6/10/19

Reading

Transfer all your answers to your answer sheet

Part 1

Answer questions by referring to the newspaper article about four modern artists. For questions 1-13,

answer by choosing from the artists (A-D). Letters may be used more than once. Indicate your answers on

your answer sheet.

Which artist

1. thinks an artist’s character determines their attitude to the work they do?

2. is unsure that his job title accurately describes the work he does?

3. says people prefer well-known figures to meet their expectations?

4. thinks the public’s perceptions of art have begun to change?

5. has attracted adverse comment for his attempt to do something new?

6. says he is not equally talented at all of the things he does?

7. says his original choice of art form allows direct communication with other people?

8. states that one particular art form is capable of combining many others?

9. admires the fact that a particular person tried to do something different?

10. is confident that the outlook for artists is positive?

11. says each art form he works in has a similar status?

12. thinks that one art form discourages the public from expressing their opinions?

13. has made a well-received return to his original art form?

The Art, The Book, The Film, The Score

Artists directing, actors writing, musicians painting – four well-known figures discuss working in different branches of the arts.

CHRISTOPHER HAMPTON

‘I think that the different areas I work in – directing, writing – have more or less equal standing. There are different satisfactions to be had from each activity, and I don’t think spreading yourself detracts from any one of them.’

Hampton sees nothing unusual in an artist seeking out new areas to work in. ‘The artist who pursues and refines obsessions and zeroes in on one area is following the traditional procedures. It’s a different kind of personality that wants to try anything. It’s a question of temperament.’

Admired or not, he has certainly been criticised in Britain for daring to attempt directing as well as writing. ‘Discussing my latest film, all I asked was that they didn’t open in Britain first. I didn’t care where they opened, but not in Britain. There was a real sense of “What’s this theatre writer doing here?”’

JULIAN SCHNABEL

‘I never thought of being an artist as a job. I never thought of Michelangelo as being just a painter.

Leonardo da Vinci was a scientist and he produced all kinds of art. Antonin Artaud was a writer but he produced some of the best drawings of the 20th century. Brancusi took the best photographs of sculpture and so on…’

But how does this fluidity between the arts go down with the public? ‘The public want their heroes intact. It’s like with Michael Jordan, the basketball player. Everyone was hoping for him to fail as a baseball player just because this didn’t fit into their conception of what he was doing. People made fun of him for wanting to stop playing basketball and play baseball instead. That’s a pity. I think it was wonderful he had the courage to break new ground.’

‘Primarily I’ve been a painter-sculptor since I was a kid. The thing about painting is that there’s no one getting in the way of the message. On the other hand, it’s a field that’s so misunderstood, unlike films with their narrative structure. People can talk about the movies. They’re more accessible, not as intimidating as painting.’

PETER GREENAWAY

‘My films are so often conceived and manufactured with the language and practice of painting in mind, that sometimes being called a film-maker is curious and uncomfortable. I feel I have much more in common with painting than I have with cinema.

‘Because cinema potentially is the master art – an amalgamation of all the other arts – then the pursuit of “total cinema” has to be the most rewarding. But, and it’s a big but, cinema fails to satisfy so many areas of the imagination – it’s poor as a narrative medium, it cannot supply the excitement of live acting and live music, and it has to be viewed in a special place, at a special time, with special equipment.’

Are more artists crossing disciplines because we have outgrown existing art forms? ‘Traditional cultural media do not satisfy any more. More information being readily available about alternative ways of seeing and saying things is bound to increase an artist’s embrace of what’s possible. Older notions of elitism, fixed cultural boundaries, long years of artistic apprenticeship, the vested interests and jealousies of the traditionally culturally educated have, happily, begun to fall away.’

MIKE OLDFIELD

After the success of his record Tubular Bells in 1973, there were lean years for Mike Oldfield. Then, after two decades, a brand-new album was released and, rejuvenated, he performed a series of acclaimed concerts. Known in the Tubular Bells days as a multi-instrumentalist, Oldfield has since turned his attention to computer design and directing.

For him, diversification has proved productive. ‘If you spend most of your life working in one genre, you try to build up techniques which make it easier,’ he says. ‘If you are working in more than one genre, that seems to expand your outlook on the way you do things; you develop new ways of working.

The end result is the same. I’m more gifted as a guitarist and a producer than as a designer, multimedia artist or director, but they all give me the same enjoyment.’

Oldfield is optimistic about what the future may bring for the artist. ‘I imagine in the distant future an artist won’t just be a painter, a poet, or a musician, he will be all of those things. We seem to be evolving towards some kind of non-specific creativity.’

Part 2

Read the following extract from a book which offers advice on giving talks to groups of people, and answer questions 14-20. On your answer sheet, indicate the letter A, B, C, or D against the number of each question 14-20. Give only one answer to each question.

Persuasive Speaking

Most talks are persuasive in some way; few are just for information. In every talk the speaker must at the very least persuade the audience to listen, to see his or her point of view, and try to understand the information he or she is offering them. In the type of persuasive talk I intend to discuss, though, people must be motivated to get things done, to act, or to spend money. In other words, the speaker must ask for

something. Getting something done, causing actions, requires movement; and to create movement, momentum must be generated. Persuasive speaking is the art of generating action in others, not just imparting knowledge.

Perhaps the first point to make about persuasive speaking is that skill as a persuasive speaker is not something to be ashamed of. Persuasion is a familiar, regular and important human activity. As Erwin Bettinghaus said in his book Persuasive Communication, ‘In the largest percentage of all human interactions, the basic decision-making tool is not fighting, not biting, not roaring, not hissing, but persuading.’ It is strange, then, that this very basic and universal skill suggests to some a calculating, rather underhand, attitude to human nature.

Of course, persuasion has a bad reputation as a skill because of its association with propaganda; but persuasion is not necessarily devious manipulation. Persuasion ought to be harmless; its job is to give other people an opportunity to understand, and if necessary resist, what is being proposed. As with any human tool or skill, persuasion can be misused. But responsibility for the misuse cannot be laid at the door of the skill itself. If the art of persuasion were never used in a good cause, people would be defenceless against the skills of persuasion used in a bad cause.

When persuading an audience, be acutely sensitive to the way they perceive you. Bias, self-interest, even dishonesty, are such permanent features of human behaviour that an audience is always ready to suspect the speaker of lying for profit. Whenever a speaker appears to favour an idea, the first question that is in the audience’s mind is whether the speaker is an objective advocate or speaking in his or her own interest. This is a major issue, and absolute clarity is essential. To seem to gloss over the issue will only increase suspicion. Tell the audience as soon as possible exactly what your relation to the proposal is, otherwise suspicion will interfere with their belief in everything you say.

Such honesty is not always easy. It often takes some insight to be fully aware of your own selfinterest. You may disguise it from yourself by wishful thinking, but the audience will have no such delusions. The average listener is acutely sensitive to a speaker’s self-interest. It is very difficult for a speaker to disguise this from an audience, not least because non-verbal communication is a potent signaling mechanism, and the signals of insincerity are unmistakable. If, however, there is no self-interest at stake, that is a great advantage. You can approach the topic as an objective advocate. You can deal with objections in an objective way, speaking as a servant of the audience, rather than a servant of the cause. They will be more inclined to believe you if they think you are on their side, helping them to arrive at a fair and rational decision.

However, you have additional responsibilities if you want to appear as an objective advocate. You must be well informed and have done your homework. A mistaken fact will undermine your credibility and the audience may not believe what you say thereafter. But the responsibility for accuracy is balanced by the fact that, if the audience will accept you as objective, you can appear impartial, but at the same time

committed and enthusiastic. Over-enthusiasm for something which is to your own advantage is not an attractive quality. But enthusiasm for something where we are independent is strongly persuasive.

14. What does the writer discuss in the first paragraph?

A) the intended results of a persuasive talk

B) how satisfying it is to give a persuasive talk

C) how rarely many audiences enjoy persuasive talks

D) the expectations audiences have of persuasive talks

15. What is said in the second paragraph about the skill of being a persuasive speaker?

A) It is quite easy to teach people to excel at it.

B) It is considered by some people to involve deception.

C) Many people feel that they possess it instinctively.

D) Certain types of people possess it to a greater extent than others.

16.In the third paragraph, the writer defends the skill of persuasion because he believes that

A) it is more effective when used in good causes than in bad causes.

B) it is in a completely separate category from propaganda.

C) it allows people to make up their own minds about issues.

D) it is comparatively unusual for it to be misused.

17. According to the writer, an audience will become more suspicious during talks if speakers

A) appear to contradict themselves.

B) seem to be pretending to favour an idea.

C) give a vague explanation of their motives.

D) mention having a personal interest in the issue.

18. What does the writer say in the fifth paragraph about some speakers with self-interest?

A) They make too little effort to hide this from the audience.

B) They find it harder to prepare talks than speakers without self-interest.

C) They are unwilling to deal with disagreements from the audience.

D) They wrongly believe that the audience are unaware of this.

19. What does the writer suggest about objective speakers who show enthusiasm?

A) Their talks are likely to be successful.

B) Audiences accept that this may not be genuine.

C) Their enthusiasm compensates for mistaken facts.

D) They often fail to check the accuracy of what they say.

20. What is the main purpose of the text as a whole?

A) to explain why so few persuasive talks are successful

B) to describe the challenges facing people giving persuasive talks

C) to deter people from giving persuasive talks which reflect their self-interest

D) to analyse the factors which distinguish persuasive talks from other kinds of talks

A very hood website to improve listening
https://5splusom-school.ru/audirovanie_zapisi_teksty_zadaniya/

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