5. Make up sentences of your own with the given words and phrases.

6. Match a line in A with a line in B.

A	B
to spring up	to determine the meaning of
distinctive	splendid or impressive in appearance
sophisticated	a living being
to decipher	to possess some similarity to, be like
magnificent	serving to identify
surface	the act of offering something to a deity in propitiation
creature	the exterior face of an object
to resemble	to appear
to display	having acquired worldly knowledge or refinement
sacrifice	to show or make visible

7. Summarize the text in English. Unit 20 text

The Chinese perfect the art of bronze casting

During the Bronze Age, people in many regions of the world generated metal tools for the first time, but in China artworks of the highest order were produced.

Ancient people across the globe cast simple tools and weapons in bronze, a major breakthrough for human development. When the technique was developed in China it inspired far more than mere blades. Bronze Age craftsmen there created bronze castings of elegant shapes adorned with detailed patterns.

The finest of these castings are the ritual vessels that were produced during the era of the Shang rulers, the first major Chinese dynasty, who came to power in about 1500 bce. These lavish objects contained offerings of food and drink during ceremonies where rulers and ancestors were worshiped. Large numbers of these vessels, filled with sacrificial offerings for the afterlife, were buried in tombs alongside the dead. It was hoped that the spirits of the dead would watch over the fortunes of their descendants.

These elaborate ritual ceremonies reflect the power and political organization the Shang rulers imposed in an era when most of the world's peoples were just beginning to form structured communities. The materials used in China were scarce and costly, and the casting process was labour-intensive and required highly skilled craftsmen. Varied ranges of vessel designs were used. More than twenty different types have been identified. The shapes of many of the ritual vessels were based on everyday utensils, often originally made in earthenware, that had been in use since Neolithic times. These simple objects were transformed into sophisticated artworks. The ding — a form of cauldron — eventually became the most important. The shape appears to have originated as a pottery basin. At a later stage, three legs were added to the basin, so that it could be heated over a fire. The other types of vessels included a xian (steamer), a yu (bucket), and a gu (goblet).

2 Ding

Artist unknown, c.1200-1100 BCE

Shang Dynasty

Chinese craftsmen developed a distinctive bronze alloy, adding lead to the usual mixture of copper and tin. This endowed the finished article with an attractive grey sheen. Their preferred technique was piece-mold casting. In this process, a model was initially fashioned out of clay. From this, a number of molds were taken. After the original model was released, molds were reassembled to form a final mold, into which the molten bronze was poured. The piece-mold technique was time-consuming, but it allowed craftsmen to carve or stamp decorative elements directly onto the inner surface of the mold, enabling them to achieve an unparalleled degree of sharpness in their intricate designs.

The decorations on Shang bronze-ware are both complex and mysterious. Many are based on animal forms. Some are highly naturalistic and related, perhaps, to the creatures that were sacrificed in the ceremonies. Others are far more symbolic—strange birds with hooks along their plumage, the dragon-like kui, and the all-pervasive mythical beast taotie, usually seen on masks, with its bulging eyes and fierce, protruding jaws. Many of the Shang vessels feature brief, dedicatory inscriptions. In addition to providing invaluable information about the owners and the purpose of the objects, these inscriptions also constitute some of the earliest known examples of Chinese writing.

TASKS