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24. Use these phrases to make sentences with the information you

25. Look at the words in the box. How are they related to the heading in Ex. 26? Use the words to describe the pictures.

A small chapel; the Knights Templar; to intrigue the world; immensely rich; black magic; legend; fabled treasure; mysterious artefacts; ornate pillars; the Holy Grail; investigation; excavation; religious traditions.

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Knights Templar. The Templars were a crusading order, a band of warrior monks who were pledged to protect Christian pilgrims travelling to the Middle East. Their cause was a popular one. Wealthy people often left money or land to the Templars in their wills and, over time, the order became immensely rich; so rich in fact that even kings began to resent and fear the Templars. The French king, Philip IV, who had de facto control of the Papacy, in 1312, persuaded his puppet on the papal throne to issue an edict accusing the Templars of practising black magic, dissolving the order and confiscating its wealth.

According to legend, the Templars then fled to Scotland and took up residence there. Why Scotland? Well, Scotland’s King Robert the Bruce had once murdered one of his rivals in a church and, as a consequence, had been excommunicated. Scotland was therefore one of the few places in Europe where the writ of the Papacy did not run. The founder of the Templar order, Hugo de Payns, had also been married to Catherine de St Clair of Roslin so the order had historical connections to Scotland. According to the legend, the Templars then put down roots in their new country.

Having accumulated a vast store of occult knowledge in the East where they had been exposed to a variety of mystical traditions, they chose to embody it in the carvings of Rosslyn Chapel when construction began on it in 1446, perhaps even burying their fabled treasure within its vaults - which some say included the Holy Grail itself. Rumours of mysterious artefacts, either contained within secret vaults beneath the chapel, or embedded within the Apprentice Pillar, one of the most ornate pillars in the building, have circulated for a long time. These hidden treasures have been said to include the Holy Grail, the mummified head of Jesus, and documents from the early period of the Christian faith.

A descendant of the St. Clair family was the first Grand Master of the Order of Freemasons in Scotland. This has given rise to the belief that Freemasonry had its roots in Templar tradition.

The Truth Behind the Legend

How much truth is there in the legend? Some historians dispute the claims of a connection between the Templars and Rosslyn Chapel. They contend that Sir William St Clair, far from being a member of the Templars, was in fact opposed to them, having given evidence against them at a trial.

The buried treasure question remains unanswered. Some have called for the vaults to be opened so it can be settled once and for all. According to

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tradition, male members of the St Clair family were buried there without coffins, in their full knightly regalia. A few voices have even been heard, calling for the Apprentice Pillar to be cracked open to see whether there is anything inside.

The Rosslyn Chapel Trust will have none of this, however. Nor is Historic Scotland, the government agency whose responsibilities include safeguarding historic buildings, likely to look favourably on such proposals. There would even be legal barriers to such a course of action. Since Rosslyn chapel is a burial site, the legal Right of Sepulchre would apply, and a series of complex legal procedures would have to be gone through before excavation could take place. A non-invasive seismic survey, undertaken in the 1980s, did reveal metal objects contained within the vaults, but proposals for further scans met a chorus of opposition in 2003 and no further investigation seems likely to take place in the near future.

Conclusion

Whatever the truth of some of the more extravagant claims made about Rosslyn Chapel, there is no doubt that the rich visual imagery of its carvings, with symbols from a variety of religious traditions, will continue to captivate and mystify people for generations to come.

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27. Read the text again and mark the sentences True or False. Then correct the false ones.

1.Rosslyn Chapel is not far from London.

2.The Templars were very poor.

3.The Papacy persuaded Philip IV to confiscate the wealth of the Templars.

4.The Apprentice Pillar was a burial site of the Scottish Kings.

5.According to the last investigation the vaults of Rosslyn Chapel are empty.

28. Look at the graph and discuss the chapel’s development.

Sir William dies and is buried in the Chapel

1484

1446

The Collegiate chapel of St. Matthew is founded by Sir William St. Clair

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Rosslyn Chapel is seized during the Reformation

1571

1592

The altars are destroyed, the chapel ceases to be used and falls into disrepair

Cromwell’s troops stable their horses in Rosslyn Chapel

1650

1803

Dorothy Wordsworth visits and pronounces the chapel exquisitely beautiful

The Chapel is rededicated and Sunday services begin again

1862

1881

Francis Robert, 4th Earl of Rosslyn, adds the Chapel’s baptistery

The interior carvings are coated in a cement wash unwittingly causing moisture to become trapped in the stone

1950s

1995

The Rosslyn Chapel trust is formed to care for the Chapel and oversee its conservation

A protective canopy is erected to help dry out the stonework

1997

2007

The Heritage Lottery Fund and Historic Scotland award a provisional grant of £7.5 million towards conserving the Chapel.

Work begins to conserve the Chapel

2009

date

As Rosslyn Chapel undergoes a £7.5 million conservation and site improvement project, this is one of the most exciting times to visit the Chapel.

Whilst there will inevitably be some disruption, you will be able to witness firsthand world-class professionals conserving and protecting this most intriguing of medieval structures. As well as the work to the Chapel,

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we are creating new visitor facilities which are due to open in summer 2010. Until then you can enjoy the exhibition, film and shop in our temporary visitor centre. Our experienced guides will also take you on a guided tour of the Chapel and its grounds. We hope that you will be able to join us during this very significant time in the life of Rosslyn Chapel.

29.Look at the title and the pictures. Why do you think these giant stones are so mysterious? Do you know when Stonehenge appeared? In what country? Who built it and why?

30.In which context do you expect to find these words in the text?

Imagination; to brood in contemplation; hustle and bustle; wizard Merlin; to whisk; the Druids; summer and winter solstices; people dressed in white; to move the vast stones; astronomy; to support the theory; eclipses.

31.Read the text and underline the answers to the questions in the headings.

Who built Stonehenge? How was it constructed? What was its purpose?

Stonehenge

Pic. 45

Stonehenge has haunted the British imagination for centuries. Jammed as it is between two busy motorways, with all the hustle and

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bustle of modern life, the ancient stone megaliths seem to brood in quiet contemplation of an age long gone.

A vast number of theories have been put forward to explain the strange construction on Salisbury plain. The great questions surrounding Stonehenge have always been the same: Who built it? Why did they build it? And how did they build it? Succeeding generations of scholars have answered the questions in different ways, but despite the best efforts of modern research, some of the answers still remain elusive.

Stonehenge first appears in the documentary record in Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain, written in the 12th century. Referring to it as The Giants' Dance, he credited its construction to the wizard Merlin, who is said to have whisked the giant stones away from Ireland to Britain on the orders of Aurelius, a British king who desired to erect a monument to a group of Britons who had been murdered by the Saxons.

Stonehenge - Who Built It?

Mixing its construction in with figures from Arthurian legend would have dated it to around 400 - 500 A.D. Later theories pushed the hypothetical construction date back even further. Inigo Jones, in the 17th century, believed it had been built by the Romans. Others however, writing not long after Jones, believed it had been built in pre-Roman times by the Celtic priest sect known as the Druids. This theory, became the dominant one and still is down to the present-day. In fact, in more recent times, various societies of people claiming to be druids sprang up over the years and began holding ceremonies at the monument on the occasion of the summer and winter solstices. Large crowds often gathered at these ceremonies, even in the 19th century, but it's not clear how seriously any of it was taken. As venerable a figure as Winston Churchill is known to have been inducted into something calling itself the Ancient Order of Druids so perhaps the whole thing was regarded as a bit of a laugh.

Even in our own day, people dressed in white, flowing robes and calling themselves druids continue to perform ceremonies at the Stonehenge site. It does seem that the monument's attribution to the druids may have been utterly wrong, however. Modern scholarship has dated the beginning of construction at Stonehenge to around 3000 B.C., pushing it back into the pre-historic age, before the druids are known to have lived. The truth is that we know very little about the Britons who lived in that time, so the 3000 B.C. date just makes Stonehenge more of a mystery than ever.

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Stonehenge - How Was It Constructed?

The most obvious question begged by this earlier date is how did people living in such a primitive age, without the tools and techniques of modern engineering, manage to move the vast stones (the largest weighing up to 50 tons) over large distances and heft them into position? Various theories have been advanced to account for it. Some scholars have argued that the great stones could have been moved on a rolling carpet of logs; others believe they might have been transported on a kind of primitive unwheeled railway wagon, sliding along lubricated and specially-built tracks.

Stonehenge - What Was Its Purpose?

The most intriguing question about Stonehenge has always been what is it for? Early speculation had the druids performing human sacrifices there and indeed, the headless body of a Saxon was recovered during 20th century excavations on the site but since William Stukeley first advanced the idea in the 17th century, the notion that there is a connection between Stonehenge and astronomy has gathered growing support and now constitutes the most common interpretation of the structure's purpose. Sir Norman Lockyer bolstered the case for this connection around the turn of the 20th century, arguing that Stonehenge was in fact, a calendar. But the strongest confirmation of the astronomical hypothesis came in the 1960s when the American professor Gerald Hawkins published his book Stonehenge Decoded, in which he demonstrated that on the day of a summer solstice, a person standing at key points in the structure would see the sun rise above the Heel Stone (one of the most distinctive stones in the site) and set between a trilithon, which is a three-stone arrangement of two vertical stones capped by a horizontal lintel. Hawkins believed the arrangement of stones could be used to predict eclipses.

Conclusion

Modern research has clarified some of the uncertainties that previously existed about Stonehenge but has provided few definite answers. Indeed, in many ways recent scholarship has only added to the monument's mystery. For 5000 years, the structure on Salisbury Plain has continued to baffle and intrigue all those who have considered it and it seems it will continue to do so for many more.

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32. Think about your country. Are there any mysterious places? Write an article. Remember to include the following information: location, history, modern usage, why to visit.

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Adventurous America

Lost World Adventures

In the 19th century most of the American west was a great wilderness-just trees, lakes, rivers, plains, and a couple of cities sprinkled here and there. Few people saw the wilderness as something beautiful. Instead, most saw the land as hundreds of thousands of acres just waiting to be mined, settled, and farmed. Luckily, some people in the American government decided to set aside some of the wilderness for the purpose of keeping it as wilderness. And that was the beginning of the national park system. Thanks to those people, there are all sorts of amazing places in the US!

1. Look at the pictures (pic. 46 - 49).Which one is:

The Redwood National Park

The Saguaro National Park Alaska’s Glacier Bay National Park The Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

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2.Read the text to find out.

1.What is the Mesa Verde National Park famous for?

2.When did the Anasazi Indians disappear?

3.Where can you see petroglyphs (rock carvings) and pictographs (rock paintings)?

4.Where can you see the world’s most active volcanoes?

5.What is called a dry ocean?

6.Where is the Petrified Forest National Park located?

7.What are the true natural wonders of the world?

8.What is the first and the oldest national park in the United States of America?

9.What is it famous for?

10.What is the best hiding place in the world?

11.What is home to the oldest trees in the world?

12.Where you can find the magnificent saguaro cactus?

13.What is the hottest place in the United States?

14.What are the summer temperatures in Death Valley?

15.In what place is it easy to imagine what our planet looked like at the end of the Ice Age?

Pic. 50

Mystery People

The Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado is The Mesa Verde National Park its ‘cliff dwellings’. The Anasazi Indians, who lived there over a thousand years ago, built many houses, both underground and on the tops of the cliffs. For some unknown reason, the Anasazi Indians disappeared suddenly and mysteriously in 1300 AD.

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