Taras Shevchenko. Use of English B1+

The roots of Ukrainian culture … deep in the history of the nation. Having gone through centuries of challenging and sometimes tragic developments, it is still alive in the hearts of people, in their customs, traditions and folklore.

It is also truthfully … in the works of literature and art based on the best national traditions.

Ukrainian literature is extremely rich in poets and writers. The best of them … inspiration not from the picturesque nature of Ukraine, but also from the heroic history of the people, and from its customs and national traditions.

Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Franko, Lesya Ukrainka, and Vassil Stefanic are dear to us because their literary works, … being highly artistic, carry the message of humanism and love for our native land.

On the 9th of March, 1814 in the village of Moryntsy Kiyivsky region T. Shevchenko was born in a poor serf family. His childhood was very hard, but from early childhood little Taras was … reading, painting and listening to his grandfather's stories about the heroic past of the Ukrainian people.

He liked to draw pictures, and his first teacher was the artist who lived in that village. He wanted to study very much but he … to work.

When Taras was nine, his mother died, and at the age of eleven he became an … .

When Taras was fourteen years old, his master took him as a houseboy to Vilno (Vilnius). There, for the first time in his life, he heard … .

Then his master Engelgard took Taras to Petersburg where Karl Bryullov, a Russian artist, noticed Shevchenko's talent and bought him out serfdom. From 1838 to 1845 Shevchenko was a student at the Academy of … .

He drew many beautiful pictures there, but his second and main … was poetry.

Taras Shevchenko wrote his poems in Ukrainian and his prose both in Ukrainian and in Russian. In 1840 he published his first book, "Kobzar", and a year later "Haidamaki", a historical poem about the heroic struggle of the Ukrainian … against the Polish lords in 1768.

In 1844 the poet wrote his satirical poem, "A Dream", for which Nicolas I … him to the Kazakh steppes to serve as a private in the army.

His friends helped Shevchenko to return from exile in 1857: He … work in the Academy and continued to write, but ten years of exile had ruined the poet's health, and on March, 10, 1861 he died.

The poet's grave, as he … , is on a high. Dniper bank in Kaniv not far from the village where he was born.

Every year on the 9th and 10th of March we celebrate Shevchenko's days. It is a great festival for our nation. Taras Shevchenko is a great Ukrainian poet, a famous artist and a great … .