Practice 2
The British caricature themselves as a nation of insular xenophobes. This helps to disguise the fact that they are living in one of the world’s most international countries. Saloon bar patriots may be happy to read tabloid newspapers which take every opportunity to hurl abuse at continental neighbour. But the bar itself is likely to employ Australian staff, who serve Thai food and Mexican beer to people who work for Korean companies, wear Italian clothes and—though they still can’t manage a complete sentence in French—are beginning to talk like Americans. The bar is also likely to be foreign-owned: a Japanese bank, Nomura, recently became the largest pub landlord in Britain.
Though ethnic minorities make up less than 10% of the resident population, Britain is one of the easiest countries to enter, despite its insistence (often quoted as evidence of insularity) on maintaining border controls within the EU. All 300 million citizens of the European Economic Area can live and work in Britain if they choose without having to fill in so much as a form. At least 18 million of them will stop by Britain each year.
Artists use caricature to distort the human face or figure for comic affect, (1)____
while at the same time capturing an identifiable likeness and suggests the essence (2)____
of the personality or character beneath the surface. The humor lies in the fact (3)____
the caricature is recognizable, and yet exaggerated.
From their origin in Europe as witty sketches, caricature grew through (4)____
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, becoming enormously popular in (5)____
the United States early in this century. In 1920s and 1930s especially,
this lively form of illustration was appeared in newspapers and (6)____
magazines throughout the country. The caricaturists in this era drew his (7)____
portraits of important figures primary to entertain. In spirit their work was (8)____
close to the humor of the fast-developing comic strip and gag cartoon than to the (9)____
string of political satire. Their subjects were more often amusing than offended (10)____