Portion X (chapters 39- 47)

Pre-reading activities

1. Browse the Internet or look up the dictionaries and make sure you know the

following things and names.

Rotary Club – is a group of local businessmen and professionals who form part of Rotary International, a community service organization founded in Chicago in 1905. Members of a Rotary club are called Rotarians. The purpose of a local Rotary club is to connect people who then work together to solve community problems, provide humanitarian aid, and promote goodwill and peace.

Marilyn Monroe – was an American actress and model. Known for playing comic "blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as well as an emblem of the era's sexual revolution. She was a top-billed actress for a decade, and her films grossed $200 million (equivalent to $2 billion in 2022) by the time of her death in 1962.

Nikita Khrushchev – assumed leadership of the Soviet Union during the period following the death of Josef Stalin in 1953. Khrushchev served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. Nikita Khrushchev was removed from from power by Party leadership, in 1964, and was initially replaced by a troika consisting of Alexey Kosygin who assumed the role of Soviet Premier, Leonid Brezhnev who served as Party Secretary, and Anastas Mikoyan who served as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet.

Hugh Gaitskell – was a British politician who served as Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1955 until his death in 1963. An economics lecturer and wartime civil servant, he was elected to Parliament in 1945 and held office in Clement Attlee's governments, notably as Minister of Fuel and Power following the bitter winter of 1946–47, and eventually joining the Cabinet as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Tony Hancock – was an English comedian and actor. High-profile during the 1950s and early 1960s, he had a major success with his BBC series Hancock's Half Hour, first broadcast on radio from 1954, then on television from 1956, in which he soon formed a strong professional and personal bond with comic actor Sid James.

Fernando Botero – was a Colombian figurative artist and sculptor. His signature style, also known as "Boterismo", depicts people and figures in large, exaggerated volume, which can represent political criticism or humor, depending on the piece. He was considered the most recognized and quoted artist from Latin America in his lifetime, and his art can be found in highly visible places around the world, such as Park Avenue in New York City and the Champs-Élysées in Paris, at different times.

Elizabeth Taylor – was a British and American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. She then became the world's highest paid movie star in the 1960s, remaining a well-known public figure for the rest of her life. In 1999, the American Film Institute named her the seventh-greatest female screen legend of Classic Hollywood cinema.

“Officers and Gentlemen” – is the second novel in Waugh's Sword of Honour trilogy, the author's look at the Second World War. The novels loosely parallel Waugh's wartime experiences. The first was Men at Arms (1952), the third was Unconditional Surrender (1961).

Sotheby’s (/ˈsʌðəbiz/ SUDH-ə-beez) – is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, and maintains a significant presence in the UK.

Henry Hall’s Guest Night – was an English bandleader who performed regularly on BBC Radio during the British dance band era of the 1920s and 1930s, through to the 1960s.

Degas – was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints, and drawings. Degas is especially identified with the subject of dance; more than half of his works depict dancers. Although Degas is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism, he rejected the term, preferring to be called a realist, and did not paint outdoors as many Impressionists did.

Van Gogh – was a Dutch post-impressionist artist whose paintings are amongst the most popular and recognizable in history. His dramatic brushwork, exuberant palette, and mastery at capturing moments in time and light revolutionised art. Only recognised at the end of his life, his struggles and triumphs have coloured exactly what we imagine it is to be an artist.

Rodin – François Auguste René Rodin (12 November 1840 – 17 November 1917) was a French sculptor generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a unique ability to model a complex, turbulent, and deeply pocketed surface in clay. He is known for such sculptures as The Thinker, Monument to Balzac, The Kiss, The Burghers of Calais, and The Gates of Hell.

Mrs Kathleen Newton – Kathleen Irene Ashburnham Newton (née Kelly; 1854–1882) was the Irish muse and lover of French artist James Tissot.

Tissot – Jacques Joseph Tissot better known as James Tissot (/ˈtɪsoʊ/), was a French painter, illustrator, and caricaturist. He is best known for a variety of genre paintings of contemporary European high society produced during the peak of his career, which focused on the people and women's fashion of the Belle Époque and Victorian England, but he would also explore many medieval, biblical, and Japoniste subjects throughout his life. His career included work as a caricaturist for Vanity Fair under the pseudonym of Coïdé.

Tissot maintained close relations with the Impressionist movement for much of his life, including James Abbott Whistler and friend and mentee Edgar Degas. He was awarded the French Legion of Honor in 1894.

Wimbledon – is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is regarded by many as the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, since 1877 and is played on outdoor grass courts, with retractable roofs over the two main courts since 2019.

MG MGA – is a sports car that was produced by MG from 1955 until 1962.

Proust – Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel À la recherche du temps perdu (in French - translated in English as Remembrance of Things Past and more recently as In Search of Lost Time) which was published in seven volumes between 1913 and 1927. He is considered by critics and writers to be one of the most influential authors of the 20th century.

Reading and Comprehension