ЕГЭ по английскому языку (аудирование №12: понимание запрашиваемой информации)

Anna:      I just saw the film ‘Elizabeth’.
Victor:      Who did you go with?
Anna:      So you’re not interested in the film — only who I went with?
Victor:      Older brothers care about younger sisters — that’s all.
Anna:      You mean older brothers are too curious, or rather just plain nosey! But have you seen the film?
Victor:      As a matter of fact, I have. Not only that — we had a seminar on it. The purpose being to examine in what ways historical movies alter actual history, and we explored the various reasons why film makers like to re-write history.
Anna:      What an interesting subject! Why do they want to present history inaccurately? Were there many historically incorrect episodes in Elizabeth?
Victor:      The most common reason for ‘changing’ history in a movie is for dramatic effect, simply to make the story better. But more interesting reasons include national pride, a political or social agenda or sometimes good old-fashioned propaganda. In ‘Elizabeth’ the director, I believe, was partly making a better story, partly appealing to English patriotism and partly pragmatic.
Anna:      Pragmatic — what do you mean?
Victor:      Well, Cate Blanchet, who plays Queen Elizabeth, has blue eyes. Her eyes are sensitive and she cannot wear coloured contact lenses. Queen Elizabeth, famously, had deep amber brown eyes and red hair. So the pragmatic thing to do was to change history and celebrate Elizabeth’s blue eyes!
Anna:      I see. So what else did they change?
Victor:      Lots of things. The Film presented Mary and Elizabeth as the only two heirs of Henry VIII. This is not true. They had a brother, Edward, who was King for 6 years. They portray Elizabeth and Dudley as lovers. There’s no historical evidence for this. They show in the film Elizabeth being furious when she discovered that Dudley was secretly married. In fact, Elizabeth attended their wedding. So, in summary, there were a huge number of historical inaccuracies in the film. But for all that, I really enjoyed it. Did you and your new boyfriend enjoy it?
Anna:      David is not my boyfriend!
Victor:      Ah — so you went with David!