Аудирование "A Long Nose"

Text 1. A Long Nose

Michelangelo, the famous Italian sculptor, lived in Florence.

Once a beautiful piece of white marble was brought to Florence,

and the governor of the city told Michelangelo to make a statue

out of the marble. He said that Michelangelo was the only man in

Italy who could do it.

The sculptor worked for two years to make the statue as beauti-

ful as possible. When the statue was ready, a lot of people gath-

ered in the square where it stood. Everybody was waiting for the

governor. At last he came to be there with the richest people of the

city. The governor looked pleased and the people thought that he

liked the statue. So they were all surprised when he said that he

didn’t like the sculptor’s work at all because the statue’s nose was

too long.

“Can you make the nose shorter?” the governor asked

Michelangelo.

Those who heard the question thought that the sculptor would

get angry, but to their great surprise Michelangelo answered

calmly that he was ready to change the shape of the nose.

He picked up a handful of marble dust and went up to the stat-

ue. He pretended to work hard. Standing with his back to the gov-

ernor, he dropped the marble dust he had picked up so that the

governor would believe that he was really changing the shape of

the nose. The governor thought that the sculptor was doing as he

had told him, and so when Michelangelo finished working, he said

proudly: “Now the statue is wonderful.”

The people, who were silent while the sculptor was working,

realised that he hadn’t done anything to the statue, and shouted

with joy.

The statue, which is called David, is one of Michelangelo’s best

works. There is a copy of it in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow.

A Long Nose

1 Before listening to the text “A Long Nose”, look through the vocab-

ulary.

2 Listen to the text “A Long Nose”, copy the chart and fill it in.

3 Listen to the text again and give yes or no answers to the ques-

tions.

1. Was the statue made of stone?

2. Did it  take the sculptor long to make the statue?

3. Did the governor come to the square?

4. Was the sculptor angry with the governor?

5. Did he change the shape of the statue’s nose?

4 Complete the sentences according to the text.

1. A beautiful piece of marble was brought to Florence and...

2. The governor said that Michelangelo was the only man in

Italy...

3. When the statue was ready...

4. People were surprised when...

5. When the governor was not looking, Michelangelo...

5 Listen to the text again and fill in the gaps.

1. The governor told Michelangelo to make a statue ... the

marble.

2. He tried to make the statue ... beautiful ... possible.

3. ... he came together with ... people of the city.

4. “...?” the governor asked Michelangelo.

5. But ... their ... Michelangelo answered calmly.

6 Say how Michelangelo made the statue of David and how he cheat-

ed the governor.