Art on the streets of London

1. Listen to the programme and take notes under the = following headings

Person / People:

• Who?

• Personal details – age, where from etc.

• Why important?

Place/s:

• Where?

• Why important?

Other important information.

Useful / interesting language & meanings.

Vocabulary

to be honest – this expression indicates that what you are about to say, you really mean;

to be inhibited about something – to be shy about something;

in inverted commas – you can use this expression to highlight the fact that you are giving just one view of something;

‘the best of the best’ – means ‘the very, very best’!

2. Listening for specific information once again. There are 12 factual mistakes in this script. Listen to the audio and see if you can spot them!

Amber: Hello, I’m Amber and you’re listening to bbclearningenglish.com In People and Places today, we meet the manager of the National Gallery in London. The gallery is home to one of the greatest collections of Western European painting in the world. But, instead of a tour of the gallery, we walk with Charles Saumarez-Smith around the streets of Soho and Covent Garden – two lively parts of London famous for adult shops, Indian cafes and the Royal Opera House. Why the walk? Well, over the summer, the National Gallery is putting 94 lifesize, framed paintings on the walls of alleyways, shops and cafes in Soho and Covent Garden. These aren’t the real paintings, of course, but copies, ‘reproductions’, or ‘versions’ of the real things. Here’s Charles now. Notice he uses the expression ‘i.e.’ – an abbreviation of ‘that is to say’ or ‘in other words’, which you are more likely to hear spoken than see written. And he explains the purpose of displaying these copies of valuable paintings. He says many, many people feel shy about going into the National Gallery, they feel ‘inhibited’, and they should!

As you listen, try to catch the adverb Charles uses to describe the ‘high-quality reproductions’.

Charles Saumarez-Smith

What we’re doing is putting up pretty high-quality reproductions. To be honest, I’ve seen this several times already, but it’s a way of bringing works of art, or versions of them – i.e. reproductions – from the walls of the National Gallery out into the streets. And what I’ve discovered during the nine years I’ve been director is that there are many, many people who are inhibited about coming in to the National Gallery and shouldn’t be. It’s cheap to go in, anybody can go in, but people don’t necessarily know that, and so bringing them out onto the streets is a way of indicating it.

Amber: Did you catch it? Charles says the reproductions are ‘pretty high-quality’ – ‘pretty’ here means ‘fairly’.

Fairly high-quality. Listen again and notice the expression ‘to be honest’ – this is a useful way of indicating that what are about to say is what you really feel.

Charles Saumarez-Smith

What we’re doing is putting up pretty high-quality reproductions. To be honest, I’ve seen this several times already, but it’s a way of bringing works of art, or versions of them – i.e. reproductions – from the walls of the National Gallery out into the streets. And what I’ve discovered during the nine years I’ve been director is that there are many, many people who are inhibited about coming in to the National Gallery and shouldn’t be. It’s cheap to go in, anybody can go in, but people don’t necessarily know that, and so bringing them out onto the streets is a way of indicating it.

Amber: So the reproductions on the streets are like a wonderful advertisement for the gallery. And Charles hopes that when people see the reproductions, they might not need to go to the gallery. After all, the pictures in the National Gallery belong to the queen and you don’t have to pay to go in and see them. Next, Charles explains how they chose which paintings to reproduce for display on the streets. Try to catch one or two of the ways they put together this special ‘list’.

Charles Saumarez-Smith

Essentially, we’ve selected the main works from the collection and the lesser-known. I mean, one of the things we’ve done is look at the things we, ourselves, regard as – in inverted commas – ‘the best’, but there’re also works which we know are very popular because they’re bought as posters and reproductions, and as I understand it, the list is an amalgamation of the best of the best.

Amber: So, they chose, they ‘selected’, ‘the main works’ from the gallery’s ‘collection’ – the principal works, the greatest in importance. And also ‘the best-known’ paintings, and the ones people buy postcards of in the gallery shop! Listen again and notice Charles uses the expression ‘in inverted commas’. Inverted commas are speech marks, and Charles uses this expression to highlight the fact that he is giving just one view of what makes a great painting! Oh, and ‘an amalgamation’ is the result of putting things together, of combining them.

Charles Saumarez-Smith

Essentially, we’ve selected the main works from the collection and the lesser-known. I mean, one of the things we’ve done is look at the things we, ourselves, regard as – in inverted commas – ‘the best’, but there’re also works which we know are very popular because they’re bought as posters and reproductions, and as I understand it, the list is an amalgamation of the best of the best.

Amber: Now here’s a list of the language we focussed on in the programme today.

Hoglands

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 753