5. Read the text and circle the best variants (а-с) to complete the sentences after it. From the History of American Cinema
In 1896 in America Edison held the first public showing of motion pictures.
That caused а sensation. Movie houses opened across the country. People called them nickelodeons You could watch а short feature film in them
for а nickel (5 cents). Those shorts were no more than silent scenes from staged plays or vaudevilles with subtitles. In the theatre а piano player was
providing music during the performance. By 1910 the shorts were making more money than vaudevilles and live theatre together.
The next development in movies came in 1927 when sound films or "talkies" appeared. This made movies more popular than ever. Movies began to replace theatre and vaudeville. Moviemakers also started to explore the world of special sound effects. They found out they could express the mood of а scene through the sound of birds singing or through the noise of the wind or rain. The new talkies were more realistic, but they were still only in black-and-white.
Then in 1939, "Gone with the Wind", one of the first major movies filmed in colour, was on the screen. The beauty and realism of this film surprised audiences.
From this year on, moviemakers learned that colour, too, was very important to set а mood or create а special atmosphere.
From the late 1920s until the 1950s, movies were the most popular of all American entertainments. The new film industry, centered around Hollywood, California, gave work to thousands of people. In towns and cities across the country movie palaces appeared. For many years movies used to bе а major form of entertainment in America but their popularity began to fall in the 1950's.
When television came practically to every house, people preferred to stay at
home. There seemed to bе less reason to go out when they could have entertainment in their own living rooms. Ву 1980 only one American out of ten went to movies in а given week. At the same time, however, millions of viewers see movies on television or watch videos. Even movies that are more than 50 years old continue to attract people. They include such classics as "The Wizard of Oz",
"Snow White", "Gone with the Wind", and "Casablanca".
1. At the turn of the 20th century ___ _
а) а new kind of entertainment appeared in America
b) Americans called short films nickelodeons
с) it was fairly expensive to watch а film in а cinema house
2. The first sound films in America ___ _
а) didn't bring any change to the field of entertainment
b) added popularity to the cinema as an art
с) were also colour films
3. Colour in film industry _ _ _ _
а) helped this kind of entertainment to achieve the leading position
b) was less important than sound
с) was first used in the film "Gone with the Wind"
4. Though going to the cinema became less popular in America now
people ___ _
а) prefer to watch classics that are 50 years old
b) try to go to the cinema at least once а week
с) still watch lots of films