Read the text and decide whether the following sentences are True (T), False (F) or Not given (NG).

Graffiti and Street Art

A long history

Painting and writing on walls is nothing new. In prehistoric times, people in Africa and Europe painted pictures of animals and people in caves. Graffiti has been found at ancient sites in Greece, Italy, Syria and Iraq. In the Roman town of Pompeii in Italy, archaeologists found a lot of graffiti written in Latin, including political and romantic messages, and even some magic spells!

Modern times

In the 1970s, young people in New York used pens to write their names, or 'tags', on walls around the city. One of the first 'taggers' was Demetrius, a teenager from a Greek family. Demetrius's tag was TAKI 183. TAKI was his nickname and 183 was the number of the street where he lived – 183rd Street. At first, he wrote his tag on walls in his neighbourhood. Then he started writing it in subway stations on the way to school. When the subway train stopped at a station, he jumped off, wrote his 'tag' on the wall and then jumped back on the train before the doors closed. Other teenagers saw Demetrius's tag and started writing their own tags on walls, buses and subway trains all over New York: Barbara 62, Joe 182 ...

Then, some teenagers stopped using pens and started using aerosol paints. Their tags were bigger and more colourful. Aerosol paint graffiti became very popular in the 1970s and 1980s and appeared on trains, buses and walls around the world. In the 1990s and 2000s, a lot of graffiti artists started to make pictures too. Some artists were interested in politics and tried to make people think about social problems and discrimination with their pictures. Other artists wanted to make cities more beautiful. In South America, street artists started painting in poor areas. They brought colour and beauty to grey, city walls.

Street art and the global village

Most street artists are young people who paint in their home city or neighbourhood. Many of them use the internet to communicate and share photos of their pictures with other street artists around the world. Some street artists have become famous and their pictures can be seen in galleries or on city walls around the world. Although we don’t know what will happen to street art in the future, we can be sure that it is here to stay!

____ 1. There was evidence of wall paintings in prehistoric times.

____ 2. Pictures of people and animals have been found on walls of Pompeii in Italy.

____ 3. Tags were found on walls in New York cities in 1970s

____ 4. Demetrius wrote his first tag in subway stations in New York.

____ 5. Demetrius created the trend of writing names and numbers on walls or other surfaces in New York.

____ 6.  Some teenagers started using aerosol paints instead of pens to make their work more impressive.

____ 7. Artists around the world all wanted to create pictures to deal with political and social problem.

____ 8. Street artists in South America painted in poor areas to help raise money for local residents.

____ 9. Many street artists can share their artwork with other artists online.

____ 10. The author thinks that the future of street art is easily predictable.