Mr. Smeeth had his seat in the gallery. It was not very comfortable, high up too, but he liked the look of the place.

That night there was a queer mixture in the Queen’s Hall: a good many foreigners, Jewy people, a few wild-looking young fellows with dark khaki shirts and longish hair, a sprinkling of quiet middle-aged men, and any number of pleasant young girls and refined ladies.

The symphony concerts at the Queen’s Hall enjoyed popularity. The Queen’s Hall was overcrowded during symphony concerts each time.

5) How large was the orchestra? What instruments did Mr. Smeeth recognize?

The orchestra was large; there were nearly one hundred units. Mr. Smeeth recognized violins, cellos, double-basses, flutes, clarinets, bassoons, trumpets or cornets, and trombones among the instruments of the orchestra.

6) What impression did the first item on the programme produce on Mr. Smeeth?

The first item on the programme produced a negative impression on Mr. Smeeth. It seemed to Mr. Smeeth to be too noisy and too disorderly. Mr. Smeeth didn’t like that sort of music.

Yes, Mr. Smeeth’s neighbour shared Mr. Smeeth’s opinion of the first item on the programme. He found that item terrible and shattering; he didn’t join in the applause. Moreover, he snorted a good deal, obviously to express his disapproval.

Mr. Smeeth had never heard a peace of music before that gave such an impression of thinness, boniness, cragginess, and scratchiness. It was like having thin wires pushed into your ears. In short, Mr. Smeeth was annoyed with the second item on the programme; he didn’t like it; he was shocked by it.

No, his neighbour didn’t share his feeling. He liked modern music (or said so), he found poetry in it and didn’t share Mr. Smeeth’s opinion.

Mr. Smeeth found that the concert was much better after the interval. He was delighted with the first item of the second half of the concert, with the performance of a little dark pianist. Then he was stirred by Brahms’ First symphony.

Among other musical compositions on the programme was Brahms’ First symphony.

The pianist was very good. Mr. Smeeth found that the pianist COULD play the piano. The audience was delighted with the pianist’s breathtaking and inspired performance.

13) Brahms’ First symphony was beyond Mr. Smeeth altogether, wasn’t it?

Yes, Brahms’ First symphony was beyond Mr. Smeeth altogether. He had heard of Brahms before but he knew Brahms only as the author of some Hungarian dances and he didn’t understand Brahms’ First symphony because it was a heavy classical composition.

The listeners were stirred by Brahms’ First symphony. That musical composition made an indelible impression upon all audience and at the end of the symphony all the listeners burst out into a storm of applause.

3.15. Choose a word or a phrase from the text which means roughly the same as:

Extraordinary	Out of the common; queer	Incomprehensible	Above one’s head
Friendly	Amiably	To acknowledge	To admit
Limited space	Cramped space	Funny	Queer, ridiculous
A lot of	A good many (few), a good deal (of)	Noisy	Rowdy, loud; tumultuous
A bit annoyed	Cranky	To be deceived	To be cheated
Anxious concert-goers	Eager concert-goers	To clap enthusiastically	To clap furiously
Scraps of conversation	Snatches of talk	From time to time	Now and then
An odd mixture	A queer mixture	More often	More frequently
Polished in manners	Courteous; refined	A curious effect	A queer effect

Noun	Verb	Noun	Adjective
Apology	Apologize	Necessity, necessary	Necessary
Admission	Admit*	Talent	Talented
Response	Respond	Romantic* (romanticism)	Romantic*
Encouragement	Encourage*	Sweet	Sweet
Clap	Clap	Glory	Glorious
Conduct, conductor (mus.)	Conduct	Response	Responsive*
Applause	Applaud	Noise	Noisy
Approval	Approve	Orchestra	Orchestral
Tap	Tap*
*Acknowledgement*	Acknowledge*
Doubt	Doubt
	Adjective	Verb
	Ridiculous*	Ridicule *
	*Discovered*	Discover
	Frequent*	Frequent

1) Admit*	He admitted himself beaten.
2) Encourage*	Is it kind to encourage this girl in her hopes?
3) Tap*	He went up and tapped on the window.
4) Acknowledge*	It is now generally acknowledged that he was innocent.
5) Romantic*	He is a hopeless romantic.
6) Romantic*	I wish he were more romantic.
7) Responsive*	He liked Saint Petersburg’s enthusiastic, responsive audience.
8) Ridiculous*	She had a ridiculous figure.
9) Ridicule*	His tale was ridiculed by his friends.
10) Frequent*	Your shirts have faded from frequent washing.

Любители концертов	Concert-goers	Сделать все от себя зависящее	To do one’s best
Оркестранты	Bandsmen, musicians, orchestral players	М-р Смит, со своей стороны	Mr. Smeeth, for his part
Дирижер	Conductor	Один из клиентов	One of the clients (I think, there is a misprint in the assignment: один из кларнетов; then - one of the clarinets.)
Музыкальное произведение	Musical composition; a piece if music	Сам по себе	All by oneself In and of oneself
Присоединиться к аплодисментам	To join in applause	Масса удовольствия	A good deal of pleasure

6.4. Find and write out from the text the things that George lacked to become a pianist in the first rank.

From Lea Makart’s point of view, George had no pianist’s hands. George’s hands were podgy and his fingers were short and stumpy. Moreover, George’s ear was not quite perfect. Due to it George could be only an amateur, not the professional. The weak points of his playing were perceptible. The narrator felt that he missed the peculiar charm of the musical composition he was playing. The narrator had a vague sensation that the two hands did not quite synchronize.

Tina Turner is the Queen of rock’n’roll. She's also a grandmother, an actress, a Buddhist and - most of all a survivor. And she is one of my favourite singers and actresses of the present.

Her story began on a farm in Nut Bush, Tennessee in the late 1930s. That's when Tina Turner was Anna Mae Bullock. Anna had a good voice. However, she also had dreams. The magazines, songs, and films that reached Nut Bush showed her a different world. It was a happy, beautiful world, and Anna wanted to live in it. Sixteen years later, after a lonely, difficult childhood, she moved to St Louis.

There she met the man who changed everything and made her a star – it was Ike Turner. Their hits made Tina both rich and famous. Behind the success, though, she was a sad, frightened woman. On stage, she might have been "wild", but off-stage she was the opposite. Then, one day in 1976, Tina left their band. What happened next is now a part of rock history.

Her life and career weren’t easy. In 1968 accumulated business problems and problems in Tina’s private life drove her to try to kill herself. However, Tina survived, and again musical success gave her a reason to go on living. Tina knew she needed strength, too, and the ability to really believe in herself. That's what she found in Buddhism. At the time, Tina knew nothing about Buddhism, but after some explaining Tina realized it was what she had been looking for. Everyday she began repeating the special words "Nam-myo-ho-renge-kyo" over and over again. She also read about Buddhism and talked to other Buddhists about their beliefs. Slowly the anger inside her changed to strength. She was ready for the next step. She simply began to build a new life for herself. It was difficult, but she was happy. All she needed was a chance to show her act to the music world. That chance came at The Ritz, a club in New York, in 1981. Then suddenly she succeeded in 1984 when her record “Private Dancer” became a huge international hit. And Tina Turner was back! Since then, loved and admired by millions of fans, Tina has become one of the world's few real stars. Since that, Tina Turner has continued to record and sell record-breaking albums. Her tours became widely successful, especially in Europe.

In her album "Private Dancer" Turner throws herself into the material, her voice rasping but strong, physical and impossibly sensual. There isn't a single dud among the songs, and they're given modern rock settings that are neither cool nor very fussy. Turner seems to completely understand the touch that each of these songs needed. When she sings about being a "private dancer, a dancer for money, and any old music will do," she gets across the resignation of an old stripper with an appropriate minimum of self-pity.

Success came in the second half of Tina’s life. It's her time now, starting from about her mid-40s. Her endurance comes from the fact that Tina became successful from working, and because there's a desire from the people for what Tina does. Speaking about Tina I want to paraphrase the words of her song “She is simply the best, better than all the rest…”.