Pattern I

1. He is considered a rich man.

2. All things were considered.

3. She considers others.

4. Russian culture has considerable influence on the world culture.

1. Принимать все во внимание.

2. Российская культура оказывает значительное влияние на мировую культуру.

3. Он считается богачом.

4. Она считается с другими.

Pattern II

1. He accepted the fact.

2. Kievan Rus’ had accepted Orthodox Christianity in 988.

3. This price is acceptable.

4. I accepted your offer.

1. Я принял Ваше предложение.

2. Он примерился с фактом.

3. Киевская Русь приняла Православие в 988 году.

4. Эта цена приемлема.

Exercise 9. True or False statements.

1. In the late 1st millennium AD the Scandinavian Vikings also took part in the forming of Russian identity and Kievan Rus' state.

2. After the fall of Kiev in 1453, Russia remained the largest Orthodox nation in the world.

3. The situation changed in the 20th century, when the Labourist ideology became a major factor in the culture of the Soviet Union.

4. Russian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken Slavic language.

5. Russian literature is considered to be among the less influential and developed in the world.

6. The Golden Age of the Russian Poetry continued in the 20th century with the dramas of Mikhail Lermontov and Nikolay Nekrasov, poetry of Aleksandr Ostrovsky and Anton Chekhov, and the prose of Nikolai Gogol, Ivan Turgenev, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, Ivan Goncharov, Aleksey Pisemsky and Nikolai Leskov.

• TexTs for written translation

Text A.

Russian Architecture

Russian architecture began with the woodcraft buildings of ancient Slavs. Since Christianization of Kievan Rus' for several ages Russian architecture was influenced predominantly by the Byzantine architecture, until the Fall of Constantinople. Apart from fortifications (kremlins), the main stone buildings of aincient Rus' were Orthodox churches, with their many domes, often gilded or brightly painted. Aristotle Fioravanti and other Italian architects brought Renaissance trends into Russia. The 16th century saw the development of unique tent-like churches culminating in Saint Basil's Cathedral. By that time the onion dome design was also fully developed. In the 17th century, the "fiery style" of ornamentation flourished in Moscow and Yaroslavl, gradually paving the way for the Naryshkin baroque of the 1690s. After Peter the Great reforms had made Russia much closer to Western culture, the change of the architectural styles in Russia generally followed that of Western Europe.

The 18th-century taste for rococo architecture led to the splendid works of Bartolomeo Rastrelli and his followers. During the reign of Catherine the Great and her grandson Alexander I, the city of Saint Petersburg was transformed into an outdoor museum of Neoclassical architecture. The second half of the 19th century was dominated by the Byzantine and Russian Revival style (this corresponds to Gothic Revival in Western Europe). Prevalent styles of the 20th century were the Art Nouveau (Fyodor Shekhtel), Constructivism (Moisei Ginzburg and Victor Vesnin), and the Stalin Empire style (Boris Iofan). After Stalin's death a new Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, condemned the "excesses" of the former architectural styles, and in the late Soviet era the architecture of the country was dominated by plain functionalism. This helped somewhat to resolve the housing problem, but created the large massives of buildings of low architectural quality, much in contrast with the previous bright architecture. After the end of the Soviet Union the situation improved. Many churches in the Soviet times were rebuilt, and this process continues along with the restoration of various historical buildings destroyed in World War II. As for the original architecture, there is no more any common style in modern Russia, though International style has a great influence.

Text B.