5. Make these requests and suggestions more polite. Begin with If you would ....

1. Excuse me. I have to make a telephone call.

2. Leave your name and telephone number. I’ll call you back as soon as I can.

3. Stay here until I return. I’d appreciate it.

St. Michael of the Golden Domes

 1. Read the text carefully and answer the comprehensive questions after it.

St.Michael of the Golden Domes

Since its reconstruction last year, St.Michael’s Square is once again part of a wider architectural ensemble together with St.Sophia’s. It was only in the mid 19th century that this overall unity became apparent because until the defensive earth walls dividing Yaroslav’s city from that of his son Izyaslav’s were demolished in the middle of the 19th century, both squares were equally important as the centres of quite separate areas of town.

St.Michael’s was built at the beginning of the 12th century by Yaroslav’s grandson Svyatopolk Izyaslavich, Prince of Kyiv. He chose a site right at the edge of the slope above Podil, where the even earlier monastery of St.Dmitri had stood. Like other Byzantine churches dating from the days of Kievan Rus, St.Michael’s was transformed at the end of the 17th century into a magnificent baroque structure. Architectural historians consider it to have been one of the most successful mergings of two distinct architectural styles. It was at this time, that the monastery took on a completely different appearance with the addition of its bell tower and the Refectory Church of St. John the Divine, among others.

Once Soviet power had been consolidated in Ukraine in 1920, the city of Kharkiv became the capital. Only 13 years later the Soviet authorities restored this title to Kyiv, on condition that the old city would be altered to suit the new idеology of the ‘workers and peasants’ state’. A commission decided accordingly to relocate the new government centre in Kyiv’s old city and this required at the very least the demolition of St.Michael’s Cathedral and the Church of the Three Blessed Ones (which stood where the Foreign Ministry is now).

In 1995 President Kuchma issued a decree on the reconstruction of a number of historical buildings which had been demolished including St.Michael’s. Work started in 1997 and gave rise to considerable controversy about the building of modern copies of 12th century masterpieces. There is a small but interesting museum on the second floor of the restored bell tower telling the story of the Monastery and its reconstruction.

In the middle of the square stands a group sculpture. Carved from Carrara marble which was collected from Italy by the entire government delegation, it consists of Princess Olga (Yaroslav’s great grandmother), St.Andrew the Apostle on the left and the brothers Cyril and Methodius, authors of the Slavonic (Cyrillic) alphabet. It replaced the concrete monuments which stood there from 1911 to 1919, designed by Kyiv sculptor Ivan Kavaleridze, who also created the original design for the statue of Yaroslav the Wise by the Golden Gate.

 2. Comprehensive check. Answer true (T) of false (F).

1. St. Michael’s was built at the beginning of the 12^th century by Yaroslav the Wise.

2. St. Michael’s was transformed at the end of the 17^th century.

3. Once Soviet power had been consolidated in Ukraine in 1920, the city of Kyiv became the capital.

4. In 1993 President Kuchma issued a decree on the reconstruction of a number of historical buildings.

5. The monument is carved from Carrara marble.

6. It consists of Princess Olga, St.Andrew the Apostle on the right and the brothers Cyril and Methodius on the left.