Theater, cinema or TV? Which is better? What is more important nowadays? We know that for many centuries theater was one of the most important attractions. Later cinema appeared & attracted millions. Now it is television that takes major part of peoples time & interests. As far as I understand cinema, theater & TV are equally important because they widen people’s outlook, educate our feelings and, of course, entertain us.

If I was asked to compare the major mass media, I would rate television far ahead of the others. I consider TV to be most entertaining & most educational. I know TV sometimes is preferred over newspapers as the number one source of information even among better educated.

Actually television gives the most complete news coverage & many viewers regard it objective. TV can tell about many interesting things in different spheres of modern life, besides it helps in understanding some topical problems.

It is no doubt that TV is considered successful thanks to its programs. There is a great amount of them today. They can satisfy any demand & taste. It is wonderful when TV programs teach us how to love, deal with people. I can’t say that most programs for teenagers & young adults are really good. Sometimes they are boring & don’t touch upon what we want to know. I’d rather say that I regard TV firstly as entertainment. I like cartoons, old films, comedy series - things like that. It is rubbish, I know - but who cares? I enjoy it.

Frankly speaking I’ve just begin to understand that tell is doing a lot of harm & that little by little it cuts us off from real world. We begin to forget how to occupy our spare time, we become lazy during sitting in armchairs & watching TV-sets.

My parents always criticize television. They are offended by commercials & violence on TV & want to restrict certain kinds of advertising. Sometimes I support my parents & their friends but I’m not against the adverts on TV. Some of them are wonderful - really funny. To be honest, I like them more than programs.

TV influence on children & many people believe that children’s programs should be controlled.

Text 3: My Favorite Ballet

'Giselle' is my favourite ballet. It is an old ballet about a peasant girl who was in love with a nobleman in disguised. She find out that he is betrothed to someone else & goes mad with grief & dies. That is Act One. In Act Two her spirit rises from the grave to join the mysterious Wilis, the ghosts of girls who died before their wedding days. The Queen of Wilis tries to take revenge on the young nobleman & make him dance with them until he dies; but Giselle manages to save him. That is the story. The music is old-fashioned, but is was written specially for the ballet & so it fits perfectly all the scenes & dances. The costumes & scenery are fairly traditional - the girls wearing long beautiful dresses, & the men wearing tights & tunics. It always has a very charming effect - but when two superb artists dance in it, it is very much more than charming. The modest, lovely peasant girl lives in a cottage with her mother & picks grapes with her friends & leads them in dances; the gay young count runs away from the oppressive life of the court dressed in simple clothes. He falls in love with an unspoilt peasant girl although he is betrothed to a princess - they are both completely real to us. We care about them passionately, about their happy playful lovemaking, the tragedy that falls across their lives when the princess & her father come to the village, recognize the count, & tell Giselle the truth. Giselle goes mad. There is not a sound in the audience while, pitifully, she tries to dance & remembers with horror that Albrecht has deceived her. Every expression, every moment, every gesture of the ballerina goes straight to our hearts so that we share with her in every moment of the tragedy. The performances of the ballet dancers in 'Giselle' are superb.

Text 4: Going to the Theatre (extended) (Sk)

Theater, cinema or TV? Which is better? What is more important nowadays? We know that for many centuries theater was one of the most important attractions. Later cinema appeared & attracted millions. Now it is television that takes major part of people’s time & interests. As far as I understand cinema, theater & TV are equally important because they widen people’s outlook, educate our feelings and, of course, entertain us.

As for me, I prefer theater. Theater has a long history, which disappears in distant centuries. The origins of theatre are in ancient hunting and agricultural rites (ceremonies). Through those rites ancient people tried to make their Gods to take pity on them, sacrificed victims for better hunt and harvest. In Ancient Greece there were different types of theater with their own traditions and technique. Rich and very diverse forms of spectacle were created in the countries of ancient East: India, China, Indonesia, Japan, et cetera. In the Medieval Ages the wandering actors - bards, histrions, jongleurs - were the carriers (bearers) of the folk theatrical traditions. Almost all this types of theater, except Greek and Roman, just entertained the spectators and nothing more. The first professional European theatre of the Renaissance was Italian folk comedy of masks (so called “comedy del arte”). In this period theater became literary and non-removal theaters appeared. The first well-known non-removal theater was famous Globe or Shakespeare’s Theater where complicated philosophical plays staged. Theaters were spread very widely because of suitable conditions of Renaissance and Enlightenment epochs. Later, in ninetieths years of 19^th century cinema appeared. Nevertheless, the ancient art of performance on the stage is not forgotten and theaters still attract millions of people all over the world.

The history of Belorussian art goes back to the 11^th century. At that time the actors appeared on the territory of Belarus. Their art was based on folklore, folk poetry, round dances, popular games & plays. The first actors were musician singers, dancers, jugglers bear trainers, magicians and fools. Time passed but the theatre of the streets and squares did not die. Later serf theatres appeared in Mogilev, Vitrebsk, Grodno, Shklov, Slutsk and other towns. In Sklov, for example, count Zorych had a regular drama company, a ballet & an orchestra.

In 1840 V.Dunin-Martzinkevitch organized a theatre in his manor near Minsk and later Ignat Byinitski organized “The First Belorussian Company”. He is, in fact, the father of Belorussian professional theatre. After his company had played in BLR, RUS, POL the Belorussian theatre became well-known in Europe. Everybody saw that Belorussians were very talented actors.

One of the most famous Belorussian theatres - Belorussian State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater was built in 1930 and gave its first performance in 1933. During the WWII it was damaged and renwed again in 1949. Today the theatre hall can seat 1200 people. During more than 60 years of its work the theatre has produced many operas both by Russian and foreign composers that are known all over the world. The theatre also stages plays and ballets by Belorussian composers. Many of them are based on the national themes of famous literary works. These are ‘’Kastus Kalinovski’’ by D.Lukas, ‘’Wild Hunting of King Stakh’’ by V.Soltan and others. They are popular with musical lovers on our rpublic and in other countries.

The first Belorussian State Drama Theatre which is named after Y.Kupala was 75 years old in 1995. Many visitors coming to Minsk to go to this theatre to watch ‘’Paulinka’’, a bright and witty play by Y.Kupala. In fact, ‘’Paulinka’’ is a kind of visiting card of the theatre. The theatre has got brilliant actors and its main task is to develop Belorussian national culture and traditions. The theatre stages plays by A.Makayonak, V.Korotkevich, and other Belorussian playwrights. Each performance at this theatre is a great success with the public. The repertoire of the Kupala theatre is always based on national plays. Every new play at the theatre becomes an event in Belorussian cultural life.

Now I want to tell you about one of the plays I have seen – play “Prince Igor”. I’ve seen it rather long ago and already seen another plays after that, but in spite of this I remember that one very vividly, as I was very impressed by it.

It was on in the Belorussian State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater. My mother bought two tickets for it. We arrived right before the beginning of the performance for it was very hard to get on the trolley-bus and it was raining.

First we went to the cloak-room to leave our coats there, then I bought a program from the usher. When we entered the hall, it was almost full and the orchestra finished tuning their instruments. Fortunately, we found our seats quickly, for an overture had already begun. The lights went out, the curtain went up and a large chorus opened to our sights. Music was very impressive, sometimes even pressing and sometimes very tender, and during “The Dances of Polovtzy” it seemed, that roof of the theater was falling down. Music was written by Borodin in the previous century, but the staging was new. There was a premiere of “Prince Igor” on the stage of State Theater that night and it was a great success. During the interlude foyer became full of people, I could hear English and German spoken by some of the spectators, but one was obvious: everyone was pleased with the play When the curtain fell after the second act, the house burst into applause and the public stood up. The actors received call after call and were presented with large bouquets of flowers.

Now I have heard, that this play had met the same warm attitude in many theaters abroad – in France, Germany, Italy. And I advise you to see “Prince Igor” too.

Text 5:Theaters in London

Theaters are very much the same in London as anywhere else; the main theaters, musik halls & cinemas are in the West End. Staying in London for a few days you’ll have bo difficulty to find where to spend an evening. Being free in the evening you can go to some evening performance. You’ll find opera, ballet, drame, musical comedy, vriety shows and cinemas.

Cinema performances are as a rule go on for the greater part of the day and you can go there even in the daytime. There is a continious performance in London cinemas & coming in at any time you can sit as long as you want. This is very inconvinient for the audience because there are people who walk in and out all the time.

Having decided to go to a playit its better to book seats beforehand at the box-office of the theater itself or at one of the agencies. Young people usually queue for a seat in the gallery, but older theatergoers prefer to have got a sseat in the stalls. They save much troule booking tickets beforehand.

Going to a theater you’ll probably want to sit as near the stage as possible but going to a cinema you may prefer to sit at some distance from the screen, in fact, the futher away the better.

When bying tickets you must say which seats you want. The best seats in the theater are those in stall, the circle & upper the circle. Then comes the pit and last of all the gallery, where the seats are the cheapest. Boxes, of course, are the most expencive. Most theaters and music-halls have good orchestras with popular conductors.

If you have chosen a good play you’ll enjoy yourself thorougly from the moment the curtain goes up to the end of the last act.