B. True or False? Correct the false sentences.

a) Keanu Reeves is Hawaiian.

b) At school, he had good results.

c) When he was 17, he started attending an acting school.

d) His first work in cinema was in Youngblood.

e) He achieved stardom with The Matrix.

f) He is a reserved person.

 

C. Find words in the text which mean the same as:

a) light wind	e) performances
b) ended	f) went to
c) exceptional	g) a film which continues a previous story
d) abandoned	h) personal

 

7. Read the film review.

Film – The Matrix

Main actors:

Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Ann Moss

The story:

It is a dark time for the world. Neo is trapped in the train station, between the Matrix and the real world. Morpheus, Trinity and Seraph set out to rescue him. While this is happening, the Machines are approaching Zion with the intent of destroying every human there, but they do not realize that something is taking over the Matrix: Smith. The Machines reach Zion and the battle of a lifetime is about to begin. There is only one hope that can stop Smith and that is Neo. It’s like the Oracle says: “Everything that has a beginning has an end”.

Comment:

A wonderful sci-fi film. It has a lot of action and atmosphere. It’s an exciting movie.

8. Write a review of a film you like and include a picture or a photograph. Use the text as a model.

 

 

Lesson 16.

TYPES OF ART

Put the words and phrases in the right columns:

album, cartoon, curtain, landscape, prompt box, illustration, documentary, drawing, short story, stage, western, guitar, cinema, fiction, exhibition, autobiography, art gallery, box office, horror film, composer, charts, bass, blockbuster, tour, writer, still life, performance, science-fiction film, bestseller, painter, poem, subtitles, musician, producer, interval, drums, contents, opera, designer, concert, singer, sketch, museum, page, dubbing, lyrics, applaud, thriller, author, cast, hit, volume, seat, play, action, band, novel, act.

Music	Film	Theater	Literature	Painting/sculpture

PEOPLE IN ART

Write who the people were/are:

1. a _ _ _ _ _ _ - Julia Roberts

2. c _ _ _ _ _ _ _ - Wolfgang A. Mozart

3. d _ _ _ _ _ _ _ - Steven Spielberg

4. g _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ - Jimi Hendrix

5. p _ _ _ _ _ _ - Pablo Picasso

6. p _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ - William Shakespeare

7. p _ _ _ - Adam Mickiewicz

8. s _ _ _ _ _ - Robbie Williams

9. w _ _ _ _ _ - J.R.R. Tolkien

ART

Cross the odd one out:

1. autobiography – novel – portrait – love story

2. photograph – opera – painting – sculpture

3. opera – choir – band – poetry

4. page – cover – author – festival

5. genre – thriller – comedy - horror

READING

Read the text: Is it art?

Jack

‘I can’t believe the kind of rubbish that some people call art. Yesterday my girlfriend dragged me to a modern art gallery to see an exhibition she’d read about in the paper. It was five or six so-called installations made of bits of plastic, wood and paper that seemed just to have been thrown on the floor. It was a mess, basically – just like the floor in my sister’s house when my two-year-old nephew’s left all his toys out, but less colourful. Come to think of it, if you’d given those bits of plastic, wood and paper to my nephew, he could probably have created something just as good. I guess sometimes the cleaners end up throwing art like that in the bins at the end of the day, because they must find it hard to work out what’s an exhibit and what’s just litter. I think that if a painting or an installation looks like something I could have done myself in fifteen minutes, it doesn’t deserve to be called art. But when I say that, people like my girlfriend say I’m “uncultured”. I reckon a lot of the people who say they appreciate the kind of stuff we saw yesterday are just pretending – deep down they know it’s rubbish but they don’t want to be the first one to admit it because, unlike me, they’re afraid of being looked down on.’

Lily

‘Art, for me, is a very broad concept. I’d say any materials arranged in such a way as to stimulate a person’s emotions or thoughts can be art. Obviously this includes the traditional visual arts like painting, drawing and sculpture, and it also includes more modern forms such as video work and three-dimensional installations. I don’t like it when people say one form of art is ‘better’ than another. For example, people talking about fantastic installations in museums sometimes say, “But it’s just a simple arrangement of everyday objects – I could have done that.” They don’t understand that with many such installations, as with many modern paintings, the originality or beauty is in the idea behind them. Once the artist has the idea, it doesn’t really matter whether or not it is technically “difficult” to put the elements together. What I’d say to the people dismissing such works is, “Sure, you could have physically put those objects together, but you’d never had have the idea of doing it that way, would you?”

Everyone knows that a great painter like Van Gogh had fantastic technical skills, but for me that doesn’t necessarily make his work better than a painting or installation in a modern art gallery that is quite simple in technical terms – it’s just different.’

A. Decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F), or if the text doesn’t say (D).

1. Jack thinks the installation he saw at the modern art museum was no better than something his two-year-old nephew probably could have done.

2. Lily thinks installations and video work should be considered art, but also that they are inferior to painting.

3. Jack believes some people are not honest about their feelings about the kind of art he saw at the modern art museum.

4. Lily thinks a work of art doesn’t have to be technically difficult to create in order to be good.

5. Jack dislikes art in general.

6. Lily dislikes the work of Van Gogh.

7. The installations Jack saw at the modern art museum were made from three different materials.

8. Lily thinks the reason some people don’t appreciate some installations is because they don’t understand them.