Theatre

Cinema

TV

Radio

Music

the Press

Maturitní téma z anglického jazyka

Gymnázium F. X. Šaldy

Hana Kyselová

4.A

1. Theatre

There is the nice atmosphere in the theatre. We can buy the subscription or a ticket before the beginning of the performance. People should dress approximately - women some dress and men the suit, but nowadays it is not necessary. Recently I wanted to go the theatre but I had no dress, so I go dressed in jeans. People constantly tries to get dress elegantly. It is kind of custom.

When we arrive to the theatre we put our overcoats to the cloakroom. Then our ticket is checked by an usherette. When we have seated ourselves we usually read the programme to see the cast. After the third ringing the lights go out. The curtain goes up and the performance begins.

I go to the theatre at least once a month, mostly in the Theatre F. X. Šalda in Liberec. I have already visited the National theatre in Praque. I saw one of the most famous Czech plays Maryša written by Vilém and Alois Mrštík. It was very interesting because it was played in dialect by famous Czech actors. My favourite theatre genre (type) is operetta and the best performance from those I have seen was Nabucco in Theatre F. X. Šaldy. It had beautiful music, excellent singers and fantastic scenery and costumes.

Vocabulary

theatre (theater in AmE); performance; cabaret, music hall; revue, vaudeville, review - pořad; drama, play, tragedy; variety show - estráda; interpretation, rendering - interpretace; musical; light opera; recital; first night, opening night - premiéra představení; company, ensemble, troupe - ansámbl; stage - jeviště; platform - pódium; scene, sequence - výstup, dějiště; forestage - předscéna, rampa (předek jeviště); scenery, scene, set, setting - kulisy; property - rekvizita; coulisse - kulisa; trapdoor - propadliště; pit - propadliště pro orchestr; prompter - nápověda; curtain - opona; seat - sedadlo; blackout - “vokno”; thespian - divadelní herec; personify, embody, portray - ztělesňovat, zosobňovat; proloque - úvodní proslov; entertainer - bavič, kabaretní umělec, komik; rehearsal, run-through - zkouška; walk-on - štěk, role v komparzu (bez textu); understudy - záskok, náhradník; script - scénář; auditorium - hlediště; stalls (BrE), parterre (AmE) - přízemí; box, loge - lóže; gallery - nejvyšší řada; cloakroom ,dressing room - šatna; theatre lobby - vestibul; subscription - předplatné; backstage - zákulisí; stub - útržek,; sold out - vyprodaný; overture, prelude - předehra; playbill - divadelní plakát; program; act - dějství (three-act play - hra o třech dějstvích); perform - vystupovat; bow (give a bow, curtsy) - poklona (poklonit se); routine - komická scénka

2. Cinema, film

The very first films started to be shot in the beginning of the 20th century. They were mostly documentary films (they were something like recent TV-news). Later, although the films were still black-and-white and silent, there appeared first movie star. They acted entirely in comedies (the most popular comedy actor were e.g. Charlie Chaplin, Stan Laurel or Oliver Hardy and many other). With the developing of television, the number of visitors of cinemas goes down. People are too lazy to go to a cinema. Recently there appeared another competition for cinemas - video lending offices.

Proprietors of cinemas invent something to entice viewers - multi-cinema. It is a building with several projecting halls. In one day there are showed many films and the customer can choose. There are also fast food shops, shops with popcorn and coca-cola. But it is very expensive for some people. “Pallas Cinema” in Prague is the most popular theatre in the Czech republic.

Nowadays are making films, which want the population. And such films are not always on high cultural level. If I could mention an example, so unfinished series about do called romantic love or about families of rich people are very stupid for me and it does not give anything to its spectators. But nowadays I mean returns to modern films culture and poetic themes again.

Twenty kilometres to the North of the centre of Americas second largest city Los Angeles, we can find a place, the name of which has become a symbol of silver world of film glory and a symbol of great fortune, of a fulfilled American dream as well as sorrow, disappointment and broken hearts Hollywood. It all thanks to Metro-Goldwin-Mayer or MGM, Warner Bros., Paramount and 20th Century Fox.

Vocabulary

film, movie (AmE), motion picture; the movies - kino (AmE); animated f.; feature f. - celovečerní f; B film - nízkorozpočtový f.; cartoon - kreslený f.; infotainment - zábavně vzdělávací pořad (i v rádiu); show motion - zpomalený záběr; soap - seriál ze života (TV i rádio); talkie - zvukový f.; silent movie - němý film; silver screen - filmové plátno; usherette - uvaděč(ka); viewer - divák; admission, entrance - vstupné; protagonist, hero; performer - představitel; leading man - milovník; baddie, baddy, bad guy (AmE) - padouch

3. TV

Watching television is very popular. You can watch it everywhere and anytime you want. You can watch many TV-programmes on many TV-station. Some people say, that watching TV is waste of time, but I think that it is unnecessary to say it, because everyone can choose those programmes he prefers or can switch off the television.

I think that TV is quite good source of information. You can get very cheep and fast summary of news. The news can be sometimes more concerned with entertainment than information, but every viewer have to choose the correct channel. Another kind of TV programme I prefer is e.g. documentary films. I am interested in nature all over the world, and it is very exciting to watch the life of animals, plants or other people in foreign countries. The situation comedies are my favourite too, but they must be good. I like to watch some good films on TV too. It could be the film I had wanted to watch in a cinema, but I had no time for it. The TV programmes I hate are e.g. soap operas. They are too long and boring and even very predictable. Another bad TV programmes are reality shows. It is program to ridicule people. It is so idiotic entertainment. Then I hate more and more advertisements. But sometimes some of them are so stupid that they are funny.

British television

There is good choice of television channels in Britain. The television started to broadcast in 1936. The main TV domain BBC has an opponent in the ITV. The difference between them is that the income of the BBC is from the sale of television licenses and there is no advertising, the service of the ITV is financed by the advertisements. The most important channels are BBC 1, BBC 2, ITV, Channel 4 & 5, and Anglia and satellite Sky channels.

Czech television

TV transmission was in our republic in 1954. There exist the competition between Czech TV - ČT (first channel - light programmes, news etc. and second channel - cultural programmes and programmes for minority) and independent TV - Nova, Prima, etc. Czech TV derives its income from the sale of TV licences and from advertisement too. Next group of channels are satellite's channels. I can appoint from famous Music Television - famous MTV. Special group are cable's channels. Watchers must pay monthly charge, if they can watch these channels. I can appoint from famous channel HBO.

4. Radio

I like to listen to the radio too. In my opinion it is very good source of information and mostly the big source of music. I listen to the radio as much as possible. I think it is not so big waste of time, because you can do many thing by listening to radio. The radio programmes I use to listen are: radio news, radio music charts, discussion programmes, commentaries, etc. The radio we can carry everywhere, if the radio is small.

Czech radio

There are a lot of radio stations, we can listen what we want - Evropa 2, Radio Alfa, Frekvence 1, Radiožurnál, Vltava - channel of classical music. A lot of people want to contact radio and say own opinion on the theme, some people call by favourite song, we can get congratulations to radio and so one. Problem is that we cannot listen our favourite station on the all parts in republic because we must have signal. But we listen it in the cars, it is better when we go by car alone and we cannot speak with anyone.

British Radio

In Britain radio and television broadcasting is mainly provided by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which has four radio and television channels. The radio (and later the TV) - provided by the BBC - has been broadcasting since 1927. After the 2nd world war a commercial company was set up. It's called ITV (The Independent Television). We can recognize four national channels in Britain (all by BBC): Radio 1 presents pop music and rock. Radio 2 is a light program for all age groups. Radio 3 plays the classical music and Radio 4 offers news and discussions about current international and national affairs. When I was in London I used to listen to a local Radio Kiss, which is similar to the Czech Radio 1 - 91.9 fm.

Vocabulary
broadcasting - vysílání, long/medium/short waves - dlouhé/střední/krátké vlny, wavelength - vlnová délka, switch on/off - zapnout/vypnout, tune in to a station - naladit stanici, local radio - místní stanice, announcer - hlasatel, live-broadcast - živé vysílání, phone-in - kontaktní pořad, competition - soutěž, panel discussion - beseda s odborníky, receiver - přijímač, treble - nejvyšší tón, turn up/down the volume - upravit hlasitost, button - tlačítko, knob - knoflík, interference - rušení, aerial - anténa

5. Music

Even if we are not concertgoers and experts, we live surrounded by music and we do not realize it. We come into contact with music all our lives. When we are little we listen to lullabies songs by our mother and soon we try to sing some songs our selves. At school we have music lessons and we also can visit a special music school. I was also visiting one. First I play flute and than cross flute. I like playing piano but I cannot it and I have no time to learn.

Many children start playing the piano or a wind instrument, such as the recorder, the pipe, the flute, the clarinet, the oboe or the bassoon, or play the accordion or a string instrument (the violin, the viola, the violoncello or contrabass). Slowly these children became musicians. They have concerts and they often play to the piano accompaniment of their teachers. Later are these young musicians influenced by TV, radio and record music. Teenagers start to play the guitar, the banjo, the bass, the drums or the keyboard. They also take dancing lessons. But the most of them remain only listeners to music.

Large towns offer a better opportunity to enjoy performances of serious or pop music. Sometimes they invite renowned symphonic orchestras with outstanding conductors and hold music festivals. The most famous festivals are the Edinburgh Festival of Music and the Arts or the Prague Spring Festival, which has been held every year since 1946. These orchestras have their repertoire music by noted composers of all styles and periods. The well-known composers are W. A. Mozart, J. S. Bach, G. F. Händel, Schiller, Chopin, Beethowen or our composers Leoš Janáček, Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Dvořák. We also can listen to church, organ and chamber music, operas, operettas and musicals. Stars of pop, jazz and rock music usually give their concerts in large concert halls or sports stadiums. Sometimes, especially at Christmas time, festivals of country music and brass band music. At Christmas we can listen to Christmas carols singed by a male, female or mixed choir.

When we are at home, we can listen to recorded music or to the radio. Young people like to buy or exchange cassettes, LPs or compact discs. We also can watch programmes on TV and there are also charts - Eso.

Concerts can be classical serious, rock, folk, jazzy and pop concerts. The concerts of serious and classical music take place in the concert halls. Prague spring festival takes place every year in Prague and it is great event for all people in The Czech Republic. Many famous artists meet there. The best singer of classical music in the world is Luciano Pavarotti and one of the most famous contemporary violin player is quite young, she is called Vanessa Mae and she is from Singapore. Sometimes also charity concerts are held. At charity concert musician usually don not take money and they are given to various charity organisations. Elvise Presley - American singer and guitarist, the most influential performer of the rock-and-roll era. The best known is his hit Love me Tender. He issued many records. Beatles - famous British pop group from 60s and 70s. The members, all born in Liverpool (I was there) were John Lennon (guitar, vocals), Paul McCartney (bass, vocals), George Harrison (guitar, vocals) and Ringo Starr (drums). They used songs written largely by Lennon and McCartney. They issued many album and almost everyone reached the number one in the United Kingdom charts. Beatles also starred in two films: A Hard Day's Night and Help. To the world famous songs belongs Love me Do, Yellow Submarine, Yesterday, Michell.

6. the Press

Newspaper is the oldest source of information and almost everyone read it. The reading is very important to education and to knowledge in political and sociable life. I see only advantages. I read often critics and opinions from journalist but sometimes it could be problems because they could get inexact information. We buy newspaper everywhere and we can carry with me everywhere. The newspaper in the past was only source of information about cultural life, sport, political situation and so one. But not everyone have money for buy them so they must bank on title - tattles from their neighbours. TV, radio and special internet are inventions of present day. Nowadays are newspapers very enlarged and each must have money to buy them.

British newspapers

Newspapers are the oldest of the mass media (has been there from the end of the 17th century). We can divide the daily press in the UK into two groups: the quality press and popular press.

• The quality papers (broadsheets) are distinguishable easily by the unimpressive, but not confusing graphic. They could be described by the words: well written, thick and serious. They speak about current affairs and give entire and mostly impartial look of the situation. The most important papers are The Times (founded by John Walter I on January 1st, 1788), The Independent, The Guardian, and The Telegraph.

• The popular papers (tabloids) have fewer pages, are written with a simple language and have very short articles with big headlines and many photos and illustrations. I think they are addressed for "not very educated" people, because I can hardly imagine somebody sophisticated with The Sun in his hands. The most important are The Sun, The Daily Mail, and The Daily Mirror.

• To the special kind of press, which comes out only on Sunday, belong The Observer and The Sunday Times. One issue is as thick as the issues for the whole week of any Czech press and costs approximately the same.

• In the United Kingdom we can also find many kinds of magazines. They cover many different interests groups: women, men, girls, fans of sports, gardening, cooking, computers, music, nudity etc. Lots of them offer free gifts to tempt the readers.

In newspapers are different sections. In tabloids are these sections very mixed up and in broadsheets these sections have their fixed places. These sections are:

• on the first, leader page are: in tabloids there is big malicious gossip or other the most interesting information

• in broadsheets is news from the home or foreign affairs

• business and commercial section - it is page of serious newspapers

• advertisements - in TV are called commercials

• gossip page - in tabloids

• agony page - in tabloids; its page, where reader can read about people's problems and where journalist offers advice and help. It is also called problem page, which us typical in weekend's newspapers.

• jokes, crossword puzzles, comics and cartoons - it is entertainment section (e.g.: in The Daily Mirror is „Andy Capp“)

• cultural section - news from culture and higher society

• sport's section - at the end

Newspapers can contain these things - editorial, short newspaper essays, different articles, commentaries, reports, interviews etc.

We can read about a lot of kinds of crimes: murder, robbery, high jacking, blackmail, ransom, kidnapping, assassination, suicide, rape, abused, sexual harassment, bribery, and corruption. Than also about disaster of mankind: overpopulation, epidemic diseases, famine, incurable diseases, crop failure, floods. Sorts of magazines are serious, special, general, women's and teenager's.

There are typical language features of the press. Newspaperman use vocabulary of colloquial and sang expressions. Headlines and in condensed form and is little bit difficult to now want is article about, but what isn't clear is explained in the first sentence. Unimportant words are left out (articles, verbs „to have“, „to be“). Frequently are use abbreviations (e.g., m. mm - million, mph - miles per hour) and metaphors. Nouns are accumulated and the present tense is used for the past.

Our family subscribe only the MF DNES newspaper. My father likes to read magazines about sciences and art especially painting. I buy Premiere, magazine about cinema, film, video and DVD. My sister sometimes buys girl magazines e.g. CosmoGirl or Bravo. We do not buy tabloids but sometimes it lends us our friends so we read it but only for relaxation and for fun.

Another newspapers in the Czech republic are Právo (“Law”), Lidové noviny (“Common newspapers”) or Business newspapers. There is also magazine Reflex which write about interesting topics and events all over the world.

Vocabulary
national nawspapers - celonárodní deníky, local newspapers - místní noviny, morning newspapers - ranní noviny, evening newspapers - večerník, Sundays suplements - nedělník, journal - odborný časopis, weekly - týdeník, quarterly - čtvrtletník, special interest magazine - zájmový magazín, women´s press - časopis pro ženy, advertising periodical - reklamní plátek, headline - titulek, by-line - podtitulek, picture = image - obrázek, cartoon = comic trip - komiks, humorný kreslený seriál, caption - text pod obrázkem, column - rubrika, sloupec, line - řádek, letter - písmeno, article - článek, lead story - hlavní zpráva, editorial - úvodník, feature - nejzajímavější článek, report - reportáž, comment - komentář, front page - první stránka, home news - z domova, internacional news - ze světa, law - právo, obituaries - nekrology, crossword - křížovka

7. the Internet

Internet is the most popular in present day. I can find on them everything what I want from a lot of states in the world. The information is very fast but sometimes could be not so exact. I can find and read information in all languages. If we need this information, we printed and save them. I think that many people don not have them yet because the prizes in nowadays are always high. I have connection by phone but the internet is slow and “quick” internet is expensive for me.

Internet as such has been developed in USA where is also the highest population of computers at home, in schools as well as in offices. The second country where the population of PCs is very high is Japan, followed by Germany, Sweden and other West-European countries. During the last decade the number of PCs in our republic has also been increased what is very important especially for young people having then the chance to situate themselves in modern jobs.

obsazení

výhradně

smutek, trápení

předvídatelný

vysílat

získávat

fagot

struna

doprovod

vynikající

dirigent

vlivný, mající vliv

obsahovat

úvodník, komentář, redakční článek

předplatit

přesný

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