Exercise 2. Read the text “Culture and entertainment of the XX century” and explain the words in bold.

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 572.

Reading

	- As the century began, Paris was the artistic capital of the world, where both French and foreign writers, composers and visualartists gathered. - Movies, music and the media had a major influence on fashion and trends in all aspects of life. As many movies and much music originate from the United States, American culture spread rapidly over the world. - 1953 saw the glamorous coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, an extremely iconic and revered figure of the 20th century. - Visual culture became more dominant not only in movies but in comics and television as well. During the century a new
skilled understanding of narrator's imagery was developed. - Computer games and internet surfing became new and popular form of entertainment during the last 25 years of the century. - In literature, science fiction, fantasy, alternative history fiction gained unprecedented popularity. Detective fiction became famous between the two world wars. - Blues and jazz music became popularized during the 1910s and 1920s in the United States. Blues went on to influence rock and roll in the 1950s, which only increased in popularity with the “British Invasion” of the mid-to-late 1960s. Rock soon branchedinto many different genres; including heavy metal, punk rock, and alternative rock and became the dominant genre of popular

music. This was challenged with the rise of hip hop in the 1980s and 1990s. Other genres such as house, techno, reggae, and soul all developed during the latter half of the 20th century and went through various periods of popularity. - Modern Dance is born in America as a 'rebellion' against centuries - old European ballet. Dancers and choreographers such as Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Denis, Martha Graham, Jose Limon, Doris Humphrey, Merce Cunningham and Paul Taylor re-defined movement, struggling to bring it back to its 'natural' roots and along with Jazz, created a solely American art form. - In classical music, composition branched out into many completely new domains, including dodecaphony, aleatoric

(chance) music, and minimalism.

- Synthesizers began to be employed widely in music and crossed over into the mainstream with new wave music in the 1980s. Electronic instruments have been widely deployed in all manners of popular music and has led to the development of such genres as house, synthpop, electronic dance music, and industrial.

- The art experienced the development of new styles and explorations such as expressionism, Dadaism, cubism, neoplasticism, abstract expressionism and surrealism.

- The modern art movement revolutionized art and culture and set the stage for both Modernism and its counterpart postmodern art as well as other contemporary art practices. - Art Nouveau began as the most advanced architecture and design but went unfashionable after World War I. The style was very dynamic and highly inventive, however the depression of the Great War made it difficult to keep up such a high standard. - In Europe, modern architecture departed radically from the excessive decoration of the Victorian era. Streamlined forms inspired by machines became more commonplace, enabled by developments in building materials and technologies. Before World War II, many European architects moved to the United States, where modern architecture continued to develop.

- The automobile vastly increased the mobility of people in the Western countries and in many other places by the end of the 20th century. City design throughout most of the West became focused on transport via car.

- The popularity of sport increased considerably - both as an activity for all, and as entertainment, particularly on television. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th_century