UNIT 6

PREVIEW

1. Abstract - abstract paintings, designs etc consist of shapes and patterns that do not look like real people or things:

abstract art

Artists like Picasso used an abstract style to show ideas about people and objects.

2. bright - light shining strongly, or with plenty of light:

Her eyes were hurting from the bright lights.

- sunny if the weather is bright, the sun is shining and there is a lot of light opposite dull:

The weather was bright and sunny.

- intelligent and able to learn things quickly:

He was an exceptionally bright child.

He is constantly coming up with bright ideas for making money.

- bright colours are strong and easy to see ➔ pale:

I never wear bright colours.

- cheerful happy and full of energy:

Her voice was bright and cheerful.

She gave him a bright smile.

- successful if the future looks bright, you think that something will be successful synonym promising:

The school's future now looks very bright.

I'm sure the company has a bright future now.

as bright as a button - very intelligent and full of energy

look on the bright side - to see the good points in a situation that seems to be bad:

bright and early - very early in the morning:

He was up bright and early, keen to get started.

bright and breezy - happy and confident

bright-eyed and bushy-tailed - happy and full of energy

3. Century - one of the 100-year periods measured from before or after the year of Christ's birth

the 11th/18th/21st etc century

The church was built in the 13th century.

the next/last century

by the beginning of the next century the story of life on a small farm at the turn of the century (=the beginning of the century)

4. Cubism - a 20th century style of art, in which objects and people are represented by geometric shapes.

In cubism, images were made up of shapes or patterns seem from different views.

cubist

Chagall used cubist ideas in his early paintings.

5. famous - known about by many people in many places:

Many famous people have stayed in the hotel.

The Eiffel Tower is a famous landmark (=a famous place or building that is easy to recognize).

famous for

France is famous for its wine.

famous as

Virginia is famous as the birthplace of several US presidents.

Da Vinci's world-famous portrait of the Mona Lisa

the famous [plural] people who are famous:

A nightclub used by the rich and famous.

6. Idea - a plan or suggestion for a possible course of action, especially one that you think of suddenly:

She got the idea from an article in a fashion magazine.

What gave you the idea of using a male actor for the part?

come up with/hit on an idea (=think of a new idea)

Mike's always good at coming up with new ideas.

the idea of (doing) something

I like your idea of meeting on Saturday mornings.

It was my wife's idea to move house.

Idea for

Furthermore, Huygens claimed that he arrived at the idea for the pendulum clock independently of Galileo.

good/great/brilliant idea

What a great idea!

bad/stupid/crazy idea

I thought from the beginning that it was a stupid idea.

It was a good/bad idea to do something

I know it was a bad idea to leave him on his own.

be full of ideas/be bursting with ideas (=have a lot of ideas)

She was always very enthusiastic and bursting with ideas.

exchange/share ideas

The group meets regularly to discuss current issues and share ideas and experiences.

toy with an idea (=think about a plan, but not very seriously)

Lately I've been toying with the idea of going back to school.

fire ideas off each other (=discuss each other's ideas and think of good new ones)

The meeting was an opportunity for us to fire ideas off each other.

have no idea/not have any idea

She doesn't have any idea where they've gone.

a general/rough idea (=a not very exact idea)

Can you give me a rough idea of how much the repairs will cost?

We suggest consulting the works listed at the end of this chapter, in order to get a general idea of the range and scope of semantics.

not have the faintest/slightest/foggiest idea spoken:

I don't have the faintest idea what to get Rachel for her birthday.

7. Image - a picture of an object in a mirror or in the lens of a camera, a picture on the screen of a television, cinema, or computer:

She peered closely at her image in the mirror.

Jill Sharpe was little more than a name, a glossy image on a television screen.

be the (very/living/spitting) image of somebody - to look exactly like someone or something else:

He's the spitting image of his mother.

in the image of somebody/something - literary in the same form or shape as someone or something else:

According to the Bible, man was made in the image of God.

8. Object - a solid thing that you can hold, touch, or see but that is not alive:

Scientists studying plants, animals, or inanimate objects (=things that are not alive)

A meteorite is any object that falls from space and survives to land on Earth's surface.

object of

The object of the game is to improve children's math skills.

The object of the study is to find out as much as we can about AIDS in children.

an object of pity/desire/ridicule etc someone or something that is pitied, wanted etc:

She feared becoming an object of ridicule.

money/expense is no object - used to say that you are willing to spend a lot of money to get something:

Money's no object; I want the best.

9. Painter - someone who paints pictures synonym artist:

Gerry's ambition was to become a portrait painter.

10. Pattern - a regularly repeated arrangement of shapes, colours, or lines on a surface, usually as decoration:

a black and white striped pattern

richly decorated patterns in reds, browns, and yellows

The patterns in abstract art do not look like real people or things.

pattern of

a pattern of dots

11. Portrait - a painting, drawing, or photograph of a person:

a family portrait

portrait of

the artist's portrait of his mother

She's been commissioned to paint Jackson's portrait.

12. Reality - what actually happens or is true, not what is imagined or thought:

TV is used as an escape from reality.

I think the government has lost touch with reality (=no longer understands what is real or true).

Chagall brings together fantasy and reality to show a love of home.

harsh/grim/stark reality

Millions of people live with the harsh realities of unemployment.

the reality is that

The reality is that young people will not go into teaching until salaries are higher.

in reality used to say that something is different from what people think:

In reality, violent crimes are still extremely rare.

realistic

Artists before the late 19^th century tried to make paintings look realistic.

13. Shape - the form that something has, for example round, square, triangular etc:

What shape is the table?

You can recognize a tree by the shape of its leaves.

round/square etc in shape

The dining room was square in shape.

His battered old hat had completely lost its shape.