PASSAGE 2 – Questions 11-20

Robert Capa

Robert Capa is a name that has for many years been synonymous with war photography. Born in Hungary in 1913 as Friedmann Endre Ernő, Capa was forced to leave his native country after his involvement in anti-government protests. Capa had originally wanted to become a writer, but after his arrival in Berlin had first found work as a photographer. He later left Germany and moved to France due to the rise in Nazism. He tried to find work as a freelance journalist and it was here that he changed his name to Robert Capa, mainly because he thought it would sound more American.

In 1936, after the breakout of the Spanish Civil war, Capa went to Spain and it was here over the next three years that he built his reputation as a war photographer. It was here too in 1936 that he took one of his most famous pictures, The Death of a Loyalist Soldier. One of Capa’s most famous quotes was ‘If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.’ And he took his attitude of getting close to the action to an extreme. His photograph, The Death of a Loyalist Soldier is a prime example of this as Capa captures the very moment the soldier falls. However, many have questioned the authenticity of this photograph, claiming that it was staged.

When World war II broke out, Capa was in New York, but he was soon back in Europe covering the war for Life magazine. Some of his most famous work was created on 6th June 1944 when he swam ashore with the first assault on Omaha Beach in the D-Day invasion of Normandy. Capa, armed only with two cameras, took more than one hundred photographs in the first hour of the landing, but a mistake in the darkroom during the drying of the film destroyed all but eight frames. It was the images from these frames however that inspired the visual style of Steven Spielberg’s Oscar winning movie ‘Saving Private Ryan’. When Life magazine published the photographs, they claimed that they were slightly out of focus, and Capa later used this as the title of his autobiographical account of the war.

Capa’s private life was no less dramatic. He was friend to many of Hollywood’s directors, actors and actresses. In 1943 he fell in love with the wife of actor John Austin. His affair with her lasted until the end of the war and became the subject of his war memoirs. He was at one time lover to actress Ingrid Bergman. Their relationship finally ended in 1946 when he refused to settle in Hollywood and went off to Turkey.

In 1947 Capa was among a group of photojournalists who founded Magnum Photos. This was a co-operative organisation set up to support photographers and help them to retain ownership of the copyright to their work.

Capa went on to document many other wars. He never attempted to glamorise war though, but to record the horror. He once said, “The desire of any war photographer is to be put out of business.”

Capa died as he had lived. After promising not to photograph any more wars, he accepted an assignment to go to Indochina to cover the first Indochina war. On May 25th 1954 Capa was accompanying a French regiment when he left his jeep to take some photographs of the advance and stepped on a land mine. He was taken to a nearby hospital, still clutching his camera, but was pronounced dead on arrival. He left behind him a testament to the horrors of war and a standard for photojournalism that few others have been able to reach.

Capa’s legacy has lived on though and in 1966 his brother Cornell founded the International Fund for Concerned Photography in his honor. There is also a Robert Capa Gold Medal, which is given to the photographer who publishes the best photographic reporting from abroad with evidence of exceptional courage. But perhaps his greatest legacy of all are the haunting images of the human struggles that he captured.

Câu 11: Why did Capa change his name?

PASSAGE 3 – Questions 21-30

The perfume story

The craft of perfumery has an ancient and global heritage. The art flourished in Ancient Rome, where the emperors were said to bathe in scent. After the fall of Rome, much of the knowledge was lost, but survived in Islamic civilizations in the Middle Ages. Arab and Persian pharmacists developed essential oils from the aromatic plants of the Indian peninsula. They developed the processes of distillation and suspension in alcohol, which allowed for smaller amounts of raw materials to be used than in the ancient process, by which flower petals were soaked in warm oil. This knowledge was carried back to European monasteries during the Crusades.

At first, the use of fragrances was primarily associated with healing. Aromatic alcoholic waters were ingested as well as used externally. Fragrances were used to purify the air, both for spiritual and health purposes. During the Black Death, the bubonic plague was thought to have resulted from a bad odour which could be averted by inhaling pleasant fragrances such as cinnamon. The Black Death led to an aversion to using water for washing, and so perfume was commonly used as a cleaning agent.

Later on, the craft of perfume re-entered Europe, and was centred in Venice, chiefly because it was an important trade route and a centre for glass-making. Having such materials at hand was essential for the distillation process. In the late seventeenth century, trade soared in France, when Louis XIV brought in policies of protectionism and patronage which stimulated the purchase of luxury goods. Here, perfumery was the preserve of glove-makers. The link arose since the tanning of leather required putrid substances. Consequently, the gloves were scented before they were sold and worn. A glove and perfume makers’ guild had existed here since 1190. Entering it required 7 years of formal training under a master perfumer.

The trade in perfume flourished during the reign of Louis XV, as the master glove-and-perfume makers, particularly those trading in Paris, received patronage from the royal court, where it is said that a different perfume was used each week. The perfumers diversified into other cosmetics including soaps, powders, white face paints and hair dyes. They were not the sole sellers of beauty products. Mercers, spicers, vinegar-makers and wig-makers were all cashing in on the popularity of perfumed products. Even simple shopkeepers were coming up with their own concoctions to sell.

During the eighteenth century, more modern, capitalist perfume industry began to emerge, particularly in Britain where there was a flourishing consumer society. In France, the revolution initially affected the perfume trade due to its association with aristocracy, however, it regained momentum later as a wider range of markets were sought both in the domestic and overseas markets. The guild system was abolished in 1791, allowing new high-end perfumery shops to open in Paris.

Perfume became less associated with health in 1810 with a Napoleonic ordinance which required perfumers to declare the ingredients of all products for internal consumption. Unwilling to divulge their secrets, traders concentrated on products for external use. Napoleon affected the industry in other ways too. With French ports blockaded by the British during the Napoleonic wars, the London perfumers were able to dominate the markets for some time.

One of the significant changes in the nineteenth century was the idea of branding. Until then, trademarks had had little significance in the perfumery where goods were consumed locally, although they had a long history in other industries. One of the pioneers in this field was Rimmel who was nationalized as a British citizen in 1857. He took advantage of the spread of railroads to reach customers in wider markets. To do this, he built a brand which conveyed prestige and quality, and were worth paying a premium for. He recognised the role of design in enhancing the value of his products, hiring a French lithographer to create the labels for his perfume bottles.

Câu 21: The purpose of the text is to

PASSAGE 4 – Questions 31-40

Armenian Culture

The Armenians became active in literature and many art forms at a very early point in their civilization. Metalworking and architecture have been traced back to about 1000 B.C. The great artistic periods coincided with times of independence or semi-independence: from the fifth to the seventh century; the Bagratid golden age of the ninth and tenth centuries; and the era of the kingdom of Lesser Armenia in the twelfth to fourteenth centuries.

Of especially high quality in the earlier periods were works in gold and bronze, as well as temples, military fortifications, and aqueducts. In the early Christian era, classical church architecture was adapted in a series of cathedrals. The circular domes typical of Armenian churches were copied in Western Europe and in Ottoman Turkey. The best example of the distinctive architectural sculpture used to adorn such churches is the early tenth-century Church of the Holy Cross on an island in Lake Van. The architecture of contemporary Erevan is distinguished by the use of pinkish tufa stone and a combination of traditional Armenian and Russian styles.

Armenian painting is generally considered to have originated with the illumination of religious manuscripts that thrived from the ninth to the seventeenth century. Armenian painters in Cilicia and elsewhere enriched Byzantine and Western formulas with their unique use of color and their inclusion of Oriental themes acquired from the Mongols. Many unique Armenian illuminated manuscripts remain in museums in the West.

The nineteenth century saw a blooming of Armenian painting. Artists from that period, such as the portrait painter Hacop Hovnatanian and the seascape artist Ivan Aivazovsky, continue to enjoy international reputations. Notable figures of the twentieth century include the unorthodox Alexander Bazhbeuk-Melikian, who lived a persecuted existence in Tbilisi, and the émigré surrealist Arshile Gorky (pseudonym of Vosdanik Adoian), who greatly influenced a generation of young American artists in New York. Other émigré painters in various countries have continued the tradition as well.

The Armenian literary tradition began early in the fifth century A.D. with religious tracts and histories of the Armenians. The most important of these were written by Agathangelos, Egishe, Movses Khorenatsi, and Pavstos Buzand. A secular literature developed in the early modern period, and in the eighteenth century Armenian Catholic monks of the Mekhitarist order began publishing ancient texts, modem histories, grammars, and literature. In the nineteenth century, Armenians developed their own journalism and public theater. Khachatur Abovian wrote the first Armenian novel, Verk Haiastani (The Wounds of Armenia), in the early 1840s. Armenian literature and drama often depict struggles against religious and ethnic oppression and the aspirations of Armenians for security and self-expression.

Câu 31: What is the passage about?