Read the texts and make exercise 5c and 6a in your book.

Radio

Radio in the United Kingdom is dominated by the BBC, which operates radio stations both in the United Kingdom and abroad. The BBC World Service radio network is broadcast in 33 languages globally. The BBC also operates ten national networks and over 40 local radio stations including services in Welsh in Wales, Gaelic in Scotland and Irish in Northern Ireland.

There are also a lot of commercial local radio stations owned by large radio groups which broadcast to many areas.

There are four main radio channels. BBC Radio 1 broadcasts a mix of new music and entertainment for 15-29 year-olds and provides news, documentaries and advice campaigns for young adults. BBC Radio 2 covers a diverse mix of live pop and rock concerts, comedy, documentaries and religious content. BBC Radio 3 is best known for its classical music performance and programmes dedicated to jazz and world music, as well as speech programmes, documentaries and drama. BBC Radio 4 offers in-depth news and a wide range of drama, comedy and magazine programmes.

Television

Television in the United Kingdom is made up of two public broadcasting companies, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Channel Four Television Corporation, and two commercial television companies, ITV Network Ltd and Northern & Shell. They own five most watched nationwide television channels: BBC One, BBC Two, Channel 4, ITV and Channel 5.

The BBC also operates several television channels abroad. The BBC's international television news service, BBC World News, is broadcast throughout the world on commercial subscription basis over cable and satellite services.

The BBC first began television broadcasts only for London in 1936. BBC Television was closed during World War II but reopened in 1946. ITV (Independent Television) was originally founded in 1955 to provide competition to the BBC. ITV was the country's first commercial television funded by advertisements, and has been the most popular commercial channel through most of its existence. On October 24 2012 all television broadcasts in the United Kingdom went digital.

There are a number of providers, delivering free and subscription services on more than 480 channels throughout the UK: Freesat, Freesat from Sky, Freeview, the Internet, BTVision, Orange, Sky TV, Smallworld, T-Mobile, TalkTalk TV, Vodafone, and others. The providers differ in the number of channels and the services they offer, such as the electronic programme guides (EPGs), video on demand (VOD), or audio and video on demand (AVOD), high-definition television (HDTV) and interactive television via the red button, where TV viewers are active: they send short text messages, make phone calls, vote.

Project "News for a scientific magazine" that we make together. 

Open our wikiwall. Then find your topic and add information. Don't forget to insert pictures. 

Watch grammar video and make exercises in your book. 

Past Continuous and Past Perfect Continuous 

Read this opinions about graffiti and make ex.3a,b.

A.     Four years ago I knew two things about graffiti: that it was all criminal and that it was ugly. I was right it was ugly but I was wrong about it being all criminal. Most of it is done by kids of every race and social group from big cities to small towns. Today I’m a member of Together Against Graffiti (TAG) group aimed at bringing people together to fight against this kind of so called street-art.

B.     In the past ten years graffiti seems to have become more about leaving your mark, and less about art or political statement. Most of it is unreadable anyway. I say make it illegal if it’s not saying anything of interest!

C.     Graffiti as a public service! Oh please - the majority of graffiti you see is not art, but tags scribbled on someone else's property - trains, walls, tubes or buildings. 6 weeks service cleaning trains or public toilets should do the trick.

D.     I am a mural artist and have also been involved with graffiti art. Most of my graffiti-style work has been done on large canvases in my town centre. Spray paint is the most fun to use because it is fast, rustic, colourful and loud. I would like to suggest the following: a) fight vandalism (especially taggers); b) provide gallery space and public places for graffiti artists and encourage trouble-makers to participate by providing materials and guidance.

E.      There are two different types of graffiti artists, with two very different aims. One is the ‘bombers’, who just tag everything to get their name up. Then there’s the real artists who spend more time doing pieces that have artistic merit and are pleasing to the eye. The authorities, however, call both types of graffiti vandalism. But the latter is not vandalism, but art with the street as a canvas. There are, of course, legal parks where pieces can be put up, but the point of graffiti is taking over spaces that have been closed off. So having little corners or large walls for creation is against the whole philosophy.

F.      If walls were set up throughout Britain, and everyone was encouraged to use them (all ages, classes, etc) then graffiti could become a democratic form of cultural expression that need not trouble anyone. It would be cheap public art.

G.     Graffiti should be banned. The creation of graffiti is dangerous. Graffiti artists climb to high places to draw on highway signs or billboards. To get to these high places, the graffiti artist has either got to climb to the high place or in some cases, hang down from high places to draw their picture or make their inscription. This is taking an unnecessary risk. The artist may believe that their life is not in any danger, but if there is one wrong move, the artist can lose his life. 

Discuss the questions from ex.1. Use this script for help. 

What is Art?

What are the forms of art? When you think of art, what do you think of? Paintings, statues? What else?

Is there a size limit to art? What’s the largest piece of art you can imagine? How small is the smallest?

Is art defined by its materials? We're all used to thinking of paintings as art. Or bronze sculptures. But art can be made from all kinds of materials. Try to think of some. Various kinds of paint and metal, wood, plastics... it can even be an old shoe or a newspaper. What about putting different materials together?

Does art have to be understandable? Is it necessary for it to actually look like something, such as a woman, or a vase of flowers? Does art have to be realistic? Is it better if it is realistic?

What about abstract art? Do you know what that means? What is abstract art about? Can art describe feelings?

Is all art good art? Who decides, and how is it decided?

Does art have to be beautiful? What about a piece that looks truly ugly to you? Is it still art? Sometimes the artist is trying to shock the viewer, or to make you feel uncomfortable. Why would an artist want to do that? Perhaps to make people see things in a new way?

Does art have to “say” something? Communicate some feeling, idea, a record of fact, another way of looking at something? Just try to think of an example of art that does not communicate anything... can you?

Make up a project about gallery you choose yourself. You can use smore, popplet or wikiwall.

Copy the link of your project and insert into table

A radio program about art

In  That’s Amazing! today we’ll look at some interesting facts concerning the history of art. You may find some of them difficult to believe, however, everything you’re going to hear about is true.

Feel excited? Let’s get started. Do you like the Olympic Games? You may wonder what sport has to do with art?  Well, there is a perfect example of sport and art once being closely connected. Art competitions formed part of the modern Olympic Games from 1912 to 1952. Medals were awarded for works of art inspired by sport, divided into five categories: architecture, literature, music, painting, and sculpture.    

What do we know about the competitors? Few of them can be considered well-known artists globally but they were real national heroes of their time. For example, the 1928 gold medal for architecture was awarded to Jan Wils for his design of the Olympic Stadium used in the same Olympics. There were even Olympians who won medals in both sport and art competitions. Incredible, isn’t?

By 1952 the art contests had been replaced with art exhibitions without awards or medals. The main reason for abolishing the art competitions was the fact that by that time practically all contestants  were professionals while the original rules required all competitors to be amateurs.

Well, the first Olympic Games started in Greece and our next amazing fact is to do with ancient Greece too.

In the autumn of 2007, Harvard University hosted an exhibition of great importance. On display were painted replicas of Greek statues and other works of Greek and Roman sculpture. Why were they painted? The exhibition was aimed at demonstrating that the practice of painting sculpture in bright colours was very common in ancient Greece. Actually, this unbelievable fact had already been known by the early 19th century. However, some influential art historians were such strong opponents of the idea that proponents of painted statues were dismissed as eccentrics. It was not until findings published by German archaeologist Vinzenz Brinkmann in the late 20th and early 21st century, that it was finally established beyond doubt that ancient Greek sculptures were painted.  After thousands of years, those paints wore away and presented us with the image we are all used to.  

Painted Greek statues? Sounds like something tasteless to me. Speaking of tasteless art, have you ever visited the Museum of Bad Art? It is situated in the United States and its permanent collection includes 500 pieces of "art too bad to be ignored”.  To be included in MOBA's collection, works must be original and have a serious intention, but they must also have significant flaws without being boring; curators are not interested in displaying deliberate kitsch.  

The founders say it isn’t as easy as it may seem to get your piece of art displayed at this museum. According to them, nine out of ten pieces don’t get in because they’re not bad enough. So if you think your work of art deserves to be displayed at MOBA, make sure you really meant it but it  turned out to have an “Oh my God” quality.

How many paintings of this kind have you seen, by the way? And where is this fine line that separates good and bad art?

What do you think of Malevich’s Black Square for example? It’s in art history books and commonly considered to be a great work of art. However, there are people who think it’s something anybody can produce without making any effort and therefore not valuable. You know Malevich wasn’t the first to come up with the idea of creating Black Square.  The picture with just black background in it was first painted twenty- two years before Malevich’s work by a French humourist Alphonse Allais. It was called “The Battle of the Negroes in the Deep Dark Cave at Night”.

Perhaps the only difference between Allais and those who followed him, was that in his innovative works, he did not try to appear serious or as a meaningful philosophical pioneer. This is probably the reason why he didn’t gain so much recognition for his works. He was one of those, though, who proved that art can be really funny.

Allais’ works weren’t taken seriously and didn’t cost much. In contrast Malevich’s Black Square is  ridiculously expensive. People probably wouldn’t be so indignant about the fact if they lived in an era when the value of a painting depended on the cost of the paints used to create it. I’m talking about the time of the Renaissance.  European artists then were in a difficult situation. Pure, intense colour was regarded as a reflection of God’s glory. Now imagine that ultramarine, the most beautiful of all blues, was more expensive than even gold! And as using expensive pigments in a painting was seen as an act of devotion to God, painters simply had to use it. You can understand why, in spite of this fact, it wasn’t so commonly used and those lucky artists who did have it saved the paint for the most admired subjects, such as the robes of the Madonna and Christ.

I’m afraid that’s all for today and I hope you enjoyed listening to us. Contact us to share any amazing facts that you’ve discovered.  Till next time and goodbye.