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By the world created – by its beauty preserved
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St. Petersburg, Petrograd, Leningrad…
| St. Petersburg is the second largest city in Russia, with a total area of more than 1400 square kilometers and a population of five million. The city is built on 4 islands, interlaced with some 50 canals and rivers: water makes up a tenth of its total area. It is also the most northerly of the world’s large cities, located 500 miles south of the Arctic Circle. The city has been known by several names throughout its brief history: Until August 31, 1914 - St. Petersburg August 31, 1914 to January 26, 1924 – Petrograd January 26, 1924 to September 1991 – Leningrad From September 1991 to present day – St. Petersburg |
| St. Petersburg, Petrograd, Leningrad and now, again, St. Petersburg – the city’s succession of names mirrors Russia’s turbulent history. Founded in 1703 as a “window on he west” by Peter the Great, St. Petersburg was for two centuries the capital of the Tsarist Empire, synonymous with hubris, excess and magnificence. During World War I the city renounced its Germanic-sounding name and became Petrograd, and as such was the cradle of the revolutions that overthrew Tsarism and brought the Bolsheviks to power in 1917. Later, as Leningrad, it epitomized the Soviet Union’s heroic sacrifices in the war against Fascism, withstanding 900 days of Nazi siege. Finally, in 1991 – the year that Communism and the USSR collapsed – the change of name, back to St. Petersburg, proved deeply symbolic, infuriating diehard Communists, but overjoying those who kept a dream alive throughout the years of Stalinist terror. St. Petersburg’s sense of its own identity owes much to its origins and the interweaving of myth and reality throughout its history. Created by the will of an autocrat, on a barren river delta, the Imperial capital embodied both Peter the Great’s rejection of Old Russia – represented by the former capital, “Asiatic” Moscow – and his embrace of Europe. The city is impossible to understand without some knowledge of its history. It is associated with a host of renowned figures from Russian culture and history. It was here that Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky and Shostakovich composed; Pushkin, Dostoevsky and Gogol wrote their masterpieces; Mendeleev and Pavlov made their contributions to science; and Rasputin, Stolypin, Lenin and Trotsky made history. The city is easy to enjoy – not least for its magnificent architecture. Planned on a grandiose scale, the city center is awash with palaces and cathedrals calculated to impress, their colonnaded facades painted in bold Mediterranean colours, reflected in the dark waters of St. Petersburg’s canals and rivers. Its cultural life is equally rich, embracing the staggering riches of the Hermitage art collection and the Russian Museum, the Mariinsky Ballet, all kinds of music and drama. The seasons provide the rest of the city’s entertainment – at its most intoxicating during the midsummer “White nights”, when the city barely sleeps and darkness never falls. | turbulent – бурный; беспокойный hubris ['hju:bris] – спесь, высокомерие excess – неумеренность magnificence – великолепие to renounce – отказываться cradle – колыбель to overthrow (overthrew, overthrew) – свергать to epitomize – кратко излагать sacrifice – жертва to withstand (withstood, withstood) – выстоять Nazi siege – нацистская осада to infuriate - приводить в ярость diehard – твердолобый; консерватор to overjoy – осчастливить, очень обрадовать identity – зд. индивидуальность to owe much (little) to – быть многим (немногим) обязанным to interweave (interwove, interwoven) – переплетаться barren – зд. пустынный to embody – воплощать, олицетворять to reject – отвергать rejection – отказ; неприятие embrace, n – объятие; объятия host – множество, сонм renowned – известный, знаменитый grandiose – напыщенный, претенциозный exuberant [ig'zju:…] – бурный, бьющий через край be awash – зд. наводнен to stagger – поражать, ошеломлять to intoxicate – опьянять; возбуждать at most – самое большее |
I. Read and translate the text paying attention to commentaries.
II. Practice reading the following international words. Try to guess their meanings.
Figure, culture, architecture, sculpture, myth, autocrat, center, canal, channel, grandiose, façade, contribution, Tsarist, Tsarism, music, drama, Hermitage, museum.
III. Pronounce carefully the pairs “noun – adjective”. Note that in some adjectives the stress ( ударение ) shifts.
| Synonym | - synonymous |
| Hero | - heroic |
| Symbol | - symbolic |
| Magnificence | - magnificent |
| Culture | - cultural |
| Revolution | - revolutionary |
| Origin | - original |
| Tsar | - Tsarist |
| Architecture | - architectural |
| Grandiosity | - grandiose |
| History | - historical |
IV. Copy out all the adjectives used in this text to describe our city.
Дата публикования: 2015-02-20; Прочитано: 281 | Нарушение авторского права страницы | Мы поможем в написании вашей работы!
