Culture, Leisure, Entertainment, Sports
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Peter the Great
Peter the Great went down in Russian history for having rejected the Muscovite past. He enthusiastically made Russia closer to West. He was a giant among his contemporaries and a man of genius. Peter intended to modernize his country and raise it to the first rank of European powers. He engaged skilled foreigners from Russia, Holland, Great Britain to bring the latest western technology to Russia. Peter had a passion for navigation. As a founder of the Russia navy, Peter first started to develop the Russia fleet in 1695. He wanted to capture from the Turkey the fortress town of Azov and gain access to the Black Sea. In 1703 Peter the Great captured the Swedish fortress of Nyenschanz on the Neva River, and on an island nearly he ordered to construct the Peter and Paul Fortress, the first building of the future city of St, Petersburg. In order to maintain the huge armed forces of Russia, Peter I had to reform many of the traditional administrative, social and fiscal structures of the country. One of the first major steps was to introduce compulsory military service. Another action was to replace the traditional Muscovite hierarchy of titles of the nobility with the Table of Ranks, a system closer to western models. The Tsar’s reforms extended to many different fields: law, police, military discipline, the navy, commerce, science, fine arts and education. He introduced a simplified new Russian alphabet. He devoted his whole mind and energy to his mission in life: to add to his empire and to hack a window open on Europe.
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Tretyakov Gallery
The State Tretyakov Gallery is one of the best-known picture galleries in Russia. It takes its name from its founder Pavel Tretyakov, a Moscow merchant and art connoisseur. In the mid-19th century Tretyakov began to collect Russian paintings. He visited all the exhibitions and art studios and bought the best pictures of contemporary artists. He was especially fond of the works of the Peredvizhniki - the artists who belonged to the Society of Travelling Exhibitions. Little by little Tretyakov extended his range of interest and began to collect earlier Russian paintings. More than once he had to add wings to his house in Lavrushinsky Pereulok, because his collection grew larger and larger. In 1881 Pavel Tretyakov opened his collection to the public. 11 years later he donated it to the city of Moscow. Since then the gallery has received hundreds of pictures from other museums and private collections. The Tretyakov Gallery reflects the whole history of Russian art from the 11th century to the present days. It has a rich collection of old Russian icons. The world-famous icon is The Trinity, painted in the early 15th century by Andrei Rublyov. The Gallery contains halls devoted to the magnificent works of such 18th – century celebrities as Rokotov, Levitsky, Borovikovsky, Shchedrin. The first half of the 19th century is represented by brilliant paintings by Brullov, Tropinin, Venetsianov. The cecond half of the 19th century is especially well represented. The Gallery has the best collection of the Peredvizhniki, such as Kramskoy, Perov, Ghe, Yaroshenko, Myasoyedov and others. Linked with the Peredvizhniki are such great names in Russian art as Surikov, Repin, Vasnetsov, Levitan.There you can see historical paintings, portraits, still-lives, landscapes, seascapes, etc.
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John Ronald Tolkien
The author of the famous book “The Lord of the Rings” was born in 1892 in South Africa and grew up in a village near Birmingham. He took part in the First World War. Then he became a professor of English Oxford University. It was while he was correcting exam papers that Tolkien wrote down a strange sentence that started: “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit …” Obviously, creative writing was more interesting than correcting papers, that’s why Tolkien went on to transform this sentence into a full novel called “ The Hobbit”, published in 1938. The main characters of this book later appeared in ‘The Lord of the Rings”. He loved ancient myths and for his books he borrowed characters from Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian and other European mythology. He created his own word inhabited by wizards, elves, dwarves, goblins and certainly hobbits. Hobbits are Tolkien’s own invention. The word is a combination of Homo (man) and rabbit. Hobbits are rather short (about 1 meter) creatures with furry legs. They are peaceful, home-loving race, fond of their gardens and their cozy underground homes. The book took 11 years to write, was published in 1954 and was an immediate success. It has been translated into 25 languages. In 1970 the word hobbit was included in the Oxford Dictionary. Tolkien’s magic world caught reader’s imagination. For almost fifty years people are not only reading his books – many try to live in his world. Tolkien sold the film rights to “The Lord of the Rings” in 1969, but he didn’t believe that a film would ever be made. But he was wrong. It took film-makers 50 years to bring the book to a big screen. Finally the thing that Tolkien hated so much – technology helped. With modern computer effects it became possible to create a realistic and exact interpretation of the book.
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Learning about the world
There are a lot of different ways of getting new information. Travelling has always been an important part of people’s education. It teaches us about art and culture of different countries. Besides, you can improve your knowledge of foreign languages. But to travel around the world you need a lot of money. That’s why the main source of information for millions of people is mass media. Mass media includes newspapers and magazines, radio and television. Television keeps us informed about the world. When you need immediate information about the latest events, you switch the TV on. A lot of people like TV news because they can see everything with their own eyes. Still, many people prefer the radio. It’s good to listen to the radio in a car, or in the open air, or when you do something about the house. Listeners can tune into all kinds of stations: pop or classical music, news, sports or foreign radio stations. But some people think that the only way to be in the know of everything is to read newspapers and magazines. Though newspapers don’t react to events as quickly as TV, they usually provide us with extra details and background information. There are also a lot of magazines. Whatever your interest, there is likely to be a magazine about it. Girls enjoy magazines about music, clothes, fashion and make-up, whereas boys prefer to read about sports, cars and computers. The Internet has recently become another important source of information. It is a computer system that allows people to get information about almost everything. It’s much faster and easier to surf the net in search of information than to go to libraries. With so many modern forms of getting information such as radio, TV and the Internet, people read fewer books, newspapers and magazines. We can’t say exactly which source of information is the best. It depends on what kind of information we need. However, we shouldn’t forget the educational value of reading a good book.
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Card 5
Books in our Life
Literature plays a key role in global culture. It educates and entertains us, brings past centuries to life, and helps us to understand our deepest dreams and fears. It is a tremendous way to learn about the world. It shapes our opinion and increases our cultural level. The world of books is enormous. Many people are fond of reading and their interests are different. “Tastes differ”, they say. One can enjoy reading romantic novels but another one thinks it is boring. At the same time, he gets absorbed in reading a thrilling story or a whodunit and finds it an exciting pastime. Nobody knows when the fiction began. Maybe, the first story-teller was a prehistoric mother trying to explain the world to her children. Or perhaps it was a hunter making up adventures around the campfire. What we do know, though, is that story-telling was a purely oral activity. The first books which can be called literature were made in Egypt around 2,000 BC – stories of great adventures over the seas, of deeds done by magicians, tales of the gods, books on of certain stories. The earliest surviving examples of this are the epic poems of Homer (a blind professional story-teller who lived in the eight century BC). So, the idea of written stories began in Greece. Gradually, it spread across Europe. Books were written by hand, so very few copies existed and very few people could enjoy it at that time. What changed all that and brought written fiction to ordinary men and women was a machine. It was developed during the mid-fifteenth century and its inventor was a German called Johannes Gutenberg. Thanks to his printing press, written fiction was able to reach a new audience and more and more people learned to read. In Russia it was Ivan Fyodorov who printed the first book. In Moscow there is a monument to Ivan Fyodorov.
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TVor not TV
It goes without saying that television plays a very important part in people’s life. It’s a wonderful source of information and one of the best ways to spend free time. Watching TV is the most popular leisure pastime. It’s not surprising, because TV channels show a great variety of programs: documentaries and current affairs programs, feature films and comedies, soaps and police series, concerts and talk shows. Television is a reflection of the modern world. It gives an opportunity to travel all over the world, to see different people and to learn about their customs and traditions. Television keeps you informed about the rest of the world. It also helps to escape from our everyday problems. A lot of people usually relax watching soaps. Their story lines are entertaining, but often unbelievable. They don’t show life realistically. But to many people, the characters in the TV serials have become more important than real people. Of course, not everything shown on TV is made in good taste. There are badly written programs that contain unnecessary bad language and violence. Many people admit that the quality of television could be better. One reason for the poor quality of programs is advertising. Not all people like watching commercials. They find them silly and boring. But TV companies get most of their money from advertizing. Some people say that television is a terrible waste of time. Of course, there are TV addicts who can’t drag themselves away from the box. But if we watch TV for an hour a day, to find out what is happening in the world or to relax, then television is really useful. So I think we should not blame the TV for the bad effects it has. We must know how to make the best use of it. In short, television does have its good points. Many of the programs that are broadcast are educational and can help with schoolwork. Television also provides jobs for many people.
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English as a world Language
The English language is now the first language of about 400 million people, the native language of 12 nations and the official or semiofficial language of 33 more nations. Geographically, it is the most widespread language on the Earth. At present no other language is better suited to play the role of a world language. there are many reasons for its popularity. English is so widespread nowadays because it has become the standard language for all kinds of international communication. It is the language of businesspeople and scientists, politicians and diplomats, sportsmen and singers.. The English language has become the world’s top tongue dominating the world’s trade, computers and media. If you are interested in science, business or literature, you can always read the latest reports in English and learn the latest information. If you know English, you can enjoy foreign films and foreign music. More than that, English is easier to learn than any other languages. Nowadays there are a lot of useful learning strategies such as reading English books, using a tape recorder or a walkman or watching English films. But the best way of learning a language is to practise a lot. Today we have an opportunity to go to an English-speaking country and to talk to native speakers. When you speak English to them, they’re often a lot more friendly and helpful. Learning English broadens your mind and way of thinking. English is a global language nowadays. The problem of the twenty-first century, such as the problems of war and peace, ecology, democracy and many others cannot be solved if people do not spek the same language. English is likely to become even more important as a global language, dominating the world’s trade, computers, media, while other languages will become localized or just die out. But to study English is not an easy thing. It is a long and slow process that takes a lot of time, patience and effort.
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The American People
The United States of America has the third-largest population in the world (after China and India). In 2000, the population in the US passed the 281,421,906 mark. People around the world have come to the United States and influenced its history and culture. The first people on the American continent came from Siberia to Alaska when the sea level dropped. The first migration was almost 40,000 years ago. Beginning in the 1600’s, the British settled the Eastern part of North America. The British culture was the foundation on which America was built. In the 1820’s, the number of the immigrants from the northwestern Europe – from Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden and Norway began to increase rapidly. There was a lot of land available for farming, so new immigrants became farmers in the Midwest. From 1870s to the 1930s even more people came from the countries of southern and eastern Europe – for example, Italy, Greece, Poland and Russia. During this period, the United States was changing from a mainly agricultural to a mainly industrial country. Many settled in cities and worked in factories. Hispanic come from different countries. Three especially large groups are Mexican – Americans, Puerto-Ricans and Cuban Americans that are concentrated in different areas – Mexican – Americans in Texas and California, Puerto-Ricans in New York and Cuban – Americans in Florida. In the nineteenth century, laws limited Asian immigration. Since the mid – 1960s, with changes in immigration laws, Asians have been a major immigration group. They come from Japan, China, Korea, India, and settle mostly in California, Hawaii, New York and Texas. For years, it was thought that the United States was and should be a “melting pot” – in other words, that the people from all over the world come and adopt the American culture as their own. More recently, some people have compared the United States to a mosaic – a picture made of different pieces.
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American vs British
One can often hear of the Englishmen being reserve; how they like “keeping themselves to themselves”; and how on a long railway journey, with four Englishmen in the carriage, there won’t be even a word spoken during the whole journey. I’m sure that wouldn’t be the case in America. The Englishman thinks it is ill mannered to ask personal questions. The American doesn’t feel like that at all. On the short ride between the boat on which you have arrived in New York and the hotel to which you are being driven, the taxi driver will tell you about himself, his wife and family and probably the towns in England that was in during the war. He will enquire where you have come from, what your job is, how you like America and how long you are staying in New York. The Englishman prizes privacy, the American prefers sociability. I think this same feeling shows itself in the houses in the two countries. The Englishman’s suburban house has its little garden with a hedge or a fence all round it to shut him off from his neighbors. “The Englishman’s home is his castle”. The American houses have no hedges or fences separating them from the pavement or from each other. There are none of those little shut-off gardens; generally just a strip of grass with trees in it. The American in his home doesn’t object to being seen by everyone – he actually likes it. And inside the house, instead of separate hall, a living-room, a dining-room so typical of the English house, the American has the “open plan” house, just one large room where all the family activities (usually noisy) go on with, perhaps, a “dining recess” or a “kitchen-breakfast-room”. In England – and in France – I knew people who had lived in the same house and been in the same job for twenty, thirty, forty years, and who would hate to pull up their roots and change to something new. That’s not the American way of life. They love changes, they call it “the spirit of adventure”, a spirit that they think is more characteristic of America than of Europe.
vs – facing one onother
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Culture, Leisure, Entertainment, Sports
The United States is an international centre of culture. Its major cities (like New York, Boston, Washington, Los Angeles and San Francisco) regularly host many concerts, art exhibitions and theatrical performances. Some of the world’s greatest museums are located in the United States. Performances and exhibitions are usually very well attended. Tickets can be so hard to get, despite their high prices! The national and state governments, as well as private organizations have supported with money. Recently, problems have decreased this support. The most popular sources of entertainment and information are television, movies, radio and recorded music. Many people complain about low intellectual level of TV, they feel that it teaches the wrong values and goals. Most Americans enjoy sports – both playing sports themselves and watching their favorite sports and teams. Major professional sport events – baseball, football, basketball and hockey, as well as golf and tennis – are witnessed by tens of thousands of fans and by millions more on TV. Children play on sports in school and after school. Many adult Americans regularly engage in sports like tennis, softball, golf and bowling. Americans also love to travel. Weekend automobile trips are a tradition for many families as well as longer summer vacation trips. Car travel is the most common leisure activity in America. When Americans take car trips, they don’t usually just drive and sightsee. They like to have a destination. Amusement parks, beaches and other special attractions are always crowded when the weather is good. Airplane travel is also common in America. At holiday time, many people fly to other cities to visit friends and relatives. During the winter, many people take short vacations to places with warm climate like Florida and the Island of the Carribean.
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