title: “Chapter” pageType: exercise reviewType: mixed category: classwork sequence: 3 questions: - type: lesson-section title: “Part 1”
- type: lesson-audio-sync audio: “https://res.cloudinary.com/dewqq9m4i/video/upload/v1784710605/05_nfkisy.mp3” instruction: “Listen and read along: The Cinema, Chapter 5 - The golden age” segments: - time: 14.8 text: “Chapter 5. The ‘golden age’ of the cinema began with the talkies - when the actors on film were able to talk for the first time.” - time: 26.0 text: “In 1927, at New York’s Warner Theatre, Al Jolson, the Russian-born Hollywood actor and singer, spoke and sang six songs in the Warner Brothers film, The Jazz Singer.” - time: 41.2 text: “The first words that he spoke in the film were: ‘You ain’t seen nothing yet!‘” - time: 46.8 text: “The audiences loved him.” - time: 49.4 text: “At first, there were many problems with talking pictures.” - time: 53.7 text: “Microphones picked up the noises in the studio,” - time: 56.9 text: “directors had to stop shouting orders to the actors, and the actors had to learn all their words.” - time: 65.1 text: “Some stars of the silent screen could not make the change to ‘talkies’; audiences laughed at their funny voices.” - time: 72.9 text: “But the deep, mysterious voice of silent star Greta Garbo was a great success when she appeared in Anna Christie.” - time: 81.7 text: “The film magazines said: ‘Garbo talks!‘” - time: 85.8 text: “She also made it fashionable for women of the time to wear berets!” - time: 90.9 text: “Garbo’s career ended in 1942, when she left Hollywood, saying that she would never act again.” - time: 99.7 text: “By 1930, all films were talkies, and many actors and directors moved from the theatre into the cinema.” - time: 109.4 text: “Actors like Edward G.” - time: 111.0 text: “Robinson, Spencer Tracy, Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable and Bette Davis began to appear on the screen.” - time: 119.7 text: “Musical films began to be popular in the 1930s.” - time: 123.9 text: “Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers starred in Flying Down to Rio (1933).” - time: 130.4 text: “This was the first of nine films which they made together.” - time: 135.1 text: “And then there were the fast-moving crime films of James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart and Edward G. Robinson.” - time: 142.9 text: “One of the best was The Roaring Twenties.” - time: 146.4 text: “The 1930s also introduced singing cowboys like Roy Rogers and Gene Autry.” - time: 153.6 text: “But it was the film Stagecoach, directed by John Ford in 1939, which made a star of one of Hollywood’s most famous cowboys, John Wayne.” - time: 165.4 text: “The year 1939 was when audiences first saw what is now sometimes described as the greatest film ever made, Gone With the Wind, starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh.” - time: 179.1 text: “The book appeared in 1936 and sold a million in the first six months.” - time: 185.4 text: “The film has earned more than $300 million and won eight Oscars, with the first one ever given to a black actress, Hattie McDaniel, who played the part of ‘Mammy’.” - time: 201.2 text: “Alfred Hitchcock made the first British talking picture in 1929.” - time: 207.3 text: “It was called Blackmail, and was first written as a silent film.” - time: 212.0 text: “Hitchcock quickly added words and sound when he saw how popular talking pictures were becoming.”
- type: lesson-multi-quiz instruction: “Choose the correct answer.” items: - question: “Why did the cinema change from silent films to talkies?” options: [“Because audiences wanted more colour”, “Because actors could speak and sing on film”, “Because films became shorter”] correct: 1 - question: “What made the 1930s such an important period in film history?” options: [“The rise of talking films and the start of a new golden age”, “The end of Hollywood”, “The invention of television”] correct: 0
- type: lesson-speaking title: “Your opinion” durationOptions: [30, 60, 90] recommended: 60 prompt: “Which kind of film do you prefer: a silent film, a musical, or a talkie with a strong story? Why?” usefulPhrases: - “I prefer…” - “because…” - “interesting, exciting, emotional, funny”
- type: lesson-section title: “Part 2”
- type: lesson-audio-sync audio: “https://res.cloudinary.com/dewqq9m4i/video/upload/v1784710601/06_zgclke.mp3” instruction: “Listen and read along: The Cinema, Chapter 6 - The ‘star system’” segments: - time: 14.3 text: “In 1932, Technicolor introduced a camera which could produce ‘natural’ colours for the films that were shown in the cinemas.” - time: 27.3 text: “Filming in Technicolor was expensive, but soon every kind of movie could be seen for the first time in glorious Technicolor.” - time: 38.4 text: “The ‘golden age’ of the cinema continued through most of the 1940s.” - time: 43.7 text: “Audiences filled the picture palaces in their towns, enjoying exciting films like Citizen Kane, Casablanca and Double Indemnity, and musicals like Meet Me in St. Louis and Easter Parade.” - time: 59.5 text: “During the Second World War, many people went to the cinema for another reason as well.” - time: 65.6 text: “They could see the main film, but they could also see newsreels - films of the week’s news, with all the latest information about the war.” - time: 76.9 text: “At this time, actors worked for just one company.” - time: 80.5 text: “This was known as the ‘star system’.” - time: 84.3 text: “MGM Studios told everyone that it had ‘more stars than there are in heaven’ working for them.” - time: 91.3 text: “Stars like Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Jean Harlow, Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable and Joan Crawford.” - time: 100.0 text: “Studios often chose or wrote stories especially for their big stars.” - time: 106.0 text: “And sometimes a director would be brought in from another studio to do a film because that star liked him, or worked well with him.” - time: 114.9 text: “Or a cameraman would be brought in because he knew how to make the star look his or her best on screen.” - time: 123.0 text: “The Academy Awards are given every year by the U.S. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.” - time: 129.8 text: “They are called ‘Oscars’, and they are supposed to have got their name because they looked like the Uncle Oscar of Margaret Herrick, a lady who worked in the Academy film library.” - time: 142.3 text: “The first Awards were given in May 1929, and the Oscars were awarded for silent films only.” - time: 149.1 text: “In 1930, the award-giving was broadcast on the radio, and today it is seen on TV by millions of people all over the world.” - time: 161.6 text: “Film fact. One star, Marlon Brando, was paid $2.25 million for ten days’ work on Superman (1978).” - time: 174.2 text: “He appears on the screen for about ten minutes in the film.”
- type: lesson-multi-quiz instruction: “Choose the correct answer.” items: - question: “What was the ‘star system’ in Hollywood?” options: [“Actors worked for many different companies at the same time”, “Actors worked for just one company and were promoted by that studio”, “Films were made only in black and white”] correct: 1 - question: “Why are the Academy Awards called ‘Oscars’?” options: [“Because they were given only to directors”, “Because they were inspired by a statue that looked like Uncle Oscar”, “Because they were shown only in cinemas”] correct: 1
- type: lesson-speaking title: “Your opinion” durationOptions: [30, 60, 90] recommended: 60 prompt: “Would you rather work in a big film studio or make independent films? Why?” usefulPhrases: - “I would rather…” - “because…” - “creative, exciting, difficult, interesting”
- type: lesson-section title: “Part 3”
- type: lesson-audio-sync audio: “https://res.cloudinary.com/dewqq9m4i/video/upload/v1784710603/07_nkdf8h.mp3” instruction: “Listen and read along: The Cinema, Chapter 7 - Bigger and better!” segments: - time: 14.8 text: “In the 1950s, people stopped going to the cinema two or three times a week and stayed at home to watch TV instead.” - time: 28.3 text: “The cinema queues got shorter and the film companies realized that they had to fight back.” - time: 35.5 text: “They tried to do this by making films that looked as different as possible from TV.” - time: 42.3 text: “TV in the 1950s was in black-and-white, and the pictures were shown on very small screens.” - time: 50.1 text: “So the cinema produced CinemaScope, which made it possible to show films on a much wider screen than ever before, and, of course, in colour.” - time: 61.6 text: “And ‘big screens’ meant ‘big’ films that looked good on a wide screen.” - time: 67.1 text: “Films like The Robe (1953) and Ben Hur (1959).” - time: 74.0 text: “Then came 3-D, where the pictures seemed to jump off the screen at the audience.” - time: 82.0 text: “Warner Brothers had a success with House of Wax in 1953, and there were nearly twenty more 3-D films shown in cinemas that year.” - time: 92.2 text: “Alfred Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder (1954) was popular.” - time: 98.2 text: “But the people in the audience had to wear special coloured glasses to see the effects of 3-D, and they soon became bored with having to do this; so the studios stopped making 3-D films.” - time: 112.8 text: “Cinerama films were popular for a short time, but it needed three projectors and a bigger screen again to show them.” - time: 121.6 text: “People had to move their heads from side to side to see what was happening at both ends of the screen.” - time: 128.3 text: “But Cinerama films were very expensive to make, and it was difficult to put the very big screens into most cinemas.” - time: 138.0 text: “The studios continued their fight with TV, but television was becoming more and more popular.” - time: 145.3 text: “Then, in 1955, RKO Studios needed money quickly to stay alive, and they sold their films to television.” - time: 155.6 text: “Other studios soon began to do the same, and old films became popular on TV.” - time: 162.7 text: “But although the ‘golden age’ of the cinema was finished, films continued to be made, and there were some big successes, like the James Bond films From Russia with Love (1963) and Goldfinger (1964).” - time: 180.1 text: “There were popular family films starring Julie Andrews - Mary Poppins (1965) and The Sound of Music (1965).” - time: 190.7 text: “Then the 1970s brought The Godfather (1972), Jaws (1975), Star Wars (1977) and Superman (1979).” - time: 203.4 text: “In the 1980s, young people hurried to see E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Ghostbusters (1984), Back to the Future (1985) and Batman (1989).” - time: 221.0 text: “And in the 1990s came Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park (1993), with its wonderful special effects and exciting story.” - time: 230.7 text: “You can see the video of Jurassic Park at home on your own television, but the special effects are much more frightening on a big screen in a dark cinema.”
- type: lesson-multi-quiz instruction: “Choose the correct answer.” items: - question: “Why did the cinema fight back against television in the 1950s?” options: [“Because people stopped going to the cinema”, “Because TV had no colour”, “Because cinemas wanted to become smaller”] correct: 0 - question: “Which new cinema technology was designed to make films feel bigger and more exciting?” options: [“3-D and CinemaScope”, “radio and cassette tapes”, “silent subtitles”] correct: 0 - question: “Why do big-screen cinemas still feel special today?” options: [“Because the effects are more exciting on a large screen in a dark room”, “Because films are always free there”, “Because all cinema seats are outside”] correct: 0
- type: lesson-speaking title: “Your opinion” durationOptions: [30, 60, 90] recommended: 60 prompt: “Do you prefer watching a film at home or in a cinema? Why?” usefulPhrases: - “I prefer…” - “because…” - “big screen, comfortable, exciting, convenient”