﻿ Practical training "American cinema" - Країнознавство США ІІ семестр - ПЛАНИ-КОНСПЕКТИ УРОКІВ - 2016 рік

Країнознавство США ІІ семестр - ПЛАНИ-КОНСПЕКТИ УРОКІВ - 2016 рік

LESSON 19 Practical training "American cinema"

Aims and objectives:

- to introduce and practise vocabulary, grammar;

- to develop skills in reading and speaking;

- to gain knowledge and interest in the history of the country.



Greeting. Introducing the topic

T. Good morning! Today we’re going to work on the topic “American cinema”.

Warm up

Task 1. Answer the questions.

1. What famous American directors, actors or actresses can you name?

2. What is your favorite American film?


Reading and grammar

Task 2. Complete the text with the verbs in the brackets.

The cinema of the United States ... (to have) a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history ... (to separate) into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period. Since the 1920s, the American film industry ... (to gross) more money every year than that of any other country. In 1878, Eadweard Muybridge ... (demonstrate) the power of photography to capture motion. In 1894, the world’s first commercial motion picture exhibition ... (to give) in New York City, using Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope. The United States ... (to be) in the forefront of sound film’s development in the following decades. Since the early 20th century, the U.S. film industry (to base) in and around Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. Picture City, FL was also a planned site for a movie picture production center in the 1920s, but due to the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane, the idea ... (to collapse) and Picture City ... (to return) back to the original name of Hobe Sound. Director D. W. Griffith was central to the development of film grammar and Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane (1941) ... (to cite) in critics’ polls as the greatest film of all time. American screen actors like John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe ... (to become) iconic figures, while producer / entrepreneur Walt Disney was a leader in both animated film and movie merchandising. The major film studios of Hollywood are the primary source of the most commercially successful movies in the world, such as “Gone with the Wind” (1939), “Star Wars” (1977), “Titanic” (1997), and “Avatar” (2009). Today, American film studios collectively generate several hundred movies every year, making the United States the third most prolific producer of films in the world — the first being India and the second being Nigeria.

Task 3. Complete the sentences.

1. The history of American cinema is separated into four main periods: ... .

2. In 1878, Edward Muybridge ... .

3. Since the early 20th century, the U.S. film industry has been based in ... .

4. American screen actors like ... .

5. The major film studios of Hollywood are ... .

Task 4. Complete the text with the words from the box.

Troupe; explore; enterprise; nickelodeons; employment; director; moviemakers

In early 1910, ... D. W. Griffith was sent by the Biograph Company to the west coast with his acting ... , consisting of actors Blanche Sweet, Lillian Gish, Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, and others. They started filming on a vacant lot near Georgia Street in downtown Los Angeles. While there, the company decided to ... new territories, traveling several miles north to Hollywood, a little village that was friendly and enjoyed the movie company filming there. Griffith then filmed the first movie ever shot in Hollywood, In Old California, a Biography melodrama about California in the 19th century, when it belonged to Mexico.

In the early 20th century, when the medium was new, many Jewish immigrants found ... in the U.S. film industry. They were able to make their mark in: the exhibition of short films in storefront theaters called ... , after their admission price of a nickel (five cents). Within a few years, ambitious men like Samuel Goldwyn, William Fox, Carl Laemmle, Adolph Zukor, Louis B. Mayer, and the Warner Brothers (Harry, Albert, Samuel, and Jack) had switched to the production side of the business. Soon they were the heads of a new kind of ... : the movie studio.


Task 5. Match.

1) William

a) Hitchcock

2) the Warner

b) Barrymore

3) Lionel

c) Fox

4) Alfred

d) Dietrich

5) Samuel

e) Valentino

6) Rudolph

f) Brothers

7) Marlene

g) Goldwyn

Task 6. Write the events in American cinema which took place at the following times.

• In 1878 • Since the 1920s

• In early 1910 • In 1941

• In 1894 • In 2009



Task 7. Answer the questions.

1. How can you describe the development of American cinema?

2. Can you name the most prominent and outstanding persons in American film industry?

3. What the most famous American films can you name?

Home assignment

Write about your favorite American actor or actresses. (Use Internet sites: en.wikipedia; www.wiki.com.)
