Номер 2, страница 22, часть 2 - гдз по английскому языку 10 класс учебник Демченко, Юхнель

2. a. Work in 3 groups. Read the text assigned to your group. Answer the questions. Get ready to retell the information.

1. What architectural styles are mentioned? 2. What historical period or events is the style connected with? 3. What structures are given as examples? 4. What interesting facts are given about them?

Text A

At the beginning of the 1920s, Minsk was gradually coming back to normal life and healing its war wounds. The republic didn’t have its own architectural school at the time, so together with Leningrad and Moscow architects, Constructivism came to Minsk. The movement was inspired by the idea of change and revolution and aimed to reflect modern industrial society and urban space. In architecture, this style focused on highlighting contrast in various building surfaces such as walls, windows, and doors. It combined straight lines with cylinders [‘sɪlɪndəz], cubes, squares and rectangles. Though the glory of Minsk constructivism didn’t last long and not all the buildings survived the Great Patriotic War, they are still important in the architectural landscape of the city and are easily recognisable.

construct (v.) – constructivism (n.) – constructivist (adj.)

A textbook example of the constructivist architectural style is the Government House, located in Independence Square. Created by Iosif Langbard, it was the largest public building in the pre-war republic. When Yanka Kupala saw the project he called the architect “the daydreaming guy”. It took three years to construct the huge building, and it was done by hand. Nowadays, it’s the seat of the Belarusian Parliament. The Opera and Ballet Theatre, the Officers’ House and the central building of the National Academy of Sciences were also designed by the architect.

Another typical example of a constructivist building that survived the war is the former State Library created by Georgi Lavrov. It was one of the first structures specially designed to house a library in the Soviet Union and appeared in 1932. Originally, the architect wanted to contrast a three-storeyed building and a nine-storeyed one in the project. However, the idea of the high-rise building had to be given up.

Text B

Minsk is home to thirty or so churches, and only a few of them are of historic or cultural interest. Most of them share a dark period in their history when they were used not as religious temples but as warehouses, clubs, prisons, theatres or even gyms. The reconstructions that took place at the end of the 20^th century managed to return them their original look and part of their former glory.

One of the most instantly recognisable symbols of Minsk is a magnificent Baroque Orthodox cathedral in the Upper Town. The white two-towered structure is the Holy Spirit Cathedral. Its history dates back to the beginning of the 17^th century, but the present-day building appeared only in 1860. The cathedral is home to the icon of Our Lady of Minsk that has been in Minsk since 1500.

Another 18^th century Baroque cathedral is the Cathedral of the Holy Name of Saint Virgin Mary. It is located quite near, but it is easy to miss the significant architectural monument as it is squeezed in between two ordinary houses.

The Church of St Simon and St Helen in Independence square, also known as the Red Church, really stands out from the surrounding buildings. The red-brick Neo-Gothic structure with the elements of the Art Nouveau [ɒt nyː vœu] style was built in 1910 and at the time was the largest Catholic church in the city.

The Church of St Peter and St Paul is one of the oldest architectural monuments and the only Renaissance building in the city. The so-called Yellow Church was built in 1620. It has gone through two major restorations, but the original frescoes and many decorative details didn’t survive.

Text C

After the war, a master plan of restoration and reconstruction was developed because about 86% of Minsk lay in ruins. According to the plan, it was supposed to become an ideal place to live in, a city of dreams. The dominating architectural style of the era was Stalin’s neoclassicism, or the so-called “Grand Style”. Neoclassical architecture took inspiration from the Ancient Greece and Rome so they remind of ancient temples, villas and block buildings where the focus was on harmony, simplicity, proportion and symmetry. The urban architectural ensemble [ɒn’sɒmb(ə)l] of Independence Avenue created within the 15 years after the war may be called an open air museum showing off the best of grand Soviet architecture. It is on the State List of Historical and Cultural Values of the Republic of Belarus.

Among the public buildings the following are worth mentioning:

• the Central Post-Office (by Boris Dukhan and Vladimir Korol) that looks like an Italian palace;
• the Trade Unions Palace of Culture (by Vladimir Ershov) richly decorated with columns and sculptures on the facade;
• the building of the main department store GUM (by Lev Milegi and Roman Gegart) with a wide staircase and such decorative details as columns, stained-glass windows and sculptures.

The principal characteristics of the Stalinist apartment blocks built in the neoclassical style were a sense of space and enormous size. The crowning glory of that architecture is the City Gates (by Boris Rubanenko), two beautifully decorated residential buildings in front of the Railway Station. The 11-storey towers with symbolic statues representing the warrior, the partisan, the peasant woman and the engineer look very impressive, especially when they are illuminated at night. One of the twin towers has a huge 3.5-metre clock and the other the emblem of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (now Belarus).

b. Work in groups of three. Share the information you have learnt.

2. а.

1. Какие архитектурные стили упоминаются? 2. С каким историческим периодом или событиями связан каждый стиль? 3. Какие сооружения приведены в качестве примеров? 4. Какие интересные факты о них приводятся?

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