A Designer Who Gives Christmas Trees an Afterlife

Many people feel a sense of regret when it comes time to dispose of a Christmas tree. After being decorated and celebrated, the tree is unceremoniously abandoned, which can seem both heartless and wasteful.

Fabien Capello, a French designer who lives in London, decided to do something about that. Since 2009, Mr. Capello has been making furniture out of Christmas trees he finds on the street.

(1) ___________________________________________________________ When I was still a student at the Royal College of Art in London, I, basically, started an investigation on where the wood in D.I.Y. shops and wood suppliers was actually coming from, and how it ended up in the city. During my research, I saw some facts about Christmas trees, saying it was the moment when the biggest amount of wood was shipped into the city. You can find different facts and numbers, but most of them say that around a million trees arrive, every year, in London. And I just thought that was quite an amazing thing, because at the end of the festive period, after Christmas and New Year’s Eve you can find them in the streets because people are just throwing them away. (2)_____________________________________________________________

There is this idea that you actually buy a tree and cherish it so much for a short period of time, and then you just throw it away. I thought it would be quite interesting to use this material. I wanted to do something that could come back into the house. (3)__________________________________________________________ ____ It’s quite an ugly wood, actually. It’s probably one of the ugliest trees ever, if you just see the trunk. Because it grows so fast, there is almost no grain. I did experiments to turn the trees into wood, removing the bark and doing this sort of chopping, which is the pattern on the legs. So I’ve been finding all sorts of techniques to work with it. (4)_____________________________________________________________ No. Christmas trees are the wood that we consume at the youngest stage of the tree, because they are only two or three years old. You need time to get a beautiful wood

— a tree needs to grow, and it can take 100 years sometimes. This one is really, really quite fast-growing, which is why it’s not quite so beautiful. (5)_____________________________________________________________ Yes. Some of them, the carving is made with a machine, but everything is controlled by the hand. It’s very simple tools, like a belt sander, a band saw and a drill.

The New York Times

Read the article again and match the italicized words and word combinations with their meanings.

a) a formal inquiry or systematic study _______________________________

b) to get rid of by throwing away or giving or selling to someone else _______

c) producing (an object, inscription, or design)

by cutting into a hard material ___________________________________

d) the systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions __________________________

 

 

e) to eat, drink, or ingest (food or drink); buy (goods or services); use up (a resource) _______________________

f) relating to a festival, especially Christmas __________________________

g) to protect and care for (someone) lovingly; hold (something) dear __________

h) causing great surprise or wonder; astonishing ________________________

i) to feel sad, repentant, or disappointed over (something that one has done or failed to do) _________________________________________________

Complete the sentences with the right form of one of the words from the previous exercise.

a) She immediately ____her words.

b) Vast amounts of food and drink were _____.

c) Whose responsibility is it to _____of scrap materials?

d) I _____the letters she wrote.

e) It is _____how short memories are

f) The group carries out _____in geochemistry.

g) The ____________ of my initials on the tree evoked sweet memories.

h) The _____________ season is fast approaching.

i) An _____________ has been launched into the potential impact of the oil spill.

Translate from Russian into English.

Дизайн вашего сада

Мы привыкли слышать новое модное слово «дизайн». Все стали часто использовать такие словосочетания, как: дизайн квартир, штор, ногтей, спальни, платья, но есть еще и такое понятие, как дизайн ландшафта. Такое красивое слово можно расшифровать как отличный впечатляющий пейзаж, который будет радовать глаз. И если вы решили превратить свою дачу в нечто необыкновенное, то стоит заняться дизайном ландшафта. Озеленение участка – это один из самых важных моментов в дизайне ландшафта. Для озеленения участка важен эдакий творческий беспорядок, который выглядит очень натуралистично и эффектно. А для придания этой самой натуралистичности все чаще стали использовать дикорастущие травы и декоративные растения, уход за которым задача не из легких.

 

 

SELF-ASSESSMENT VIII

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