Задание 10 из ЕГЭ по английскому языку: задача 13

2. Theory of architecture

3. Architecture today

4. An extraordinary invention

5. Architectural technology

6. Styles in the Christian era

7. Renaissance and the architect

8. Architecture of the ancient world

A. Architecture is the art of building in which human requirements and construction materials are related so as to furnish practical use as well as an aesthetic solution, thus differing from the pure utility of engineering construction. As an art, architecture is essentially abstract and involves the combination of spaces, volumes, planes, etc. Time is also an important factor in architecture, since a building is usually comprehended in a succession of experiences rather than all at once.

B. In Egyptian architecture, to which belong some of the earliest extant structures to be called architecture (erected by the Egyptians before 3000 BC), the post-and-lintel system was employed exclusively and produced the earliest stone columnar buildings in history. The architecture of Western Asia from the same era employed the same system; however, arched construction was also known and used. The Chaldaeans and Assyrians, dependent on clay as their chief material, built vaulted roofs of damp mud bricks.

C. After generations of experimentation with buildings of limited variety the Greeks gave to the simple post-and-lintel system the purest, most perfect expression it was to attain (see Parthenon). Roman architecture, borrowing and combining the columns of Greece and the arches of Asia, produced a wide variety of monumental buildings throughout the Western world. Their invention of concrete enabled the imperial builders to exploit successfully the vault construction of Western Asia and to cover vast unbroken floor spaces with great vaults and domes, as in the rebuilt Pantheon.

D. The Romans and the early Christians also used the wooden truss for roofing the wide spans of their basilica halls. However, in the Asian division of the Roman Empire, vault development continued; Byzantine architects experimented with new principles and developed the pendentive, used brilliantly in the 6th century, for the Church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. The Romanesque architecture of the early Middle Ages was notable for strong, simple, massive forms and vaults executed in cut stone.

E. The architects of the later 19th century, found themselves in a world being reshaped by science, industry and speed. A new eclecticism arose, such as the architecture based on the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, and what is commonly called Victorian architecture in Britain and the United States. The needs of a new society pressed them, while steel, reinforced concrete and electricity were among the many new technical means at their disposal.

F. In Renaissance Europe, from about 1400 onwards, there was a revival of Classical learning accompanied by the development of Renaissance Humanism which placed great emphasis on the role of the individual in society. Buildings were designed specific architects — Brunelleschi, Alberti, Michelangelo, Palladio — and the cult of the individual had begun. There was still no dividing line between artist, architect and engineer, and the appellation was often one of regional preference.

G. Since the 1980s, as the complexity of buildings began to increase, the field of architecture became special for each project type. The preparatory processes for the design of any large building have become complicated, and require preliminary studies of such matters as durability, quality, money and compliance with local laws. Modernism and Postmodernism have been criticized by some members of the architectural profession who feel that successful architecture nowadays is not only a personal philosophical view.