Entertainment

1. Practise saying, translate and learn the vocabulary:

become a victim

a functional disorder

drop the tension of the day

surf in the Internet

be deprived of smth

human artistic and creative development

familiarization with literary heritage

sophisticated minds

genuine connoisseurs of art

human passions

a guaranteed live performance

a widescreen

a multiplex

TV-viewers

meet demands

satisfy every taste

couch potatoes

a remote control

download music

twitter at charts and forums

the audience of grateful readers

leisure patterns

special effects

box office hits

2. Read the text. Which of these kinds of entertainment do you feel positive / negative about? What other kinds can you add?

How do you feel when suddenly all lights in your house go dead, your telephone silent and your laptop miserably low-charged? You look out of the window into growing darkness embracing the city and realize that behind other windows there must be thousands of people just like you who have become victims of some electrical functional disorder. You feel disappointed, bored and absolutely helpless. The very idea of staying without electricity even for a couple of hours scares you to death and paralyzes your whole existence. You can’t do what you normally do to drop the tension of the day and relax just a bit. You can’t read a book, you can’t watch TV or videos, you can’t play computer games, you can’t surf in the Internet, you can’t listen to the radio; in other words, you can’t be entertained. You feel as if you were thrown in the ancient past when people were deprived of electricity, and therefore all pleasures of life.

But that is where you are wrong, because today’s variety of entertainment is a result of the long evolution of human creative and artistic development. Theatre can be regarded to be the oldest establishment of public entertainment tracing back to the ancient Greece. The appearance of theatre was absolutely natural and considerably important, as it contributed to human communication, self-knowledge, self-development and familiarization with literary heritage, especially at the time preceding the invention of the typing machine. Throughout the whole history of its development, theatre has remained a sort of entertainment designed for sophisticated minds, genuine connoisseurs of art. Only in theatre you can face real human passions, enjoy a guaranteed live performance, cry your eyes out at some heart-breaking story or kill yourself laughing at some witty comedy. Nevertheless, today theatre-houses don’t seem to be that overcrowded as they used to be elbowed by competitive cinema-houses.

Cinema, in its turn, is fairly thought to be one of the greatest inventions and the single greatest influence on people’s lives in the 20^th century. Ever since its great leap forward in 1939, when movies started to be made in colour, movie industry has never stopped evolving. Modern cinema-houses offer a great diversity of movies designed on a spectacular scale on a widescreen with the added complications of 3-D and multi-track stereo sound. Besides, cinema-houses attract huge audience by comfortable location (almost every shopping-centre includes a multiplex with five or more screens) and smart advertising tricks (loyalty cards, special offers, happy hours, students’ day). Movie stars dominate the TV and the papers showing the jet set with their extravagant parties, exclusive country clubs and flashy sports cars. Celebrities’ names are in the air and their lives are under a magnifying glass in the hands of paparazzi. Such popularity is the result of hard work of both cinema and television, which is a decent rival of cinema and a constantly growing source of entertainment.

Ever since its appearance television has undergone considerable transformations to present today a global network of channels providing TV-viewers with all possible sorts of programmes and movies to meet all demands and satisfy every taste. Television has made it possible for people to keep informed and entertained 24/7 without leaving their house. TV has the biggest possible audience, since it’s difficult to find a household without at least one TV set. TV offers its viewers up to 300 channels (state, regional, local, foreign, private), which turns the most curious ones into couch potatoes, with the remote control being continuation of their hand. Unfortunately, TV can’t provide two-ways communication, which is successfully fulfilled by Internet.

Internet, in its turn, presents the latest great invention in the sphere of human entertainment. It has really made the world a small place, where everybody can be reached and everything can be found. With this smart invention it is possible to watch movies, programmes, concerts online, to send mail instantly, to download music, films, games, to find friends and people with similar interests to yours from all over the world and communicate with them online, twitter at charts and forums, search for books, papers and magazines.

Fortunately enough, there are still people who are able to go through a book from beginning to end. Book shops are the same popular and every capable writer is sure to find the audience of grateful readers. The attendance at libraries has fallen down a bit due to the appearance of electronic libraries with free access on-line. Printed books exist peacefully alongside with their electronic twins, as there are still many people who prefer friendly pages of a book to a screen of a clunky computer.

These are just four most popular and available kinds of human entertainment. It is easy to add a hundred more to the list. The way we like being entertained totally depends on our personality, way of life, geographical location, cultural and family values and many other things. But we cannot deny that our leisure patterns have changed so much that we cannot, but feel sorry for the people in the ancient times.