Vocabulary, grammar and text exercises

I. Analyze the structure of the following words, define parts of speech and translate the words.

roughly threaten mysterious

wealthy unattractive suitable

powerful rebellion resentment

II Make up pairs of synonyms.

1. conquest, wealthy, free, rebellion, authority, grove, expedition, testing, exposed, wrecked, object, enemy

2. checking, independent, forest, invasion, rich, aim, uprising, campaign, open, foe, broken, power.

III. Make up pairs of antonyms.

1. modern, wealthy, damp, free, success, hatred, suitable, damaged, unknown, difficult, enemy

2. familiar, love, poor, easy, unfit, ancient, repaired, dry, alliance, dependent, failure

4. Fill in the blanks with prepositions if necessary.

1. By the 55 BC Caesar had conquered … all Gaul.

2. His armies had reached and even crossed … the Rhine … Germany.

3. Discontented Gauls could escape … there and plot the rebellion … exile and the rebellion was a real danger … the Roman power … Gaul.

4. The religion … the Druids was mysterious and sinister.

5. … any rate, perhaps because … the horror … human sacrifice, the Romans were anxious to root … the Druids.

6. The Roman ship captains were not used … the tides.

7. Caesar was now … a very difficult position.

8. They landed … the same sort … open beach.

V. Choose the correct variant of the translation of the predicates in the following sentences

1. What made Caesar want to conquer Britain?

a) сделало b) заставило с) выполнило

2. Discontented Gauls could escape there

а) могли бежать b) могут бежать с) мoгли исчезнуть

3. He had to get his men back to Gaul.

a) должен увести b ) должен был увести с) был вынужден увести

4. His enemy had driven away all the inhabitants.

а) увел b) увез с) уводит

5. For the Roman leader the situation was becoming increasingly difficult.

a) становилось b ) становится с) стала

5. Finish the sentences according to the content of the text.

1. At the time of Roman conquest Britain …

a) was a wealthy country b) was a powerful country c) wasn’t a wealthy country

2. The climate of Britain was …

a) dry and hot b) damp and unattractive c) mild and damp

3. Britain was also a centre of …

a) religion of Druids b) religion of Catholicism c) religion of Islam

4. The aim of the first Caesar’s expedition was …

a) capturing of Britain b) conquest of Scotland c) finding suitable landing places

5. During the second landing …

a) there was heavy resistance b) there was no resistance c) there was a fierce battle

6. Cassivelaunus …

a) had other enemies besides the Romans b) had no other enemies besides Romans

c) had no enemies

6. Explain the following proper names.

Gaul, Boulogne, Channel, Druids, Britons, Cassivelaunus, Trinovantes

7. Find the passage where it is told about Caesar’s first landing in Britain, read it and translate.

IX. Answer the following questions.

1. What was the reason of Caesar’s invasion?

2. What do you know about the religion of Druids?

3. Why were the Romans anxious to root out the Druids?

4. What was the purpose of the first invasion?

5. What happened to the ships after the landing?

6. Why was Caesar in a difficult position?

7. Why did Caesar hurry inland immediately after the second landing?

8. What kind of enemy was Cassivelaunus?

9. What rout was Caesar forced to go inland?

8. Render the text.

Text 6

THE END OF SAXON ENGLAND. THE NORMAN CONQUEST

Part I.

Three generations after the death of Alfred a clearly marked degeneration of English culture and institutions set in. The now virtually complete break-up of the tribal structure had been accompanied by an advance towards feudalism, but English society seemed to be unable from its own momentum to pass beyond a certain point. It is possible that the halt was only temporary but speculation on this point is unprofitable since, in fact, two invasions, one by the Danes under Sweyn and Canute and later that of the Normans, cut short the time in which a recovery might have been made.

During the Tenth Century the consolidation of England into a single kingdom went hand in hand with the creation of an organization into shires, often centering Alfred’s burgh or those of the Danes. While the earlier and smaller kingdoms could be administered from a single centre, there was no machinery adequate to cover the whole country, and, though, the shire reeve or sheriff was in theory responsible to the King for the administration of the shire, the actual supervision exercised from the centre was in practice slight. Above the sheriff was the Ealdorman who controlled a group of shires, often corresponding roughly to one of the old kingdoms. While the sheriff remained an official and later became the main link in the state organization, the Ealdorman, like the Count or Duke of European countries, soon became a semi-independent territorial magnate. The powers of the Ealdorman greatly increased during the short period of Canute’s Empire, when England was only a part of a much larger whole. This increase of power coincided with the adoption of the Danish title of Earl.

In the sphere of justice, also, great strides were made in the direction of feudalism by way of the delegation of royal rights to powerful individuals. The old system of shire, hundred and township courts worked fairly well only as long as no landowner in the area was so powerful as to be able to oppose their decisions. With the advent of powerful semi-feudal lords the authority of the traditional courts was weakened, and they were supplemented and in part superseded by the granting to these same lords of the right to hold courts of their own. Such rights were eagerly sought for the income produced by fines. Private courts of justice, always among the most definite marks of feudalism, were well established in England by the time of the Norman Conquest.

The other thing which is characteristic of the manor, a servile peasantry, was also now the rule except in the Danelaw. The Danish invasions had indeed a curious dual result. In the Danelaw itself the enserfment of the cultivator was retarded while in the Saxon half of England it was accelerated. The evidence of the “Colloquies of Aelfric”, a series of dialogues written as a text-book for the boys in the monastic school at Winchester some time before 1000 A.D., is striking with its assumption that the typical cultivator was unfree.

The terms freeman and serf are puzzling to the modern mind since they are used in a peculiar sense in the Feudal Age. They can only be understood with reference to the holding of land. A man without land was neither free nor unfree, he did not count. A free man was one who held land on condition of military service, or of some other service reckoned honourable, or one who paid a money rent. The serf or villein was he who held land on condition of performing agricultural labour on his lord’s land. He was bound to the soil, whereas the freeman could leave his land and go elsewhere or even in some cases take his land, as the saying went, and commend himself to another lord. In a time when to be landless was the worst of all misfortunes it was not so terrible a thing to be bound to the soil as it might seem today. The serf had his own rights, precisely defined by custom even where not legally enforceable. One of the results of the Norman Conquest was to draw the line between serf and freeman – very vague line in Saxon England – higher up in the social scale and to reduce everyone below this line to a dead level of servitude.

Late in the Tenth Century the Danish invasions were renewed under Sweyn, who had managed to unite Denmark and Norway under his rule. The intervening period had been largely filled with inroads on Northern France, but with the establishment of a strong Scandinavian principality in Normandy the centre of attack shifted. The wealth and degeneration of England, of which the Danes must have been well aware, made it once more the most profitable objective.

The conquest of England by the Normans can be regarded both as the last of the hostings of the Northmen and the first of the crusades. Though William was a feudal prince, his army was not a feudal army but one gathered from all quarters by the promise of land and plunder. He safeguarded himself with an elaborate chain of alliances, including one with the Pope that formed the basis for many later claims and disputes. His army was not large – perhaps about 12,000 – but was trained in methods of warfare unknown in England. The English had learned from the Danes to use horses to move swiftly from place to place, but continued to fight on foot in a dense mass behind the traditional shield wall. Their principal weapon was the axe. The Normans employed a skillful combination of heavy armoured cavalry and crossbowmen which enabled them to break up the ranks of their opponents from a distance before pushing home a decisive charge. Once the shield was broken the effectiveness of the cavalry in pursuit made recovery out of the question. This was the military reason for William’s victory, just as the political reason was his firm control over his vassals as compared with the defiant attitude adopted by the Earls of Mecia and Northumbria towards Harold.

PHONETIC EXERCISES

1. Read the following words correctly paying attention to way of pronunciation of the stressed vowels.

/e/ death, peasantry, weapon

/:/ virtually, servile /ai/, earl

/ei/ break, unable, cultivator //\/, crusade

/ai/ tribal, slight, private, striking, mind, neither, precisely, defiant

//\/ accompanied, recovery, cover, above, roughly, justice, custom, hundred, result, puzzling

/a:/ advance, pass, granting, retarded, armoured

/ju:/ feudalism, duke, curious, dual, peculiar, pursuit

/ai/ society, shire, dialogue /g/, alliance, empire

/):/ halt, sought, honourable, enforceable, quarters, warfare

/iei/ creation

/i/ supervision /ju:/, income, typical, villein, dispute /ju:/

/æ/ adequate /i/, magnate /ei/, monastic, principality, cavalry, vassal, elaborate /i/

/ou/ though, opponent

/i:/ reeve, superseded /ju:/

/E/ fairly, area, aware

/i/ series

/au/ count

/)i/ hosting

/u/ pushing,

2. Read the words paying attention to the pronunciation of the consonants and combinations of consonants,

/dζ/ generation

/g/ burgh, dialogue, vague, safeguard

/h / whole

/∫/ machinery

/f/ roughly, sphere

/-/ honourable

/kw/ conquest

3. read the following proper names correctly.

Saxon, England, Norman, Danes, Sweyn, Canute /k’nju:t/, Alfred, Ealdorman, European, Danish, Winchester, Denmark, Norway, Northern France, Scandinavian, Normandy, William, Pope, Mercia /’m:si/, Northumbria/ /\/, Harold.