THE FIRST LULLABY.

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 415.

THE BALLAD OF THE SUNFLOWER.

Exercise 2. In his poem Ivan Drach compares himself with the sunflower who was once and forever attracted by the sun - poetry, as soon as he had discovered it. Are your feelings about poetry the same? Can we replace the word 'poetry' with 'art' without changing the philosophical meaning of the poem? Do you think the poet has found the exact image to define the eternal links between people and poetry?

In the poem by Vingranovsky there are some lines in italics. What do you think about love of your Motherland? Is it an inborn feeling or should it be instilled /прищеплю-вати/ in every child by the parents? At what age? And how should this education be started?

Exercise 3. Read the following information and discuss the suggested problems in groups of 3-4:

In September 1992 an exhibition "Art of Free Ukraine" was opened at the House of Artists. It was visited by John Tusa, Managing Director of the BBC World Service and David Morton, the Head of the BBC's Russian and Ukrainian Services who shared their impressions of the importance of such an itinerant /пересувний/

exhibition in the following way:

"When I went to Kyiv for the opening of the exhibition at the House of Artists and saw the works for myself, I was immensely struck/=amazed/ by their force and

vigour /=energy/, by the confidence and the range /розмах/ of their artistic

expression. I am delighted that the BBC World Service is promoting a worth-while project and is able once more to demonstrate a wider commitment /зобов'язання/ by the BBC to its role as a patron of the arts; and to underline a wider vision of the role of broadcasting than it has been fashionable to hold over the last few years."

John Tusa.

"I am sure the exhibition will enable the people of Great Britain to get acquainted with the spiritual and cultural life of Ukraine, which, though it won its independence only a year ago, has got cultural traditions, that go deep into the history of the country. I am sure the Ukrainian people can be proud of mastership and diversity of its art, the pictures of the collection rightfully testifying to it."

David Morton.

Exercise 4. The problems for discussion :

1. How can the Mass Media shape the tastes, knowledge, interests of the people?

2. The BBC is one of the oldest and most popular radio companies in the world. Can you explain its popularity? Have you heard or watched its programs on TV or on the radio?

3. Formerly, in the time of the USSR, the programs of the BBC were forbidden and jammed by the security services. That seems surprising and ridiculous, doesn't it?

4. The Ukrainian service of the BBC was created in 1992. Have you heard any of its broadcasts? Are they worth listening to? What programs would you suggest if you were invited to work for the Ukrainian service of the BBC?

5. How can this service promote the interest in Ukraine and its prestige in the world?
6. What made the Managing Director of the BBC so enthusiastic about the arranging of the itinerant exhibition "Art of Free Ukraine" in Great Britain?

7. Why was it necessary to present various styles and epochs, genres and technique at the first exhibition of Ukrainian arts in the UK?

8. What role does Ukrainian diaspora in Great Britain play in strengthening friendship between the people of Ukraine and the UK?

Exercise 5. Having discussed the problems you have arrived at some common ideas. Please, share them with the class.

Home assignment: imagine that you are responsible for selecting the pictures and sculptures or some other things for an exhibition of Ukrainian arts abroad. Think about the artists, who you would like to invite to participate and genres (landscapes, portraits, still-lives, city scapes, seascapes?) you would include in it. You are to be ready to speak about one artist at least. It'd wonderful to bring illustrations to class.

Lesson fifteen.

Exercise 1. Improvise a sitting of the examiners to select the exhibits for an itinerant exhibition abroad; the students move their nominees and the whole group are to decide whether the picture is worth being exhibited abroad.

Exercise 2. Now what? What are we going to speak about? American painters? OK. Please read the story attentively and try to explain why the painter is so popular and loved: also make a pause after each paragraph and answer the questions:

I. The best traditions of American realism are maintained by Andrew Wyeth [waıǝθ] ], the most famous and the best liked living artist of America, who now determines the world level of contemporary American art. The work of Andrew Wyeth stands both comparison and contrast with that of the best artists of the USA His highly humanitarian art enjoys tremendous popularity with the American people. It is well known abroad and exercises a decisive influence over American artists. Andrew Wyeth was the first artist in the history of the USA to have an exhibition of his works staged in the White House.

1. Why is Wyeth's realistic art so loved and valued?

II. He has been elected an honorary member of Academies of Arts of many countries.

The personages of Wyeth paintings are common Americans, his neighbours and friends, the members of his family. They invariably impress the viewer with their individuality, innocence and the oneness with nature and the environment. At times both his portraits and figure compositions, and also his landscapes give an impression of a hidden inner meaning, subtle emotion or of a hidden drama

2. Yevhen Levchenko is sure that a true artist should be able to see harmony in the most trivial things. Why is the image of harmony so dear to people now?

III. Two families fascinated Andrew Wyeth in particular and drew his attention again and over again. Karl Kuerner was a farmer of German origin. He, his farm and his livestock /худоба/ have been in the focus of dozens of paintings.

Christina Olson and her brother lived on a farm near the Wyeths in Maine. She was a paralitic and could not walk. Crawling or moving about in a wheelchair, she managed to keep the house for her brother. Christina's life became a symbol of great impor-tance for Wyeth and became the subject of many pictures. Hardly has any of Wyeth's pictures made a deeper impression on the people than "Christina's World".

3. Why did this talented artist choose his characters among the common people?

IV. "Christina's World" has become the most beloved Wyeth's painting. The picture grew out of a very slight incident: the artist saw how she had dragged /витягла/ her-self out into an empty field and lying on the grass was looking at her old house where Wyeth was working in an upper room. The barren /безплідний/, hard landscape and the indomitable [ın'dɒmıtǝbl]/нескорений/ human spirit provide the drama. Christina's twisted body in a faded pink dress under the pitiless glare of the sun has become a symbol of refusal to admit defeat, the epitome [ı'pıtǝmı] /втілення/ of human courage and loneliness. Deep, controlled emotion is accomplished by the wide, empty composition of the picture, its subtle, muted colouring.

4. You have already read and learnt quite a lot about the Americans. Why is the picture, portraying this disabled person, so loved by them?

V. Wyeth's art is loved for the visual poetry with which he depicts even the most common scenes, and a deep sympathy for the plain people and their surroundings. Wyeth often painted his wife and children.

His art displays an undying respect for and invariable confidence in his countrymen, with whom he lives side by side and shares their joys and sorrows with the highest human dignity.

5. ....... ?

Home assignment: prepare an essay "Wyeth's realistic and humane art".

Lesson sixteen.

Exercise 1. Have your parents collected some of your pictures? Were you fond of drawing when you were little? What were your favourite subjects? Did you paint in pencils, felt-pens, water colours, gouache [gu'ɑ:ʃ], tempera, oil? Did your parents encourage your effort or forbid you to draw? Why does it so happen, that people pass by a tree, a flower, a house without noticing it, but when they see the same thing painted by an artist they are delighted? Did you attend any art studio to learn to draw?

Exercise 2. The names of Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo have been known to people for more than four centuries. In what connection have you heard them? Have you read anything about their childhood? You are going to have a chance... Please, read the extract from the novel by Irving Stone, the highly successful American writer for his fictionalized biographies of Vincent Van Gogh, Jack London, Charles Darvin, Michelangelo and others.

Practice reading the names of the characters:

,Michel'angelo Buonar'roti (1475- 1564)

Francesco Granacci [grɑnɑʧı] (1469-1544) -Florentine painter;

Domenico Ghirlandaio [gırlɑn'daıǝʊ] (1449-1494) -Florentine painter and mosaicist;

While reading comment on the parts in italics:

The studio was a large high-ceilinged room with a pungent smell of paint and char-coal /вугільний олівець/. In the centre was a rough plank table set up on horses around which half a dozen sleepy young apprentices crouched /зкорчитись/ on stools. Along the walls were stacked colour cartoons of completed frescoes.

On a raised platform sat a man of about forty, his wide-topped desk with its neat rows of pens, brushes, sketch-books, and implements /приладдя/ seemed to be the only ordered spot in the studio.

Granacci stopped below his master's desk.

"Signor [si:'njɔ:] Ghirlandaio, this is Michelangelo, about whom I told you."

Michelangelo felt himself spitted by a pair of eyes, about which the people said, that they were able to see more than any artist's in Italy.

"How old are you?" demanded the master.
"Thirteen."

"We start apprentices at ten. Where have you been for the past three years?"

"Wasting my time at school, studying my Latin and Greek."

A twitching /сіпання/ at the corner of the artist's dark full lips showed that he liked the answer.

"Can you draw?"

"I have the capacity to learn."

"Whatever else you may lack, it isn't modesty. Very well. Suppose you sketch for me. What will it be?"

Michelangelo's eyes traveled over the workshop, swallowing impressions.

"Why not the studio?"

Ghirlandaio gave a short laugh, "Give Michelangelo Buonarroti paper and charcoal!"

Michelangelo sat down on a bench to sketch. His eye and hand were good working partners. For the first time since entering the studio his breathing was normal. He felt someone leaning over his shoulder.

"I'm not finished," he said.

"It is enough." Ghirlandaio took his paper, studied it for a moment. "You have a strong fist /кулак/. I'll start you as an apprentice, but you must pay me six florins for the first year ..."

"I can pay you nothing."

Ghirlandaio looked at him sharply. "The Buonarroti are known to be well-off. Since your father wants you apprenticed ..."

"My father has beaten me every time I mentioned painting."

"Why will he not beat you again when you tell him now?"

Exercise 3. Please, find in the text sentences and expressions similar to the following in their meaning:

1. The workshop was a spacious room with a high ceiling;

2. All things on Ghirlandaio's desk were put in their places;

3. Michelangelo felt that the master was studying him, looking at him attentively;

4. Ghirlandaio had keen vision /=eyesight/;

5. Idling around the school;

6. You are an ambitious boy;

7. He looked around the studio, searching for the thing to make an impression on him;

8. His hand could draw what his eyes could see;

9. My sketch isn't over;

10. You are capable of drawing;

11. The Buonarroti are known to be quite rich;

Exercise 4. Match the definitions in the right-hand column with the words in the left-hand column:

Exercise 5. Let's have a quiz with colours, shall we? There are five sentences with blue, eight with red, five with green and six with black. Would you try to guess which of the colours you'll have to add?

1. Michelangelo was fascinated with drawing since his ... years/=youth/

2. Whatever my mother plants in the garden with her ... fingers, immediately begins to grow /=skilful in gardening/.

3. The sea was rough, while they were crossing the Atlantic. Many of the passengers looked ... /=were sick/.

4. Most part of Great Britain usually have ... winter/ = snowless/, since the climate of the country is mild and damp.

5. He was arrested for making and spreading ... goods /=false money/.

6. Hogarth didn't come from a ... blooded family /=aristocratic/.

7. When a ship is about to sail the captain flies ... Peter /a special flag to signal departure/.

8. There was a band playing the guitars and banjoes. Their repertoire was mostly ...grass /= country music/.

9. The ship was wrecked in a terrible storm and the sailors met their ... ruin /=death/.

10. Becoming an artist has always been a ... rose for the young man /= smth unreal/.

11. The British insurance agencies have got the ... book of all wrecked ships /a book, where all kinds of shipwrecks are recorded/.

12. Before announcing the capital punishment to the criminal the judge put on his ... cap /a special headwear for the judge/.

13. He has failed his exams, so he has got the ... dog on his back /to feel depressed/.

14. The sailors stood aghast when they saw the ... Jack on the mast of the

approaching ship /a pirates' flag/.

15. The prices of the ... gold are going up now /oil/

16. The woman was persecuted because she was said to practice ... magic /evil tricks/.

17. There were hundreds of ...coats marching along the streets of London /=soldiers/.

18. Cardinal Rechelieu never took off his ... hat /a peculiar cap/.

19. He couldn't concentrate on the picture, the talkative lady being a ... herring

/a nuisance/.

20. The young man got so drunk because he had been sipping the cheap ... ink for

quite a long time /cheap wine/.

21. At the beginning of colonization of America ... men were rather friendly and hospitable /Indians/.

22. Only fresh ... meat is good to make a perfect raw beefsteak /beef/

23. All talks about his quitting smoking is like ... rag for a bull; they make him furious /smth irritating/.

24. There are so many obstacles in the way of privatization because of ... tape and bureaucracy /complicated unnecessary regulations/.

Home assignment: the story you have read isn't finished; try to invent your own ending to the situation writing 6-8 sentences.

As to Ex. V... 1-5 - green; 6-10 - blue; 11-16 - black; and 17-24 - red. Have you guessed? Bravo!

Lesson seventeen.

Exercise 1. Let's hear the endings which you have invented, shall we? Choose the ones you like the best. Bravo!

Exercise 2.What would you tell your friends about the visit to Ghirlandaio if you were Michelangelo (were in his shoes)? Try to report the whole part in the indirect speech. Please, don't forget: to introduce, to wonder, to admit, to suggest, to promise, to demand, to protest, to complain, to deny, to warn, will you?

Exercise 3. Would you like to know the true end of the episode? You would, wouldn't you? Good! Then go on reading:

"Because your willingness to accept me will be a defence. That and the fact that you will pay him six florins the first year, eight the second, and ten the third," explained Michelangelo.

Ghirlandaio's eyes flared /спалахнути/.

"That's unheard of! Paying money for the privilege of teaching you!"

"Then I cannot come to work for you."

The apprentices made no pretence of working. Michelangelo stood his ground. His manner was respectful both to the older man and himself. His eyes seemed to be saying, "I will be worth it to you."

Ghirlandaio felt a grudging admiration. He lived up to his reputation of being a man "lovable and loved" by saying: "Certainly, we are unlikely to get anything finished without your invaluable help. Bring your father to see me."

Out in the street Granacci threw his arm affectionately about the smaller boy's shoulder.

"You broke every rule. But you got in!"

Exercise 4. Has your guess been right? Try and explain in your own way the following:

1. Why did Michelangelo's father, who was a merchant, beat him?

2. Why did the apprentices make no pretence of working?

3. Why did Ghirlandaio feel a grudging admiration?

4. Why did he agree to accept Micheangelo's terms?

5. Why did Granacci hug Michelangelo?

Exercise5. Referring to the text prove that:

1. Michelangelo was gifted, persistent, self-motivated; that he had a great

sense of dignity.

2. Ghirlandaio was a famous master.

3. Ghirlandaio was generous, intelligent and well-wishing.

4. Granacci was a true friend of Michelangelo.

5. Ghirlandaio had a good sense of humour.

Exercise 6. Dramatize both parts.

Home assignment: there is a choice: 1/ report both parts of the story for Ghirlandaio; 2/ think twice before saying: which of your teachers would pay your parents for the privilege of teaching you, my dear.

Lesson eighteen.

Exercise 1.In one of his sonnets Micheangelo wrote: