Complete the report by putting the verbs in the correct form, using ing or to.
Swimmer abandons Channel swim
James Forsyth has decided (1) to abandon (abandon) his second attempt at (2) swimming (swim) the English Channel after (3) breaking (break) his ankle in a
cycling accident. His decision (4)to postpone (postpone) this attempt came after a two
week holiday (5) mountainbiking (mountainbike) in Majorca with his wife. His first attempt was also unsuccessful and he is unlikely (6) to be (be) back training for quite a few months. He said in a recent interview that he had not yet decided whether
(7) to try (try) one more time, but denies (8) losing (lose) total interest in
the project. ‘I aim (9) raising (raise) money for a local charity’ he explained. He
continued by (10) saying (say) that if he could manage (11) to find (find) the
time, he would do a lot more charity work.
Reading Graffiti Make up 5 questions related to the text
You can travel almost anywhere in the world, and you will probably see graffiti. Although graffiti is more common in big cities, today you may find it in almost any region or district, big or small. It’s everywhere: on trains, walls, bridges and buildings. Love it or hate it but graffiti is part of the everyday urban world. Some people consider it art while others think it’s vandalism. However, few of them really know how old graffiti is.
The word graffiti itself probably comes from the old Greek verb which means “to write”. Writings on walls already existed in ancient Rome. The Romans cut graffiti on walls and monuments. What was it like, you may ask? Ancient graffiti was absolutely different from today’s. It showed phrases of love, political ideas, simple thoughts, magic spells, alphabets, and famous quotations from literature.
Modern graffiti dates back to the US of the 1960s. At that time for young people it was a form of self-expression and a political protest. Teenage groups in New York, for example, painted graffiti to mark their territory. Later, there started competitions between different groups. That meant that the quality of graffiti became more important than just the amount of it.
Today graffiti has travelled all over the world. However, it is still an illegal art. It has been always painted on private or public property, like cars, trains, fences and house walls. As a result most people see it as vandalism. Besides, it’s rather hard to clean graffiti paints, and cities spend millions every year on it. So, in most countries graffiti is forbidden.
On the other hand, modern graffiti is, by its nature, a form of painting. After all, the artists uses the same methods and materials. However, instead of paints a graffiti artist prefers sprays, markers, and crayons. Some of their works are really impressive and fascinating, they are powerful and have a deep meaning. Graffiti often makes grey walls look cheerful.
The purpose of some graffiti is to spread and declare social ideas. That’s why a lot of graffiti paintings have political topics. Some cities have special places where the walls of different buildings can be used to create pieces of graffiti art.
Probably, the most famous graffiti artist is Banksy, who comes from Bristol, England. He strongly believes that writing graffiti on buildings is an effective way to communicate with people. His works are very often aggressive, provocative and even rude. In his graffiti he expresses personal political and social views, which are against war and capitalism.
Banksy is known not only for his graffiti works. He also likes playing “jokes”. He sometimes unofficially hangs his works in the main art galleries. He doesn’t want to be paid for them because he’s sure art should be free. He says he wants to see how long it will take people to notice it. Once Banksy went into the Tate Gallery dressed as an old man, and glued a picture to the museum wall in protest of the Iraq War.
Questions
What does word graffiti mean?
Is graffiti legal?
Who is the mots popular graffiti artist?
What you need to create graffiti?
What Banksy did at Tate Gallery,and for what?
Examination topics / choose three topics and comment on them
- SOS – Save Our Space. We need your help to clean up our city. What have you ever done or are going to do to keep it clean?
- Your school trips. Tell about your last trip or about the trip which you liked most of all.
- If you could change one important thing in your country, what would you change? Use reasons and specific examples to support your answers.
- My favourite corner in the school. Where do you like to spend your time? Why?
- Our school web-site. Do you find it useful? If yes, why. If no, why. Suggest some ways to make it better.
- The Internet in my life. The advantages and disadvantages of Media education.
- Blog as an educational tool (area). How long have you had your blog? How often do you update your blog? The advantages and disadvantages of using blog as an educational tool?
- Educational camps in our school. Which camp do you prefer-summer or winter? Why? Tell about your favourite activity during the camps.
- Folk music and dance classes in our school. The song and dance which I like most of all.
- Sport centres in our school. Which sport have you chosen? Why?
If you could change one important thing in your country, what would you change? Use reasons and specific examples to support your answers.
I think that it will be something ecological. Like recycling trash. I think that in every building,house,and in street should be trash container with sections,and every section will be seperated by type of trash. We can recycle plastic and make other plastic things ,or recycle paper and make new paper. Recycling will help us and our planet.
Your school trips. Tell about your last trip or about the trip which you liked most of all.
My last trip was trip to Gyumri with madam Sofia.It was very interesting and memorable journey with my class.It was the first time that I saw snow in 2019’s winter.We played snowballs a lot. Also we visited a lot of interesting places like: Ani photo studio, Dzitoghtsyan House-Museum and other places.It was very interesting trip…
Sport centres in our school. Which sport have you chosen? Why?
Our school has a lot of sport centres and it is very good for students.We can choose what sport we want to do.
Mine is shooting. I don’t know why but I always liked shooting games, and maybe that was the reason why I loved shooting. Sometimes shooting can be relaxing. After difficult school day you go and shoot… There’s nothing better…
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