IV. Translate the following sentences into Ukrainian:

1. London ranks as one of the world’s leading cultural centers.

2. The British Museum preserves and interprets the history of civilization.

3. Its treasures include the sculptures from the Parthenon in Athens.

4. The New London Museum contains items related to the history of London.

5. Old masters both British and foreign are being kept in the National Gallery.

6. The National Portrait Gallery contains portraits of notable people from the Middle Ages to the present time.

7. The idea of the Tate Gallery took shape in 1890.

8. Moreover it was а more annexe to the National Gallery.

9. In the following years the scope of the collection has been both transformed and enlarged.

10. The Gallery of the Royal Academy is used only for special exhibitions.

11. The holdings of ceramics, glass, textiles, costumes, silver, ironwork, jewellery, furniture, medieval objects, sculpture, prints and printmaking, drawings and photographs are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world.

V. Read and retell the text:

London ranks as one of the world’s leading cultural centеrs. The best London Museums and Art Galleries are in the West End.

Museums. There are over 240 museums in London. Among the more important are the British Museum (antiquities from all over the world), the Victoria and Albert Museum (applied and decorative arts), the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, the Imperial War Museum, the National Maritime Museum, and the Museum of London. The British Museum in London, England is one of the world’s greatest museums of human history and culture. Its collections, which number more than 13 million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its beginning to the present. The British Museum was established in 1753, largely based on the collections of the physician and scientist Sir Hans Sloane.The museum was opened to the public on Jan. 15, 1759, in Montagu Ноuse in London’s West End. In 1847 a new building replaced Montagu House and many additions have since been made.

The Museum preserves and interprets the history of civilization.

It specializes in ancient Mediterranean civilization and medieval Europe. Its treasures include the sculptures called the Rosetta stone from Egypt. The Museum also has important relics from the Aztec empire and from such ancient Mesopotamian cities as Ur and Nineveh.

The British Museum also has a reference library, called the British Museum Reading Room, which is not simply part of the Museum, but is the largest and the most important reference library in Britain. The Library has more than 80 miles of shelves. It is one of the largest collections of books and manuscripts in the world. As with all other national museums and art galleries in Britain, the Museum charges no admission fee, although charges are levied for some temporary special exhibitions

The Museum has ten departments: 1) Prints and Drawings, 2) Coins and Medals, 5) Egyptian Antiquities, 4) Western Asiatic Antiquities, 7) Oriental Antiquities, 8) Prehistoric and Romano-British Antiquities, 9) Japanese Antiquities, and 10) Ethnography. The ethnographical collections aге displayed in the Museum of Mankind in Burlington Gardens in London.

The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in Londonis the world’s largest and finest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects. Founded in 1852 as the South Kensington Museum, the V&A has since grown to now cover some 12.5 acres^[2]and 145 galleries. Its collection span 5000 years of art, from ancient times to the present day, in virtually every medium, from the cultures ofEurope,North America,AsiaandNorth Africa. The holdings ofceramics,glass,textiles,costumes, silver,ironwork,jewellery,furniture,medievalobjects,sculpture,printsandprintmaking,drawingsandphotographsare amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world. The museum possesses the world’s largest collection of post-classicalsculpture; the holdings ofItalian Renaissanceitems are the largest outsideItaly. The departments of Asia include art fromSouth Asia,Japan,China,Koreaand theIslamic world. TheEast Asiancollections are among the best in Europe, with particular strengths in ceramics andmetalwork, whilst the Islamic collection, alongside theMusée du LouvreandMetropolitan Museum of Art, New York, is amongst the largest in the world.

The National History Мuseum in Сгоmmеll Road is the home of the national collections of animals and plants and of the minerals and rocks from which the earth is built up. The New London Museum contains items related to London’s history. It is formed by a merger of two museums, the Guildhall and the London Museum. It is housed in a large modern building near St. Paul’s Cathedral and opened in 1977.

The Science Museum contains exhibits illustrating the history of science and industry. It displays machinery, scientific instruments and apparatuses for scientific research and for educational purposes.

The Victoria and Albert Museum has one of the world’s largest collections of fine and applied arts of all countries, periods and styles. It is named after Queen Victoria and her husband Albert.

Public art galleries.The National Gallery is situated in Trafalgar Square. It was opened to the public on the 10^thof May 1824. The National Gallery offers a wonderful collection of European art of all schools and periods. Old Masters both British and foreign are being kept there. The Gallery contains a superb collection of Italian, Dutch and English Renaissance paintings.

The National Portrait Gallery contains portraits of notable people from the Middle Ages to the present time.

The Tate Gallery houses a rich collection of British paintings of all periods, modern foreign paintings and modern sculpture both British and foreign. The idea of the Tate Gallery took shape in 1690. That year Henry Tate, the founder of the Gallery, presented to the nation sixty-five paintings and two sculptures, almost all of them the work of Victorian contemporaries. But the building for the Gallery was built seven years later. When opened the Tate Gallery consisted of eight rooms and was intended as a collection of contemporary British painting only. Moreover, it was a mere annexe to the National Gallery, the biggest national collection of Fine Arts in Great Britain, situated in Trafalgar Square.

In the following years the scope of the collection has been both transformed and enlarged. Instead of being a collection of the nineteenth – century British printing it has become the national collection of British painting of the 16^th- 20^thcenturies.

At present the collection numbers over thousand British paintings and drawings. Among them there are the works of such famous British painters as W. Hogarth, T. Gainsborough, George Stubbs, Benjamin West, Philip James, Turner, Constable, W. Blake, Samuel Palmer, William Hunt, and many others; over three hundred and fifty modern foreign paintings (the works of Pissaro, Vincent van Gogh, Pierre Bonnard, Renri Matisse, Picasso, George Braque, Griacomo Balla, Marc Chagall) and over four hundred pieces of modern sculpture including the works of Barbara Hepworth, Reg Butler, Lynn Armitage, Henry Moore.

The Hayward Gallery, a part of the South Bank Cultural Centre, is a small gallery built in the 1950’s by the Greater London Council on the South bank of the Thames for special exhibitions.

The Gallery of the Royal Academy in Burlington House near Piccadily is used only for special exhibitions. The Royal Academy of Arts was founded in 1768 by Sir Joshua Reynolds as first president “for the purpose of cultivating and improving the arts of painting, sculpture end architecture”.