, Europe, the Caribbean and the Falkland Islands.

        BBC World Service news bulletins and other programmes are re-broadcast by some 45450 radio and cable stations in over 80 countries, which receive the programmes by satellite. Two World Service departments also specialise in supplying radio material for re-broadcast. BBC transcription sells recordings to more than 100 countries, while BBC Topical Tapes airmails some 250 tapes of original programmes to………… in over 50 countries each week.

        BBC English is the most extensive language-teaching venture in the world. English lessons are broadcasted daily by radio with explanations in some 30 languages, including English, and re-broadcast by many radio stations. BBC English television programmes are also shown in more than 90 countries. A range of printed, audio and video material accompanies these programmes.

Another part of the World Service, BBC Monitoring, listens to and reports on foreign broadcasts, providing a daily flow of significant news and comment from overseas to the BBC and the Government. This information is also sold to the press, private sector companies, academic staff and public bodies.

b) Study and translate the topical vocabulary given in italics. Learn the English newspapers’ names specifying their peculiarities.

The Times. It is the most influential paper. Conservative in policy, it has a historical tendency to support the party in power and can be quite radical at times.

Guardian. Originally a Manchester paper, its circulation is about that of The Times but it is far less predictable in its political views.

Financial Times. A small circulation, high prestige daily paper for big business. The publication has highly regarded reviewer for stage, films, books and art.

Daily Telegraph. Big circulation with strict Conservative politics. Excellent reporting, good layout.

Daily Express. An extraordinary newspaper. Brilliant typography, brilliant journalism.

Daily Mirror. The only mass circulation daily with left-wing politics.

Daily Mail. Another popular-style Conservative newspaper.

Sunday Times. Conservative in policy but can hit hard in all directions. Started a department that used teams of reporters and turned up some memorable stories and horrifying scandals. Included in the price is a business section, an arts section using top reviewers and a colour magazine.

Observer. A more liberal version of the Sunday Times. It has superb reviewers and a literary touch with news coverage, mostly exclusive.

Weekly Periodicals

Times Literary Supplement. Extensive book reviews dealing with serious books.

Times Educational Supplement. A review of education from techniques to vacancies.

New Statesman. A weekly of politics and literature viewed from center.

Spectator. Has reviews of art, books, theatre and films as well as political commentaries.

Illustrated London News. An illustrated magazine dealing with the news of the week, from archaeological finds to a plastics factory.

Private Eye. A satirical magazine. A visitor with specialized interest should take a look at the magazine racks of a big newsagent. Periodicals such as Boxing News, Golf News, Judo, Motor Cycle, Yachting World, Motor Sport will tell the visitor what will satisfy his interest during his stay.

3. Reading and Speaking.

I.

a) Read the following text, then name all the major British channels and say what kind of programmes they specialize in.  Then answer the questions below.

British Television

The BBC has a powerful television service. It owns two channels: BBC1 and BBC2. Practically all the population of the country lives within the range of the TV transmission. With the exception of a break during the Second World War, the BBC has been providing regular television broadcasts since 1936. All BBC2 programmes and the vast majority of those on BBC1 are broadcasted on the national network. The aim of the Government is that at least 25 per cent of programmes on all channels should be made by independent producers.

The BBC television programmes are designed for people of different interests. BBC1 presents more programmes of general interest, such as light entertainment, sport, current affairs, children’s programmes, as well as news and information. BBC2 provides documentaries, travel programmes, serious drama, music, programmes on pastimes and international films.

The BBC does not give publicity to any firm or company except when it is necessary to provide effective and informative programmes. It must not broadcast any commercial advertisement or any sponsored programme. Advertisements are broadcasted only on independent television, but advertisers can have no influence on programme content or editorial work. Advertising is usually limited to seven minutes in any one hour of broadcasting time.

Both the BBC broadcast education programmes for children and students in schools of all kinds, as well as pre-school children, and for adults in colleges and other institutions and in their homes. Broadcasts to schools cover most subjects of the curriculum, while education programmes for adults cover many fields of learning, vocational training and recreation.

The Government has no privileged access to radio or television, but government publicity to support non-political campaigns may be broadcast on independent radio and television. Such broadcasts are paid for on a normal commercial basis. The BBC is not the mouthpiece of the government. All the major political parties have equal rights to give political broadcasts. Radio and, particularly, television have their greatest impact on public affairs at election time. Each of the principal political parties is granted time on the air roughly in proportion to the number of its c antedates for the Parliament.

Television and radio coverage of political matters, including elections, is required to be impartial. Extended news programmes cover all aspects of the major parties’ campaigns at national level and in the constituencies. Political parties arrange “photo opportunities”, during which candidates are photographed in such places as factories, farms, building sites, schools and youth centers. They often use these visits to make points about party policies.

        Special election programmes include discussions between politicians belonging to rival parties. Often a studio audience of members of the public is able to challenge and question senior politicians. Radio “phone-ins” also allow ordinary callers to question, or put their views to political leaders. Broadcast coverage also includes interviews with leading figures from all the parties, reports focusing on particular election issues, and commentaries from political journalists.

Arrangements for the broadcasts are made between the political parties and the broadcasting authorities, but editorial control of the broadcasts rests with the parties.

Television and the other channels of mass media are playing an increasingly important part in bringing contemporary affairs to the general public.

ITV

In addition there are three independent channels: ITV (Independent Television), Channel 4 and FIVE, which are owned by the IBA (Independent Broadcasting Authority).

The ITV has 15 programme companies, each serving a different part of the country. These companies get most of their money from firms who use them for advertising. The whole of ITV is controlled by the IBA. The magazine “TV Times” advertises all ITV programmes; ITV programmes include news, information, light entertainment and are interrupted at regular intervals by advertisements. Despite the genuine entertainment that so many of the good commercials afford, television still succeeds in crushing its viewers with ads that are too annoying, too often, and just too much. Very often commercials are infuriating as well as irresistible. Commercials are the heavy tribute that the viewer must pay to the sponsor in exchange for often doubtful pleasure. The first regular commercial ITV programmes began in London in 1955.

Channel 4 and S4C

Channel 4 forms part of the independent television network and provides a national TV service throughout Britain, except in Wales, which has a corresponding service in Welsh.

Channel 4, currently a subsidiary of the ITC, began broadcasting in 1982. It provides a national television service throughout Britain, except in Wales, which has a corresponding service – Sianel Pedwar Cymru (S4C). It is required to present programmes that are complementary to those of ITV, appealing tastes and interests not normally catered for by one original independent service.

Channel 4 must present a suitable proportion of educational programmes amd encourage innovation and experiment. It commissions programmes from the ITC companies and independent producers and buys programmes in the international market. Channel 4 broadcasts for approximately 139 hours a week, about half of which are devoted to informative programmes. At present the service, including that in Wales, financed by annual subscriptions from the ITV programme companies in return for advertising time in fourth channel programmes broadcast in their own regions.

FIVE

FIVE, launched in 1997, is the fifth and final national terrestrial analogue TV channel to launch in the UK.  Originally called Channel 5 (1997-2002), the channel rebranded to FIVE in 2002.  Channel 5 Broadcasting Limited was licensed by the UK government in 1995.  The official site of FIVE is www.five.tv.

Broadcasting by Satellite

Direct broadcasting by satellite, by which television pictures are transmitted directly by satellite into people’s homes, has been available throughout Britain since 1989. The signals from satellite broadcasting are receivable using specially designed aerials or “dishes” and associated reception equipment.

Answer the following questions:

1. Since when has the BBC been providing regular television broadcasts?

2. Is there any commercial advertisement on the BBC channels?

3. What role does the BBC take in political campaigns and political news?

4. Which administrative body controls independent channels?

5. Since when has broadcasting by satellite been available in Britain?

b) Read the following text about American television.  Make up 4 either true or false statements on the text and read them out to your groupmates for them to answer.

AMERICAN TELEVISION

Mass media (that is the press, the radio and television) play an important part in the life of society. They inform, educate and entertain people. They also influence the way people look at the world and make them change their views. “After all”, say American media men, “news is not what happens — it is what you see or read about in mass media.” In other words, mass media mould public opinion.

Millions of Americans in their spare time watch TV and read newspapers. The daily paper dominates family life at breakfast, TV dominates the life of the family most of the time. The TV set is not just a piece of furniture. It is someone who is “one of the family”. It is also a habit-forming drug impossible to resist. The radio is turned on most of the time, creating a permanent background noise. It does not interfere with your activities. You can listen to the radio while doing some work about the house, reading a book or driving a car.

The number of radio and television broadcasting stations provides for wide diversification in programming.

Most commercial television stations are affiliated with one of the three major networks: ABC (American Broadcasting Company), CBS (Columbia Broadcasting Service) and NBC (National Broadcasting Company).  Networks are program distribution companies.  A network buys programs from independent television production companies, most of which are located in Hollywood, and distributed these programs across the country to television stations that are affiliated with the network.

Attracting a smaller audience, there is also noncommercial public broadcasting for radio and television.  The funding for public broadcasting comes primarily from viewers.  The programs, often educational or cultural, appeal to a highly selective audience.

For the most part, the American broadcasting system has always been a commercial system.  It is supported by money from businesses that pay to advertise goods or services to the audience.

There is a lot of advertising on American TV. Some of the TV stations are owned by big corporations or individuals. The owners can advertise whatever they choose. To advertise their goods commercial firms buy TV and radio time. So most of the radio and TV time is taken up by advertisements. The firms also sponsor shows and programs that make people buy their goods. For Instance, to attend a show or to take part in a quiz program you may have to send to the studio the required number of empty cartons, boxes or wrappings (depending on what product the sponsoring firm is selling). People are attracted by such programs not only because they provide entertainment. A valuable prize is usually promised for the correct answer to the main question, such as a video or radio cassette-recorder or a stereo music centre and speakers. Americans are very optimistic. Their optimism makes them believe In luck and buy things which they may not need at all. The sponsoring firm makes a great profit on such programs. The more people attend the show, the greater is the profit of the firm.

Advertising promotes business and benefits businessman but often annoys the general public. The play you are watching on TV may be interrupted several times by an appeal to use a new perfume or detergent, or drink a certain beer. Advertising messages are usually presented as 15, 30, or 60-second commercial announcements before, during, and after programs.

Viewers whose tastes are not satisfied by the many offerings of networks and local programs can subscribe to cable television.  Cable television companies receive signals from television stations through a larger master antenna or dish and relay the signal into the homes of subscribers by wires attached to home receivers.

Satellite TV was originally designed to offer a greater selection of programs to people in rural areas that could not easily be connected to the cable system.  It now provides anybody who is ready to have a satellite dish installed in his or her backyard with the same programming as  cable TV.

II.

a) Read the info below distinguishing the main British radio channels and its service.

BBC Radio broadcasts five national services to the United Kingdom plus regional services in Wales (including programmes in Welsh), Scotland and Northern Ireland.

These are:

Radio 1: pop and rock music;

Radio 2: light music, entertainment and sport;

Radio 3: classical music, drama, documentaries and cricket;

Radio 4: news, documentaries, drama and entertainment and educational programmes for schools and adults;

Radio 5: sport, educational programmes and children's programmes.

There are also thirty-two BBC Local Radio stations and a number of independent local stations. There is advertising on the independent commercial channels.

The External Service of the BBC broadcasts over 700 hours of programmes a week in thirty-seven languages, including the English-language World Service and BBC English by Radio and Television. It is estimated that over 120 million people listen to the service.

b) Read the text below and fill in the gaps.  Then answer the questions below.

 National Radio

The BBC has  ------- national radio channels for listeners in the United Kingdom.  ----------- provides mainly a programme of rock and pop music.  -------- broadcasts lights music and entertainment, comedy as well as being the principal channel for the coverage of sport.  ----------- provides mainly classical music as well as drama, poetry and short stories, documentaries, talks on ancient and modern plays and some education programmes.  ------------- is the main speech network providing the principals news and current affairs service, as well as drama, comedy, documentaries and panel games. It also carries parliamentary and major public events.                                                                                               -----------, which is devoted chiefly to sport, education and programmes for young people. The BBC has over 30 local radio stations and about 50 commercial independent stations distributed throughout Britain. To provide high-quality and wide-ranging programmes that inform, educate and entertain, to provide also greater choice and competition the government encourages the growth of additional radio services run on commercial lines.

Besides these domestic programmes, the BBC ------- in England and in over 40 other languages to every part of the world. It is the World Service of the BBC. Its broadcasts are intended to provide a link of culture, information and entertainment between the peoples of the United Kingdom and those in other parts of the world. The main part of the World Service programme is formed by news bulletins, current ------, political commentaries, as well as sports, music, drama, etc. In general, the BBC World Service reflects British opinion and the British way of life. The BBC news bulletins and other programmes are re-broadcast by the radio services of many countries.

Independent radio programme companies operate under License to the Radio Authority and are financed mainly by ----- revenue.

There are three independent national services: Classic FM, broadcasting mainly classical music; Virgin 1215, playing broad - based rock music; and Talk Radio UK, speech - based service. About 200 independent local radio services are also in operation. Stations supply local ------ and information on sport, music and other entertainment, education and consumer advice.

Recent government plans include an expansion of radio broadcasting with new stations brought in at city, local and community levels. Regulations regarding the organisation of broadcasting will be relaxed ('deregulated') and there will be three new national commercial channels. New broadcasting technology will play an important role. The BBC will be required to give up some of its frequencies and a new Radio Authority will be created to achieve a good technical standard. Each of the three new channels will be expected to provide a wide programme service designed to appeal to a variety of ------ and interests.

1) What are the main differences between national and independent radio channels in the UK?

2) Do you think the governmental plans for the radio future in Russia are the same as in Britain?

III.

a)Here are the birthdates, owners and the circulation of the basic British newspapers. Analyze the chart and make the top list of the oldest  ones.

    b) Read the text below and suggest a heading for each of the paragraphs.

BRITISH NEWSPAPERS

A. More daily newspapers are sold per person in the UK than in almost any other country: there are twelve national daily newspapers and eleven national Sunday ones. While the more serious newspapers have a lot of home and international news, some of the more popular 'tabloids' (so called because of their size) concentrate on the more spectacular and scandalous aspects of life in Britain.

B. Although newspaper sales have fallen slightly over the past few years, newspapers have an important effect on public opinion. Most British newspapers are owned by big businesses and although they are not directly linked to political parties, there are strong connections. The majority of newspapers -even those which carry little serious news -are conservative in outlook.

C. The old image of London's Fleet Street as the centre of the newspaper printing and publishing world has changed, and in fact all the big newspapers have moved from Fleet Street to more modern premises. Technology has altered the whole shape of the industry, with changes in the production process and a reduction in the number of employees.

D. One of the beneficial results of computerised production has been improved graphics and photographs, a development first seen in The Independent, founded in 1986 and Britain's first new quality newspaper since the last century. The tendency has been for newspapers to become smaller but to contain more pages. Sunday papers have colour magazines and several of the dailies have weekend supplements, perhaps because people now have more time to read them. Competition for circulation is intense and newspapers have tried several methods to increase the number of people who read them, including the use of colour, competitions and national bingo games. Running a newspaper is an expensive and competitive business and several new papers started and failed during the 1980s.

c) Read the text and make the following scheme:

                   NEWSPAPERS

National Daily and Sunday Papers

In a democratic country like Great Britain the press, ideally, has three political functions: information, discussion and representation. It is supposed to give the voter reliable and complete information to base his judgement. It should let him know the arguments for and against any policy, and it should reflect and give voice to the desires of the people as a whole.

Naturally, there is no censorship in Great Britain, but in 1953 the Press Council was set up. It is not an official body but it is composed of the people nominated by journalists, and it receives complaints against particular newspapers. It may make reports, which criticise papers, but they have no direct effects. The British press means, primarily, a group of daily and Sunday newspapers published in London. They are most important and known as national in the sense of circulating throughout the British Isles. All the national newspapers have their central offices in London, but those with big circulations also print editions in Manchester (the second largest press center in Britain) and Glasgow in Scotland.

Probably in no other country there are such great differences between the various national daily newspapers – in the type of news they report and the way they report it.

All the newspapers whether daily or Sunday, totalling about twenty, can be divided into two groups: quality papers and popular papers. Quality papers include “The Times’, “The Guardian”, “The Daily Telegraph”, “The Financial Times”, “The Observer”, “The Sunday Times” and “The Sunday Telegraph”. Very thoroughly they report national and international news.

In addition to the daily and Sunday papers, there is an enormous number of weeklies, some devoted to specialised and professional subjects, others of more general interest. Three of them are of special importance and enjoy a large and influential readership. They are: the “Spectator” (which is non-party but with Conservative views), the “New Statesman” (a radical journal, inclining towards the left wing of the Labour Party) and the largest and most influential – the “Economist” (politically independent). These periodicals resemble one another in subject matter and layout. They contain articles on national and international affairs, current events, the arts, letters to the Editor, extensive book reviews. Their publications often exert a great influence on politics.

The distinction between the quality and the popular papers is one primarily of educational level. Quality papers are those newspapers which are intended for the well educate. All the rest are generally called popular newspapers. The most important of them are the “News of the World”, “The Sun”, the “Daily Mirror”, the “Daily Express”.

The two archetypal popular papers, the “Daily Mail” and “Daily Express” were both built by individual tycoons in the early 20th century. Both had a feeling for the taste of a newly-literate public: if a man bites a dog, that’s a news. The “Daily Express” was built up by a man born in Canada. He became a great man in the land, a close friend and associate of Winston Churchill, and a powerful minister in his War Cabinet. The circulation of “The Daily Express” at one time exceeded four million copies a day. Now the first Lord Beaverbrook is dead, and the daily sales are not much more than half of their highest figure. The history of the “Daily Mail”, with its conventional conservatism, is not greatly different.

        The popular newspapers tend to make news sensational. These papers concentrate on more emotive reporting of stories often featuring the Royal Family, film and pop stars, and sport. They publish “personal” articles which shock and excite. Instead of printing factual news reports, these papers write them up in an exciting way, easy to read, playing on people’s emotions. They avoid serious political and social questions or treat them superficially. Trivial events are treated as the most interesting and important happenings. Crime is always given far more space than creative, productive or cultural achievements. Much of their information concerns the private lives of people who are in the news. The popular newspapers are very similar to one another in appearance and general arrangement, with big headlines and the main news on the front page. This press is much more popular than the quality press.

In some countries, newspapers are owned by government or by political parties. This is not the case in Britain. Newspapers here are mostly owned by individuals or by publishing companies, and the editors of the papers are usually allowed considerate freedom of expression. This is not to say that newspapers are without political bias. Papers like The Daily Telegraph, The Sun, for example, usually reflect Conservative opinions in their comment and reporting, while the Daily Mirror and The Guardian have a more left-wing bias. In addition to the 12 national daily newspapers there are nine national papers which published on Sundays. The “quality” Sunday papers devote large sections to literature and the arts. They have colour supplements and are in many ways more like magazines than newspapers. They supply quite different world of taste and interest from the “popular” papers. Most of the “Sundays” contain more reading matter than daily papers, and several of them also include “colour-supplements” – separate colour magazines which contain photographically-illustrated feature articles. Reading a Sunday paper, like having a big Sunday lunch, is an important tradition in many British households.

d) Read the article and complete the table:

Local and Regional Papers

Besides, nearly every area in Britain has one or more local newspapers.

England

Local morning papers have suffered from the universal penetration of London-based national press. Less than 20 survive in the whole England, and their combined circulation is much less than that of “The Sun” alone. Among local daily papers those published in the evenings are much more important. Each of about 70 towns has one, selling only within a radius of 50 to 100 kilometers. The two London evening papers, the “News” and “ Standard”, together sold two million copies in 1980, but they could not survive, and merged into one, now called “The London Evening Standard” with a circulation of 528,700. It covers national and international news as well as local affairs. Local weeklies include papers for every district in Greater London, often in the form of local editions of an individual paper.

Wales

Wales has one daily morning newspaper, the “Western Mail”, published in Gardiff, with a circulation of 76,200 throughout Wales. In north Wales “the Daily Post”, published in Liverpool, gives wide coverage to events in the area. “Wales on Sunday”, published in Cardiff, has a circulation of 53,100. Evening papers published in Wales are the “South Wales Echo”, Cardiff; the “South Wales Argus”, Newport; “The South Wales Evening Post”, Swansea;

The weekly press (82 publications) includes English-language papers, some of which carry articles in Welsh; bilingual papers; and Welsh-language papers. Welsh community newspapers receive an annual grant as part of the Government’s wider financial support for the Welsh language.

Scotland

Scotland has six morning, six evening and four Sunday newspapers. Local weekly newspapers number 115. The daily morning papers, with circulations of between 85,900 and 740,000, are “The Scotsman”; the “Herald”; the “Daily Record”. The daily evening papers have circulations in the range of 10,400 to 164,330 and are the ”Evening News” of Edinburgh, Glasgow’s Evening Times, Dundee’s “Evening Telegraph”, Aberdeen’s “Evening Express”, the “Greenock Telegraph”

The Sunday papers are the “Sunday Mail”, the “Sunday Post” , the “Scottish Sunday Express (printed in Manchester) as well as quality broadsheet paper.

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland has two morning newspapers, one evening and three Sunday papers, all published in Belfast with circulations ranging from 20,000 to 170, 567. They are the “News Letter”, the “Sunday News”, the “Sunday World”. There are bout 45 weekly papers.

4. On Your Own.

a) Make a report about American radio service/ American newspapers.  Use the reference materials on American studies or the Internet resources.

b) For further reading on the topic British television refer to the BBC official site :

www.bbc.co.uk/tv

Got involved? Then try these clicks:

www.uknetguide.co.uk/TV

www.itv.com

c) You can easily listen to the BBC radio programmes on-line if you connect to the following site: www.bbc.co.uk/radio

d) For further reading on the topic British newspapers Here are the official sites of the Editorial Press:

The Times - www.the-times.co.uk

The Economist - www.economist.com

The Observer - www.observer.co.uk

The Daily Telegraph - www.telegraph.co.uk

The Guardian – www.guardian.co.uk

Unit 4.

Advertising.

1.  Lead-in.

a) Do you agree that the adverts take an immense part in the mass media?

b) Are you influenced by advertisements? Do they mould your opinion about the products?

c) Do you think they sometimes distort the truth? Can they be physically or psychologically harmful?

2. Vocabulary.

Consult a dictionary to give the definition of the word ‘advertisement’. Find out the difference of the following words:

ADVERTISMENT    –   ADVERT  -   AD  -   COMMERCIAL

3. Reading and Speaking.

a)   Here are some methods used in persuasive advertising. Read
them.  Decide which appeal to you and which don't.  Which of them do you think are the most effective.

PERSUASIVE ADVERTISING

In a TV commercial the advertiser is trying to persuade you to go out and buy something. He wants to make you feel that you really must have it. There are a number of different ways of doing this:

Repetition. The simplest kind of advertising. A slogan is repeated
so often that we begin to associate a brand name with a particular product
or service.

Endorsement. A popular personality is used in the advertisement.

Emotional appeal. Advertising often appeals to basics such as
mother-love, sex, manliness, femininity.

Scientific authority. Sometimes the advert shows a person in
a white coat (i. e. a scientist) telling us about the product. More often it
mentions 'miracle ingredients' or 'scientific testing' to persuade us.

'Keeping up with the Jones's'. An appeal to pure snob value.
You want to appear to be richer or more successful than your neighbours.

Comparison. The advert lists the qualities of a product in direct
comparison with rival products.

An appeal to fear or anxiety. This type is similar to 3, but works
on our fears.

Association of ideas. This is usually visual. Until it became illegal in Britain, cigarette advertising showed attractive, healthy people

smoking in beautiful rural situations.

Information. If a product is new, it may be enough to show it and
explain what it does.

Special offers/free gifts. This is a very simple and direct appeal —
it's half price!

Anti-advertising. This is a modern version which appeals to the
British sense of humour. It makes fun of the techniques of advertising.

The snob effect. You are told that the product is most exclusive
and of course rather expensive. Only the very best people use it.

The 'scientific' effect. A serious-looking man with glasses and
a white coat, possibly a doctor or a professor, tells you about the advantages of the product.

The words-and-music effect. The name of the product is repeated
over and over again, put into a rhyme and sung several times, in the hope
that you won't forget it. The sung rhyme is called a 'jingle'.

The ha-ha effect. The advertiser tries to make you laugh by showing people or cartoon figures in funny situations.

The VIP (Very Important Person) effect. Well-known people, like
actors or football-players, are shown using the product.

The supermodern effect. The advertiser tries to persuade you that
his product is a sensation or something really new.

The go-go effect. This is suitable for the teenage market. It shows
young people having a party, singing, laughing, having a wonderful time,
and, of course, using the product.

Now think of an example for each type from Russia.

b) Look at the advertisements in CAMPAIGN. What are they for?
What is their message? What are they trying to persuade you
to do?

CAMPAIGN

Advertisements are all around us, not just on TV, radio and in the press, but also at sports grounds, in shop windows, and on posters, carrier bags, badges, T-shirts, buses, hot air balloons. Whether we like it or not, advertising is a powerful force, and all countries have rules about what is acceptable advertising.

In parts of Europe, naked women are common in advertisements, but not in Britain and the USA. In some countries of Islam, it is illegal to use photos of women — only line drawings are acceptable. So different countries advertise the same product in different ways. The campaign for Impulse body perfume showed a man who bought flowers for a woman he had never met before because she was wearing Impulse. In France, the woman was naked on a beach; in Britain, a romantic relationship was suggested; in Japan, the meeting was respectable and restrained; in the Arab countries, no version was acceptable and the advertising campaign was dropped.

I don't mean to suggest here that ALL advertising is misleading or incomprehensible. There are many informative ads for excellent products, especially the products advertised in this newspaper, all of which I personally recommend and endorse and use in my home.

c) Study the links of the ads with the authorities. Sum up the Code of the Advertising Practice.

Advertising Practice

Advertising in all non-broadcast media such as newspapers, magazines, posters (and also direct mail, sales promotions, cinema, and management of lists and databases) is regulated by the Advertising Standards Authority, an independent body funded by a levy on display advertising expenditure. The Authority aims to promote and enforce the highest standards of advertising in the interests of the public through its supervision of the British Code of Advertising Practise. The basic principles of the Code are to ensure that advertisements are legal, decent, honest and truthful; are prepared with a sense of responsibility to the consumer and society; and conform to the principles of fair competition as generally accepted in business.

The Authority includes among its activities monitoring advertisements to ensure their compliance with the Code and investigating complaints received directly from members of the public and competitors.

The advertising industry has agreed to abide by the Code and to back it up with effective sanctions. Free and confidential pre-publication advice is offered to assist publishers, agencies and advertisers. The Authority’s main sanction is the recommendation that advertisements considered to be in breach of the Code should not be published. This is normally sufficient to ensure that an advertisement is withdrawn or amended. The Authority also publishes monthly reports on the results of its investigations, naming the companies involved.

The Authority is recognised by the Office of Fair Trading as being the established means of controlling non-broadcast advertising. The Authority can refer misleading advertisements to the Director General of Fair Trading, who has the power to seek an injunction to prevent their publication.

d) Here is the information about ads in the electronic medium of GB. Compare it with Russian ads presentations.  What are the differences and parallels?

Advertising on British TV and Radio

Advertisements are broadcast on independent television and radio between programmes as well as in breaks during programmes. Advertisers are not allowed directly to influence programme content or editorial control. In television, food manufacturers and retailers are the largest category of advertisers.

        Advertisements must be clearly distinguishable and separate from programmes. The time given to them must not be so great as to detract from the value of the programmes as a medium of information, education or entertainment. Television advertising is limited to an average of seven minutes an hour throughout the day and seven a half minutes in the peak evening viewing period. Advertising is prohibited in religious services and in broadcasts to schools. Independent television’s teletext service carries paginated advertisements.

e) Read the following answers. Add your own one.

ARE YOU INFLUENCED BY ADVERTISING?

Jenny has asked people if they are influenced by advertising. Here are some of the answers.

 Bill: "No, I don't think so. I bought this watch last week. I had seen a commercial for it on TV, but it's a good, reliable watch. I would have bought it even if I hadn't seen the commercial."

Pat: "I think everybody is influenced by advertising. Last week I bought a new shampoo. If I hadn't seen a magazine ad for the product, I wouldn't have tried it."

Rob: "Yes, I'm sure that I am. Yesterday I bought these trainers. If I hadn't read about them, I would have chosen a cheaper pair. I wouldn't have paid so much money if the ad hadn't influenced me."

 Ann: "No. I buy whatever is the cheapest. But it's always a good idea. Last week I bought a cheap red jumper and the colour came out. If I had bought a better jumper, it would have kept its colour."

4. On Your Own.

Analyze the market share of the advertisement in the whole mass media sphere. For this research you may refer to:
  http://www.dars.ru/dars_advertising/bbc/auditorium_channel_en.php
  http://www.hemmy.net/2006/09/26/bbc-outdoor-creative-advertisement
  http://www.radioadlab.org

After it summarize the role of advertisement in modern media.

Topic: Youth and Family Problems.

Unit 1.

The World of Teenagers

1.  Lead-in.

a) Does the teenage problem exist in the world? What do you think are the most troublesome problems in the life of a teenager?

b) Who do you think should help teenagers to overcome their problems? Parents?  Teachers?  Their peers and friends?  Nobody?

c) When do you think children should
leave home? If you are a parent, do you want your children to continue living
with you until they get married?

2. Vocabulary.

    Study the Topical Vocabulary, translate the words and phrases into Russian. Think over the qualities you possessed being a teenager.

 An unhappy problem teenager is:

obedient, prone to obey, submissive; disciplined, re
pressed; depressed, distressed; mixed-up, confused, frustrated;
disturbed; neglected; self-centered; unsociable, lonely; timid,
shy, fearful, sulky; indifferent, impersonal, listless; irresponsive, insensitive; hurt; humiliated; stubborn; uninterested, unmotivated, dull, inactive, bored; unable to cope with difficulties, irritable, annoyed, anxious; restless, naughty, willful; inconsistent, impulsive; undisciplined, unruly, misbehaving, disobedient; resentful, arrogant, insolent, impudent; inconsiderate, intolerant, disrespectful; unrestrained; destructive, belligerent; rude, rough, coarse, offensive; wrong-doing, delinquent, unable to cope with difficulties, problems.

A normal teenager is:

kind-hearted, good-natured, loving, friendly, affection
ate; confident, balanced, secure; getting along (comfortably)
with others; gregarious: sociable, communicative; outgoing;
unselfish; hard-working, industrious; self-disciplined,

self-possessed, alert, motivated; conscientious, active, persevering; enthusiastic; polite, courteous; considerate, thoughtful; helpfully
able to cope with difficulties, problems.

3. Reading and Speaking.

a) Read the text below and suggest a heading for each of the paragraphs.  Pay attention to the pronunciation of the  words and phrases in bold, give synonyms to them.

CHILDHOOD IS CERTAINLY NOT THE HAPPIEST TIME OF YOUR LIFE

1.           It's about time somebody exploded that hoary old myth about childhood being the happiest period of your life. Childhood may certainly be fairly happy, but it's greatest moments can't compare with the sheer joy of being an adult. Who ever asked a six-year-old for an opinion? Children don't have opinion, or if they do, nobody notices. Adults choose the clothes their children will wear, the books they will read and the friends they will play with. Mother and father are kindly but absolute dictators. This is an adult world and though children may be deeply loved, they have to be manipulated so as not to interfere too seriously with the lives of their elders and betters. The essential difference between manhood and childhood is the same as the difference between independence and subjection.

2.            For all the nostalgic remarks you hear, which adult would honestly change place? with a child? Think of the years at school: the years spent living in constant fear of examinations and school reports. Every movement you make, every thought you think is observed by some critical adult who may draw unflattering conclusions about your character. Think of the curfews, the martial law, the times you had to go to bed early, do as you were told, eat disgusting stuff that was supposed to be good for you. Remember how 'gentle' pressure was applied with remarks like 'if you don't do as I say, I'll" ... and a dire warning would follow.

3.      Even so, these are only part of a child's troubles. No matter how kind and loving adults may be, children often suffer from terrible, illogical fears which are the result of ignorance and an inability to understand the world around them. Nothing can equal the abject fear a child may feel in the dark, the absolute horror of childish nightmares. Adults can share their fears with other adults; children invariably face their fears alone. But the most painful part of childhood is the period when you begin to emerge from it: adolescence. Teenagers may rebel violently against parental authority, but this causes them great unhappiness. There is a complete lack of self-confidence during this time. Adolescents are over-conscious of their appearance and the impression they make on others. They feel shy, awkward and clumsy. Feelings are intense and hearts easily broken. Teenagers experience moments of tremendous station or black despair. And through this turmoil, adults seem to be more hostile than ever.

4.         What a relief it is to grow up. Suddenly you regain your balance; the world opens up before you. You are free to choose; you have your own place to live in and your own money to spend. You do not have to seek constant approval for everything you do. You are no longer teased, punished or ridiculed by heartless adults because you failed to come up to some theoretical standard. And if on occasion you are teased, you know how to deal with it. You can simply tell other adults to go to hell: you are one yourself.

What do children and then adolescents usually suffer from, according to the text?  Do you agree with it?

 What is the message of the text?  What is the meaning of the title?

b) Read the text below and single out all the youth problems mentioned in it.  

Youth Problems

Everyone says that youth is probably the best time of your life, that being young means romance, love, new discoveries and so on.  But it is also the most difficult time because you have to make some very important decisions which will have influence on all your future life.

Our time isn’t the easiest one even for adults, but for teenagers who are to find their own place in the society it’s very difficult.  It is necessary not only to fit into society, but also to be sure about your position in five, ten or twenty years.

For your future it is necessary to have a good job, and to get a really good job you have to be well-educated.  Every girl or boy after secondary school should choose an institution of education or, if he or she doesn’t want to study any more, to choose a job right now.  Planning your future you have to think about a possibility of finding a job after finishing your education.

But even if you are studying, you need some money of your own.  Your parents probably will provide you with home, food and necessary clothes, but you surely have your own tastes and your parents wouldn’t pay for them.  To pay for extra clothes, tapes, books, things necessary for your hobbies you have to work, and in our country it is very difficult for a teenager to find a job without any qualification.  You’re lucky if you can do something that others can’t; for example, if you are good at Maths or English, you can  give lessons.

Emotional problems for the young people can be far more difficult than financial ones.  The typical teenager problem is that “nobody understands me”.  The parents often continue treating their teenager children as if they were little kids, when they probably consider themselves to be grown up persons.

Youth is also the time to meet your first love.  It is, of course, wonderful, but, as it is widely known that the first love often has an unhappy end, which increases the youth problems.

Even the friends cannot always stay friends.  When young people begin to understand themselves a little bit better, old friends sometimes just grow apart.

Do you agree with the list of problems mentioned in the text above?  What problems would you like to add to it?  Give reasons.

c) Read the text below, explain the meaning of the words and phrases in bold and agree or disagree with its title. Prove your statement with the text and your own ideas.

THE YOUNGER GENERATION KNOWS BEST

 Old people are always saying that the young are not what they were. The same comment is made from generation to generation and it is always true. It has never been truer than it is today. The young are better educated. They have a lot more money to spend and enjoy more freedom. They grow up more quickly and are not so dependent on their parents They think more for themselves and do not blindly accept the ideals с their elders. Events which the older generation remembers vividly are nothing more than past history. This is as it should be. Every new generation is different from the one that preceded it. Today the difference is very marked indeed.

The old always assume that they know best for the simple reason that they have been around a bit longer. They don't like to feel that their values are being questioned or threatened. And this is precisely what the young are doing. They are questioning the assumptions for their elder and disturbing their complacency. They take leave to doubt that the older generation has created the best of all possible worlds. What they reject more than anything is conformity. Office hours, for instance, are nothing more than enforced slavery. Wouldn't people work best if they were given complete freedom and responsibility? And what about clothing? Who said that all the men in the world should wear drab grey suits and convict haircuts? If we turn our minds to more serious matters, who said that human differences can best be solved through conventional politics or by violent means? Why have the older generation so often used violence to solve their problems? Why are they so unhappy and guilt-ridden in their personal lives, so obsessed with mean ambitions and the desire to amass more and more material possessions? Can anything be right with the retrace? Haven't the old lost touch with all that is important in life?

These are not questions the older generation can shrug off lightly. Their record over the past forty years or so hasn't been exactly spotless. Traditionally, the young have turned to their elders for guidance. Today, the situation might be reversed. The old — if they are prepared to admit it — could learn a thing or two from their children. One of the biggest lessons they could learn is that enjoyment is not "sinful". Enjoyment is a principle one could apply to all aspects of life. It is surely not wrong to enjoy your work and enjoy your leisure; to shed restricting inhibitions. It is surely not wrong to live in the present rather than in the past or future. This emphasis on the present is only to be expected because they young have grown up under the shadow of the bomb; the constant threat of complete annihilation. This is their glorious heritage. Can we be surprised that they should so often question the sanity of the generation that bequeathed it?

Express your opinion on the following points.

1. The older generation is unhappy and guilt-ridden, obsessed with mean ambitions and desire to amass more material possessions.

2. The older generation has lost touch with all that is important in life.

3. Enjoyment is not “sinful”.

4. Live in the present, not in the past or future.

5. The old can learn from the young.

4. On Your Own.

A major problem for many teenagers is who they can ask for
advice when they need it: parents, teachers, the youth club
leader, a sister or a brother or a friend. Sometimes, if it is
a very personal problem, teenagers write to a magazine. Read
the following letter and give your advice.

I'm 15. My parents got divorced five years ago. My father drank a lot and made life miserable. Although he made good money, we were always broke. After they got divorced, I had to stay with my father, although my mother had custody. She had no money and she wouldn't pay child support. When Mum met another man, I was invited to live with them. Now she is thinking of leaving him. She has told me I'll have to go back to my father. I will not put myself in that position. What should I do? (Tom, 15).

If you or your children are deeply interested in the problems of the youth you can share you opinion with the chatmates of the magazine on its forum site:

 www.seventeen.com

You can also refer to:

www.generationyouthissues.org.uk

Unit 2.

Generation Gap.

1.  Lead-in.

a) Do you observe the problem of the generation gap in many families? What are the reasons of its existence?

b) What do parents and their children usually argue about?  Why do you think it happens?

c) Do you think the problem of the generation gap has become acute in the recent years only or has it always existed?  What do you judge by?

2. Vocabulary.

Study the Topical Vocabulary, translate the words and phrases into Russian.  What kind of a parent do you want to be/ are you?

An unhappy difficult parent is:

impulsive; indulging, pampering, babying; unreasonable;
selfish, self-indulging, self-interested; self-willed, willful; inconsistent; partial; sentimental; permissive, loveless, indifferent, impersonal; insensitive, disapproving; unjust, unfair; impatient, intolerant; insensible, unreason
able, unwise; inconsistent; nagging, fussy; cold, hard, harsh,
cruel; bullying, aggressive, destructive, violent; repressing,
demanding, restraining; moralizing; uncompromising, tough.

A good parent is:

loving, caring, affectionate; kind, kind-hearted, good-natured, friendly, approving, reassuring; responsive, thoughtful, considerate, understanding; sensitive, sympathetic; sensible, reasonable; self-restrained; patient, tolerant; open, outgoing; firm, consistent; just.

3. Reading and Speaking.

1. Read the following text. Discuss the relations in the family.

Gwyn and Mary Williams have two sons, but Jim and his brother have nothing in common. Jim left school as soon as he could, at sixteen, and is already earning a fair wage as a packer in the fish market. He is both jealous and scornful of Gareth — jealous because Gareth is cleverer than he, and scornful because, although Gareth is the elder, he is still at school and is not earning any money. Jim keeps himself to himself. He spends much of his time cleaning and repairing his motorbike.

"He never tells me anything!" complains Gwyn. "I'd like to know what he's doing — when he's not with his motorbike!"

"Mrs Smith says she's seen him with Rob Milligan and his gang." "That lot! They ought to be locked up. I'm having him going about with them. I'll talk to him, I will!"

"It won't do any good. You know it won't." Jim is bored, bored by his job and bored by the long hours when he is free. That is why he rides his motorbike at 160 kph on the motorway, and that is why he goes about with the Milligan gang.

Gareth Williams is ambitious. He does not yet know what he wants to be, but he has been told by his teachers that he will certainly win a place at the University, probably Oxford or Cambridge. He is leaving school at the end of term and is now waiting for the examination results. He knows that if his results are good he will not have to worry about the cost of going to the university, because the local council will pay for everything.

Yet Gareth has problems which worry him deeply. He is not happy at home. For the last year he has had to do his scholarship work in a small dark room, surrounded by the oily parts of Jim's motorbike and deafened by the noise of a transistor radio.

Gareth is fond of his father, Gwyn is pleased that one of his sons is going to have a better chance to get on in life than he had when he was young. But Gwyn left school when he was fourteen, and is now more concerned about his own future at the factory where he works than about the subjects Gareth is studying for his exam.

Gareth's relationship with his mother is less satisfactory. He finds her love for him and her pride difficult to bear. She never leaves him alone. "I've got a special dinner for you today, Garry!" — "Come and give your old Mum a kiss!" — "Isn't he good-looking, Gwyn! Just like his Dad used to be!" — "Aren't you clever, Garry, to know all those things!".

There are times when Gareth runs out of the house for fear of exploding and hurting his mother's feelings.

"You haven't shaved again this morning, Garry!" "No, Mum. I'm going to grow a beard!"

Gareth intends to grow a beard when he leaves school, chiefly because he knows his mother doesn't want him to. It is his way of rebelling, the first step towards breaking ties with a home for which he feels little sympathy.

Does this family need any help? If you were a psychologist what solutions would you suggest?

b) What is the generation gap? How can you translate it into Russian? Study the following dialogue.  What are the men discussing in the dialogue? How is the subject of their conversation relevant to the problem of the generation gap?

Two old men are sitting on a bus. They are talking.

First Old Man: Did you see that schoolgirl who got off then?

Second Old Man: What about her? First she looked more like a boy than a girl!

Second: I think it's the other way around. All the boys look more like girls these days. It's all that long hair!

First: The trouble is these days they don't teach the girls how to cook or how to take care of children or even how to keep house!

Second: My granddaughter's going to university. She's learning how to build bridges and things like that! Fancy that! A girl learning how to be an engineer!

First: Things aren't what they used to be, are they?

Second: No, they aren't. Everything's upside down these days. People haven't even got good manners any more. Look at the way children act.

First: That's right! Why don't they teach the girls to behave like ladies and the boys to behave like gentlemen!

Second: Exactly!

Bus Conductor: Excuse me. Would one of you give a passenger your seat. She's a mother with a baby and you're nearest the door. It'll only be for a few minutes!

First: What? Give up my seat? Me!

Second: Tell her to stand! I'm not giving up my seat to anyone!

c) In Britain, people are concerned about the generation gap. Do you agree with any of the main points of the following interview? Discuss them in groups.

Interviewer: What's wrong with today's teenagers?

Parent 1: That's easy — everything.

Interviewer: For example?

Parent 2: They want to be treated like adults, but they won't take adult responsibilities. They just sit around, listening to loud music.

Interviewer. Do you have any problems with your teenage children?

Parent 3: My son's fine, he works hard at school, but I have problems with my daughter Susan. She never listens to us. I think she doesn't even like us. She and her friends just use the house like a convenient hotel and she wears these terrible clothes. I think she does it to upset us.

Interviewer. What do you think about your parents, Paul?

Paul: Well, they're so boring. I mean, they want us to be like them and accept their way of life.

Susan: Yeah, they think we're all delinquents and criminals, just because they don't like the way we look. They're afraid what the neighbours will think of our hair and clothes.

Paul: I mean, I quite like my Mum and Dad, but they treat us like kids — always ordering us around. I think they're jealous because we have a much better time they did when they were young.

d) Read the text below and find the English  equivalents for the phrases in the box.  Then complete the tasks that follow.

Generation Gap in Russia Today.

Russia today is going through a period of dynamic changes.  Inevitably political and economic shifts affect employment, personal incomes, social services and education among many other aspects of society at large.

One of the inner struggles of these economic and social shake-ups are teenagers and their relations with adult world both parents and teachers.  This topic becomes more apparent as school exams are completed and students begin their summer holidays.  The struggle for freedom from parents, personal independence and social status among peers affect all young people.  

Let’s start by saying that the generation gap is a problem of all times.  People have had this problem for centuries.  Nobody has solved it yet, try what they may.  Moreover, the older generation keeps thinking that the representatives of today’s youth are in no way like the heroes of the past, they are the worst offsprings of their brightest fathers.  It should be noted here the problem of generation gap has become really aggravated due to the hardships this country is trying to overcome.

There are many debates about youth at present.  The first opinion is that modern youngsters are infantile, degraded, they know nothing, they want nothing.  The other opinion is that youth has grown ignorant, rude and aggressive.  “Youngsters-gangsters” are interested only in money, where and how to get it, their spiritual world is too limited.  As for me, my heart bleeds when I see those gangs of teenagers with unseeing eyes and matted greasy hair, whose language is rough, whose manners are rude.  Their motives are criminal, their souls are empty, they have been deprived of love since birth.  They care nothing about the place they live in, they ignore and despise the elder generation.  Their desire for an easy life is worse than individualism, careerism and self-interest, because it often leads to the violation of moral principles and personal degradation.

One may certainly consider this is an extreme point of view.  As a matter of fact there are still many young people whose hearts ring like bells, who are very enthusiastic and eager to live a better spiritual life and with an idea, that a higher education is still a goal for many of them.

There is also no denying that a new distinctive generation has grown, which is rather practical and cautious of life’s values, skeptical of any authority.  Weighing all pros and cons, it might be more fair to say that today’s youth is a many-colored mosaic, though there are some dark spots in it.

It’s common knowledge that grown-ups are alarmed by the behaviour of the growing generation, by increasing disorders, even vandalism and cruelty of the youngsters, their violence, crime and what not.  Adults call the teenagers’ behaviour shocking, intolerable and aggressive.  The younger generation has a different outlook, a different approach to life, different values.  And the depth of this difference probably depends on how much adults understand the world of the young and their problems.  Sometimes they cry for help, but the grown-ups don’t hear it.  

“Respect the opinions of the others even if you disagree with them,” – that’s probably what should be born in mind by both generations to avoid unkind criticism.

(from “English”  Еженедельное приложение к газете «Первое Сентября» «Английский язык» Июнь №24/1995)

 e) The article was written in 1995.   Do the ideas conveyed in the article sound outdated today?  Explain your point of view.

f) Agree or disagree with the following points from the text.  Give arguments.

1.  Political and economic shifts affect education among many other aspects of society at large.

2. The struggle for freedom from parents, personal independence and social status among peers affect all young people.  

3. The generation gap is a problem of all times.

4. The older generation keeps thinking that the representatives of today’s youth are in no way like the heroes of the past.

5. Modern youngsters are infantile, degraded, they know nothing, they want nothing.  

6. There are still many young people who are very enthusiastic and eager to live a better spiritual life and with an idea, that a higher education is still a goal for many of them.

7. There is also no denying that a new distinctive generation has grown, which is rather practical and skeptical of any authority.  

8. “Respect the opinions of the others even if you disagree with them,” – that’s probably what should be born in mind by both generations to avoid unkind criticism.

4. On Your Own.

Read the following poem by W. Shakespeare and analyse it on your own.  What kind of message does it convey?  Is it relevant to the topic of the generation gap?  Do you know any other pieces of literature devoted to the same subject?

Age and Youth

Crabbed Age and Youth

Cannot live together:

Youth is full of pleasance,

Age is full of care;

Youth like summer morn,

Age like winter weather;

Youth like summer brave,

Age like winter bare;

Youth is full of sport;

Age’s breath is short;

Youth is nimble, Age is Lame;

Youth is hot and bold,

Age is weak and cold;

Youth is wild and Age is tame,

Youth, I do adore thee!

Unit 3.

British Youth.

1.  Lead-in.

1) Do you think the problems of young people/ teenagers in all countries are the same?  What do you judge by?

2) What age is considered as the teenage period in Russia?  Do you know if it is the same in other countries?

3) Do you think young people in Russia have more freedom than in Britain, for example?

2. Vocabulary.

Read the sentences below and fill in the gaps with the words from the following box:

1. The struggle for ……from parents, personal ….. and social status among ….. affect all young people.

2. The older ….. keeps thinking that today’s teenagers are the worst ….. of their brightest fathers.

3. Some people believe that modern ….. are infantile, degraded and they know nothing.  But perhaps it’s because they have been deprived of ….. since ….. .

4. Today children are under ….. because we’ve given up so many of the ….. and sources of ….. of the past, such as the extended ….. and the small, tightly knit ….. .

5. The teenage world is a place of ….. .

6. Teenage ….. is often the result of unkind criticism.

7. Sometimes it takes a good deal of ….. and ….. on the part of the parents to accept their children’s tastes in clothes and hair styles.

8. Trivial quarrels between children and their parents may put a ….. into their relations.

3. Reading and Speaking.

   Real the following texts. Compare the life of British and Russian young people, find differences and similarities in their lifestyle and complete the corresponding chart.

YOUNG PEOPLE

The majority of young people in Britain today accept most of the beliefs, customs and behaviour of their parents most of the time. But they have become much more independent since the Pop Revolution of the 1960s. At that time they developed their own separate culture: they listened to different music, wore different clothes, had different ideas about life, used different words and behaved differently.

But youth culture is always changing. The young people of the 1960s
who rebelled against the traditional ideas of their parents are now considered out-of-date by today's youth. So are the hippies, who disapproved so
strongly of materialism and who believed in "free love", "flower power",
and "doing your own thing."

In the mid-1970s unemployment rose above one million and this produced one of the most extreme and "different" youth groups: the punks. The punks who first appeared on the streets of London were young working-class people who were fed up with trying to find jobs but did not want to join the mainly middle-class hippies. They dyed their hair with bright colours: purple, orange, green. Some wore rings and metal objects attached to their ears, noses and cheeks. They made their own kind of music, punk rock, and they sniffed glue when they could not afford other drugs. They claimed that their ambition was to die before the age of thirty. Some did.  

Only a minority of people became real punks and there are few left in Britain now, but high unemployment continues to have a strong influence on the attitudes and behaviour of young people. They fear unemployment. Today's teenagers feel that the good things in life will come to them if they can get a job. So they are not interested in being rebels any more; they want to become adults as quickly as possible. Young people are still concerned about world peace, as the young people of the 1960s were, but now students are more interested in examination results than in student politics. Smart clothes, money and success became fashionable again in the 1990s. There are many young people who cannot find a job of any sort, and many school leavers look at their future without hope. But the fortunate ones who find jobs enjoy the materialistic lifestyle of the 1990s. Who can say how attitudes and behaviour will have changed at the beginning of the new millennium?

Point out the main problems of teenagers in GB:

BRITISH YOUTH

Despite media reports, not all young people in Britain are punks or football hooligans. There is a wide cross-section of youth from Young Conservatives to Rastafarians, from skinheads to pupils at expensive private schools.

Nineteenth-century, Victorian attitudes about how children should be brought up have largely disappeared and for many children family life has become more relaxed and less strict. Many young people in Britain have a considerable amount of freedom and the things they are interested in reflect this: music, television, sex, fashion and money predominate. Being independent and free to choose are priorities. Attitudes towards religion and marriage have changed. Ever since the media discovered the world of the teenager, films, videos, TV programmes and magazines have all been marketed towards the young.

There are a number of social problems associated with being young: some schools have problems with discipline and motivation; crime and drug-taking in some areas have reached serious levels. During the 1980s unemployment among school-leavers was a particular problem, with many facing a bleak future with little hope of finding a reasonable job.

For many young people leaving home is a route to independence, although for some this may be financially impossible. Most young couples hope to be able to have their own house or flat: in modern Britain financial pressures are much more likely to restrict this than family pressure.

4. On Your Own.

    If you want to learn more about the British young people you may refer to:

1) P. Harley, R. Jones. Britain Explored. – Longman, 1995, p. 92-93.

2) D. McDonald. Britain in Close-up. – Longman, 1999, p.90-102.

The Problems of Upbringing.

1.  Lead-in.

a) Is it difficult to raise children nowadays?

b) Is it true that children nowadays develop more quickly than previous generations?

c) Why do children tend to gain independence from parents earlier?

d) What are the basic qualities of a loving parent?

2. Vocabulary.

a) Study the list of the Topical Vocabulary and divide the phrases into three groups:

1) with a positive connotation;

2) with a negative connotation;

3) neutral.

To avoid pitfalls, stunted development, to result in negative growth, to encourage a child, to gain independence from parents, to be mature, affection, reassurance, not to feel neglected, to be consistent, to have no favourites, to have full faith in, capacity to restrain anger, to cause enormous damage, to shake smb’s confidence, dignified atmosphere, to put fat in the fire, to be said in the heat of the moment, to exaggerate praise out of all proportion, a realistic picture of a child’s accomplishments, spanking, to beat the daylights out of smb., to shake life out of smb., a direct reprimand, to tell smb. off, to answer back, to discipline smb., to lead to frayed nerves, to live up to smb’s expectations, to have admonitions, to become a nuisance (resentful, spiritless, delinquent), corporal punishment, a child’s mental development, to praise a child.

b) Answer the following questions in pairs using the Topical Vocabulary.

1. What is stunted development?

2. What is “negative growth”?

3. What person can be called mature?

4. What is important in handling children?

5. Is praise a good tool in bringing up a child?

6. Why should parents keep away from remarks about the child’s personality?

7. What punishment would you call ineffective/ effective?

8. Is it possible not to impose anything on children?

9. From what age should parents leave a decision to the child?

10. What is meant by the phrase “to live up to smb’s expectations”?

11. How do children behave while having admonitions?

3. Reading and Speaking.

Before reading the text below make sure you know the following words and phrases.  Then read the text and complete the tasks after the text.

 Juvenile delinquency, negligence, adolescence, rebellion against smth/smb., unsolicited, a child-rearing manual, hardy, excessive.

PARENTS ARE TOO PERMISSIVE WITH THEIR CHILDREN NOWADAYS

Few people would defend the Victorian attitude to children, but if you were a parent in those days, at least you knew where you stood: children were to be seen and not heard. Freud and company did away with all that and parents have been bewildered ever since. The child's happiness is all-important, the psychologists say, but what about the parent's happiness? Parents suffer constantly from fear and guilt while their children gaily romp about pulling the place apart. A good old-fashioned spanking is out of the question: no modern child-rearing manual would permit such barbarity. The trouble is you are not allowed even to shout. Who knows what deep psychological wounds you might inflict? The poor child may never recover from the dreadful traumatic experience. So it is that parents bend over backwards to avoid giving their children complexes which a hundred years ago hadn't even been heard of. Certainly a child needs love, and a lot of it. But the excessive permissiveness of modern parents is surely doing more harm than good.

Psychologists have succeeded in undermining parents' confidence in their own authority. And it hasn't taken children long to get wind of the fact. In addition to the great modern classics on child care, there are countless articles in magazines and newspapers. With so much unsolicited advice flying about, mum and dad just don't know what to do any more. In the end, they do nothing at all. So, from early childhood, the kinds are in charge and parents lives are regulated according to the needs of their offspring. When the little dears develop into teenagers, they take complete control. Lax authority over the years makes adolescent rebellion against parents all the more violent. If the young people are going to have a party, for instance, parents are asked to leave the house. Their presence merely spoils the fun. What else can the poor parents do but obey?

Children are hardy creatures (far hardier than psychologists would have us believe) and most of them survive the harmful influence of extreme permissiveness which is the normal condition in the modern household. But a great many do not. The spread of juvenile delinquency in our own age is largely due to parental laxity. Mother, believing that little Johnny can look after himself, is not at home when he returns from school, so little Johnny roams the streets. The dividing line between permissiveness and sheer negligence is very fine indeed.

The psychologists have much to answer for. They should keep their mouths shut and let parents get on with the job. And if children are knocked about a little bit in the process, it may not really matter too much. At least this will help them to develop vigorous there's dome truth in the idea that children who've had a surfeit of happiness in the childhood emerge like stodgy puddings and fail to make a success of life.

Find the roots of the teenage problems. Who are to blame: psychologists, parents or children? Prove your ideas.

Comment on the following points from the text and explain how you’ve understood them.

• Children were to be seen and not heard.
• The child's happiness is all-important, the psychologists say, but what about the parent's happiness?
• The excessive permissiveness of modern parents is surely doing more harm than good.
• Lax authority over the years makes adolescent rebellion against parents all the more violent.
• The spread of juvenile delinquency in our own age is largely due to parental laxity.
• The psychologists have much to answer for.

What is the main idea of the text?  Do you agree with it?

4. On Your Own.

Read through the sentences below, then put a circle around the number which most closely coincides with your opinion.  Before starting, look at the Key.

                                                 (from Pair Work 2 by Peter Watcyn-Jones – Penguin 1997)

Unit 1.

Global Environmental Concerns.

1. Lead-in.

a) What are the constituents of the natural environment?  What are flora and fauna as the components of the natural environment composed of?

b) What are the major environmental issues (problems) confronting humanity today?

c) Which environmental problems are the most serious in the area where you live?

d) What are the main sources of environmental pollution?

2. Vocabulary.

    1) Study the Vocabulary on the topic “Ecology and Environmental Protection” and arrange the words and phrases under the following headings:

Minerals, to abuse nature, to dump waste materials on land, (fresh) water supplies (reservoirs), to adapt to environment, to exhaust toxic gases (fuel),  vegetation, to reduce pollution, depletion of water resources, woodlands (forestry), to install anti-pollution equipment, radiation, high (low) radioactivity, flora and fauna, combustion of fuel, arable land (soil), cultivated land, unrestricted industrialization, oil spillage, to face the fresh water supply problem, to upset the biological balance, to disperse radioactive wastes, the by-products of massive industrialization, to minimize noise disturbance, ecosystems, to fight pollution, global environmental security, “green” belts, extensive use of agrochemicals, national parks, species of animals, to dispose garbage (litter, wastes) in designated areas, to disfigure (litter) the landscape, to be environment-conscious, to be environment-educated, to be environmentally-friendly, to produce foul air, industrial wastes,  the denudation of soil, the toxic fall-outs of materials, concentrations of smoke in the air, dust content in the air, noise offenders (pollutants), merciless killing of animals, to create disaster-prevention programmes, to preserve, to protect and reproduce animal (fish, bird) reserves.

2) Cover the right-hand columns in the following charts and do the translation of the Topical Vocabulary from Russian into English.  Then uncover the right-hand column and check yourself.

3. Reading and Speaking.

a) Read the text below and say which environmental problems from are mentioned in it.  Quote the text to prove your answer.

Since ancient times Nature has served Man, being the source of his life.  For thousands of years people lived in harmony with environment and it seemed to them that natural riches were unlimited.  But with the development of civilization man’s interference in nature began to increase.  Even in the end of the 19th century when the word “ecology” appeared people continued to use nature as consumers, considering Man to be “lord and king” of nature and not child.  In the 20th century with the rapid growth of science and technology human achievements in conquering nature became so great that man’s economic activities began to produce an increasingly negative effect on the biosphere.    Today the natural world is under violent assault from man.

The seas and rivers are being poisoned by radioactive wastes, by chemical discharges and by the dumping of dangerous toxins and raw sewage.  The air we breathe is polluted by smoke and fumes from factories and motor vehicles; even the rain is poisoned.  Every year world industry pollutes the atmosphere with about 1000 million tons of dust and other harmful substances.  Many cities suffer from smog.

It’s little wonder forests and lakes are being destroyed and everywhere wildlife is disappearing.  Yet the destruction continues.  As a result some rare species of animals, birds, fish and plants disappear forever, a number of rivers and lakes dry up.

Governments and industries throughout the world are intensifying their efforts to extract the earth’s mineral riches and to plunder its living resources.

The great rain-forests and frozen continents alike are seriously threatened.  And this despite the warnings of the scientific community and the deep concern of millions of ordinary people.

The destruction of nature gradually led to the loss of the most essential element of existence, a healthy biological habitat.  Environmental pollution increases the cases of diseases, raises the cost of medical services, reduces the life-span of a man.  By now the pollution and poisoning of the soil, water and air have reached a critical level.

Environmental pollution has become a significant obstacle to economic growth.  the discharge of dust and gas into the atmosphere returns to the Earth in the form of “acid rain” and affects crop, the quality of forests, the amount of fish.  Thus it is wrong to see economy and ecology as diametrically opposed.

The most horrible ecological disaster befell Ukraine and its people in the result of the Chernobyl tragedy in April 1986.  About 18 percent of the territory of Ukraine were polluted with radioactive substances. Nuclear explosions on the ground will cause irreversible changes in the chemical composition of the upper atmosphere.

The pollution of air and the world’s ocean, destruction of the ozone layer is the result of man’s careless interaction with nature, a sign of ecological crises.

b) Work with a partner and rank the environmental problems listed from 1-5 according to how important you feel they are starting with the most important. Then compare with the rest of the group.

• urban smog
• dumping of hazardous waste
• overuse of pesticides
• ozone layer depletion
• acid rain

c) Now match the problems to the possible solutions below and talk about them as in the example.

• improving public transport
• stricter legislation regarding waste disposal
• alternative methods of growing crops, e.g. organic farming
• encourage people not to use aerosols or other products containing CFC gases
• obligatory use of alternative energy sources

Urban smog is a serious problem in cities.  It could be dealt with by improving public transport so fewer people use private cars.

4. On Your Own.

 Complete the table on the most acute problems of ecology.  You may use the phrases from the box.

Unit 2.

What can be done?

1. Lead-in.

1) We are much more aware now of the need to look after our environment. What stories about the environment are in the news at the moment?

2)  What does the phrase “to be environment-educated” mean to you?  Is it the same as to be “environment-conscious” or “environmentally-friendly”?

3) How green are you? What have you done or what are you doing to be friendlier to the environment?

2. Vocabulary.

1)  Translate into English using the Topical Vocabulary.

a) Широкое использование агрохимикатов приводит к истощению почвы.

б) Каждый человек должен быть экологически грамотным и осознавать важность охраны окружающей среды.

в) Проблемы загрязнения воздуха и воды промышленными отходами являются наиболее актуальными на сегодняшний день.

г) Безжалостное истребление животных приводит к полному исчезновению некоторых редких видов фауны.

д) Каждый человек, обеспокоенный экологическими проблемами, должен бороться с загрязнениями почвы, воды и воздуха.

е) Политика государства в отношении защиты окружающей среды должна быть направлена на то, чтобы обязывать крупные промышленные предприятия развивать технологии, обеспечивающие контроль над уровнем водного и воздушного загрязнения, и устанавливать очистные сооружения.

2) Use the word given in brackets to form a word that fits the context.  Then say what the main idea of the text is.

The environment: our responsibility.

These days it is (possible) to open a newspaper without (read) about the damage we are doing to the environment.  The earth is being (threat) and the future looks bad.  What can each of us do?

We cannot clean up our (pollution) rivers and seas (night).  Nor can we stop the (appear) of rare species of plants and animals.  But we can stop (add) to the problem while (science) search for answers, and laws are passed in nature’s (defend).

It may not be easy to change your lifestyle (complete), but some steps are easy to take: cut down the amount of (drive) you do, or use as little plastic as possible.  It is also easy to save energy, which also reduces house bills.  We must all make a personal (decide) to work for the future of our planet if we want to (sure) a better world for our grandchildren.

3. Reading and Speaking.

a) Work in pairs to see how “green” you are.  Fill in the questionnaire yourself and then compare your answers and final score with your partner.

SCORE

Score 1 point for every YES

More than 10 points: You obviously care about the environment and try to preserve it.

5-10 points: You are beginning to show more interest in the environment.

Less than 5 points: You don’t seem very interested in being “green”.

    Discuss which of the ways of being “green” listed in the questionnaire you think are the most important and which are the most difficult.  Give reasons.

b) Read the text below about what can be done to fight pollution and comment on the meaning of the words and phrases in bold.

Living In the Modern World.

Pollution is one of the greatest problems facing mankind.  The nuclear accident at Chernobyl and the poisoning of the river Rhine by chemicals are just two examples of disasters affecting environment.  What can be done?  Some people say there is no practical solution.  However, I believe the problem can be dealt with on three levels: internationally, nationally, and, last but not least, on a personal level.

Let us begin by looking at the type of international action that can be taken.  The first point I would like to make is that, when a disaster such as that at Chernobyl occurs, it affects millions of people.  Radiation does not respect international borders.  In my opinion, there should be strict safety regulations governing the construction of reactors.  Furthermore, reactors should be regularly inspected by teams of international experts.  Similarly, if a country wishes to get rid of nuclear waste by dumping it at sea, it should only be allowed once the matter has been thoroughly discussed by all countries that would be affected.  Environmental disasters can be avoided.

Let us now look at what can be done on a national level.  Governments must be prepared to take action against pollution.  For instance, air pollution could be reduced if car manufactures and companies were made to fit effective filters on car exhausts and factory chimneys.  These measures would in turn help to reduce the damage caused to lakes and forests by acid rain.

Lastly, what can we do as individuals?  Firstly, I believe we should all be prepared to make changes to our lifestyles.  Personally, I try and use public transport or my bicycle as much as possible.  When I buy petrol, I make sure that it is the lead free variety.  Secondly, we can protest against companies responsible for pollution by making our opinion known and hitting them in the pocket.  For example, if the public boycotted products such as aerosols, which damage the ozone layer, then the manufacturers would have to change their packaging policies.  We would show them that we are not prepared to let them get away with destroying the environment.

To sum up, I have tried to show that there are steps that can be taken in the fight against pollution.  It is a problem that can be solved given the right levels of commitment.  However, only by acting as individuals first, can we expect governments to act in their turn.  

( From “THINK First Certificate” by Jon Naunton)

c) Are these statements true, false according to the text or not stated in it?

1) Pollution gets a lot of publicity.

2) Many people accept pollution as a part of life.

3) The writer is a pessimist.

4) Chernobyl was nobody’s fault.

5) The writer can’t afford to use his car all the time.

6) We can all fight pollution.

7) What we do is more important than what governments do.

8) Consumers have power.

d)  Say how much you agree with what the writer has to say on the subject.  Comment on the writer’s ideas expressing your agreement, disagreement or doubt.  Discuss them with a partner. You may use the phrases from the table below.

e) Here is a list of 24 ideas about what YOU can do to help the environment.  Read them and say how each of the things suggested can help the environment.

1. Buy fresh food that doesn’t need a lot of packaging.
2. Try to buy organic fruit and vegetables from farmers who don’t use chemicals.
3. Look for food and other products which come from Third World countries.
4. Save as much water as possible.
5. Find out more about Green organizations in your area.
6. Write letters to the government in your country about Green problems which worry you.
7. Use products that won’t stay for ever in the earth or sea when you throw them.
8. Use bottles more than once (or take them to a bottle bank).
9. Try to save paper.  Also, buy and use recycled paper as often as possible.
10. Avoid “throw-away” products.
11. Make sure that your family and friends use unleaded petrol in their cars.
12. Don’t buy products (fur or ivory, for example) made from rare or protected species.
13. Use public transport as often as possible.
14. If you’re buying wood, don’t choose hardwood from tropical rainforests.
15. Look for aerosols which haven’t got any CFCs in them.
16. Try to eat a healthier diet.  Avoid too much fat or sugar.
17. Don’t buy hamburgers or pizzas in plastic boxes which contain CFCs.
18. Use batteries as little as possible.  It takes 50 times more energy to make them than they produce.
19. Don’t leave on electric lights, TV, hi-fi, etc., if you’re not using them.
20. Take aerobic exercise at least three times per week.
21. Find out more about conservation issues in your area.  Are there any woods, fields, etc. in danger, for example?
22. Try to throw away at least 25% less rubbish.
23. Help old people in your area to insulate their homes.  This saves energy and helps to keep them warm in winter.
24. Visit any local nature reserves or zoos and talk to the people who run them.

(from “English Learner’s Digest” № 10)

Which of the ideas do you find practical and real for you?  Which of them seem unacceptable or senseless to you?  Why?  

Which of the things suggested below you do regularly?

4. On Your Own.

Find out the information about the ecological projects or programmes that are being carried out in your region?  What are their aims?  Which of them could you take part in?  Share this information with your group and discuss your reactions to these projects and programmes.

Unit 3.

Environmental Pressure Groups.

1. Lead-in.

1) Have you ever taken part in any ecological projects?

2) What do you think an environmental pressure group is?

3) What environmental pressure groups have you heard of? Which of them are active in your country? in your region?

4) Have you ever voted for any “green” party?  Why/ why not?

5) Do you think a “green” party could ever from a government?

2. Vocabulary.

 Complete the sentences using one of the words from the box.

1. The world in which we live is our ….. .

2. Smoke, dirt and noise are all types of ….. .

3. If man continues to hunt whales, they will shortly become …. .

4. Every day rubbish and chemicals are taken out to sea and ….. .  It’s disgusting and should be stopped.

5. In many parts of the world trees and lakes are being destroyed by ….. rain.

6.  At Chernobyl there was an accident at a nuclear ….. .  When it exploded, large areas of the surrounding countryside were  ….. and there was ….. all over Europe.

7.  ….. is the science that studies the relationship between different life forms in nature.

8. When uranium is used up, it has to be kept in a safe place.  it is extremely difficult to dispose of nuclear ….. .

3. Reading and Speaking.

a) Read the text below and comment on the meaning of  words and phrases in bald.

Greenpeace.

The forces of the destruction of the environment are being challenged across the globe-and at the spearhead of this challenge is Greenpeace.

Wherever the environment is in danger Greenpeace has made a stand.    Its scientific presentations and peaceful direct actions at sea and on land have shocked governments and industries into an awareness that Greenpeace will not allow the natural world to be destroyed.  Those actions have won the admiration and support of millions.

Against all odds, Greenpeace has brought the plight of the natural world to the attention of caring people.  Terrible abuses to the environment, often carried out in remote places or far out to sea have been headlined on television and in the press.

Greenpeace began with a protest voyage into a nuclear test zone.  The test was disrupted.  Today, the site at Amchitka in the Aleutian Islands is a bird sanctuary.  

Then Greenpeace sent its tiny inflatable boats to protect the whales.  They took up position between the harpoons and the fleeing whales.  Today, commercial whaling is banned.

On the ice floats of Newfoundland, Greenpeace volunteers placed their bodies between the gaffs of the seal hunters and the helpless seal pups.  The hunt was subsequently called off.

In the North Atlantic, Greenpeace drove its inflatables underneath falling barrels of radioactive waste.  Now nuclear waste dumping at sea has been stopped.

In the North Sea, Greenpeace swimmers turned back dump ships carrying chemical wastes.  New laws to protect the North Sea have been promised.

Peaceful direct action by Greenpeace has invoked the power of public opinion which in turn has forced changes in the law to protect wildlife and to stop the pollution of the natural world.

In the former USSR Green peace’s involvement began in Kiev with the Children of Chernobyl project.  In 1990 their vessels sailed to Novaya Zemlya to protest against nuclear testing.  At that time they were held in custody for more than two weeks.  The second time they sailed there was to document the Russian Navy’s dumping of nuclear waste and spent reactors from nuclear submarines in the sea.  Their boat was arrested and their ship Solo was fired on and captured, moreover, in international waters.  As a result, a governmental commission was formed under the chairmanship of Alexei Yablokov, adviser to the President on matters of ecology.  Greenpeace secured what they wanted to achieve.  Today, Greenpeace of Russia stands quite firmly on its feet.

In Russia today Greenpeace protests against the production of plutonium in the course of recycling used nuclear fuel, the dumping of nuclear wastes, which are taken to Russia and toxic waste in general, as they say there already exist technical ways to solving the problem.

The system of financing of Greenpeace took final shape in the mid 1980s.  Greenpeace takes no money either from governments and private companies or from any funds whatsoever.  Individual donations accounts for 99 percent of Greenpeace’s money and 1 percent comes from the sale of T-shirts and souvenirs.    

Greenpeace are continually working with the authorities.  And, while not being a political organization, they secure any ecological victory they can at a political level.  If a person responsible for the adoption of one or another bill does not listen to their arguments, there is a need for recourse to pressure – through the press or from among the person’s constituents.    

b) Find the synonyms for the words and phrase from the list in the box below.

to  challenge, to make a stand, a plight, to ban, to call off, to invoke, to hold in custody, to stand firmly on one’s feet, to account for, a need for recourse to

Work with a partner.

Student A.  Cover the right-hand column.  Read the information to student B.  Look up  as much as possible when you speak.

Student B.  Cover the left-hand column.  Listen to Student A.  Rephrase the information in your own words using the cues listed and the introductory expressions below.

Swap roles after statement 5.

So, do you mean that …

In other words, …

What you are saying then is that …

c) Read the text below and explain the meaning of the highlighted words and phrase.  Then find in the text all words and phrases related to the topic “Ecology”.

The Bellona Foundation.

The Bellona Foundation is a multi-disciplinary international environmental NGO based in Oslo, Norway. Founded in 1986 as a direct action protest group, it has since blossomed into one of the world’s most recognised technology and solution oriented, environmental champions with offices on two continents. Altogether, some 40 ecologists, nuclear physicists, engineers, economists, lawyers, advisors and journalists work at Bellona. 

The Bellona Foundation is financed by industry, business, individuals as well as project oriented grants from philanthropic organisations and the Norwegian government.

Though their offices, located in Brussels, Washington, St. Petersburg, Murmansk and Oslo, Bellona works with relevant governments, experts and other NGOs to achieve sustainable solutions to the world’s most pressing environmental problems. These include the clean-up of the Cold War legacy in Russia, the safety of the oil and gas industry in Russia and Europe, fighting global warming through campaigns at local and government levels, and publishing their findings on Bellona Web to keep the public aware and educated about the environment in which it lives.

The foundation has published four reports on civilian and military nuclear facilities in Russia, showing the enormous potential for both potential and ongoing radioactive contamination. But as they are also a solution oriented organization, these reports and their on-going work are geared toward making constructive contributions to solving these problems and finding permanent storage for nuclear waste to guard future generations from contamination.

The Bellona Foundation is also extremely involved in the fight against global climate change and has produced reports for the public, other NGOs and world leaders offering alternatives to current energy and transportation structures that produce fewer greenhouse gases in a safe and profitable way. They advocate carbon dioxide emission-free gas production, solar and wind energy to replace old fossil fuel plants, and they put the first electrical and hydrogen powered vehicles on the road in Norway. They are also educating industry about the advantages of the decrease of carbon dioxide emissions into the air.  This is why Bellona developed the unique “B-7” programme. Through this programme, members of the business and industrial community can work with Bellona to find more ecologically sound methods of operating.

As the 21st century brings more industry, industry will need a watchdog. It is Bellona’s goal to be that watchdog and to make sure technological advances are accompanied by sound ecology. Bellona Web (www.bellona.org) will report in full on these events as they occur and strive to maintain its position as one of the best environmental news sites in the world.

d) Complete the following statements using the information from the text.

1) The Bellona Foundation is based in _____.

2) The Bellona Foundation is financed by _____.

3) The offices of the Bellona Foundation are located in _____.

4) The aims of the Bellona Foundation are to ______.

5) The Bellona Foundation is also extremely involved in the fight against _____.

e) Compare the information about Greenpeace and the Bellona Foundation and find out what these organizations have in common and what the main differences are in terms of:

a) national/international character  of their activity;

b) financing;

c) aims and perspectives;

d) priorities in fighting ecological problems;

e) achievements;

f) etc.

4. On Your Own.

For further reading on the activity of Greenpeace and the Bellona Foundation you may refer to their official web sites and find out more about their programmes and actions in the world and in Russia.  Share the information with your group mates.

Greenpeace – www.greenpeace.org

The Bellona Foundation – www.bellona.org

Find out more information about other environmental pressure groups: The Friends of the Earth, WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) etc., and make the reports about them.

Unit 4.

Local Ecology.

1.  Lead-in.

a) Were you born in the Murmansk region?  What is specific about the geographical position and the climate of the region?

b) Do you think the climate of the Murmansk region has any effect on people’s health?

c) What ecological problems do you think the Murmansk region faces?  Are they global or peculiar for the Murmansk region only?

2. Vocabulary.

Fill in the gaps in the sentences below with the phrases from the box.

1. The Kola _____ is considered to be an ecologically poor district.
2. Animals in the Murmansk region are represented by 52 _____ of mammals and more than 2000 ____ of insects.
3. The Murmansk region is one of the most significant mineral _____ _____ regions in Russia.
4. The zones of highly and completely disturbed ecosystems resulted from harmful substance _____ into the atmosphere in the industrial regions of Severonikel and Pechenganikel plants.
5. The area dusted by open tailing _____ produced by apatit-nepheline ore floatation is about 1000 sq kms.  
6. The main reasons of a non-effective operation of _____ purification structures are the overloaded and outdated equipment.
7. The most dangerous pollutants are sulphur dioxide, nikel, cobalt, copper and others.  
8. The birth _____ in the Murmansk region is one of the lowest in the Russian Federation.
9. The Murmansk region outnumbers all other regions and countries in the quantity of nuclear reactors _____ _____.  
10. Modern atomic power stations and ______ submarine _____ are the most widespread sources of environmental pollution.  
11.  A number of international projects is being carried out today within the Barents region in _____ with policy-makers, research scientists, economists, environmental experts and other professionals from Russia and other countries.

3. Reading and Speaking.

    a) Read the text below and suggest a heading for each of the paragraphs.

The Ecological Situation in the Murmansk Region.

1. ___ The ecological situation in Russia is very serious.  There are about 300 regions which are unfavourable for the human population. The Kola Peninsula is also considered to be an ecologically poor district.  

2. ___The Murmansk region is one of the most industrially developed regions in Russia, the sea gate to the Arctic and Northern Atlantic.  It is situated in the North-West of Russia and is bordered with  Finland and Norway.    Practically the whole region lies beyond the Polar Circle.  But the climate here is rather smooth due to the influence of the warm Atlantic current Golf stream.      The vegetation of the Murmans region is unique.  Forests cover 65,5 % of its territory.  Animals are represented by 52 species of mammals, 276 species of birds and more than 2000 species of insects.  The Murmans region is one of the most significant mineral raw materials regions in Russia, the centre of metallurgical, fishing and chemical industry, a significant transport centre in the North of Russia.

3. ___As a result of industrial pollution, 18-20 000 hectares of the region’s forests died. The Murmansk region is characterized by substantial pollutant emissions into the atmosphere.  Emissions produced by the stationary sources and motor transport amounted to hundreds of tons.  The most dangerous pollutants are sulphur dioxide, nikel, cobalt, copper and others.  For instance, the zones of highly and completely disturbed ecosystems resulted from harmful substance emissions into the atmosphere in the industrial regions of Severonikel and Pechenganikel plants, are of 620 and 1000 sq kms in area, respectively.  The zone of the degradation of the taiga ecosystems surrounding the Severonikel plant is about 1200 sq kms.      The area dusted by open tailing dumps produced by apatit-nepheline ore floatation and from the “Apatit”JSC’s open pits is about 1000 sq kms.  

 4. ___On the territory of the Kola peninsula there are more than 100000 lakes, 3300 rivers, 10 man-made lakes.  The fishery fund of the Murmans region includes a part of the Barents and White seas.  But the pollution of most water resources in the region has also reached its limits: about 40% of the total area of the largest fresh water lake Imandra is polluted and the content of a number of pollutants in it is higher than the limited concentrations.  The most polluted water area in the region is the Kola Bay.  The highest rate of pollution of fresh water is registered in the industrial zone of such enterprises as RAO “Norilsky Nikel” (towns of Monchegorsk, Zapolyarny, Nikel) and Murmansk.   179 sewage purification structures operate in the Murmansk region.  Though only 12 % of them ensure a standard sewage purification.  The main reasons of a non-effective operation of sewage purification structures are the overloaded and outdated equipment.

5. ___The pollution of air and water has its negative effect on the health of the population of the region.  Along with the extreme climatic and ecological conditions in the towns of the regions, the sick rate of the population is also affected by the unfavourable socio-economic factors.  During the recent years one could observe a significant population withdrawal into the central regions of Russia.  The level of sick rate among children in the Murmansk region is higher than on average in Russia in 10 of 13 classes of diseases, among adults-in 9 of 12 classes.  The natural growth of the population of the Murmansk region is twice as low as the average Russian indexes.   The birth rate in the Murmansk region is one of the lowest in the Russian Federation.

6. ___The land reserves of the Murmansk region is about 15 000 000 ha.  Over the half of the territory of the region is used by agriculture enterprises, institutions and citizens.  The region produces over 100 000 tons of domestic waste annually but its collection and utilization is not always effective.  Staff reduction in the forestry agencies resulted in multiple unsanctioned waste dumps along the roads in general use.

 7. ___The Murmansk region outnumbers all other regions and countries in the quantity of nuclear reactors per capita.  The enterprises which put into practice various nuclear reactors are widespread here. The largest nuclear Navy is based on the territory of the region since 1958 and the only in the world Civil Nuclear Icebreaker Fleet – since 1959.  The Kola Nuclear Power Plant was put into operation since 1972.   Today it has four power units.  The main quantity of nuclear objects is connected with armed forces which include more than 100 atomic ships with more than 200 nuclear reactors on board.  Modern atomic power stations and nuclear submarine reactors are the most widespread sources of environmental pollution.  Mining and processing of the natural radioactive raw materials at Lovozero, Kovdor, Severomorsk, Monchegirsk plants pollute the atmosphere with dangerous wastes. The need to address this issue resulted in the establishment of the Department of State Control and Radiation Security within the Murmansk Regional Environmental Committee.

8. ___Serious measures must be taken to save nature from the ecological crises. At present all enterprises operating on the territory of Russia pay taxes for pollutant emissions and discharges into the environment and waste disposal.  Fines are paid for the violation of the environmental protection standards and legislation.  Now the Government decision on the creation of the regional nuclear burial ground for the needs of the Murmansk region has been adopted.  The ecological situation in the Murmansk region has a transboundary impact and is considered to be a threat by neighbouring countries.  That is why a number of international projects is being carried out today within the Barents region in collaboration with policy-makers, research scientists, economists, environmental experts and other professionals from Russia and other countries.  Those projects, such as The Murmansk Region-Barents Sea Sustainable Development project, are intended to support and promote the sustainable development of the region, to strengthen the economy and environment of the Russian Arctic and to provide the information about the important regional environment activities. Eleven specialized bodies carry out the state supervision and control the environmental protection on the territory of the Murmansk region.  The State Committee for  Environmental Protection of the Murmansk region co-ordinates the whole environmental activity.  The Committee carries out the ecological expertise of projects, issues permits for emissions (dust and gas substance emissions into the atmosphere) and discharge of pollutants (pollutants into water and onto land).  Since the 1990s the improvement of economic mechanisms of nature management has become the most important direction of the activity of the State Committee for Environmental Protection of the Murmansk region.

b) Work with a partner and discuss the following questions.

1) Which of the environmental problems mentioned in the text do you think pose the greatest threat to people’s health and future survival in the Murmansk region?  Choose the two problems you think are the most serious and explain the reasons for your choice.

2) What can be done to prevent or solve these problems:

-by members of the public?

- by government?

Useful phrases

I find the problem of … particularly serious/disturbing/upsetting because … .

In my view, the problem of … is the most serious, as … .

One way to prevent the problem would be to … .

I think the most effective solution would be … .

At a present level, everyone could … .

I’ve heard that in (Germany/Norway/the USA/Britain, etc.) they’ve … and we could try that here too.

I think governments need to introduce stricter controls on … .

4. On Your Own.

Role play.

   In this role play you are going to take part in a meeting to decide what to do about a local pollution problem.  First read about the situation and make up names for the role-plays.

    Techtronics is a large multinational company which produces chemical products.  One of its factories is in your small town.  The factory is the biggest employer in the town and has over 1,200 workers.   Recently, there have been a number of complaints because the amount of dirt coming from the factory chimneys seems to have gone up.  Mr/Mrs __________, the mayor of your town, has called a meeting of interested parties to find out more about the problem.  Four other people are there.  They are: Mr/Mrs_____________, the manager of the factory; Mr/Mrs_____________, the leader of a local environmental group called _________; Mr/Mrs_____________, trade union boss at the fctory, and Mr/Mrs_____________, a local housewife.  Their task is to try and find the solution to the problem.

Before you start the role play think of the Vocabulary that you will need and ask your teacher for help if necessary.

    While discussing the situation don’t forget to use the following expressions.

• Asking for opinions.

-What do you think of …

- How do you feel about …

- What ‘s your opinion on the problem of ..

• Expressing opinions.

• I think/believe …
• In my opinion,/in my view …
• It seems to me that …
• From my point of view, it may be useful/practical/effective/a good idea to …
• As far as I’m concerned …
• If you ask me, … (informal)

• Agreeing/disagreeing/showing hesitation and doubt.

See Unit 2.

• Interrupting.

- Sorry to interrupt you but …

- May I/Can I interrupt you (break in) for a second …

- I’d like to make a point …

- Hold on amoment!

• Asking for advice.

- I’m not sure what to do…

- You know more than me about …

- I’d like/ appreciate/ welcome your advice on the problem of …

- What would you do in my place/ position/ if you were me?

• Giving advice and Recommendation.

- Why don’t you …

- You could …

- You (really) ought to/ should …

- Have you thought of/ How about/ What about …* NOUN or GERUND

-The best thing you could do …

- What you really need is …

- I strongly advise you …

Unit 5.

Environmental Protection in Britain.

1.  Lead-in.

1) What is the geographical position of Great Britain? Is it favourable for the country’s economy, agriculture?

2) How does the geographical position of Great Britain affect its climate?

3) Is the UK rich in the natural resources?  If yes, which ones?

4) What major environmental problems do you think are confronting Britain today?  Are they different than in Russia?

2. Vocabulary.

a) Odd-One-Out.

Find the odd-one-out, then briefly explain why it doesn’t belong in the group.

1. sun – wind-waves-coal
2. drought-oil spills-avalanche-landslide
3. recycling-deforestation-pollutant-conservation
4. fumes-gases-smog-atmosphere
5. natural-raw-crude-refined
6. organic-toxic-noxious-poisonous

b) Find out the meaning of these words and use them to complete the sentences below.

greenhouse effect, biodegradable, wetlands, deforestation, dumping, toxic waste, renewable energy, emissions, biodiversity, global warming, ozone layer, desertification, smog, habitats, depletion

1. There are still scientists who dispute the existence of …. and say there has been no real change in temperature.
2. The draining of ….. to build factories has enraged environmentalists.
3. On some days in summer the ….. is so bad that people with breathing problems are advised to stay at home.
4. Carbon dioxide …. must be cut if we want to stop polluting the air.
5. ….. of waste at sea is forbidden by international law.
6. Lack of rain means that large areas of previously fertile land in Africa are threatened with …. .
7. We must develop ….. ….. sources and not depend on oil.
8. The problem with most plastics is that they are not …. and cannot be reabsorbed by the earth.
9. The build up of a layer of gases trapped in the earth’s atmosphere which prevents heat escaping is known as the ….. .
10. Steady ….. in the Himalayas has resulted in catastrophic floods in countries at sea level.
11. Scientists first became aware of the effects of certain gases on the environment when they found a hole in the ….. over Antarctica.

3. Reading and Speaking.

a). Read the following text and fill in the gaps in it with the phrases from the list below.  Then answer the questions that follow.

Environmental Protection — Nationwide Concern

As a highly industrialized state Britain cannot ignore the problem of environmental protection. The practical results of the state policy in 1) ______ include the development of technology to control atmospheric (air) and water pollution, agricultural pollution control, the study of man’s influence on the climate, the forecasting of earthquakes and tsunamis, the biological and genetic consequences of pollution, protection of rare and vanishing plants and animals as well as a whole lot more.

The Control of Pollution Act 1974, which applies to England, Scotland and Wales, sets out a wide range of powers and duties for local and water authorities, including 2) _____, air and water pollution and noise,  and contains important provisions on the release of information to the public on environmental conditions.

The main risks of land pollution lie in the 3) _____ on land, careless disposal of pesticides and chemicals, fall-out of materials from the atmosphere and the deposition of materials from flood-water. The use of 4) _____ on farms, too, involves risks as well as benefits to the land.

The Government encourages 5) _____ of materials wherever this is practicable and economic in order to reduce imports and to help to conserve natural resources. Industry already makes considerable use of reclaimed waste materials such as metals, paper and textiles. In an increasing number of areas there are 6) _____ where the public can deposit used glass containers.

There has been a steady and significant improvement in water quality; the level of pollution in the tidal Thames has been reduced to a quarter of the 1950s level and 100 different kinds of fish have been identified there. Discharges of polluting matter into rivers, lakes, estuaries and some coastal waters are already controlled by

Control of marine pollution from ships is based largely on international conventions drawn up under the auspices of the International Maritime Organization, a United Nations agency with headquarters in London. In dealing with 7) _____ or chemicals at sea the main treatment method is to spray dispersant from aircraft or surface vessels, and emergency cargo transfer equipment is available to remove oil from a damaged tanker.

Considerable progress has been made towards the achievement of cleaner air and a better environment, especially in the last 20 years or so.  8) _____ and average concentration of smoke in the air have fallen by 80 per cent. London no longer has the dense smoke-laden “smogs” of the 1950s and in central London winter sunshine has been increasing since the 1940s when average hours a day were about 40 per cent less than at Kew in outer London; the levels are now virtually the same.

Transport is one of the main offenders in noise pollution, and control measures are aimed at reducing noise at source, through requirements limiting the noise that aircraft and motor vehicles may make, and by protecting people from its effects.

In Britain radiation resulting from industrial and other processes represents only a small fraction of that to which the population is exposed from the natural environment. Nevertheless, that fraction is subject to stringent control because of possible effects on health or 9) _____.

Various methods are used to store radioactive wastes, depending primarily upon their physical form and radioactivity. Wastes of sufficiently 10) _____ are dispersed safely direct to the environment. For those of higher radioactivity a comprehensive, international research programme is being carried out with government assistance and with the participation of the nuclear industry into methods of treatment, storage, transport and disposal.

(from “Практический курс английского языка.  3 курс: Учеб. для педвузов по спец. «Иностр. яз.»/ Под ред. В.Д. Аракина. – М.: Гуманит. изд. центр ВЛАДОС, 1999.)

b) Answer the following questions.

1. What are the major environmental concerns confronting Britain today?  Are the same as in your country?  2. What powers and duties for control authorities are set out by the Control of Pollution Act in 1974? 3. What measures are taken to fight land pollution?  4. What are the main treatment methods applied to reduce water pollution?  5. What factors prove that a certain progress has been made towards cleaner air?  6. What operational measures have been introduces to reduce noise disturbance?  7. What operational measures have been introduced to store radioactive wastes?

4.  On Your Own.

a) For further reading on the topic “Environmental Protection in Britain” refer to “Britain Explored” by Paul Harvey and Rhodri Jones – Longman.

b) Revision.

Study the game field below and get prepared to play the game in class.

Содержание

Список литературы.

1. Попок Н.В. Экзамен по английскому языку. – Мн.: ТетраСистемс, 2000.
2. Практический курс английского языка.  3 курс: Учеб. для педвузов по спец. «Иностр. яз.» / Под ред. В.Д. Аракина. – М.: Гуманит. изд. центр ВЛАДОС, 2000. – 432 с.
3. Arts and Entertainment.  Пособие для изучающих английский язык на продвинутом этапе. – Мурманск: МГПИ, 2001. – 104 с.
4. David McDowall.  Britain in Close-up. – Longman, 1993.
5. Eckhard Fiedler, Reimer Jansen, Mil Norman-Risch.  America in Close-up. – Longman, 2000.
6. English.  Еженедельное приложение к газете «Первое Сентября» «Английский язык» Июнь №24/1995
7. English Learner’s Digest. – 1998. - № 12.
8. Fiona Scott-Barrett.  Proficiency Listening & Speaking. – Longman, 2000.
9. How to Use the Internet in ELT. – Longman, 2004.
10. Jon Naunton. THINK First Certificate.- Longman, 1997.
11. John & Liz Soars.  Headway Advanced.  Students’ book. – Oxford University Press, 1995.
12. Peter Watcyn-Jones. Pair Work 2.  -  Penguin, 1997
13. Paul Harvey, Rhodri Jones.  Britain Explored. – Longman, 1995.
14. Social Issues: Учебное пособие по практике устной речи. – Мурманск: МГПУ, 2006. – 187 с.
15. Speaking About Art.  Учебное пособие по устной практике английского языка / Под. ред. Н.И. Кургановой – Мурманск: МГПИ, 2000. -93 с.
16. Virginia Evans-Jenny Dooley.  Upstream Proficiency.  Student’s book.  – Express Publishing, 2002.