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11th form

Reading Comprehension

You are going to read an article from Playbill about the play Prelude to a Kiss.

a) First put the paragraphs (A-D) in the correct order.

1._____ 2._____ 3._____ 4._____

A TYPICAL LOVE STORY

Prelude to a Kiss examines romance in a most unusual way.

A It's taken a few years and many revisions to get that way. Prelude opened at the Helen Hayes Theatre in May with Timothy Hutton and Mary-Louise Parker. Earlier the play was produced at South Coast Repertory and Berkeley Rep in 1988 and, earlier this year, Off-Broadway at Circle Repertory Company, where it was "the most sought-after ticket in Manhattan," according to The New York Times. The limited run at Circle Rep generated so much excitement that it prepared Broadway.

B In Prelude to a Kiss, Craig Lucas's modern romantic fairy tale, a sleepless beauty asks her groom (жених) on their wedding day whether he will love her when she's "a hundred years old with a moustache and yellow teeth." He assures her that he will. It's only a matter of days before he gets the chance to prove it.

C Prelude examines love and responsibility, all the while thinking over if we ever really know anyone. The characters may journey through never-never land in the process, but their thoughts and emotions are so funny, touching and true that the play moves easily from reality to fantasy without a hint of artifice (выдумка).

D Unlike such traditional fairy tales as The Sleeping Beauty, in which a kiss breaks a spell (заклинание) and provides the story with its resolution, the kiss in Prelude casts a spell (накладывать заклятие) of sorts and is the transforming moment in the play. An old man comes into the wedding reception, gives a kiss to the bride and, in so doing, exchanges souls (душа) with her. The newlyweds, Rita and Pete, go off on their honeymoon, but within 24 hours Peter is staring at his wife and wondering aloud, "Who the hell is she, anyway?" She looks like she never sleeps, but he senses something is very wrong. And it isn't long before he discovers that Rita and the old man have switched bodies.

by Sheryl Flatow adapted from Playbill

b) Decide which statements (1-6) match with the paragraphs (A-D). Write the appropriate letter.

The idea that runs through Prelude is "Do we ever know anybody?"_______
Prelude was the most popular play in New York._______
Peter had to prove that he would love his wife even when she was very old._____
In Prelude a kiss is the beginning of all the adventures._______
The play tells about real and unreal life situations.________
Rita is a girl who never sleeps._______, _______

For film reviews (1-5) write down the titles of the films (A-F). Use each letter only once. There is one extra title.

A. Darkness

B. The Phantom of the Opera

C. National Treasure

D. The Aviator

E. The Polar Express

F. Meet the Fockers

1. _______ Having given permission to male nurse Greg (Stiller) to wed his daughter Pam (Polo), ex-CIA man Jack Byrnes (De Niro) and his wife (Banner) travel to Detroit to "meet the parents", who this time around are Mr and Mrs Focker (Hoffman and Streisand), who are as different from them as can be.

2. _______A teenage girl (Paquin) moves into a remote countryside house with her family, only to discover that their gloomy new home has a horrifying past that threatens to destroy the family.

3. _______Believing in Santa Glaus isn't easy when all of your friends and family insist that he's just make-believe. A boy's faith is rewarded one Christmas Eve when he's awakened by a steam train that pulls up in front of his house and takes him and other children to the North to meet Santa. It's all CGI (Computer Generated Images), based upon live-action motion-capture actors.

4. _______ The film is directed by Martin Scorsese and written by John Logan, tells the story of aviation pioneer Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio), the eccentric millionaire industrialist and Hollywood film mogul, famous for romancing some of the world's most beautiful women. The drama recounts the years of his life from the late 1920s through the 1940s, an epoch when Hughes was directing and producing Hollywood movies and test flying innovative aircrafts he designed and created.

5. _______ He is a masked man who roams around the Paris Opera House, haunts the actors and actresses. He falls for a young soprano named Christine (Emmy Rossum) and tutors her so well that she passes another soprano (Minnie Driver) as the city's best. He's smitten and wants Christine for his own, but she still has feelings for a childhood love, Raoul (Patrick Wilson). Feeling betrayed, the Phantom kidnaps Christine with plans to make her his eternal bride.

USE OF ENGLISH (GRAMMAR/VOCABULARY)

1) What does the audience think about it? Write down exclamatory sentences. There is an example at the beginning (0).

0. Norton Rene is a talented director. What a talented director!

1. The play is very touching.

2. The creators are wise.

3. It is so true to life.

4. Craig Lucas is an outstanding playwright.

5. The thoughts and emotions are so funny.

6. The play is their first great success.

7. The play was really funny.

8. It is a romantic story.

9. The actors are fantastic.

10. It was a magnificent performance.

2) Make the opinions sound more convincing and emphatic. Write down emphatic sentences. There is an example at the beginning (0).

0. i like opera. I do like operal

1. My friend hates operetta.

2. I enjoyed the performance.

3. It was funny.

4. It made me cry.

5. It is extraordinary.

6. I prefer staying at home.

7. Louis loves action films.

8. I find it exciting.

9. I have already seen this film.

10. We loved fairy tales when we were younger.

3) People's opinions of one and the same film can be different.

Read the opinions and use the word in capital letters to form the word that fits each space. There is an example at the beginning (0).

0. The film is so dramatic (DRAMA).

1. It is a good ________ (HISTORY) film.

2. How________ (FRIGHT) the film is!

3. It is really______ (SENSATION). I've never thought it can be so interesting.

4. The film is so________(MYSTERY). It keeps you in suspense from the beginning up to the end.

5. I can't say anything. It is___(ABSOLUTE) fantastic!



Do you know these words?

drag -

to yawn -

director -

dynamic -

genre -

feature film -

decoration -

melodrama -

to grab -

dramatic -

enthusiasm -

to shoot -

lousy -

operetta -

fondness -

sincerity -

worthwhile -

studio -

plot -

rotten -

tragedy -

splendid -

to stuff -

action film -

superb -

adaptation -

suspense -

aggression -

tear -

astonishing -

totally -

touching -

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