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EXERCISES
1.
Find in the text the synonyms of the following words:
inventor; author; to compose; very old;
profession; to leave; schooling;
triumph; breakdown; dead; well-off; serious; costly;
to start; continuation;
prize
2.
Say to which facts the following figures refer:
22;1948;1962;1964;1965;1968;1975; 1984; 1986; 1989; 1993; 1997
3.
Make up ten questions about Andrew Lloyd Webber.
4.
Speak about Andrew Lloyd Webber.
5.
Speak about a famous Russian composer.
T e x t 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner
(1775-1851)
Joseph Mallord William Turner is one of the greatest English romantic
painters and the most original of English landscape artists. Turner was born
in London in 1775. His first drawings are dated 1787, when he was only
twelve. His childish sketchbooks are still preserved in the British Museum.
He received almost no general education but at 14 he became a student at the
Royal Academy of Arts and three years later was making drawings for
magazines. In 1791 he exhibited two watercolors at the Royal Academy for
the first time. He became famous for visionary interpretations of landscape,
making experiments with light and colour.
In 1802
he went to the Continent, where he painted his famous
Calais
Pier
(now exhibited in the National Gallery, London). Later he often
travelled in England or abroad, using every opportunity to make sketches for
his studio paintings in oil and watercolour.
His works were exhibited
regularly, and in 1807 he became professor of the Academy. Turner showed
a remarkable ability to choose the best from the tradition of landscape
painting. Among his paintings are
Dido Building Carthage
(The
National
Gallery, London) and
Crossing the Brook
(The Tate Gallery, London).
Despite his early and continued success Turner lived a very quiet life. As
his fame grew, he bought a large gallery in London for exhibition of his
work, but continued to live very modestly with his old father. His painting
became
increasingly abstract, as he wanted to portray light, space, and the
elemental forces of nature. He showed atmospheric effects with bright
colours, for example, in
The Grand Canal
(The Metropolitan Museum, New
York) and
Approach to Venice
(The National Gallery, Washington, DC). In
his will he left more than 19,000 water-
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painter;
romantic;
landscape;
artist;
drawing;
sketchbook;
to exhibit;
watercolour;
visionary;
studio;
oil;
abstract;
to portray;
light;
colour;
space;
unsurpassed;
to paint;
art gallery
colours, drawings, and oils to the nation. Most
of these works are in the
National Gallery and the Tate Gallery, London. In watercolour he is
unsurpassed.
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