Задание

Прочитайте текст с пропусками. Для каждого пропуска выберите правильный вариант ответа. Пропуски соответствуют заданиям 32–38, в которых представлены возможные варианты ответов.

Cathedral of Pokrov or St Basil the Blessed

The story of St Basil’s Cathedral begins in May 1552. Red Square then was the site of mass prayers on the eve of the departure of the tsar and his armies to fight the Khan of Kazan. Mingling in the crowd was a barefoot holy man dressed in rags, well known to the crowd as Basil the Blessed for his . Only traditional immunity to such holy men in Russia could save him from Ivan the Terrible’s wrath. Even before Ivan IV unleashed his reign of terror, Basil was the tsar that his future would condemn him to eternal damnation. Before the departure for Kazan he also predicted that the tsar would murder his first-born son. Basil died Ivan was laying siege to Kazan. His body was buried on the future site of the cathedral, named to the victory.

It took six months for the Russians to force their way into the Kazan fortress. Victory came on 1 October 1552, which, according to the Orthodox calendar, was the feast of Pokrov, or protection of the Blessed Virgins Veil. Thankful for the help of the Virgin, the young monarch ordered a wooden church to be built in Red Square.

As more military success followed, a series of wooden chapels shape around the already existing Trinity Church. Finally, there were seven victories and seven new churches in Red Square. Later all them were torn down to make the way for the Cathedral of Pokrov — better as St Basil’s Cathedral — that was to surpass in size and splendor anything the Russian rulers had built before.