British Museum

 

We go to Bloomsbury.

“Bloomsbury Square” is the oldest in London, it dates from 1665. It is the “literary district”, many writers and art critics used to live here. But it is mostly known for the British Museum, the pride of Bloomsbury and of Britain.

It is an immense, light-grey building, like a Greek temple. It was founded in 1753.

You go in, you leave your umbrella or your raincoat in the cloak-room, and you begin walking about, from one room to another, from one collection to another, for hours and hours, and hours.

Do not ask us “What the British Museum is?” It is difficult to answer this question. However we shall try.

The British Museum was, and probably is one of the most famous and important libraries in the world.

The British Museum, situated in Great Russell Street, is about ten minutes walk from both Dean Street and Macclesfield Street, where Marx lived. He spent a great deal of his time in the Museum Reading-Room conducting his researches. Later, in 1902, Lenin also became a regular visitor to the Museum Reading-Room, and some years later specially visited it in order to procure certain material which he needed for his work.

During the Second World War, the Reading-Room was badly damaged, over 150000 volumes perished in flames caused by Nazi bombs.

The British Museum has a wonderful art gallery, too. It has unique collections of sculpture, ceramics, drawings, and paintings of the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greek, Romans, Normans, Africans, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, and many other peoples.

It has unique collections of Italian drawings (Leonardo da Vinci), English and French prints, and so on, and so forth.

The British Museum is the most important place of archaeological study in the world, with unique prehistoric collections.

There is a Manuscript Room, the room of the oldest and rarest English documents, of some of the most ancient books and music and maps in the world.

It has the Rosetta Stone (which helped archaeologists to find the key to the Egyptian hieroglyphs), the famous Marbles from the Parthenon, the First Egyptian and Greek manuscripts, Roman jewellery, and so on – we could go on for hours.

 

References

 

Rosetta Stone............................................... табличка, обнаруженная в городе Росетта

Marbles from Parthenon.............................. коллекция скульптур из мрамора

 

 

Can You Answer These Questions?

 

 

1. What masterpieces of architecture in Great Britain do you know?

2. Who is the ‘architect of London’? Which is his best-known creation?

3. Which styles in architecture prevail in British cities and towns?

4. In what ways is the history of Great Britain reflected in the architecture of its famous buildings?

5. What is the historic value of the Tower of London? What museum does it house at present?

6. What is the tradition associated with the Tower of London? Why aare the ravens taken care of?

7. Why are the British people so proud of W. Shakespeare? Why do they call him the ‘Swan of Avon’?

8. What plays written by Shakespeare do you know?

9. What prominent English actors do you know?

10. What kinds of plays does the Royal Shakespeare Company produce?

11. What do you know about the National Youth Theatre?

12. What concert halls of London give programmes of classical music?

13. Which more recent rock groups do you know? What is your opinion of them?

14. What is the British Council? What does it organize?

 

 

Do You Know That

 

 

… every year, in summer, thousand of folk music fans arrive in Cambridge for one of the biggest festivals of folk music in England? The festival is held in the grounds of an old house, where there is plenty of room for people to put up their tents if tey want to stay overnight.

 

…Walter Scott’s Monument in Edinburgh is a graceful Gothic spire 2000 ft high which stands in one of Edinburgh’s central streets, Princes Street?

 

…the Irish National Gallery is one of the world’s important collections?

 

Regent’s Park, which was originally a hunting park, is now the home of London Zoo, and an open air theatre which delights people with performances of Shakespeare’s plays in summer?

 

…the Art Gallery of Birmingham has the best collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings and a large collection of English water-colour landscapes?

 

References

 

Pre-Raphaelite............................... прерафаэлитическое направление в живописи

 

Writing

 

 

32. You are the Quiz master in magazine quiz page. Ask questions on the topic “The United Kingdom and London”. Begin your questions with: “Where”, “When”, “Who”, “Why”. Make a crossword.

33. Write a composition on the topic “Cultural Life of London”.