PEOPLE OF CULTURE AND SCIENCE OF THE UK
I. Read the following words and word combinations paying attention to their pronunciation:
| 1) to pass 2) rather 3) trace 4) generation 5) precious 6) find 7) art 8) the Royal Opera House 9) the Royal Albert Hall 10) to hold 11) to attract 12) painter 13) musician 14) playwright 15) portrait painter 16) outstanding 17) director 18) to design 19) the finest piece of architecture 20) director f stage production 21) director of film production 22) xciting 23) sense of humour 24) successful 25) watercolour 26) to be regarded as 27) eminence 28) rival 29) thereafter 30) peasant 31) subscriptions 32) hilarious 33) embodiment 34) to estimate 35) celestial 36) to deem 37) to yield 38) prolifical 39) to precede 40) juvenile 41) embarked 42) rotation 43) motion | , - , , , , -, - ( ) , ; () , , , , , , - , -. , , /-. , ; ; ( , ) |
II. Read and translate the text:
People of Culture and Science of the UK
Artistic and cultural life in Britain is rather rich. It passed several main stages in its development.
Monuments and traces of past generations are everywhere. There are buildings of all styles and periods. A great number of Museums and galleries display precious and interesting finds from all parts of the world and from all stages in the development of nature, man and art.
London is one of the leading cultural centers not only in Britain but in the whole world.
Now Britain has about 300 professional theatres. Regular seasons of opera and ballet are given at the which is also called Covent Garden in London. Another famous theatre in London is the National Theatre, which stages modern and classical plays.
There are many concert halls and one of them is the Royal Albert Hall, one of the biggest and famous the Royal Albert Hallconcert halls in London.
The National Gallery in London, founded in 1824, houses a rich collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900[a] in its home on Trafalgar Square. The gallery is a non-departmental public body; its collection belongs to the public of the United Kingdom and entry to the main collection (though not some special exhibitions) is free of charge.
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The National Gallery. One of the halls
People of Culture
Many British writers, poets, painters, sculptors, architects, musicians, composers, actors, singers and dancers are known all over the world.
William Turner (17751851) was an English Romantic landscape painter, watercolourist and printmaker, whose style is said to have laid the foundation for Impressionism. Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivaling history painting. Although renowned for his oil paintings, Turner is i Ivy Bridge also one of the greatest masters of British watercolour landscape painting. He is commonly known as "the painter of light".
Thomas Gainsborough (17271788) was one of the most famous portrait and landscape painters of 18th century. Gainsborough painted more from his observations of nature and human nature. He studied portraits by van Dyck and was eventually able to attract a better-paying high society clientele including portraits of contemporary celebrities. Mr. and Mrs. Andrews
Among the outstanding British writers there is William Shakespeare (1564-1616), the greatest and most famous of English writers and poets, and probably the greatest playwright who has ever lived. Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). He wrote 154 sonnets and several poems, 37 plays among which there are such deep tragedies as "Hamlet", "Othello", and "Macbeth", and light comedies, for example, Twelfth Night", and historical dramas: "Henry IV" and "Richard III". His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.
Robert Burns (1759 1796) was born in Scotland. At the age of fifteen, he fell in love and shortly thereafter he wrote his first poem. Burns also wrote many of the poems collected in his first book, Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, which was printed in 1786 and paid for by subscriptions. This collection was an immediate success and Burns was celebrated throughout England and Scotland as a great " peasant -poet".
Most of Burns' poems celebrate traditional Scottish culture, expressions of farm life, and class and religious distinctions. Burns wrote in a variety of forms: epistles to friends, ballads, and songs. He is well known for the over three hundred songs he wrote which celebrate love, friendship, work, and drink with often hilarious and tender sympathy. Even today, he is often referred to as the National Bard of Scotland.
Extract from My Heart's in the Highlands
My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here,
My heart's in the Highlands a-chasing the deer -
A-chasing the wild deer, and following the roe;
My heart's in the Highlands, wherever I go.
Conan Doyle (1859 1930) - a British writer, the creator of Sherlock Holmes is the best-known detective in literature and the embodiment of sharp reasoning. Doyle himself was not a good example of rational personality. He believed in fairies and was interested in occultism. Sherlock Holmes stories have been translated into more than fifty languages, and made into plays, films, radio and television series, a musical comedy, a ballet, cartoons, comic books, and advertisement. By 1920 Doyle was one of the most highly-paid writers in the world.
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Besides stories about Sherlock Holmes he wrote historical and adventurous stories, among them The Lost World, The Poisoned Belt.
Arthur Hailey (1920 2004) was born in England and began his writing career as a pilot during the Second World War. After the war he lived and wrote in Canada, becoming a Canadian citizen as well as British; he also lived briefly in the United States. For the past twenty-six years Arthur Hailey and his wife Sheila made their home in the Bahamas. Hailey's novels include the bestselling Hotel, Strong Medicine, Airport, In High Places, The Final Diagnosis have been published in thirty-nine languages; an estimated 160 million copies are in print worldwide. Most of his books have been made into films or TV series.
People of Science
Sir Isaac Newton (1643 1727) was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian and one of the most influential men in human history. His Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, published in 1687, is considered to be among the most influential books in the history of science, laying the groundwork for most of classical mechanics. In this work, Newton described universal gravitation and the three laws of motion which dominated the scientific view of the physical universe for the next three centuries. Newton showed that the motions of objects on Earth and of celestial bodies are governed by the same set of natural laws by demonstrating the consistency between Kepler's laws of planetary motion and his theory of gravitation, thus removing the last doubts about heliocentrism and advancing the scientific revolution. He worked in many scientific fields such as mechanics, optics, mathematics and made many important discoveries.
Newton's stature among scientists remains at the very top rank, as demonstrated by a 2005 survey of scientists in Britain's Royal Society asking who had the greater effect on the history of science, Newton or Albert Einstein. Newton was deemed the more influential.
Michael Faraday (1791 1867) an English chemist and physicist is known for his pioneering experiments in electricity and magnetism. Many consider him the greatest experimentalist who ever lived. Several concepts that he derived directly from experiments, such as lines of magnetic force, have become common ideas in modern physics.
Faraday's discovery (1845) that an intense magnetic field can rotate the plane of polarized light is known today as the Faraday effect. The phenomenon has been used to elucidate molecular structure and has yielded information about galactic magnetic fields.
Faraday described his numerous experiments in electricity and electromagnetism in three volumes entitled Experimental Researches in Electricity (1839, 1844, 1855); his chemical work was chronicled in Experimental Researches in Chemistry and Physics (1858). Faraday ceased research work in 1855 because of declining mental powers, but he continued as a lecturer until 1861.
People of Music
Edward Benjamin Britten (1913 1976) was an English composer, conductor, violist and pianist.
Britten showed musical gifts very early in life, and began composing prolifically as a child. He was educated at the Royal College of Music. Britten was a prolific juvenile composer; some 800 works and fragments precede his early published works. His first compositions to attract wide attention, however, were the Sinfonietta Op. 1, "A Hymn to the Virgin" (1930) and a set of choral variations A Boy was Born, written in 1934 for the BBC Singers. For many musicians, however, Britten's technique, broad musical and human sympathies and ability to treat the most traditional of musical forms with freshness and originality place him at the head of composers of his generation.
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The Beatles, with their style of singing new and exciting, their wonderful sense of humor became the most successful pop group the world had ever known.
The Beatles were a rock and pop band from Liverpool, England that formed in 1960. During their career, the group primarily consisted of John Lennon (rhythm guitar, vocals), Paul McCartney (bass guitar, vocals), George Harrison (lead guitar, vocals) and Ringo Starr (drums, vocals). Although their initial musical style was rooted in 1950s rock and roll, the group worked with different musical genres. Their clothes, style and statements made them trend-setters, while their growing social awareness saw their influence extend into the social and cultural revolutions of the 1960s. After the band broke up in 1970, all four members embarked upon successful solo careers.
III. Translate the words in the brackets into English:
1. It passed several main () in its development.
2. A great number of Museums and galleries () precious and interesting () from all parts of the world.
3. Another () theatre in London is the National Theatre, which stages modern and classical ().
4. Gainsborough pictured high society clientele including portraits of () celebrities.
5. Many British writers, poets, (), sculptors, (), musicians, (), actors, () and dancers are known all over the world.
6. Newton showed that the () of objects on Earth.
7. Faraday's discovery that an intense magnetic field can () the plane of polarized light is known today as the Faraday effect.
8. After the band () in 1970, all four members embarked upon successful solo careers.
IV. Find the corresponding translation of the words and word combinations:
a)
| 1. stages of development | A. |
| 2. past generations | B. |
| 3. leading cultural centers | C. |
| 4. attract much interest | D. |
| 5. wonderful sense of humour | E. |
b)
| 1. traces of past generations | A. |
| 2. interesting finds | B. |
| 3. classical plays | C. |
| 4. outstanding composer | D. |
| 5. throughout the country | E. |
V. Translate the sentences into English:
1. .
2. .
3. .
4. , , .
5. , - .
VI. Find out the sentences which correspond to the text. Correct the wrong sentences in accordance with the text:
1. Monuments and traces of past generations are not everywhere.
2. Artistic and cultural life in Britain is rather rich.
3. There are buildings of only several styles and periods.
4. London is one of the leading cultural centers in Britain.
5. Now Britain has about 300 professional theatres.
6. Another famous theatre in London is the National Theatre, which stages modern and classical plays.
7. George Gordon Byron (1788-1824) is another great French poet.
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8. Thomas Gainsborough is one of England's most famous sculptors.
9. Christopher Wren, the greatest English architect, designed St. Paul's Cathedral.
10. The Beatles became the most successful pop group the world had ever known.
