Text The Kolomenskoye State Museum and Preserve

A. Learn to read the new words (a student finds them himself).

B. Read the text and translate into Russian the sentences marked with a circle.

 

                                      The text

The first mileposts were put up in the second half of the 17^th century between Moscow and the village of Kolomenskoye. ° It used to be the countryside residence of the tsar. The former village of Kolomenskoye is now well inside Moscow.

The Museum and the preserve are well known for the Ascension Church. ° The church was built to mark the birth of Vasiliy III’s son, the future Ivan the terrible.

It was the time when Russia was at with Sweden. ° Peter the Great Supervised the construction of fortifications to protect Arkhangelsk from the sea. A pine log but was built for Peter the Great at the mouth of the Severnaya Dvina. ° Later it was transferred to Arkhangelsk and in the year 1934 it was brought to Moscow. ° After the restoration the log hut of Peter the Great was put in Kolomenskoye.

° The village of Kolomenskoye witnessed the return of the victorious troops of Moscow’s Prince Dmitriy Donskoy after they defeated the Tatar hordes on the field of Kulikovo in 1380. Ivan the Terrible often visited the place. Peter the shown in the exhibitions mounted in the old buildings of Kolomenskoye.

 

C. Write down a chain of questions about the text.

 7.3 Text The Wonderful world of the Theatre

A. Read the text and fill in the gaps with the following words and expressions:

 

Lasted public theatre, close to, performed, the audience’s favorite, for the first time, historical, held.

 

The text.

In 1702, Peter the Great ordered to open the first _ _ _in Red Square _ _ _Ni-kolskiye Gate. It was called the Comedy House. It was a one-storied building holding 400 people. The plays _ _ _ there had biblical and _ _ _ plots. The gates of the Kremlin, the KitaiGorod and the White Town were not closed down till a very late hour on Mondays and Thursdays when the performances were _ _ _. _ _ _ used to be a jester. Foreign actors were the first to perform there. In 1704 Russian actors performed there _ _ _. The theatre _ _ _ till the year 1707.

 

B. Render the Russian text into English using the following support words and expressions: in the 1730 (several thirties), to get burnt, at the order of, to be provided with mechanical wonders, to hold, opera and musical performance.

 

                                      Текст

В 1730-е годы деревянный театр был сооружен на красной площади. Он мог вмещать 3000 человек. Оперные и музыкальные представления давались там. Самый молодой архитектор сделал проект театра. Но театр сгорел во время одного из пожаров. По приказу Елизаветы Петровны новый деревянный театр был построен в Лефортове. Театр был снабжен различными механическими чудесами.

 

C. Answer the questions

 

1. What are the most impressive theatres now?

2. Which of the theatres are the most popular?

3. What theatre appeals to you?

Text VIII

8.1 Read the text “Sign Language”

Man has long dreamed of an international language, but attempts to create one have always failed because no country wants to leave its traditional language. Now a new means of international expression is beginning to catch on: the language of graphic symbols.

Symbols can help to break down the culture barriers raised by the world’s 5.800 languages and dialects. Sings are more effective than words because they take up less space and because their meaning can be understood more quickly.

Who, for example, can fail to understand such symbols as these widely used warnings against thin ice and fallings stones and such sings as plus and minus in mathematics. Packages can be sent in any languages, too. These symbols instruct Dockers to handle them – “keep frozen” and “keep dry”.

Equally clear are labels that show a glass (“fragile”), a crossed out hook (“use no hooks”) and a package separated from the sun by a heavy diagonal line (“protect from heat”).

People as well as packages can travel without knowing any foreign languages. For example, a foreign in airports or railway stations can find an information desk or a pick-up point for lost children, if he looks around for these signs.

“I got off the plane in Moscow some years ago”, a visitor to Russia remembers, “and I was able to find my way to my luggage, the bank at the airport, a taxi and the hotel, and I don’t speak a word of Russian – all by signs”.

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