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Komalova Lilly 205 English/Spain 2002-2003
In the world of television.
The mass media play an important part in our lives. Newspapers, radio and especially television inform us of what is going on in the world and give us wonderful possibilities for education and shape our views.
Television has become an everyday part of our lives. It's omnipresent (вездесущий), always on… but is it a good thing or a bad one? Don't we spend too much of our precious time in front of the 'box'? Haven't we become lazier because of it? Is TV dangerous?
1. Some people say that television is dangerous. I don't think so. After all, it keeps you informed about what is happening in the world. The main source of news for millions of people is television. People like TV news because they can see everything with their own eyes. And that's an important advantage. Seeing is believing. Besides, it's much more difficult for politicians to lie in front of the cameras than on the pages of newspapers. You can also see films and plays, and be entertained… or you can watch documentaries and learn something new.
2. In spite of all its defects, television can teach us a lot of things. The trick is to learn to control it and use it intelligently. The idea is to turn on the TV only when there is a programme, which is really amusing, and interesting.
3. A lot of rubbish has been written about television. I think it's a wonderfull invention. It's a cheap form of entertainment, which gives pleasure to millions of people, especially those who live alone. It's also a wonderfull way of escaping from our dull reality.
4. TV's just part of live really. It involves us in strong emotions: love, hate/loathing, and passion. Even the silliest of 'soaps' help a lot of people to solve their own problems by showing them what might happen if they do certain things. Sometimes they show us what not to do.
But on the other hand there are several reason why television is not a thing we should take care about.
1. Television is a terrible waste of time. I know a lot of people who just down in front of the 'box' and watch whatever's on. They spend hours watching silly Mexican soap operas and second-rate American films when perhaps they ought to be doing something else.
2. In my opinion, television often makes us lazier. We stay at home instead of going out. We read less. We think less. We even talk less. It cuts us off from reality. But isn't real life better than this passive enjoyment?
3. At the same time there's too much blood and violence on TV. We begin to believe that world is an unfriendly place, filled with cruel people and risky circumstances, the violent, crime-filled world shown on TV may turn people into criminals.
4. Television is like a drug: we get addicted to certain TV series and simply can't switch it off. Most programmes are filled with silly commercials. What I hate most about TV is that it often uses strong language. It has a terrible influence on children and young people. Television kills conversation. Nobody knows how to protect you from the bad influence of television.
Of course when people watch TV in foreign language they find a lot of new words and these words, words combinations can be use in every day speech. I agree that watching TV is not a good way to learn foreign language, but you can just practice in understanding the speech of other people, which they can meet in every place of the country.
Nowadays television turns in a kind of everyday underground for many people. In this case TV keeps them company and doesn't ask for much in return. It can be dangerous because, watching TV people escape from reality and as an urgent action these people can isolate themselves from others or give up more interesting things. This type of viewer is called the absent-minded. They leave the TV on all day. In the meantime, he or she eats, phones, reads or does his homework. For him or her television is really background noise for all day long.
Another kind of viewers is the addict. He won't give up TV for anything in the world. He watches the programmes in silence, with great concentration. Even during commercials, he won't leave the screen for fear pf losing a second of a programme. He usually chooses the programmes he wants to watch very carefully.
And the bored viewers put the TV on when there is nothing better to do. For them TV is the last resort. They only watch it when it's raining or when they are ill. They usually have got an active relationship with TV and a good critical sense.
The basis and main pillar of the art of television is the television personality. If you want to become a television personality, you need a personality of some sort. It may be unattractive or simply repulsive (отталкивающая); but a personality is indispensable (необходима).
Television is one of the chief architects of prosperity (процветание). Certain television personalities can give away money with great charm on the slightest provocation. Television is also one of the main architects of slumps (кризис). Television has united the family - by keeping family at home, gaping at it round the family hearth. Television causes more friction (сцепление, ссора) in family life than any other single factor by offering unique scope for quarrels as to which programme to watch.
Television is of great educational value. It teaches you while still really young how to kill, rob, shoot, poison, and generally speaking, how to grow up into a Wild West outlaw or gangster by the time you leave school. Television puts a stop to crime because all the burglars and robbers, instead of going to burgle and rob, sit at home watching soap operas.
Whether we realize or not, television plays a very important pert part. It has conquered the world since the 40th and now you cannot imagine your life without this invention.
Komalova Lilly 205English/Spanish 2002-2003
Schools of Art
Art is a special sphere of our life. No matter what it is: theatre, architecture, painting or cinema - it brings joy and makes us fall in thinking about basic things of life. So, I'm going to speak about schools of art.
Abstract art.
Have you ever seen a painting that puzzled you? Perhaps you could not see anything "real" or "natural" in it. Perhaps it seemed a jumble (смесь, куча) of lines and colours. You were probably looking at an example of abstract art.
Before the 20th century, most artists showed things more or less as they might look to an observer. Their scenes were recognizable. Even when they painted imaginary scenes, the elements of the picture could usually be identified.
Of course, artists have always put their own personalities into their paintings. A painting by Van Gogh, for example, can easily be recognized - it has his personal stamp. It shows the way Van Gogh looked at real things. Because of his particular style, his paintings look strange to many people. But in his art people are still recognizable as people. No tree ever looked quite like a Van Gogh tree (he painted trees as great swirling (вихрящиеся) figures), but his trees are still clearly trees.
Individual painters have always experimented with unusual ways of showing real objects. But in the 21st century artists in great numbers began to break away from realistic ways of painting. Many artists seemed to be saying: "If you want to accurate (точная, правильная) picture of a scene, buy a photograph or a picture postcard". They began to paint life in different ways. They concentrated on form, colour and shape, and avoided any attempt to tell a story or show a scene naturally.
The kind of art just described is often called an abstract art. Once upon a time it was a revolutionary movement. Now it has won acceptance. Most museums have examples of abstract art. Some modern museums contain only abstract art.
Nowadays great number of people still prefers a more realistic art. But even the tastes of these people have been shaped (приспосабливаться, формировать), in part, by the abstract artists. Modern design has been influenced by abstract art. Even the floor, covering in your kitchen may have been copied from the design of an abstract artist.
Another school of art, which is extremely interesting and attractive, is surrealism, which I'm going to speak about.
Surrealism
Surrealism is a 20th-century literary and artistic movement that attempts to express the workings of the subconscious (подсознательного) by fantastic imagery and incongruous/ill placed juxtaposition/matching (сопоставление, соприкосновение) of subject matter.
Surrealism, movement in visual art and literature, flourishing in Europe between World Wars I and II. Surrealism grew principally out of the earlier Dada movement, which before World War I produced works of anti-art that deliberately (обдуманно, осторожно) defied (открыто не повиноваться, игнорировать) reason; but Surrealism's emphasis was not on negation but on positive expression. The movement represented a reaction against what its members saw as the destruction wrought (выделанный, отделанный) by the "rationalism" that had guided European culture and politics in the past and that had culminated in the horrors of World War I.
According to the major spokesman (представитель) of the movement, the poet and critic Andrew Breton, who published "The Surrealist Manifesto" in 1924, Surrealism was a means of reuniting (воссоединяющийся) conscious (сознательный) and unconscious realms (области) of experience so completely that the world of dream and fantasy would be joined to the everyday rational world in "an absolute reality, a surreality." Drawing heavily on theories adapted from Sigmund Freud, Breton saw the unconscious as the wellspring (источник) of the imagination. He defined (определил) genius in terms of accessibility (доступность) to this normally untapped (нетронутый) realm, which, he believed, could be attained (достигнута) by poets and painters alike.
The major Surrealist painters were Jean Arp, Max Ernst, Andrew Masson, Rene Magritte, Yves Tanguy, Salvador Dali, Pierre Roy, Paul Delvaux, and Joan MirС. With its emphasis on content and free form, Surrealism provided a major alternative to the contemporary/modern, highly formalistic Cubist movement and was largely responsible for perpetuating (увековечивать) in modern painting the traditional emphasis on content.
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