IELTS Practice Reading # New Nation
The article below has been taken from TIME. You can read the entire article by clicking on the link. Today, we are looking at a part of it and try to cover the vocabulary that we come across.
Movies, and sometimes the people who make them, work on us at strange, subterranean levels we can’t even begin to comprehend. That’s why, even though relatively few people have seen it, few know quite how to feel about Nate Parker’sBirth of a Nation, which premiered here at the Toronto International Film Festival on Friday to a rousing response from the audience, some seven months after its sensational Sundance unveiling. Parker’s debut picture—about Nat Turner, the enslaved African American who led a violent revolt against slave owners in 1831—is distinctive for one notable reason: Movies about the history of blacks in this country are rarely made, and if you rule out the usual suspects like Spike Lee and Lee Daniels—and count back to the days before 12 Years a Slave and Selma—they have rarely been made by people of color. But months ahead of its release in the United States, in October, The Birth of a Nation has also become infamous for a thornier reason: In 1999, while they were students at Penn State University, Parker and his roommate and wrestling teammate Jean Celestin—cowriter of The Birth of a Nation—were accused of raping a fellow student. Parker was acquitted. Celestin was found guilty, though the verdict was overturned. Their accuser committed suicide in 2012. In the context of this terrible blot, should Parker be lauded as a filmmaker? Should people show tacit support of him and his actions by seeing the film? Is his work, or his view on anything, in any way trustworthy?
| WORD | MEANING |
|---|---|
| strange | unusual or surprising; difficult to understand or explain. |
| subterranean | existing, occurring, or done under the earth's surface. |
| comprehend | grasp mentally; understand. |
| relatively | in relation, comparison, or proportion to something else. |
| premiered | give the first performance of.;(of a musical or theatrical work or a film) have its first performance |
| rousing | exciting; stirring;(of a fire) blazing strongly. |
| response | a verbal or written answer.;a reaction to something. |
| audience | the assembled spectators or listeners at a public event such as a play, film, concert, or meeting.;a formal interview with a person in authority. |
| sensational | causing great public interest and excitement.;very good indeed; very impressive or attractive. |
| unveiling | remove a veil or covering from, in particular uncover (a new monument or work of art) as part of a public ceremony.;show or announce publicly for the first time. |
| enslaved | make (someone) a slave.;cause (someone) to lose their freedom of choice or action. |
| violent | using or involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something;(especially of an emotion or a destructive natural force) very strong or power |
| revolt | take violent action against an established government or ruler; rebel.;cause to feel disgust. |
| slave | a person who is the legal property of another and is forced to obey them.;work excessively hard. |
| distinctive | characteristic of one person or thing, and so serving to distinguish it from other |
| notable | worthy of attention or notice; remarkable.;a famous or important person |
| thornier | having many thorns or thorn bushes.;causing distress, difficulty, or trouble. |
| accused | a person or group of people who are charged with or on trial for a crime. |
| acquitted | free (someone) from a criminal charge by a verdict of not guilty. |
| . | |
| conduct oneself or perform in a specified way. | |
| verdict | a decision on an issue of fact in a civil or criminal case or an inquest. |
| overturned | tip (something) over so that it is on its side or upside down.;abolish, invalidate, or reverse (a previous system, decision, situation, etc.) |
| blot | a dark mark or stain made by ink, paint, dirt, etc.;a procedure in which proteins or nucleic acids separated on a gel are transferred directly to an immobilizing medium for identification. |
| tacit | understood or implied without being stated. |