1. Put 10 questions to the text.

2. Make a vocabulary of the text (20-25 words). Art is free... But not at the Museums

A museum is an institution that houses and cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities throughout the world and more local ones exist in smaller cities, towns and even the countryside.

So, Art is free... but not at the Museums. This article discuss the rise of Museum's admission fees around the world

One of the most publicized ideas by all the Ministries of Culture, Museum Patronages and similar is to approach the Art to the great public. Nevertheless, and contrary to this intention, most of the greatest Museums of the world have increased in the last years its admission fees in a notorious -and in many cases exaggerated- way.

This infamous tendency is international. In the United States, the controversy has been intensified with the decision of the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York about increasing from $15 to $20 the money that the museum "suggests" its visitors to donate before enjoying its collections (the New York Times recently published the misfortune of one of its journalists who had the occurrence of offering 50 pennies), identical sum that the one demanded by the MOMA to see the more important collection of Modern Art in the world.

In Europe, where the museums are traditionally more accessible, this ascent of prices has -nevertheless- reached tragic levels.

In Spain, the two greatest State Museums (Prado Museum and Reina Sofía Art Centre) had doubled its admission fees early this year, and now every visitor must pay €6 (add another €6 if you want to enter the Thyssen Museum, which is highly recomendable). Precursor of this madness was the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, which doubled in 2004 its admission fee of €6, which now is of €12.

In France things are a bit more moderate, and the increases of admission fees are made in a small percentage every few years, which can be justified by the increase of the standard of living. At the present time, the ticket to the Louvre, surely the most famous and visited museum of the planet, costs €8,50, being reduced if it is visited only at afternoon.

But, luckily, we still have the example of the United Kingdom: two of the best museums of the world - British Museum and National Gallery of London- still have an "admission free" politic. God save the Queen!

Спеціальність: Хореографія

1. Put 10 questions to the text.

2. Make a vocabulary of the text (20-25 words). The Russian Ballet

Not very long ago when people mentioned ballet, they thought of Russian ballet. In fact ballet came to Russia relatively late. It brought traditions from many other countries, mainly from France and Italy. Actually Tsar Nicholas I was ready to spend great sums of money on the dance companies, so ballet got recognition in the capital at St. Petersburg and in Moscow. The Russian ballet dates back to 1847. It was the year when Marius Petipa, a young French dancer, arrived in St. Petersburg. He found there a well-trained company, which consisted mainly of the employees of the Imperial household. They were not spoilt by the attention and glamour, because they were the Tsar's servants. The Tsar wanted to see choreographies that had been seen in the times of the Sun King. That is there was combination of romantic stories with a luxury and pomp. Under leadership of Petipa the Russian ballet became extremely popular in the world. Within thirty years Petipa created over forty full-length ballets, arranged dances for thirty-five operas and recast seventeen ballet productions by other European masters. Petipa's version of Giselle we still can see today. In the Russian ballet of the nineteenth century everything was in harmony: the music, which was written mainly by Ludwig Minkus, the staging, the scenery, the costumes and choreography. At the beginning of the twentieth century ballet was still important in the cultural life of Russia, but gradually the romantic haze was cleared away. The world changed and it was taken a different view. The problems of love, hate, good, evil, were expressed in more complex ways.

Спеціальність: Історія