Performer B2 Unit 6

The audience at the television ________ appreciated the show very much.

The festival organizers wanted to provide a platform for the ________ of the human spirit.

His latest book is very inspiring; he is building up a ________ for his originality in writing novels.

The popular show quickly became a living ________ of entertainment.

They have been looking for the perfect ________ for their wedding ceremony for two years!

Adolescents always get ________ from live stage concerts of their favourite pop singers.

Banksy is one of the world's most famous ________ artists.

Festivals can be a living ________ of entertainment.

He is building up a ________ as a street artist.

The art exhibition was amazing because it provided a ________ of different forms of ________ arts.

I have recently read that Michael Jackson's Thriller is by ________ the ________ seller record. I do not know if this is still so. More and ________ singers are becoming ________ famous.

The movie was ________ than Susan had expected and she ________ enjoyed the characters' costumes and the setting.

I urgently need to find a venue for my birthday party ________ in town.

The art exhibition opened at night time so we visited it in the ________. It was amazing!

There are many ________ in my grandfather's garden.

The house is not ________. It is a work of art of the neoclassical architecture.

My mother was at the bus stop when she felt the ________. She said it was the most terrible experience she has ever had.

I saw an installation art made out of ________.

It was ________ (unusual) live concert of my life! The venue was very old-fashioned.

She built up a reputation as ________ (fine) performer of the Festival.

Leonardo da Vinci's Monna Lisa is ________ (amazing) The Last Supper. The first one is ________ (small) the second one.

The student visited the museum. He enjoyed the sculptures and was ________ (interested) in them than in the paintings.

In my opinion, an opera is ________ (prestigious) form of entertainment on earth.  

The audience was listening to his song a bit ________ (quietly) than usual.

In competitions the ________ you run, the better it is.

Susan moved in a ________ larger house.

The documentary that I watched last night was ________ good.

The artist's performance was ________ boring.

The sooner I leave, the more ________ I will reach the airport.

Drawings from the past

Archaeologists who are now working at Pompeii, one of the most famous archeological parks in the world, continue to uncover extraordinary buildings, like the first incredibly emotional remains of the ancient city that were first discovered about 300 years ago. The latest finding is a newly unearthed house with brightly coloured animal graffiti. The residence, which probably belonged to a member of Pompeii's upper class, has been named the House of Dolphins as the marine mammals are painted on the walls and on the roof. The classical paintings in the house also include the images of some fish and several birds, which are as amazing as the dolphins. At the moment, archeologists are working in a rather elegant area of Pompeii, called Regio V, which is a northeastern street that had not been excavated since the immediate postwar period, with some parts completely untouched. The finding of the house was quite unintentional as the House of Dolphins was discovered no later than a week ago, a few days after the discovery of the most intact balconies of the richest buildings found in the area. These extraordinary discoveries, which continue to evoke great emotions, form part of the larger maintenance operation in one of the most at-risk areas of the site.

Freely adapted from: http://www.thelocal.it

A: The latest extraordinary remains of Pompeii were found in the 18th century.

B: The building which was most recently discovered was painted with scenes from the landscape.

C: Regio V was an old-fashioned area in Pompei.

D: Some parts of Pompeii were completely untouched before the excavations began.

E: The remains were found thanks to maintenance operation in the area.

Girl with Red Balloon

Girl with Red Balloon is undoubtedly Banksy's ________ famous stencil and one of his most desirable artworks. The image is now appearing ________ on the Internet but also on postcards, glasses and bags. For all Banksy lovers, it's absolutely a must-have piece of art. Its ________ low edition size contributes to its desirability – there are few Girl With Balloon signed prints (no more than 150 copies) and 600 unsigned prints.
Girl With Balloon first appeared in 2002 on the side of a bridge on the South Bank in London. The ________ seemed to depict a little girl. She was ________ sad and she was watching her red heart-shaped balloon flying away. But on a closer examination, one understands that the young girl is releasing her balloon as she stands still and incredibly emotionless. The heart shape, which is the only spot of colour, stands for innocence, dreams, hopes and love. More ________ being just a child's toy, the balloon here ________ fragility. The image of the young girl letting go of her balloon suggests that innocence can easily be lost. Banksy is known to provoke society and he may imply through his ________ that society makes children grow old ________ and faster. The graffiti was originally accompanied by the sentence "There is always hope", a quite positive message, which suggests that no matter what happens there is always a hope ________ better days. Banksy painted a second version of the girl with a red balloon. This was a miniature version of his famous stencil onto the cardboard of a cheap frame and quickly became famous as it realized £73,250 at a sale at Bonhams in 2012.

Freely adapted from: http://www.myartbroker.com

A Graffiti Tour

Less than a month ago, I decided to join a group of street art lovers for the day organized by a company specialized in graffiti tours of highly notable ________ art in town.

Our tour guide, Leaf, started leading the group down streets with the ________ famous graffiti art installations and with the especially tagged-up buildings.

Our tour group stopped at ________ most amazing murals and tags, each of which Leaf patiently explained in detail. ________ them, the tallest artwork was a beautifully executed graffiti of a yellow creature on the side of a building, ________ painted by artists from Brazil. The illegal mural will be obscured in a ________ months, Leaf explained, as a luxury rental building will be built there ________ or later. Standing in front of a quite fading mosaic, Leaf described the way of life as a modern graffiti artist. Groups of graffiti artists who work together may be called 'crews' or 'gangs', but they are not actual gang members, Leaf said, in case there is any doubt.

Freely adapted from: http://www.theguardian.com

I've always been interested in making art. All the way through school I was always making or painting or doing sort of various things beyond just what was sort of being taught. But I only took it seriously really when I started studying and even after studying at university, and that's when I really thought about making art as something more than just kind of a passing ________, but becoming something that was a full-on, a full-on sort of, not career but something that I would spend, you know, the majority of my time doing and trying to do.
For me being ________ is mostly about having the time and freedom and space, to explore new ideas or explore new ________ or having a way in which I have an idea and it develops and it grows and becomes something ________ than it is. And I think that's when I find that I'm most creative is when I am kind of developing new things and looking for new ideas and exploring in an ________ way.
The methods I mainly use is both a sort of a lot of quite ________ scale pieces of laser cut metal and also wood. So in the studio I use those kind of materials, quite heavy industrial materials, but I also use the computer to explore ideas. And so I will play with ________ and shapes that start their life in the computer and then through laser cuttings become into actual physical shapes in the real world. So there is a relationship between the virtual world of the computer and the real world of the studio.

The ________ complicated the exercise is, ________ more detailed my Maths teacher's explanation is.

There are more and ________ shopping centres in the city and fewer and ________ retailer shops in town.

For young people, contemporary artists may be more inspiring ________ famous artists of the past.

In the ________, I must admit that, the live ________ was amazing.

Classical paintings are ________ difficult to understand than Picasso's.

I would like to live in an ________ house, like an old Victorian ________.