Задания 3-9
Тексты для аудирования
Presenter: I’m happy to welcome the honored guest of the program today, Stan Shaff, the sound designer for the Audium in San Francisco. He’s here with us to tell us about his latest sound experiments. Hello Stan!
Stan: Good afternoon. My latest one was playing an experimental composition to intimate audiences through 169 speakers in this room with acoustical tiles placed strategically in a pattern on the ceiling. It was the result of my 25 year old sound experiment, and it took place entirely in the dark.
Presenter: How come you started these experiments?
Stan: Well, for forty years I and my collaborator, equipment designer Doug McEachern, have been experimenting with sound in unprecedented ways. We use speakers shaped like slim flashlights and the tops of old-fashioned hairdryers dangling from the ceiling. In this unique environment, we have created a kind of action painting for the ears.
Presenter: Does it reflect in the modern world somehow?
Stan: Our ideas about the moveable energy of sound are just now finding their way into the entertainment world through surround sound at the movies, ambient nightclub settings, and the new multi-channel recording technique called DVD Audio 5.1. Some European architects, for instance, have begun rethinking the ancient concept of concert halls that present the orchestra from a raised stage, set apart from the audience.
Presenter: So, your concept must have influenced greatly the look of the Audium.
Stan: Indeed. Inside it’s amazing, like the tiny arrows on the Audium floor, the collaborators see their open-ended project as a guide to unfamiliar territory.
Presenter: You said inside. What does it look like outside?
Stan: That’s pretty funny, actually. The Audium is located in an unassuming, brown paneled former storefront on Bush Street. Patrons of the nearby coffee shop no doubt walk by every day without noticing it. The place was once a popular bakery. We bought the Bush Street property in 1972 with the help of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. We gutted the old bakery and designed our theater from the ground up.
Presenter: What about the theater’s program?
Stan: The program at the Audium rarely changes. My current composition is nearly a decade old. The real draw of the Audium is the sound system itself. The work is recorded, but it comes alive as I sculpt it out around the room. It’s almost like being a novelist. I mean, composing for the space, you develop characters and then they start speaking to you.
Presenter: Your Theater, being an experimental one, must have seen its ups and downs.
Stan: Sure, sure. Over the years, I’ve hosted various groups seeking creative stimulation. Architects, filmmakers, English classes, even a contingent that comes up from Disney’s. The Audium, non-profit and utterly unadvertised, has experienced more than its share of fallow periods. I’d like to say it was often me and my mother-in-law, and sometimes she didn’t even show up. But it doesn’t matter, really. When I begin performing, I want to be completely detached.
Presenter: Thank you very much, Stan.
Ответы
3. The presenter introduces Stan Shaff as a …
2) sound artist.
4. Which of the following is TRUE about Stan’s latest performance?
1) It is based on a long term project.
5. What did Stan and his partner try to achieve with their experiments?
3) The effect of producing sound images.
6. Which of the following is NOT mentioned by Stan as an outcome of the experiments?
1) New methods of music recording.
7. The building housing the Audium once housed …
2) a bakery.
8. What does Stan say about the Audium’s program?
1) It’s almost ten years old.
9. Stan says that while performing he …
2) wishes to be dispassionate.
