Remember the contexts in which Word List items are used, say who or what they referred to
3. Find the English equivalents for these:
1.холст, полотно
2.воспоминание, вспоминать
3.размышлять над ч-л
4. мольберт
5.смешаться с толпой
6.здоровый, крепкий, сильный
7.лакировать, покрывать лаком
4. Explain what it means:
1. fatigue
2. to blaze up
3. to set about smth / doing smth
4. the small hours of the morning
5. an impasto
6. It was not a good likeness
7. a major skin-grafting operation
5. Fill in prepositions “on” / “in” /”at”:
A. Fill in the prepositions and complete the table:
1) He had always liked picture galleries. This one had a single canvas … display in the window.
2) He felt tired and he wanted to get … the wine.
3) He appeared to have become completely absorbed … the little machine and in the unusual effects it was able to produce.
4) … a sudden impulse, Drioli turned, pushed open the door of the gallery and went in.
5) “Do you like to swim and to bask yourself … the sun?”
6) He looked around aghast … the faces of the people watching him
| … display to get… smth = to reach, to gain access to smth to be absorbed in … smth … (an) impulse to bask … smth aghast … smth |
B. Fill in the prepositions:
1) There's an Egyptian art collection … display at the museum at the moment.
2) Oh, what fun it'll be, when they see me through the glass in here, and can't get … me
3) We had to move the washing machine out to get … the wiring behind it.
4) I've put the photo on a high shelf where it’ll be … display and where the children won't get … it.
5) Simon was so absorbed … his book, he didn't even notice me come in
6) … impulse, I picked up the phone and rang her but there was no answer. I was pretty much sure that she was so absorbed … her new hobby that the rest of the world for her did not exist.
7) He had always basked … his parents' attention.
8) Tenerife was basking … afternoon sunshine as they arrived.
9) He basked … his moment of glory, holding the trophy up to the crowd.
10) For a minute perhaps I stared aghast … this blackness that was creeping over the day, and then I realized that an eclipse was beginning
6. Guess the word or word combination from Ex 1-4 by the definition:
1) confident, elegant and polite
2) very interested in something so that you are not paying attention to anything else
3) talking or behaving in a way that shows they are crazy
4) showing bad temper or hostility
5) not having a clear shape, indistinct
6) strong and healthy
7) a wooden frame to hold a picture while it is being painted
8) confused and anxious
9) furious and indignant
10) a feeling of being extremely tired
11) horrified, appalled
12) a flat piece of stone, metal, etc, usually with a name and dates on
13) to enjoy sitting or lying in the heat or light of something
14) to persuade somebody gently to do something
15) to think a lot about something that makes you annoyed, anxious or upset
7. Translate into Russian:
1) When they are not in school, young Americans are spending nearly every waking hour absorbed in entertainment media on mobile phones, MP3 players, and other consumer electronics
2) "I didn't know you were looking for some new shoes." "Oh, I wasn't - I just saw them on display in the shop window and bought them on impulse."
3) He needed to bask himself in that smile, he said, in order that the chill of so many lonely hours among his books might be taken off the scholar's heart.
4) Sir Nigel, who had entered the room with a silvery-haired old lady upon his arm, stared aghast at this sudden outburst of candor.
5) Well, I am not interested in the kind of expression that you have when you paint a painting with brush strokes. It's all right, but it's already done and I want to do something new. (Donald Judd)
6) Happiness is like a cat, if you try to coax it or call it, it will avoid you; it will never come. But if you pay not attention to it and go about your business, you'll find it rubbing against your legs and jumping into your lap. (William Bennett)
7) Deprived of meaningful work, men and women lose their reason for existence; they go stark, raving mad. (Fyodor Dostoevsky)
8) It is often easier to become outraged by injustice half a world away than by oppression and discrimination half a block from home. (Carl T. Rowan)
9) I never know what I'm going to put on the canvas. The canvas paints itself. I'm just the middleman. (Peter Max)
10) Do not brood over your past mistakes and failures as this will only fill your mind with grief, regret and depression. Do not repeat them in the future.
11) When I paint a person, his enemies always find the portrait a good likeness. (Edward Munch)
12) The 2006 FIFA World Cup ended in a blaze of colour and a roar of sound Sunday night when Italian captain Fabio Cannavaro lifted the coveted trophy in the centre of Berlin's Olympic Stadium.
13) The ladies will appear in uniform, perform two routines, pose for photos, sign autographs and mingle with the crowd.
14) Having set off in the small hours of the fourteenth, accompanied by a bugler and two Cossacks, Balashev reached the French outposts at the village of Rykonty, on the Russian side of the Niemen, by dawn.
15) We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future. ( George Bernard Shaw)
8. Translate into English:
1) У меня были смутные воспоминания об этой картине, выставленной в Национальной галерее. Но я точно помню, что был поражен дерзкими (bold) мазками кистью, которые выглядели так будто художник, стоя перед мольбертом, плеснул краски прямо не холст, а потом покрыл его лаком. Но как бы я ни старался, я не мог вспомнить имени художника, написанного на маленькой медной табличке, прикрепленной к картине.
2) Парень выглядел очень элегантно и был учтив, всего за несколько недель он уломал Джейн выйти за него. Ее отец был в ярости, в то время как мать была сбита с толку и умоляла дочь ничего не делать, поддавшись порыву.
3) Нет смыла размышлять над тем, что случилось. Когда-то ты был жизнерадостным, пышущим здоровьем парнем, но эти грустные воспоминания превратили тебя в угрюмого старика, увлеченного лишь прошлым.
4) Прежде чем она смогла его обнять, он отстранился. Мэри взглянула на него, ужаснувшись его поведением.
5) Как прошла вечеринка? Тебе понравилось быть звездой и купаться славе? – Можешь считать меня сумасшедшим, но мне жутко не понравилось. Я падал от усталости и едва мог держать глаза открытыми, не говоря уж о том, чтобы смешаться с толпой и веселиться за полночь.
6) Нечего злиться, мы должны оставаться спокойными и сосредоточенными. Нам нужно начать искать решение. Жаль, нам не добраться до его оригинальных дизайнов.
7) Мы были заворожены импасто Рембрандта, особенно великолепием цвета.
Detailed Comprehension
1. Answer the questions:
1) What were the relations between Drioli, Soutine and Josie? Why did Drioli take to the boy?
2) Did Drioli and Soutine have much in common?
3) Why do you think Soutine’s talent was not recognized in his youth? Does it often happen to talented people? Why do so many artists fail in their quest to earn a living through their art?
4) What made Drioli choose the “hotel owner’s” offer rather than the one of the gallery owner?
5) Comment on the ending of the story. Why doesn’t the author give an explicit explanation to what happened to Drioli?
6) What is the message of the story?
7) The title of the story is translated into Russian as «Шкура». Do you find the translation appropriate? Why?
8) Why do you think rich people are ready to pay millions of pounds for the masterpieces that originally no one wanted to buy even for a reasonable price? Does it mean that they are the only ones who can recognize a real talent when they see one?
2. Describe the picture that Chaim Soutine painted on Drioli’s back.
3. Speak about:
a) Drioli
b) Young years of Chaim Soutine
4. Develop the situations checking your knowledge of the context:
1. How had it started? Ah, yes — he had got rich one day, that was it, and he had bought lots of wine.
2. His concentration, as soon as he began to paint, was so great that it appeared somehow to supersede his drunkenness
3. No, the boy could not possibly be saying that because if anyone knew about the tattoo it was he — Drioli.
4. On a sudden impulse, Drioli turned, pushed open the door of the gallery and went in.
5. There was a sudden absolute silence in the room, each person arrested in what he was doing, standing motionless in a kind of shocked, uneasy bewilderment.
5. a) Comment on the following quotations from the story:
1) “The trouble is,” the boy said, scowling, «that in themselves they are not nourishing. I cannot eat them.”
2) “Slowly, methodically, they set about getting themselves drunk. The process was routine, but all the same there was a certain ceremony to be observed, and a gravity to be maintained, and a great number of things to be said…”
3) “The dealer lowered the hand from his nose and looked Drioli up and down, slowly, like a farmer appraising an old horse.”
4) That — and the fact that there is no hotel in Cannes called Bristol — causes one to wonder a little, and to pray for the old man's health, and to hope fervently that wherever he may be at this moment, there is a plump attractive girl to manicure the nails of his fingers, and a maid to bring him his breakfast in bed in the mornings.
b) Comment on the following quotations about Art:
1) A great artist is always before his time or behind it. (George Edward Moore)
2) Art for art's sake is a philosophy of the well-fed. (Frank Lloyd Wright)
3) The auction room, as anyone knows, is an excellent medium for sustaining fictional price levels, because the public imagines that auction prices are necessarily real prices. (Robert Hughes)
4) It's very hard as an artist to admit you have a desire to be famous. To be an artist is not about fame; it's about art, which is this intangible thing that has got to have lots of integrity, whereas being famous doesn't really take any integrity. But I think you have to admit that you want to be famous, otherwise you can't be an artist. Art and fame together are like a desire to live forever. (Damien Hirst)
5) If you were in a burning house and there was a cat and a Rembrandt, what would you save? The cat...you would save the cat, because the cat is alive. The art is dead. It's just paint on a canvas, ink on a page. To live for art is to deny life. It's just to destroy life. (Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider)
6. Speak your mind on:
a) “little Kalmuck” as if you were Drioli’s wife;
b) the scene in the gallery as if you were one of the visitors;
c) Drioli as if you were the owner of the gallery.
7. Make up a dialogue between Drioli and the “owner” of the Bristol Hotel at dinner discussing the conditions of the deal.
Consolidating the Material
1. Do this quiz to test how well you remember the details of the story:
1. What was Drioli’s attitude to picture galleries:
a) he distrusted them b) he liked them c) he hated them
d) he was indifferent
2. When did Drioli and Soutine first met
a) at the beginning of WW I
b) at the beginning of WW II
c) during the first world war
d) in 1946
3. Where did Drioli and Soutine met
a) in a street b) in a picture gallery c) in Drioli’s studio d) in a cafe
4. Why did Drioli approach Soutine?
a) Because Soutine looked sad and miserable
b) because Soutine looked like a Russian
c) because he liked his paintings
d) because he was looking for a lodger
5. Where was Soutine from?
a) Paris b) Minsk c) Ceret d) Smilovichi
6. Why did Drioli like the boy?
a) they were from the same city
b) the boy was really talented
c) the boy looked like a Kalmuck
d) Drioli hoped the boy would become famous one day
7. What did Drioli want to celebrate
a) moving to Paris b) getting a new job c) earning a lot of money
d) selling one of Soutine’s pictures
8. How many bottles of wine did they drink on the evening of the celebration
a) 3 b) 6 c) 9 d) 12
9. Whose idea was it to paint a nude study of Josie on Drioli’s back?
a) Josie b) Drioli c) Soutine d) none of the above
10. Why did Drioli and Josie move to Le Havre
a) they had to flee from the war
b) there was more work here
c) they wanted to be close to Soutine
d) they had always dreamt of living there
11. Which does not refer to Soutine
a) an ugly little Kalmuck with a bitter sullen face
b) a man with broad face, high cheekbones and a coarse nose
c) a small, skinned almost hairless body
d) a man with small white hands and delicate fingers
12. Which description refers to the owner of the gallery
a) a plum short man with a flabby face
b) a tall man with a long flexible neck
c) a small man with a thick sullen mouth and ears which stood out
sharply from the head
d) a man with strong white teeth with a flash of gold among them
13. Why did a man from the crowd warn Drioli against selling the picture to the gallery owner
a) he wanted to buy the picture himself
b) he knew the gallery owner was trying to fool Drioli
c) he was concerned for Drioli’s health
d) he did not believe that the picture was original
14. The “owner” of the Hotel Bristol may be best described as?
a) a suave man looking like a snake
b) a short plump man with hands like fat white paws
c) a deadly-serious man with small dark eyes
d) a man with a flabby face with the cheeks like that of a spaniel
15. Who is Drioli compared to at the beginning of the story
a) a snake b) a horse c) a hedgehog d) a dog
2. Choose and prepare the passage for artistic reading and translate it into Russian:
1. That year— 1946 —winter was a long time going. … Just imagine that!
2.“Drioli remained awake …………in a mass of dark-green curling strokes”.
3. Write an essay on one of the following topics:
1. Art for art’s sake vs art for money’s sake
2. How much is a human life truly worth?
3. Art fairs are about money not art.
Culture Corner
1. Do some research and tell your groupmates about Chaim Soutine. Do you believe the story above might be a true one?
You may find the following links helpful:
http://www.soutine-chaim.com/
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/soutine_chaim.html
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Soutine.html