The Influence of Climate on Architecture

The English climate, with its winds and rain, had always its effect upon the plan and certain features of buildings. When a new style was introduced, the dull English climate caused it to be adapted to the northern use. Thus, while great western portals were typical features of French cathedrals, porches in England were generally planned in the side aisles and were deep and narrow, so as to act as screens against the wind. The general dullness of the climate and the absence of strong sunlight contributed to the increased size of windows which in late Gothic often stretched across the whole width of the nave. The high-pitched roof to throw off snow and rain was another result of climatic conditions. The influence of climate was operative in the Renaissance as in former periods. In order to admit light, large windows still continued. A growing desire for comfort, coinciding with the more general use of coal as fuel in the reign of Charles I, brought about the introduction of a fireplace in each room; while chimneys continued, as in Tudor period, to be important symmetrical features of the external design, instead of being disguised as in Italy.

(after B.Fletcher, “A History of Architecture”, 1938)

Exercises

1. Give the list of words from the text characterizing English climate. Add your own ones.

2. What parts of a building are mentioned in the text? What kinds of buildings are implied?

3. Put the names of periods into a right order to make a timeline of European culture:

Ancient World - New Time - Gothic - Early Middle Ages - Renaissance

4. Give antonyms for the words from the text:

external, former, symmetrical, narrow, deep, dull.

Text IV

English Landscape. English garden

If the climate and seasons are mild and yet various, so also is the land formation (…). Constantly changing landscape accentuates the privacy of the villages set down in the folds of its hills, half-hidden in woods, or straddling a couple of small streams that are meandering towards the sea. The distances from village to village may be only a few kilometers, but the roads rarely run straight but they dip and twist and curve, following old tracks which bounded ancient fields. The English countryside is tidy and small-scale, but it is never regular and formal. And the characteristic patterning of our land means that many of our villages do not lie along significant roads which are “going together”; they are to be found at the ends of their own private lanes – a cluster of houses surrounding a church, part of which will almost certainly date back to the eleventh or twelfth century.

A garden has a different meaning for the English from its meaning for the French or Italians or Germans or Russians. An English garden is not a “kitchen garden” where vegetables and fruit bushes are planted out in rows. It is not an “orchard” where fruit trees are planted out in rows. (…) It may have trees, it will certainly have bushes, flowers, grass, little paths and, above all, shapes. It is true that lawn is not quite natural. But around the lawn, the trees, shrubs and flowers will be arranged (…) in an attempt to imitate … nature.

(from “Understanding English Literature” by Karen Hewitt)

Exercises

1. Match two parts to make logical combinations:

Constantly changing old tracks

Half-hidden nature

Following in rows

Planted of houses

Imitate to the eleventh century

Cluster in woods

Date back landscape

1. What kinds of gardens are mentioned by the author?
2. Choose words to describe a typical English landscape:

Adj.: tidy, regular, formal, small-scale, significant, private, changing, arranged;

Nouns: mountain, stream, hill, church, plain, flowerbed, path, bush, forest.

1. Compare English landscape and garden with Russian ones
2. Study Text V below. What details of English landscape are given in the poem?

Is it a park? a garden? a meadow?

Text V

Exercises

1. Look through the text B. Can we see any details of English landscape in this poem?
2. Is “weed” synonymic to “grass”? What is the difference?

Look into the dictionary for some additional meanings of the word.

1. Is “drowse” synonymic to “sleep”. Tell the difference.
2. Think about more examples of word-construction following the samples of the words:

Drowsiness – (for ex.) happiness - …

Grassy – (for ex.) noisy - …

Warmth – (for ex.) length - …

Text VI

John Donne (1572– 1631), English poet, lawyer, and priest, is now considered the preeminent representative of the metaphysical poetry. His works are notable for their strong and sensual style. Donne’s life falls into two parts. In the first, bright, ambitious and charming, he was well-known in the court and famous as a poet, the author of brilliant love poems. The second period, after his wife’s death, he becomes “Dr John Donne”, Dean of St. Paul’s cathedral. Thousands of people came to London to listen to his sermons.

The poem given here was addressed to Donne’s wife.

Then goes one of John Donne’s famous sermons – meditation № 17.

A.

Date: 2015-01-11; view: 1813