I. Reading. Read the text and choose the best answer (a–d) to complete the sentences (1–4).

Read the text and choose the best answer (a–d) to complete the sentences (1–4).

In the hills above Los Angeles, you can see an image that is familiar to millions: tall, white letters spelling “HOLLYWOOD.” It is a famous symbol of the world’s movie capital. However, Hollywood wasn’t always so well known. In 1853, only a single mud hut stood there. Two decades later, the area just west of Los Angeles was a farming community. It wasn’t until the early 1900s that the film industry arrived and changed Hollywood forever.

In film’s early days, most movies were made in New Jersey on the US east coast. However, bad weather and limited sunlight made making movies there difficult. Added to this was the fact that Thomas Edison had patents in the east on most filmmaking technology, and getting permission to use it was expensive. In the west, however, these patents were rarely obeyed. In 1910, director D.W. Griffith arrived in Los Angeles to film the short movie In Old California. He loved filming there and quickly spread the word of this great location. Cecil B. DeMille, one of the all­time greatest directors, filmed The Squaw Man in Hollywood in 1914. It was the west coast’s first full­length movie, a huge success, and the reason why the film industry never left California again.

Hollywood has since grown a lot, adding famous movie studios and becoming the center of the motion picture world. Less well known is a film editing company called Hollywood Digital Laboratory. When it first opened its doors in 1911, it was called Hollywood Film Laboratory. As Hollywood’s oldest operating film company, the small building is a different kind of Hollywood landmark showing how the town began years ago and how far it has come since then.

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