Шпаргалка по "Английскому языку"

        In Britain jazz attracts a small but enthusiastic audience. The height of its popularity was in the 1940s and 1950s, when large crowds gathered to hear big bands. British jazz has always been heavily influenced by US jazz. In the 1960s pop and rock music replaced jazz as the music of the young generation. There are now few jazz bands, although smaller combos (= groups) continue to play a wide range of trad (= traditional), bebop, cool and avant-garde jazz. The most famous British jazz musicians have included Johnny Dankworth and Cleo Laine, George Melly, Humphrey Lyttelton and Courtney Pine. The home of jazz in Britain is Ronnie Scott's club in London.

        The number of jazz venues in London has grown in the last few years. Ronnie Scott’s in the West End is still the pick of the old crop: and since the 1950s the finest performers in the world have played here. The 100 Club in Oxford Street is another very popular venue for jazz lovers.

        The Bass Clef in Hoxton was a great success in the 1980s and gets very crowded at weekends. A sister club located in the same building, called the Tenor Clef, stages Latin and African jazz in smaller and more upmarket surroundings. Jazz and food have formed a partnership at many venues such as the Palookaville in Convent Garden, the Dover Street Wine Bar and the largely vegetarian Jazz Café which are among the best; others include the Pizza Express on Dean Street and also the Pizza on the Park which is by Hyde Park Corner. The South Bank Centre and also the Barbican feature formal jazz concerts and free jazz in the foyers.

 

 

Reggae

        London’s large West Indian community has made the city the European reggae capital. At the Notting Hill Carnival, late in August, many top bands perform free. Reggae has now become integrated with the mainstream rock music scene, and bands appear at most of London’s rock venues.

 

World Music

        Musicians from every corner of the globe live in London. ”World music” includes African, Latin, South American, anything exotic, and its popularity has sparked a revitalization of British and Irish folk music. Cecil Sharp House has regular shows for folk purists, while the ICA hosts innovative acts. Many pubs in Kilburn and Willesden now have regular nights for Irish folk music, as does the Acoustic Room at the Mean Fiddler.

        The Weavers Arms, near Newington Green, has a reputation for Cajun, African and Latin American music. Hot Latin nights can be found at Down Mexico Way near Piccadilly and at Cuba Libre in Islington. For all French Caribbean and African sounds you could check Le Café de Piaf inside Waterloo Station; and for the widest selection of African sounds and food in town, try visiting the Africa Centre in Covent Garden.

 

Folk dancing

       Folk dances are traditional dances in which everyone can take part. They are danced to folk tunes and have sequences of steps that are repeated several times. Dances are performed by pairs of dancers often arranged in sets (= groups of six or eight people). Dancers move up and down the set and change partners. The dancing is often very fast. A caller usually calls the steps during the dance. In England folk dances are now danced mainly by people who belong to a country dancing club, or at barn dances held in a village hall.

        Many English villages have morris dancing teams. Morris dancing is usually performed on village greens or outside country pubs on May Day and throughout the summer. The dancers dress in white and wear sets of small bells at the knee. Dances consist of a series of jumps and hops. As they dance the dancers often wave handkerchiefs in the air. In some dances they carry a stick which they strike against that of their partner. Themes of the dances include death and rebirth in nature. In some dances mythological characters like the Green Man appear. Sometimes dancers paint their faces black, perhaps reflecting the possible origin of Morris dancing in Moorish dance. The music is provided by a fiddle (= violin) or accordion.

        Another variety of English folk dance, also performed on May Day, is maypole dancing. Children often take part. Each dancer holds the end of a long ribbon, which is attached to the top of a brightly painted maypole. The ribbons are woven round the maypole as the dancers dance round each other. Some towns have their own folk dance: for example, the Furry Dance, or Floral Dance, is danced through the streets of Helston in Cornwall.

        Scottish dances are usually danced to the music of the bagpipes or a fiddle at a ceilidh (= an evening of dancing, music and, formerly, story-telling). Traditionally they are performed in Scottish national dress, with men wearing kilts and women in plain dresses. Some people go to Scottish dancing classes as a hobby. The best-known Scottish dance is the Highland fling, which is usually performed by one man alone. The sword dance is performed by one or two dancers over two crossed swords. Popular dances for groups of people are the Gay Gordons and the Eightsome Reel.

        Ireland has a similar ceilidh tradition. In Irish dancing the dancers do not move the upper part of their body. In recent years there has been greater interest in Irish folk dancing resulting from the Riverdance stage show. In Irish clog-dancing, the dancers wear clogs (= heavy wooden shoes) with which they strike the floor.

         Line dancing, which comes from the US, is also popular in Britain. In the US itself there are folk dances from many different countries, brought by people when they settled there. But the best-known kind of folk dancing is square dancing, which has its origins in various dances from Britain. Square dancing was an important part of social life in the days when people were moving west. On Saturday evenings people would gather in a barn for a dance. As in English country dancing there was a caller, and the dancers danced to the music of a fiddle. Most square dances start and finish with couples standing in a square, but some, like the Virginia Reel, involve people standing in two lines. American children still learn square dancing, but very few adults now do it.

 

Folk music and songs

        Traditional British folk music has many different forms, including songs and ballads. Many folk songs relate to the lives of ordinary people in past centuries; others tell of famous love stories or celebrate nature. The verses may be sung by one voice alone, with the choruses sung by everyone present. Some folk songs are learned at school and are familiar to everyone, for example Greensleeves, The Ash Grove, Green Grow the Rushes O and Auld Lang Syne, which is always sung at New Year. In Wales and Ireland a harp may sometimes be used to accompany the singing, but most songs are now accompanied by a guitar or piano.

        A lot of instrumental folk music comes from Scotland and Ireland and ranges from laments on the bagpipes to lively dance tunes. Most dance music is traditionally played on the fiddle (= violin). Irish folk bands usually have flutes, tin whistles, string instruments, pipes and a bodhran (= an Irish drum).

        American folk music was created by the combination of many folk styles brought to America by immigrants. Music helped keep alive the traditions and memories of people's former homes. From the late 19th century many songs and tunes that had been passed down orally were collected together and written down. In America more than 10000 old songs were collected by John and Alan Lomax, and in Britain Cecil Sharp (1859-1924) collected both songs and folk dances. Such collections influenced major works by composers such as Vaughan Williams and Britten. Dvork used American folk music in his symphony From the New World (1893), as did Copland in Appalachian Spring (1944).

        In the US the Carter Family helped make folk music popular again in the 1920s. By the 1950s the recording industry had made folk music commercially successful. This interest in folk music also led to folk clubs being established all over the US.

        In the 1960s other styles developed, including the bluegrass of Bill Monroe and the country music of Hank Williams. The most important was folk rock which combined traditional folk music with features of rock and pop. Popular folk-rock groups in Britain have included Fairport Convention, the Spinners and Pentangle. The US created urban folk music which used the problems of cities as subjects for folk songs. By the 1960s, folk music was being used to encourage social change and it became the music of hippies and the civil rights movement. A new generation of singer-songwriters emerged, including Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Richard Thompson and Dick Gaughan. Folk festivals were popular. In 1963, just before the Vietnam War, performers at the Newport, Rhode Island festival included Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, and Peter, Paul and Mary. They attacked the prejudices of society and the violence of war in songs such as Blowin' in the Wind, The Times They Are a Changin' and If I Had a Hammer.

        Folk music is still very popular. In Britain folk festivals are held regularly at Cropredy near Banbury, and at Warwick and Cambridge. Many towns still have a folk club for amateur singers and musicians, which meets regularly in a local pub.

 

 

Outdoor Music

        London has many outdoor musical events in summer. At Kenwood House on Hampstead Heath, a grassy hill leads down to a lake, beyond which is the concert platform. Arrive early as the concerts are popular, particularly if fireworks are to accompany the music. Deck-chairs tend to be booked up early, so most people sit on the grass. Take a sweater and a picnic. Purists beware – people walk around, eat and talk throughout and the music is amplified so it can be a little distorted. You don’t get your money back if it rains, as they have never abandoned a performance yet.

        Other venues include Marble Hill House in Twickenham with practices similar to Kenwood, Crystal Palace Park and Holland Park.

 

Pantomime

 

        Should you happen to be visiting London between December and February, one unmissable experience for the whole family is pantomime. Part of nearly every British child’s upbringing, “panto” is an absurd tradition in which major female characters are played by men and principal male roles are played by women and the audience has to participate, shouting encouragement and stage directions to a set formula. Adults may find the whole experience rather strange, but most children love the experience.

 

Open-Air Theatre

        A performance of one of Shakespeare’s airier creations such as Comedy of Errors, As You Like It or A Midsummer Night’s Dream, takes on an atmosphere of pure enchantment and magic among the green vistas of Regent’s Park or Holland Park. Be sure to take a blanket and, to be safe, an umbrella. Refreshments are available, or you can take a picnic.

 

Theatre Royal

        The first theatre in Catherine Street (Covent Garden) was built in 1663 as one of two venues in London where drama could legally be staged. Nell Gwynn, King Charles II’s mistress, acted here. Three of the theatres built on this site since then burned down, including one designed by Sir Christopher Wren. The present building, by Benjamin Wyatt, was completed in 1812 and has one of the city’s largest auditoriums.

        In the 1800s it was famous for pantomimes – now it specializes in block-buster musicals. It is called the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane even though its entrance is on Catherine Street.

 

The Cinema

        The main tool of the motion picture industry is the studio. Some visitors entering this magical domain for the first time may be disappointed. The studio looks like a combination of music hall backstage, electrical factory, and demolition site. The corridors are full of people dressed up in the most unexpected costumes. A dull clamour comes from the acting area where the set is being built. Stagehands, carpenters, painters, and electricians work on the set at one time or another, while in the background men are dismantling a set where filming has just finished.

Often the director is permitted to select his collaborators - designer, director of photography, cutter, and script supervisor - especially if they habitually work as a team. Otherwise the producer hires the technicians.

Consider a designer just hired for a film. After reading the scenario, or more often the synopsis, he has an interview with the producer or his representative, the director of production. The film’s director, who probably hasn't yet established the final shooting script, discusses with the designer the needs of the film, the main sets, the general style, and so on. The producer consults the designer on more material details: the estimated cost of the sets, the number of shooting areas required, the possibility of filming certain scenes in natural settings or out of doors, and the like.

The merits of a film depend not on the amount of trick photography and the number of pin-ups starred, but on its real artistic, educational value, that is on how truly it depicts life and what message it carries.

The usual cinema performance consists of a feature film, a newsreel and of some short. The short is a two or three reel film; it may be a popular science may be a popular science film, a travelogue, a comedy or animated cartoon. Sometimes a travelogue or a documentary is the main item on the programme.

In some countries cinemas are run on the continuous performance basis. You can come in at any time and sit as long as you want. That is very inconvenient for the audience having people walking in and out all the time.

 

 

Cinemas

        If you can’t find a movie you like in London, then you don’t like movies. The huge choice of British, American, foreign-language, new, classic, popular and special-interest films makes London a major international film center, with about 250 different films showing at any one time. There are about 50 cinemas in the central district of London alone, many of them ultra-modern multi-screened complexes. The big commercial chains show current smash-hits and a healthy number of independent cinemas offer some inventive programmes drawing on the whole history of film. London’s listings magazines carry full details of what’s on, where.

 

West End Cinemas

        West End is a loose term for the main cinemas in the West End of London which show new releases, such as the Odeon Leicester Square and the MGM Shaftesbury Avenue, but it is also includes the cinemas found in Chelsea, Fullham and Notting Hill.

        Programmes normally begin around midday and are then repeated every two or three hours, with the last show around 8.30 pm; there are late-night screenings on Fridays and Saturdays at most of the central cinemas.

        West End cinemas are very expensive and a seat in front of the best screens will cost you twice what you would pay to see the same film at a local cinema outside central London. The price of admission is often cheaper for the afternoon performance or on Mondays. It is a good idea to reserve your seats well in advance for screenings of the more popular films on Friday and Saturday afternoon. Most of the larger cinemas now take credit card reservations for seats over the telephone.

Repertory Cinemas

        These cinemas often show foreign-language and slightly more “off-beat” art films and sometimes change programmes daily or even several times each day. Some cinemas show two or three films, often on the same theme, for one entrance charge.

        These include the Prince Charles, which is situated centrally, close to Leicester Square, the Everyman in north London, the ICA in the Mall, the Electric in west London, the Ritzy and the National Film Theatre.

 

National Film Theatre

        The National Film Theatre (NFT) and the Museum of the Moving Image (MOMI) are both located in the South Bank Arts Complex, near Waterloo Station. The NFT has two cinemas of its own, both of which offer a huge and diverse selection of films. The NFT also holds regular screenings of rare and restored films and television programmes taken from the National Film Archive. A must for movie buffs.

 

Foreign-Language Films

        These are screened at the repertory and independent cinemas, including the Renoir, the Prince Charles, the Lumiere, the Curzon in Shaftsbury Avenue, the Minema and the Screen cinemas chain. Films are shown in original language, with English subtitles.

 

Film Certificates

        Children are allowed to go to a cinema unaccompanied by an adult to films which have been awarded either a U (universal) or a PG (parental guidance advised) certificate for viewing.

        With other films, the numbers 12, 15, or 18 quite simply denote the minimum ages allowed for admission to the cinema. These classifications are always clearly advertised in the publicity for the film.

 

 

London Film Festival

        The most important cinema event in Britain is held every November, when over 100 films – some of which will have already won awards abroad – from a number of countries are screened. The NFT, several of the repertory cinemas and some of the big West End cinemas will have special showings of these films. Details are published in the listings magazines. Tickets are quite hard to come by but some ‘standby’ tickets will generally be available to the public 30 minutes before the start of a performance.

 

 

Vocabulary

aria - ария

audience – публика, аудитория

    to delight one’s audience – привести в восторг публику

amateur – любитель

balcony – балкон

ballet - балет

be at one’s best – исполнять лучше всего, быть в ударе

box-office – билетная касса

cast – состав исполнителей

celebrity – знаменитость

character – действующее лицо, персонаж

choreographer – хореограф, постановщик танцев

clamour – шум, крики 

collaborator – сотрудник

comedy – комедия

    musical comedy – музыкальная комедия

company – труппа

conduct – дирижировать

    conductor -дирижер

connoisseur – знаток

costume - костюм

curtain – занавес

    curtain goes up (falls) – занавес поднимается (опускается)

cutter – монтажер

demolition – разрушение; развалины,  руины

disappoint - разочаровывать

domain - владения 

dress-circle – бельэтаж

encore – бис (еще раз)

flavour – окраска, оттенок, пикантность

flawless – безупречный

flute - флейта

foyer - фойе

gala – торжественный, праздничный

gifted - одаренный

glamour – обаяние, очарование

harp - арфа

heyday – рвсцвет, зенит

    to be at the heyday of fame – находиться в зените славы

keyboard – клавиатура

lute - лютня

magnificent – великолепный, первоклассный

masterpiece – шедевр

matinee – дневной спектакль

miss – отсутствовать, недоставать

    Lyricism is missing – недостает лиризма

orchestra -  оркестр

    philharmonic orchestra – филармонический оркестр

    symphony orchestra – симфонический оркестр

    chamber orchestra – камерный оркестр

    radio and TV orchestra – оркестр радио и телевидения

    orchestra conducted by – оркестр под управлением

outshine – затмить

performance – представление

    to give performance – выступать

pin-up – очаровательная  девушка 

pit - амфитеатр

plot – сюжет, фабула

refined – изящный, тонкий

rehearsal – репетиция

    dress rehearsal – генеральная репетиция

repertory, repertoire – репертуар

scene – действие, сцена (место действия)

    the scene is laid – действие происходит

scenery - декорация

season – сезон, гастроли

setting – декорация для одного действия

sincerity – искренность

skill – мастерство, искусство исполнения

    skilful – искусный, умелый

spectator – зритель

stage – сцена

    revolving stage – вращающаяся сцена

stalls (orchestra stalls) – партер (первые ряды партера)

stir – волновать

    stirring – волнующий

thrilling – глубоко волнующий

tragedy - трагедия

success – успех

    to be a success – иметь успех

superb – великолепный, прекрасный

temperament -  темперамент

    to lack temperament – быть недостаточно темпераментным

ticket – билет

    The tickets are all sold out – Все билеты проданы.

trend -  направление (в искусстве)

unsuited to the role – не годиться для роли

variety show – эстрадный концерт, варьете