Vocabulary

1. alteration, appearance, aptly, court, courtyard, depository, earthy, exceptionally, fit into, inspiration, lay out, lush, overall, print, railing, rather than, rearrange, site, splendid;

2. spoil (spoilt), suffer, surrounding, treasure-house, unrecognizable, wing,

Exercises

1. Practise the pronunciation of the following words and define their meanings:

Arts Square, Maly Opera House, Philarmonia, Theatre of Musical Comedy, Ethnography Museum, Carlo Rossi, Benois, Mikhailovsky Palace, Grand Duke Mikhail;

period, integral, decorative, symmetrically, front, focal, composition, monumental, original, harmoniously, icon, theme.

2. Match the adjectives in the left-hand column with the nouns in the right-hand column.

educational wing

applied life

large site

cultural district

surrounding composition

architectural art

eastern theme

overall centre

mythological ensemble

3. True or false?

1. The Russian Museum is situated in Ostrovsky Square.

2. The Russian Museum possesses a collection of Russian drawings.

3. The Russian Museum was built by Alexander Benois.

4. Nevsky Prospekt is not far from the Russian Museum.

5. There is a park behind the Russian Museum.

6. The Russian Museum is situated in the building of the Yusupovsky Palace.

7. "The Ninth Wave" by Ivan Aivazovsky is on display in the Russian Museum.

8. "The Morning in the Pine Forest" by Ivan Shiskin is on display in the Russian Museum.

9. The monument to A Pushkin is next to the Russian Museum

4. Speak about the Russian Museum.

UNIT SIX

PARKS and GARDENS

Part I

The Summer Gardens, a park, was laid out in 1704, a year after the foundation of St. Petersburg. It was conceived in the «geometrical» style with clearly defined lines. The Gardens got its name from the fact that in summer it was the centre of social life in the new capital. All sorts of festivities were arranged there. It is fenced off from the Neva Embankment by a fine grille erected in 1770-1784, according to the design of the architects Felten and Yegorov. The monumental columns of granite, decorated with vases and urns, are linked by wonderfully ethereal iron tracery work, one of the world's finest examples of ornamental metal casting.

In the times of Peter the Great the park was much larger than it is now. It covered what is now the Field of Mars and stretched almost to Nevsky Prospect. There were dozens of fountains and 250 marble statues by Italian sculptors. The fountains of the Summer Gardens were the prototypes of the fabulous Petrodvorets fountains. They drew water from a river which came to be known as the River Fountain (Fontanka). Two floods, in 1777 and 1824, destroyed the fountains, many marble statues and trees. After the floods the park was not restored to its former glory.

Towards the end of the 18^th century the Summer Gardens began to resemble landscape parks which were coming into fashion then. In the 19^th century the Gardens looked very much like it does today. At present there are 79 marble sculptures in the Summer Gardens. Among them are the allegorical group «Peace and Plenty», portraying the victory of Russia in the Northern War (1700-1721), Cupid and Psyche, statues of Nemesis, Ceres, Night, etc.

In the park there is also a modest two-storey building known as the Summer Palace of Peter I. It was built by Trezzini in 1710-1714. The «Coffee House» and the «Tea House» have also been well preserved.

In the southern part of the gardens stands a huge porphyry vase on a tall pedestal, a gift from the King of Sweden.

In 1885 a monument to the Russian fabulist I. Krylov was erected by sculptor Klodt in the gardens. The animals and birds are portrayed on the pedestal of the monument.

The charm of the Summer Gardens lies in its shady avenues with their ancient trees, and in its fine sculptures. It was much loved for its tranquil beauty by such men of letters as Pushkin, Zhukovsky and Krylov.

The park ranks among the most popular pleasure grounds of the city.