Choose the proper English word

1. плотник	a) brick layer	b) builder	c) carpenter
2. блеск	a) splendour	b) feature	c) creation
3. крыльцо	a) gate	b) arch	c) porch
4. колокольня	a) church	b) bell tower	c) dome
5. украшения	a) embroideries	b) figures	c) vaults
6. талант	a) divinity	b) power	c) gift
7. изба	a) structure	b) log-cabin	c) hut

Find English equivalents for the following Russian words:

A.  изящный; преобладать; стремиться; величественный; создавать; заимствовать; видимый; вырезать; радовать; тонкий; поддерживать; щедрый

B. to yearn; to borrow; lavish; graceful; to predominate; to carve; visible; to support; to gratify; slender; majestic; to create

8. Form all possible word combinations:

A                                                          B

brilliant traditional	creation structure
huge	decoration
wooden	dome
masonry	architecture
ancient	building
majestic	cathedral
graceful	bell tower
decorative	feature
lavish	element

Read the following word combinations and translate them into Russian.

early architecture; icon painting; defensive sites; the most natural building material; beautiful carved decoration; fortress towers; wooden and masonry architecture; the few remaining examples; wooden church architecture; gracefully silhouetted multi-domed cathedral; cubical basic structure; slender columns; vertical wall section; small sculptured figures; stone embroideries; yearning for massiveness; expression of slendour; lavish decoration

Read the text and get ready to speak about early Russian architecture

Early Russian Architecture

Russian borrowed its early architecture, like its icon painting, from Byzantium. From the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries early towns were built on defensive sites on high river banks. From afar were visible low white walls with towers, churches with brilliant domes and bell towers. The finest examples of traditional architecture can be seen in the towns of Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Suzdal, Bogolyubovo and Sergiev Posad.

In Russia, timber has always been the most natural building material. Russian carpenters decorate the diverse structures they were building with beautiful carved decorations above windows and porches. One can see such decorations on log-cabins, fortress towers, huge cathedrals, churches and monasteries.

Wooden and masonry architecture developed side by side in medieval Russia, one stimulating and gratifying the love for verticality and slenderness, the other satisfying a yearning for massiveness, monumentality, and lavish decoration in the expression of power and splendour. The few remaining examples of the ancient wooden structures are now in Rostov and also in the museums of wooden buildings in Novgorod, Kostroma and Suzdal. These examples show the skill and gift of their builders to harmonize the building proper with the landscape.

The most majestic and famous examples of wooden church architecture may be found on the island of Kizhi in Lake Onega. Here you will be impressed by the grand and gracefully silhouetted multi-domed Cathedral of the Transfiguration and ten-domed Church of the Intercession with its bell tower.

Wooden architecture predominates in Northern Russia and in some of the older settlements and towns of the Siberia, such as Tyumen.

One of the best-known Russian churches in the northern style is the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl (Pokrova na Nerli). Today it stands alone in the midst of green meadows, the small lake below reflecting its white walls and single dome.

This church is one of the most poetic creations of early Russian architecture which ever come down to us out of the past. The church is not large, and very simple in plan, with the cubical basic structure usual for the north. It is light and graceful, the structure as a whole seems hardly to touch the ground. Each facade is made up of three sections divided vertically by slender columns, and horizontally connected by a decorative band of blind arcading of the same white stone as the wall itself. As for the with long, narrow windows and small sculptured figures high up in the arch.

The builders of the most of Vladimir and Suzdal churches used cut stones instead of brick, typical for Byzantine and Kievan churches. Also they used stone embroideries, uncommon in Byzantium. They adopted the general features of the square plan, with three altar apses and the four columns supporting a flat cupola with its circular drum.