Vocabulary

Task 1. Find these words and expressions in the text. Explain their meaning in English. Then look them up in the dictionary to check their translation if necessary. Give an example of the situation in which these words and phrases can be used.

To inspire, vandalism, spray paints, to be frowned upon by many, a dash of confidence, bold colors, witty message, the dawn of time, a stencil, a tag, elaborate, to stand out from others, masterpiece, an outline, a fill in, rolling exhibits, immense creativity, to scribble.

Task 2. Match each word from the reading with its synonym. Make up sentences with the words from the text. Give an example of the situation in which these words and phrases can be used.

1) to inspire	a) courageous
2) vandalism	b) barbarism
3) spray	c) a label
4) to frown	d) to encourage
5) confidence	e) certainty
6) bold	f) splash
7) witty	g) humorous
8) a stencil	h) template
9) a tag	i) to distinguish
10) elaborate	j) refined
11) to stand out	k) enormous
12) masterpiece	l) a contour
13) an outline	m) an outstanding work
14) immense	n) to scowl

Task 3. Fill each gap with one word. Then re-read the text if necessary.

1. The word Graffiti has been derived from the Italian word graffiato which means ________ or _________.

2. Graffiti is often synonymous with ___________.

3. Graffiti might have started out with simple scratch marks made on walls but ______with time to include colorful additions with spray ______and markers.

4. Frowned ________by many, Graffiti still continues to be an effective __________and a unique art form.

5. However, running a person's personal property or valuable public property by depicting wrong things can be _________by law in most of the countries.

6. Graffiti has existed since the ________of time as the cavemen painted pictures of animals, battles and themselves on the walls of their homes in the caves of Africa and Europe.

7. Many punk rock bans such as Black Flag were famous for having their names __________all over walls in New York City, Los Angeles and London.

8. Tags quickly became more elaborate as writers tried to make their letters ________out from others.

9. The piece was multicolored and took much longer to______, however it was much more _______thus giving the artist much more exposure.

10. This is also where the use of spray paint became a ________for artists who would do "whole cars" and "top to bottoms".

WRITING

Read the following text. Write a summary of the text. Refer to Unit 1 ( p. 14) if necessary.

Disputable Issues in Aesthetic Education

A new issue in aesthetic education today has to do with the choice of art examples to use in the classroom, specifically, wheth­er they should be restricted to recognized works of fine art or al­lowed to include such art forms as posters, album covers, bill­boards, and particularly cinema and television.

Since the popular arts are a reflection and product of popular culture, exploring the popular culture should be a valid method of inquiry. Popular arts are already a part of the children's lives and they enable the teacher to "start where the kids are". Further, they facilitate the responses the children are already having with their preferred art forms rather than imposing adult middle class stan­dards on them. We know also that art which students encounter in schools — the official or high art embodied in the official curricu­lum — stands in an adversary relation to the media of popular en­tertainment. A critical analysis of the forms reflected in popular art is imperative if we want to elicit meaningful dialogue about art.

Not all writers in art education have taken a positive position in regard to the popular arts. An opinion exists that fine art objects are the only objects with the power to impart a markedly aesthetic aspect to human experience. Certain scholars "refuse to cheapen art's magnificent and supreme excellence by comparing it to com­ic strips and other essentially vulgar commodities" claiming that popular culture was the result of the public's inability to appreciate high art. Even those who recognize popular arts as art forms sug­gest that the schools should go beyond them, because "serious art" makes more demands on the viewer.

Some art educators argue that concepts of fine art and popular art are relative and that the distinction between the two is slight if not illusory. What we see in art museums and art galleries includes a lot of different things from all over the world, from cultures and periods of time in which the concept of art, as we know it, did not exist. In their original contexts, such objects often served a variety of functions, such as magical, ritualistic, narrative, or utilitarian but almost never aesthetic.

It is well known that many of the things we regard so highly to­day, such as Gothic cathedrals, El Grecos, Rembrandts, Goyas or Cezannes, were ignored or scorned at different periods of time. Many things we ignore or scorn today, such as the work of the French or Royal Academies in the 19th century, were at one time highly regarded. A work's reputation can be affected precipitously by the accident of reattribution. A highly regarded Rembrandt, subsequently discovered to be not by Rembrandt drops in value immediately. The same thing can happen in reverse. Finally, there are cases in which objects have lost not only their monetary and in­trinsic value, but also their status as art objects because they are fakes.

(Практический курс английского языка. 3 курс [Текст]

: учеб. для педвузов по спец. «Иностр. яз.» /

В. Д. Аракин, Т. Г. Давиденко, А. С. Саакян и др.; под. ред.

В. Д. Аракина – 4-е изд., перераб. и доп. – М. : Гуманит.

Изд. центр ВЛАДОС, 2001. – C. 191.)