Backgammon
Until recently, backgammon was regarded in America as an exotic, familiar (1) game. Today, backgammon is claimed to have millions of dedication (2) players. Though history (3) are not sure about the origin of the game, there are quite a number of facts about its early days. During the excavate (4) of the royal cemetery in the ancient Sumerian city of Ur archaeologists found five game boards. Their close resemble (5) to the early backgammon boards prompted an assume (6) that the game existed five thousand years ago. Similar to the game boards earth (7) at Ur was the board discovered among the treasures in the bury (8) chamber of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamen, from around 1500 BC.
Odd (9) enough, the Spanish adventure (10) Francisco Pizarro in the 16th century described the Aztecs in Mexico playing a game remark (11) like the Egyptians’ game backgammon. This similar (12) provides justify (13) to the hypothesis of the possible migrate (14) of early people who have come to the Americas from North Africa.
Backgammon’s popular (15) has risen and fallen through the ages. It can safely be assumed that such fluctuate (16) may be expected in the future.
5. Образуйте соответствующее однокоренное слово.
Popular board games
I. Monopoly
Monopoly is the world’s best sell (1) game. It was actually invented by Elizabeth Magie, though it was Charles Darrow who started marketing it as his own create (2) in 1933. Despite its popular (3), few of us really know how to play it well. To be success (4) in this game you should persuasion (5) the others that the deal you need will be benefit (6) to them even though they may be interested only in win (7).
II. Scrabble
The second most popular game, Scrabble, was invented by an American cross-word fan, in 1948. This fascinate (8) word game is available in 30 languages in 121 countries. Despite its success, it has been lately design (9) to be more attract (10) to players. The essence (11) characteristic of a good Scrabble player is flexibility (12) thinking, therefore such individuals are expected to be comfortable with the coming modify (13) and are not particularly concerned with the new board look proposed by the design (14).
6. Заполните пропуски подходящими по смыслу словами из предложенного списка.
The piano
accompaniment
ancestor ceaselessly unceasing
obvious
produce successfully variety
Central combine central early impressive irritating
T
he
piano represents the perfect example of a continuous
invention,
which adapts itself (1)
___
to the evolution of culture. The piano’s oldest (2)
___
was the organum;
it is thought to have been made, if not invented, in 10th-century
Italy. It was destined to provide an (3)
___
to the human voice.
The piano – or, to give its full name, the pianoforte − has played a (4) ___ role in European music since the (5) ___ 1700s. Its development can be traced back to an Italian harpsichord maker, Bartolomeo Cristofori, who had wanted for a long time to (6) ___ the mechanisms of two different instruments: the dulcimer, which relies on strings and hammers to (7) ___ its sound, and the harpsichord, whose music is produced through a keyboard.
In 1709, Cristofori (8) ___ implemented his idea, and the piano was born. The piano (9) ___ strikes a key on the key board that forces a hammer to strike a string, producing a note. The new instrument provided a player an opportunity to make his performance more (10) ___, since the strength of the note depended on that of the impact of the string. This idea seems (11) ___ to us today, but in 1709 it was revolutionary. In the beginning, the instrument must have been far from perfect, for when Voltaire listened to the sounds it produced he found them (12) ___ as compared to those of the harpsichord. Later many inventors endeavoured to improve Cristofori’s creation. The piano quickly became extremely popular, and (13) ___ efforts were made to improve it. Thus, foot pedals were added at the end of the eighteenth century. However, although pianos have been made in a wide (14) ___ of different shapes and sizes, today there are really two main types of the piano, the grand and the upright.
7. Выберите подходящее слово из предложенных двух вариантов.