Tomorrow's homes may be made of glass and steel -- or they may resemble the shelters built by our prehistoric ancestors. Architects and engineers are taking a new look at ancient building techniques.

Imagine a magical building material. It's cheap, perhaps even free. It's plentiful everywhere, worldwide. It's strong enough to hold up under extreme weather conditions. It's inexpensive to heat and cool. And it's so easy to use that workers can learn the necessary skills in a few hours.

This miraculous substance isn't only cheap as dirt, it is dirt, and it's winning new respect from architects, engineers, and designers. One look at the Great Wall of China will tell you how durable earthen construction can be. And, concerns for the environment and energy conservation make ordinary dirt look downright appealing.

What does an earth house look like? Perhaps it will resemble the 400-year-old Taos Pueblo. Or, tomorrow's earth homes may take on surprising new forms.

 

An earth house can be made in a variety of ways:

 

Adobe

Adobe is a term widely used in the southwestern United States and Spanish speaking countries. Although the word is often used to describe an architectural style, adobe is actually a building material.

Adobe " bricks" are usually made with tightly compacted earth, clay, and straw. However, construction methods and the composition of the adobe will vary according to climate and local customs.

Sometimes an asphalt emulsion is added to help waterproof the adobe bricks. A mixture of Portland cement and lime may also be added, but these materials will add to the cost. In parts of Latin America, fermented cactus juice is used for waterproofing.

 

Rammed Earth

Rammed earth construction resembles adobe construction. Both use soil mixed with waterproofing additives. However, even with the waterproofing additives, adobe requires dry weather so that the bricks can harden enough to build walls. In rainy parts of the world, builders developed " rammed earth" construction. A mixture of soil and cement are compacted into forms. Later, the forms are removed and solid earth walls remain.

Rammed earth buildings are environmentally-friendly and fire and termite resistant. Some modern-day designers also say that the thick earthen walls create a sense of solidity and security.

 

Straw Bale In the African prairies, houses have been made of straw since the Paleolithic times. Straw construction became popular in the American Midwest when pioneers discovered that no amount of huffing and puffing would blow down hefty bales of straw and grass.

Architects and engineers are now exploring new possibilities for straw bale construction. Modern day " pioneers" who are building and living in these homes say that building with straw instead of conventional materials cuts the construction costs by as much as half.

 

Cob (mud with straw)

In Old English, cob was a root word that meant lump or rounded mass. Cob houses are made of clay-like lumps of soil, sand, and straw. Unlike adobe and straw bale construction, cob does not use bricks or blocks. Instead, wall surfaces can be sculpted into smooth, sinuous forms. A cob home may have sloping walls, arches and lots of wall niches.

Cob homes are one of the most durable types of earth architecture. Because the mud mixture is porous, cob can withstand long periods of rain without weakening. A plaster made of lime and sand may be used to windproof the exterior walls from wind damage.

Cob houses are suitable for the desert or for very cold climates.

 

Compressed Earth Compressed Earth Blocks, or CEBs, are construction blocks made with clay, sand, and a stabilizing ingredient such as lime or Portland cement. The earth mixture is poured into a hydraulic press machine. Since they are machine-made, compressed earth blocks are uniform in size and shape.

 

Or, the house may be made with concrete but sheltered underground.

 

No one can argue with the environmental benefits of using mud and straw. But the ecological building movement does have critics. In an interview with The Independent, Patrick Hannay, from the Welsh School of Architecture, attacked the straw bale structures at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales. " There would appear to be little aesthetic leadership here, " Hannay said.

 

But, you be the judge. Does " responsible architecture" have to be unsightly? Can a cob, straw bale or earth sheltered home be attractive and comfortable? Would you like to live in one?

 

 

Translate the following word combinations into English:

 

− доисторические предки

− быть в изобилии

− сохранение энергии

− состав, структура

− делать водонепроницаемым

− цемент и известь

− ощущение прочности и надежности

− традиционные материалы

− бетон

− неприглядный, уродливый

 

 

Part 9

Louis Armstrong: An American Original

Music Theory Quiz

 

Are you good at music theory? Not sure? Let’s see.

 

1. What does the letter “C” stand for in musical notation?

 

a) doh

b) me

c) sol

 

2. What country did modern classical guitars originate from?

 

a) North America

b) Italy

c) Spain

 

3. What century did the upright piano develop in?

 

a) 18^th

b) 19^th

c) 20^th

 

4. What is ‘soul’?

 

a) a kind of xylophone

b) Mexican jazz

c) a kind of Negro music

 

5. Which of these instruments is a stringed one?

 

a) piano

b) clarinet

c) oboe

 

6. Which of these instruments is a brass one?

 

a) saxophone

b) xylophone

c) trombone

 

7. What does the accidental sharp (#) show in musical notation?

 

a) a semitone lower

b) a semitone higher

c) a tone lower

 

8. What is syncopation?

 

a) performance in a smooth flowing manner

b) displacing the beats or accents in (a passage) so that strong beats become weak and vice versa

c) delivery or presentation with each sound or note sharply detached or separated from the others

 

9. What do they call melancholic music of black American origin, often in a twelve-bar sequence?

 

a) ragtime

b) blues

c) country

 

10. Which of these jazz musicians was the winner of thirteen Grammy Awards?

 

a) Ella Fitzgerald

b) “Duke” Ellington

c) Louis Armstrong

 

 

Vocabulary Practice.

 

I. Find synonyms to the following words and word combinations:

 

− unassuming

− unchallenged leader

− unaffected style

− off beat style

− hot tone

− aggregation

− dough

− tribute

− extended statements

 

II. Translate the sentences into Russian:

 

1. But whatever he was called, his trumpet, his gravel-voice, and his ever-present white handkerchief endeared Louis Armstrong to millions the world over.

2. His own rhythmic language became more complex through the first decade of his career but it was never less than direct, it was never less than immediately moving.

3. There is not a jazz musician playing today who does not owe his greatest musical debt to Louis Armstrong.

 

III. Translate the sentences into English:

 

1. Она упала на колени, моля о пощаде.

2. Она была лучшим примером элегантности.

3. Она всегда вела себя очень приветливо, как и требовала ее профессия, и это стало ее отличительной чертой.

4. Почти невозможно убедить его есть овощи.

5. Успех этого года - награда за весь ваш тяжелый труд.

 

 

As you already know Louis Armstrong was a great jazz musician. Are you aware of what jazz is and where it originated from? Read this text and make sure you are. Then do the tasks below.

 

 

The Roots of Jazz

 

A number of regional styles contributed to the early development of jazz. Arguably the single most important was that of the New Orleans, Louisiana area, which was the first to be commonly given the name “jazz” (early on often spelled “jass”).

The city of New Orleans and the surrounding area had long been a regional music center. People from many different nations of Africa, Europe, and Latin America contributed to New Orleans’ rich musical heritage. In the French and Spanish colonial era, slaves had more freedom of cultural expression than in the English colonies of what would become the United States. In the Protestant colonies African music was looked on as inherently “pagan” and was commonly suppressed, while in Louisiana it was allowed. African musical celebrations held at least as late as the 1830s in New Orleans’ “Congo Square” were attended by interested whites as well. In addition to the slave population, New Orleans also had North America’s largest community of free people of color, some of whom prided themselves on their education and used European instruments to play both European music and their own folk tunes.

Chicago was one of the first cities to embrace the new style, and from some accounts it was here that the New Orleans style was first popularly christened “jass”. Back in New Orleans, it was called by such names as “ratty music”, “hot music”, or simply “ragtime”. The style was so different from the ragtime and dance music of the rest of the nation, that a new name was needed to distinguish it. Apparently, the first band billed as playing “jass” was that of trombonist Tom Brown. The word jazz itself is rooted in American slang, probably of sexual origin, although various alternative derivations have been suggested.

Early jazz influences found their mainstream expression in the marching band and dance band music of the day, which was the standard form of popular concert music at the turn of century. The instruments of these groups became the basic instruments of jazz: brass, reeds, and drums.

Many black musicians also made a living playing in small bands hired to lead funeral processions in the New Orleans African-American tradition. These Africanized bands played a seminal role in the articulation and dissemination of early jazz. Traveling throughout black communities in the Deep South and to northern big cities, these musician-pioneers were helping to fashion the music’s howling, raucous, then free-wheeling, “raggedy”, ragtime spirit, quickening it to a more eloquent, sophisticated, swing incarnation.

According to Pulitzer Prize-winning African-American composer and classical and jazz trumpet virtuoso Wynton Marsalis:

 

“Jazz is something Negroes invented, and it said the most profound things – not only about us and the way we look at things, but about what modern democratic life is really about. It is the nobility of the race put into sound … jazz has all the elements, from the spare and penetrating to the complex and enveloping. It is the hardest music to play that I know of, and it is the highest rendition of individual emotion in the history of Western music.”

 

(from Wikipedia)

 

 

I. Paraphrase the following:

 

a) The single most important style was that of the New Orleans, Louisiana

b) Chicago was one of the first cities to embrace the new style

c) the New Orleans style was first popularly christened “jass”

d) the first band billed as playing “jass”

e) Early jazz influences found their first mainstream expression in the marching band...

f) These Africanized bands played a seminal role in the articulation and dissemination of early jazz.

 

II. Find in the text the English equivalents to the following words and phrases:

 

a) медные и деревянные духовые инструменты, ударные инструменты

b) уличный оркестр

c) народные мотивы

d) «цветное население»

e) музыкальное наследие

 

 

Part 10

Walt Disney: Master Showman

Vocabulary Practice

I. Translate the word combinations and sentences into Russian:

 

− wise sages from different world cultures

− to have a mean streak

− to step out of line

− faithful but slow-witted bloodhound

− to set Walt to thinking

− Sleepy, Bashful, Grumpy, Happy, Sneezy, Doc, Dopey

− to branch out into other areas

− ill temper

− to sign a contract with fine print

− to break precedents

 

1. In making a feature-length film, Disney would have an opportunity to use more complex plots and develop more elaborately the characters in the story.

2. It was their belief that the public would not want to sit through such a long cartoon feature.

3. Original songs were written to move the story along, and a fairy tale mood of timelessness was created.

4. “You’ve got to have a wienie at the end of every street.”

5. But Disney himself would not live to see his second park open.

 

II. Translate the following words and word combinations into English:

 

− быть несовершеннолетним

− разделение полномочий

− иметь полные авторские права на что-либо

− продолговатые формы

− тема (произведения, фильма)

− цветное кино

− стать частью детского наследия

− сердце, центр нового парка

− оказывать поддержку кому-либо

− вводить в действие, открывать

Bambi

“Bambi” is one of the masterpieces of Walt Disney studios, a film known to every child in America and many others around the world. The film, part of which you are going to watch (" The Making of Bambi" ) tells a story of Bambi's creation. It is told by the people who made this history with their own hands together with Walt Disney. Now watch three episodes of this film and do the tasks given below.

 

Episode 1

Story: Telling the Tale

 

Vocabulary Notes:

 

wondrous – изумительный

coming of age story – история взросления

ant hill – муравейник

squirrel – белка

impact – сильное воздействие

 

I. Watch the episode and answer the following questions:

 

1. What are the themes that the film about Bambi deals with?

2. What other Disney film that develops the same themes is mentioned? How many years later was this film made?

3. Why do some authors consider stories like Bambi or the Lion King very difficult to make?

4. Did all the characters that were originally developed make up the final film?

5. How long would the story of Bambi be if the had not cut out some scenes and characters?

6. Was the man, the hunter, eventually shown on screen? Is this of any importance to the film?

7. What do people who saw Bambi in their childhood remember seeing?

8. How is the story of Lion King different from Bambi’s?

9. Why should contemporary film makers study Bambi?

 

II. Look through these sentences, then watch the episode again and complete them:

 

1. Bambi says very clearly that life is …, and that in it love is ….

2. These stories whether it’s Bambi or the Lion King are just very difficult. You are not dealing with …. It's just more involved when you deal with..., or with..., or with..., you know.

3. To the animators and artists who worked with him Walt was … and worked ….

4. He [Walt] wanted to have the impact, you know, of man … and interrupting …. I mean, that’s such an important part of the story, but you … and it made it ….

5. He [Bambi] sheds one tear and he looks back and as he looks back, I think, what we as viewers see is ….

 

 

Episode 2

Characters: Drawn to Nature

 

Vocabulary Notes:

 

animator – художник-мультипликатор

draftsman – художник

to pull off – добиться, несмотря на трудности

to chase a butterfly – бегать за бабочкой

to push the envelope – выйти за границы возможного

flour sack – мешок с мукой

thorough study of anatomy – тщательное изучение анатомии

skunk – скунс

break-through – прорыв, достижение

cocky – самоуверенный

 

I. Watch the episode and answer the following questions:

 

1. What were the first scenes that Walt saw?

2. Why was working on “Bambi” more difficult than what its animators had done before?

3. How did the deer in “Snow White” differ from the deer in “Bambi”?

4. What kind of training did the animators get?

5. What did Mark Davis have to study to put human expressions onto a deer body?

6. What makes the characters so believable?

7. How did the ice skating sequence appear?

 

II. Look through the sentences, then watch the episode again and complete them:

 

1. What he tried to do … was to get … personalities in the cartoon … and he said “Without a definite personality a character.....

2. … and after the lights came up, Walt ran out … in his eyes and he said “That’s …, boys”, and that’s what “Bambi” became.

3. Walt was convinced that with a little … we could put a lot of … and … into the animals without making them … characters, but … and ….

4. They approached Bambi the way … approached … and that’s why the animation is ….

5. I think that influenced the animators, you know, for decades, even today, because when … where you want... a world and make that world..., you know, and that... is a natural..., -..., you always look at " Bambi" as one of the … examples of that.

6. You’re seeing a rabbit, … drawn rabbit and you’re seeing … of probably your kid that …, …

7. People got intoxicated with … of what animation could be and the art of animation ….

 

 

Episode 3

History: Back to the Beginning

 

Vocabulary Notes:

 

to option a film – продавать фильм по лицензии

to put it on the line – подвергнуть риску, рискнуть

to outdo oneself – превзойти самого себя

restless creativity – постоянное творчество

roller coaster ride – катание на американских горках

feeling of unease – чувство тревоги, предчувствие беды

entourage – свита, сопровождающие лица

to be enthralled – быть очарованным

labour unrest - беспорядки, волнения среди работников

rumours about potential lay-offs – слухи о возможных увольнениях

screen cartoonists’ guild – гильдия мультипликаторов

to put to a vote – поставить на голосование

to threaten with a strike – угрожать забастовкой

adamant - непреклонный

watershed – переломный момент

government mediator – посредник от правительства

to make a profit on the first release – получить прибыль от первого показа

out of global domination – из тех, кто владеет миром

at core - по сути

 

 

I. Watch the episode and answer the following questions:

 

1. When was Bambi, the book, published?

2. Who is the author of the book?

3. How did this story get to Walt Disney?

4. Why was making a live action film about Bambi considered impossible?

5. Why was the story of Bambi so close to Walt’s heart?

6. How can you characterize Walt Disney’s personal style in work?

7. How did Walt convince his animators in their ability to make films like Snow White and Seven Dwarfs or Bambi?

8. How long did it take Disney animators to make Bambi?

9. What problems did Disney face when the World War II started?

10. How did he obtain the money he needed for Bambi?

11. What rumors were ramping at the studios in 1940?

12. Who ran the screen cartooners guild at that time?

13. What agreement did he try to reach with Walt?

14. Why did Walt refuse?

15. What was the outcome of this unrest in May 1941?

16. Did the artists working on Bambi go on strike? Why or why not?

17. How was this conflict settled?

18. What was the impact of the war on the Disney studios?

19. Where and when was Bambi first shown?

20. Did it make a profit at once?

21. How are the ideas in Bambi similar to Walt Disney’s eternal optimism?

 

Part 11

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