10th grade Advanced. Unit 9. Lesson 6. Fairs and exhibitions.

👉Communicative area: speaking about visiting exhibitions

👉Active grammar: plurals of nouns

1. Do you often visit exhibitions?

2. What kind of exhibitions do you prefer? (art, books, animals…)

3. Do you read exhibition reviews in the press or on the Internet?

Read the article about Minsk International Book Fair and say:

1. What country did Theresa Suslov represent at the Minsk International Book Fair? 

2. What American writers were chosen to represent the country and why?

3. Have you read any of these books?

Annual Minsk International Book Fair

by Theresa Suslov

    For the last twenty years, the city of Minsk has held an international book fair. This event allows people in Minsk and surrounding areas to browse and purchase books, mingle with like-minded people, listen to poetry read by both Belarusian poets and those from abroad, and finally, meet with people from all around the world and learn about their cultures.

         The book fair was held inside the large BelExpo exhibition hall. Inside were over one hundred booths which housed representatives exhibiting and discussing literature from their native countries. Some of the larger booths were occupied by representatives from France, Iran, Russia, Germany and of course, Belarus. Other countries represented at the fair were Cuba, Poland, Italy, India and many more.

         I was honoured to have been asked to help represent the United States of America at the book fair. The theme and title of our exhibit was The Eighty Eight Books That Shaped America. These eighty eight books were chosen by the Library of Congress as having been influential in the shaping of American identity.

          Books at this exhibit spanned two centuries, offering literature from the birth of the nation through present day. The books chosen and exhibited were a combination of fiction and non-fiction. Some examples of the fiction represented were books by Mark Twain, such as Huckleberry Finn, John Steinbeck who wrote The Grapes of Wrath, and Zora Neale Hurston, the author of Their Eyes Were Watching God.

           The fiction transported readers to various times in the history of the United States. John Steinbeck wrote about the Depression Years of the 1930s. Ms Zora Neale Hurston also lived and wrote during that time, an era dubbed the Harlem Renaissance when black writers and artists in the United States were becoming recognised for their phenomenal talents.

        Non-fiction books allowed readers a window into many of the nation’s social issues and civil movements. For example, there was the writing of Frederick Douglass, a former slave who had taught himself to read and write. He wrote a moving chronicle of the daily horrendous struggles of those caught in the web of slavery.

            Other non-fiction works touched on timeless themes such as 

ways to effectively manage money, women’s health and ways to combat alcoholism.

           The book fair provided three wonderful days for book lovers to experience the world in one convenient place.

10th grade Advanced. Unit 9. Lesson 5. Housing in Belarus

👉Communicative area: speaking about different types of houses in Belarus

1. What type of house do you live in? 

2. What other types of houses can you find in the neighbouring area? 

3. Do you think it is more comfortable to live in a block of flats or a detached house?

Read the text and answer the questions: 

1. What kind of house does Thomas Warner, a British teacher, live in? What houses does he like most and why? 

2. What unexpected problems does Thomas have because he is not accustomed to living in a block of flats?

My worthless opinions about housing in Belarus

By Thomas Warner

         I arrived in Belarus at the end of August, and have since learnt many things about the place and its people. I have discovered these truths by exploring the city and by interacting with its inhabitants. But like you, dear reader, I must sometimes return home to rest. So I get on the bus, travel a few stops and at the appropriate moment I get off and walk the short distance to my front door. Perhaps also like you, I live in what is referred to as a “block”. My particular block has nine floors and twelve separate entrances. It (probably) contains hundreds of individual flats, which are (probably) all very similar to the one that I live in. There are two bedrooms, a hall, a bathroom and a kitchen. It is a comfortable and cosy arrangement, and serves my purposes very well. As a result of the concentration of people and of the lessons learnt over centuries of Belarusian winters, the flat is always very warm – to the extent that I often choose to sleep with the window open, even when the outside temperature seems intimidating (to my English eyes, at least).

         As I live on the 8th floor, it is necessary for me to use the lift when I leave or return to my flat. For me this is rather novel, as indeed is the experience of living in a flat more generally. Before coming to Minsk, I had lived almost exclusively in houses and used lifts very infrequently. For this reason, I sometimes worry that I am not following the proper lift etiquette on those occasions when I have to share the journey with a stranger. The questions; “Should I start a conversation?” “What should I be looking at?” and “Am I standing too close?” dance around my mind as me and my new companion stand awkwardly in our little box.

          From my observations, it seems that most Minskers live in a similar style of accommodation to mine. All over the city there are blocks: tall ones, short ones, pink ones, green ones, ones instrange shapes, blocks that look like they were finished yesterday and ones that look ancient. And so much construction! In every direction, Minsk seems to be expanding. I’m told that certain parts of the city, ones with higher concentrations of blocks, are known as “sleeping areas”, though it seems to me like a curious term for these places. I believe that the expression is something similar to a commuter suburb in English, but referring to them as “sleeping areas” seems to relegate the importance of some of the pleasant things in life, like taking one’s children to school or eating some delicious kasha for breakfast. Perhaps it is a reflection of the planned nature of Minsk, that there are specific working and sleeping areas. 

           There are areas of Minsk however, which are not “planned” in that sense. I am referring to the charming, colourful little houses which can be found clustered in small groups all around the city. I have been told by friends that these houses are rather more attractive from the outside, than they are from the inside. They have antiquated heating systems, are difficult to maintain and are even more difficult to sell at a profit. Nonetheless, I feel a great sense of comfort on those occasions that I find myself walking through a patch of these delightful old relics. Blocks may be necessary to fulfil the city’s housing shortage, and they’re certainly more economical – but the sight of smoking chimneys on an old cottage surely does more to warm the heart on a cold winter’s morning. 

           Well, reader, its time for me to stop telling you about housing in your own country, but I do hope I haven’t bored or annoyed you with anything I’ve written. If for some reason you are annoyed, you already have some clues about where I live – I shall expect a visit! It’s not a bad area of the city, there’s a big Rublyovski and there are beautiful, icicled old houses sitting harmoniously next to the apartment blocks. I sincerely hope that even in the future, when the city is covered in these blocks, that there are still some areas where people can see real houses and can feel as jolly as I do when I’m strolling past a row of them on a lazy Sunday afternoon.  

10th grade Advanced. Unit 9. Lesson 3. Dream big. Go global. Stay local

👉Communicative area: discussing the role of youth in modern society

Quiz created by Veronika Bebekh with GoConqr

10th grade Advanced. Unit 9. Lesson 1. The Portrait of the country

👉Communicative area: giving general information  about Belarus

Look at the map. Tell a foreigner about the geographical position of Belarus.

10th grade Advanced. Unit 9. Vocabulary

10th grade Advanced. Unit 8. Lesson 4. Talk to an editor (Grammar: Reported speech)

👉Communicative area: reporting questions and statements about newspaper content

👉Active grammar: Reported questions and statements

Reported (Indirect) Speech 
Косвенная речь

Прямая речь – это дословное цитирование говорящего или пишущего, его высказывание, которое в предложении заключается в кавычки. 

Вводная часть предложения с прямой речью поясняет, чья речь передается: 

Tom said: “I’m going to award myself with a cup of leisurely coffee after this hard work”. – Том сказал: «Я собираюсь наградить себя чашечкой неспешного кофе после этой тяжелой работы».

Косвенная речь – это передача говорящим или пишущим чужой речи с сохранением ее основного содержания. 

Синтаксически косвенная речь представляет собой придаточное предложение [subordinate clause], которое передает чужую речь – повествование, вопросы, просьбы / приказы – в составе сложноподчиненного предложения. 

Главное предложение [main clause] поясняет, чью речь, чье высказывание передает говорящий: 

Tom said (говорящий цитирует речь Тома – то, что сказал Том) that he was going to award himself with a cup of leisurely coffee after that hard work (содержание речи Тома).

 

Главное и придаточное предложения соединяются с помощью различных союзов и союзных слов. Схема сложно подчиненного предложения выглядит следующим образом: 

(Main clause) Conj. [subordinate clause]. 

(She asked me) why [I hadn’t come in time]. 

Чтобы передать чье-либо высказывание, выраженное утвердительным или отрицательным повествовательным предложением: 

• необходимо ввести косвенную речь, используя в главном предложении один из следующих глаголов: 
  

  say (says, said), answer(-s, -ed), add(-s, -ed), report(-s, -ed), stress(-es, -ed), write (writes, wrote) that / why / where …

  tell (tells, told) smb, inform(-s, -ed) smb that / why / where …

  let (lets, let) smb know that / why / where …

  explain(-s, -ed) to smb, wrote to smb that / why / where … 

    
• если в главном предложении используется глагол, вводящий косвенную речь, в настоящем времени – Present Simple, то в придаточном предложении времена, использованные в прямой речи, необходимо оставить без изменения в косвенной речи, например: 

Mary always says: “I do my homework every day, but yesterday was an exception. I didn’t have any free time at all”. Mary always says that she does her homework every day, but yesterday was an exception. She didn’t have any free time at all. 

My friend immediately says to me: “I am going to the cinema with you tomorrow”. My friend immediately tells me (that) he is going to the cinema with me tomorrow. 

• необходимо обратить внимание на личные и притяжательные место имения и заменить их по смыслу: 

I (do) my (homework) – she (does) her (homework), I (didn’t have) – She (didn’t have), I (am going) – he (is going), (with) you – (with) me. 

• необходимо обратить внимание на согласование подле жащего со сказуемым в косвенной речи, что требует измене ния форм глаголов: I do – she does, I am going – he is going. 
• если в главном предложении используется глагол, вводящий косвенную речь, в прошедшем времени – Past Simple, то в придаточном предложении, т.е. в косвенной речи, необходимо осуществить сдвиг времен в прошлое в соответствии с правилом согласования времен Sequence of Tenses: 

Present Simple 👉 Past Simple                                                      

Present Continuous 👉 Past Continuous

Present Perfect 👉   Past Perfect 

Future Simple (will V) 👉  Future Simple-in-the-Past (would V)

can 👉 could

may 👉 might

must / had to 👉 had to

Past Simple 👉 Past Perfect

Past Continuous 👉Past Perfect Continuous

• необходимо изменить наречия времени и места, а также указательные местоимения: 

today / tonight 👉 that day / that night

now 👉 then, at that moment

this (morning) 👉 that (morning)

tomorrow 👉 the next day

yesterday 👉 the day before

(three days) ago 👉 (three days) before

last (week) 👉 the (week) before

next (week) 👉  the following (week)

here 👉 there

this / these 👉 that / those 

I regularly repair my garage. – He said (that) he regularly repaired his garage. 

I am repairing my garage now. – He said (that) he was repairing his garage. 

I have already repaired my garage. – He said (that) he had already repaired his garage. 

I repaired my garage yesterday. – He said (that) he had repaired his garage the day before. 

I have to do this job. – He said (that) he had to do that job. 

I won’t have time to do the work tomorrow. – He said (that) he wouldn’t have time to do the work the next day. 

Не всегда нужно изменять время глагола, когда он используется в косвенной речи: 

• если сообщается о какой-либо ситуации и предполагается, что она все еще существует, например: 

Mark said: “Rome is more beautiful than Paris”. – Mark said that Rome is more beautiful than Paris. (Он все еще так думает.) 

Diana said: “I want to be a movie star”. – Diana said that she wants to be a movie star. (Она до сих пор хочет стать кино звездой.) Diana said that she wanted to be a movie star. 

Изменение глагола на прошедшее время будет тоже правильным. Но использовать прошедшее время необходимо, если к моменту разговора ситуация изменилась. 

Чтобы задать косвенный вопрос, необходимо: 

• определить: 
• в каком времени стоит вопрос в прямой речи; 
• какой это тип вопроса – общий, альтернативный или специальный: 
• ввести косвенный вопрос, используя в главном предложении один из следующих глаголов: 

• ask(-s, -ed), wonder(-s, -ed) 
• want(-s, -ed) to know / to learn / to hear / find out 
• am (is, are) / was (were) interested to know / to learn / to hear / find out  

•  поставить союз: 
•  if, whether – для общих и альтернативных вопросов; 
• what, who, when, why, where, how, и т.д. – для специальных вопросов; 
• изменить порядок слов в прямом вопросе, чтобы превратить его в повествовательное предложение, одновременно правильно согласовывая подлежащее и сказуемое (если глагол в главном предложении стоит в Present Simple) или изменяя его время в соответствии с правилом согласования времен (если глагол в главном предложении стоит в Past Simple). 

Например: 

 “Do you love me?” the girl asks her boyfriend. (Это общий вопрос в Present Simple.) 

The girl asks her boyfriend / The girl wants to know. (Выбирается глагол и его время в главном предложении – Present Simple): 

The girl wants to know if (Выбирается союз if / whether для общего вопроса.) 

The girl wants to know if her boyfriend loves her. (Вопрос Do you love me? заменяется повествовательным предложением.) 

The girl asked her boyfriend whether he loved her. (Здесь глагол главного предложения стоит в Past Simple.) 

He asked her: “What is your favourite colour?” – He asked her what her favourite colour was. 

 
 Команда или просьба в косвенной речи выражается инфинитивом с частицей to: tell / ask / order somebody (not) to do something: 

The teacher says / said: “Don’t miss your classes!” – 

The teacher tells / told her students not to miss their classes.

Reported Questions Exercise 1

Reported Questions Exercise 2

Reported Questions Exercise 3

10th grade Advanced. Unit 8. Lesson 3. What kind of news do you prefer?

👉Communicative area: listening to people who speak about reading newspapers and explaining one’s own reading habits and preferences; giving advice about (on) reading newspapers

👉Active vocabulary: look through, tend to do something, scan (scan through), find out, go on, check, keep (somebody) up to date with, bring somebody up to date with, go through something, turn to something, focus on, pick up, put off, there and then

Is it important to read news? Why (not)? 

Is it interesting and exciting to learn what is going on in the world? Why (not)?

10th grade Advanced. Unit 8. Lesson 1. What is mass media?

👉Communicative area: exploring and explaining what mass media is

👉Active vocabulary:  the (mass) media, multimedia, reach, 

outreach, influence, credibility

1. Can you name different types of mass media around you?

2. Which media do you use most?

3. What do you mainly get from these media?

4. How do media affect your daily activities?

5. Which media do you find most influential or interesting?

6. How media has changed your way of communicating?

 

Quiz created by Veronika Bebekh with GoConqr

Read the text about mass media and explain the meaning of the words in italics. 

Mass media is used to communicate ideas, thoughts, or to inform people about different events and news in all spheres of life. Transmitting information is possible with the use of modern means of communication. Throughout history means of communication appeared as a result of advancing technologies, from pigeon post thousands of years ago to print and to the greatest inventions of the 19th – 21st centuries, such as the telegraph and the telephone, the radio and TV, text messaging and the Internet. 

The Internet revolutionised our life. It appeared in the 1970s in the United States, and it became known and available to general public in the early 1990s. At the beginning of 2020, about 4.5 billion, which is more than a half of the world’s population, were Internet users. The Internet gave rise to the development of new forms of distance communication: LinkedIn – 2002, MySpace – 2003, Facebook – 2004, YouTube – 2005, Twitter – 2006, Instagram – 2010, Zoom Video Communications – 2011. In 2020 Zoom’s daily online meetings participants were over 300 million. 

It’s obvious that the 21st century saw a real boom in developing various social networks, podcasts, blogs and vlogs, and a variety of platforms for distance learning, both national and international. These new forms of communication make it 127 possible for any person in the world to create their own content and place it on different websites, including their own. 

Despite huge amounts of information on the Internet, the role of traditional mass media is still significant in influencing people’s minds and behaviour. At the same time, the mass media have adapted to the requirements of the new reality and every newspaper, radio station or TV channel have moved their presence to the Internet to increase their outreach through web sites, apps and podcasts. Online newspapers take advantage of multimedia possibilities, including not only images, but audios and videos as well. 

At the core of the media is storytelling. Stories are told by correspondents, journalists, writers, show masters and show guests, scientists, podcast hosts, etc. Though mass media has interactive formats, such as interviews, talk shows, commenting on pieces of news, videos, social network posts, it is the author of the story who influences the minds of readers or listeners most of all. So, credibility becomes issue number one in mass media, which is two-sided: credibility of the source of information, and credibility of the storyteller.

1. What is the main purpose of mass media?

2. How has the means of communication evolved throughout history?

3. Name some of the major inventions of the 19th to 21st centuries that improved communication.

4. When did the Internet appear, and when did it become accessible to the general public?

5. Approximately how many people were Internet users worldwide at the beginning of 2020?

6. Can you list some online platforms that emerged in the early 2000s?

7. How many people participated in Zoom’s daily online meetings in 2020?

8. What new forms of communication have developed in the 21st century?

9. How do social networks and online platforms affect content creation?

10. Despite the abundance of information on the Internet, why does traditional mass media still hold significance?

11. How have traditional mass media adapted to the digital age?

12. What multimedia possibilities do online newspapers use?

13. Who are the main storytellers in the media according to the text?

14. What formats of interaction are mentioned as part of mass media?

15. Why is credibility considered the most important issue in mass media?

What is your favourite media? Why? Say 10–12 sentences to answer this question.

Quiz created by Veronika Bebekh with GoConqr

10th grade Advanced. Unit 7. Lesson 9. Maxims

👉Communicative area: reading for detail, planning for a project

10th grade Advanced. Unit 7. Lesson 8. The great people of Belarus

👉Communicative area: listening for detail, talking about the great people of Belarus

👉Active vocabulary: ancestor, descendant, prominent, to endure, hardship, legacy, to have an impact

What do these people have in common?

10th grade Advanced. Unit 7. Lesson 7. Business geniuses

👉Communicative area: discussing business geniuses; reading and listening for gist and detail

👉Active vocabulary: entrepreneur, conventional

👉Active grammar: Conditional III

 Read the article on the topic. What qualities should a business genius possess? 

What is a genius? A 17th century English poet wrote: “Genius is above correctness”. A genius is able to ignore conventional ideas about what’s possible and to … dream. By realising their dreams, geniuses succeed in redefining of what’s possible. In 17 December, 1903, the Wright brothers made their first flight. It lasted 12 seconds. On 12 April, 1961, Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth. If it hadn’t been for the Wright Brothers, Gagarin probably wouldn’t have made his flight. Within less than six decades, humanity had gone from never having flown, to sending a man into space. 

So, what does a business genius look like? Steve Jobs, the Apple founder seems to be the best example. Mr Jobs wasn’t conventionally smart. His success highlights an interesting difference between intelligence and genius. His imagination was instinctive, unexpected, and, at times, magical. It was brought about by intuition, not analytical powers. For him, experience was more important than analysis. He didn’t study data or numbers, he could guess what lay ahead. 

How is the genius different from the dreamer? It is not enough to have new ideas. They have to be put into practice. Steve Jobs didn’t have the idea for the PC, but he realised that the PC needed to be much more user-friendly than his competitors’ computers were. The Macintosh was small, cute and easy to use. Just as Apple’s music players, phones and tablet computers. Apple wasn’t the first into these markets, but its product seemed to be the best one out, embodying the unity of perfect form and easy function. 

So, a genius isn’t necessarily the smartest person in the room, but the one with the imagination and persistence to translate a smart idea into the best product. It’s someone who believes they are right when everyone around them is calling them a fool. A successful entrepreneur doesn’t have to get a million-dollar small business idea, but they have to turn the idea into a million dollars. 

To become a successful entrepreneur, you need to believe in yourself even when the so-called experts tell you you’re doomed to fail. You need the ability to think “What if?” and be smart enough to know how to achieve your dream. A good entrepreneur, like a genius, is a dreamer who’s prepared to get things done.

1. How did a 17th-century English poet define genius?

2. What are some notable achievements mentioned in the text that demonstrate human progress?

3. According to the text, what is a key difference between intelligence and genius?

4. Why does the text suggest that Steve Jobs was a business genius?

5. What qualities did Steve Jobs rely on instead of analytical powers?

6. What example does the text give to show that having new ideas isn’t enough?

7. How did Apple’s products embody the idea of genius in business?

8. According to the text, what is the main characteristic that distinguishes a genius from a dreamer?

9. What does the text say about the importance of belief in oneself for entrepreneurs?

10. How does the text define a successful entrepreneur?

1. What kind of prize has been set up? 

2. How big is the prize? How does it compare with the Nobel Prize? 3. Why was the prize established? 

4. What made Yuri Milner decide to set up the prize? 

5. Who sponsors the prize together with him? 

6. What was the recipients’ reaction to getting the prize? 

7. What would you do if you received such a prize? 

8. What is the attitude of the news item’s author to business geniuses?

10th grade Advanced. Unit 7. Lesson 6. Renaissance polymaths

👉Communicative area: discussing the qualities making a person a polymath; reading for gist and for detail, retelling

👉Active vocabulary: word-building prefixes inter-, post-, re-, co-, em-: postmodern, to reprint, interplanetary, co-author, to embody

Text A

Brian May, the founder of the legendary British glam rock band Queen, is keen on stars. Not Hollywood Walk of Fame stars, but the much larger, more beautiful ones.  Best known as Queen’s lead guitar player, May wrote We Will Rock You, Who Wants to Live Forever, I Want It All; sang the bass parts on Bohemian Rhapsody and played that guitar solo on We Are the Champions — all hits people are still listening now. That success seems very small in the history of the universe, though. 

Just as his band was starting to make some noise 50 years ago, May was studying astrophysics. After taking a 30-year break to live the life of a rock god, he has completed a dissertation on interplanetary dust and earned a doctorate from Imperial College. 

His doctoral thesis examines the mysterious phenomenon known as Zodiacal light that appears in the western sky after sunset and in the eastern sky two or three hours before sunrise. Many people have thought it is the first sign of morning twilight. 7 103 A Persian astronomer who lived around the 12th century referred to it as “false dawn” in a poem. Astronomers now know that Zodiacal light represents reflected sunlight shining on space debris. Brian May has also co-authored a book with a title that could pass for a Queen song: Bang! The Complete History of the Universe. 

During the interview with our reporter, May wore a long black coat, white sneakers and an electric Hawaiian shirt; his hair was a kinky black mass, so he managed to perfectly embody both rock ‘n’ roller and mad scientist. “I think music is about our internal life. It’s part of the way people touch each other. And astronomy is the very opposite thing. Instead of looking inwards, you are looking out, to things beyond our grasp”, he said. 

May enjoys dividing his time between the observatory and the recording studio these days. Whether he’s inspecting stars or working on his new album, he likes being called “Dr May”. As a guitarist, he uses his home-built guitar, “Red Special”. He built it with his father’s help. Guess what? It’s one of the most incredible instruments ever made! 

Once a fellow-astronomer told him on a TV programme: “I don’t know any scientist who looks as much as Isaac Newton as you do”. In 2005 Brian May was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire for “services to the music industry and his charity work”. The same year, he was also voted the 7th greatest guitarist of all time. Bravo, Brian! May long live May!

1. Who is Brian May and what band is he famous for founding?

2. What are some of Brian May’s most well-known songs?

3. Besides being a musician, what scientific field did Brian May study?

4. How long did Brian May take a break from music to study astrophysics?

5. What is the focus of Brian May's doctoral thesis?

6. What is Zodiacal light, according to current astronomers?

7. Who referred to Zodiacal light as “false dawn” and when?

8. What is the title of the book Brian May co-authored that sounds like a Queen song?

9. How did Brian May describe the difference between music and astronomy?

10. What nickname does Brian May like to be called when working on his scientific pursuits?

11. What is the name of Brian May’s home-built guitar?

12. Who helped Brian May build his guitar, “Red Special”?

13. In what year was Brian May made Commander of the Order of the British Empire?

14. For what contributions was Brian May awarded the title of Commander of the Order of the British Empire?

15. What ranking did Brian May receive as a guitarist in 2005?

16. How did a fellow-astronomer compare Brian May's appearance to Isaac Newton?

Text B

Ray Bradbury, who died aged 91, was the 20th-century American short-story writer. He was born in a small town in Illinois. In 1934 his family moved to Los Angeles, where he lived for the rest of his life. He never travelled, much preferring a bicycle to a car, and usually avoiding aircraft. Bradbury lived quietly, but remained a much-loved writer throughout his long life. He wrote, “As a result of reading science fiction when I was eight, I grew up with 104 an interest in music, architecture, city planning, transportation, politics, ethics, aesthetics on any level, art … it’s just total!”. 

Although he was also known for a few novels – principally Fahrenheit 451 – as well as for children’s books, plays, screenplays and poetry, it was his short stories that made him famous, with his best-known collection being The Martian Chronicles. His tales were reprinted in countless magazines and anthologies, including many school textbooks, making his name familiar to younger generations.  Surprisingly, Ray Bradbury was not only a visionary writer – he was also an architectural “imaginer” who influenced urban development. For better or worse, he was a key influence in two major urban trends of the past few decades: theme parks and shopping malls. His interest in theme parks came about through his friendship with Walt Disney.  

The attitudes they shared were childhood nostalgia and futuristic utopianism, so, naturally, Disney invited Bradbury to consult on the 1964 World’s Fair in New York. 

Bradbury thought deeply about the influence of our housing designs on how we live, not just as individuals but as a society. As a result, another Bradbury’s idea was to use giant shopping malls to save American cities from decay. He was recruited as a consultant by architect Jon Jerde – now one of the world’s leading mall designers – on some of his early projects. Bradbury advised on the postmodern Horton Plaza in San Diego and laid the foundation for the Glendale Galleria shopping centre in Los Angeles. He thought that the city did not have enough central meeting points, like, for example, the outdoor restaurants in Paris. In his opinion, these places should have enough tables and chairs for people to chat with their friends, and they should house restaurants, bookshops, cinemas and coffee shops surrounding what he called “the conversation pit”. He also noted that the area should be open until at least 11 p.m. because of our busy working schedules. 

However, first and foremost Ray Bradbury was a science fiction writer. The things you can read about in his books are Martians, robots, dinosaurs, mummies, ghosts, time machines, rocket ships and carnival magicians. His work inspired writers and filmmakers like Stephen King, Steven Spielberg and James Cameron, and helped transport science fiction out of the pulp magazines into the mainstream.

1. When did Ray Bradbury die, and how old was he?

2. Where was Ray Bradbury born?

3. To which city did Bradbury’s family move in 1934, and where did he live afterward?

4. What means of transportation did Ray Bradbury prefer, and which did he generally avoid?

5. According to Bradbury, what influenced his interest in topics like music, architecture, and city planning?

6. What is the title of Ray Bradbury’s most famous novel?

7. Which collection of stories made Ray Bradbury world-famous?

8. In addition to writing books and stories, what other area did Bradbury influence, particularly related to urban development?

9. How did Bradbury’s friendship with Walt Disney influence his interests?

10. What event did Disney invite Bradbury to consult on in 1964?

11. What urban trend did Bradbury influence with his ideas about shopping malls?

12. Which architect recruited Bradbury as a consultant for shopping mall projects?

13. Name one shopping mall project Ray Bradbury advised on.

14. What did Ray Bradbury think cities needed more to improve social interactions?

15. What is “the conversation pit” that Bradbury described?

16. Why did Bradbury believe shopping centers should stay open until at least 11 p.m.?

17. What are some subjects and themes explored in Bradbury’s science fiction stories?

18. What filmmakers and writers were inspired by Ray Bradbury’s work?

19. How did Bradbury help change the perception of science fiction in popular culture?