1.2 Read the text and answer the questions: Real Hamunaptra

In actual history, a city called Hamunaptra (City of the Dead Man) was found in India in the 1850s when British engineers, trying to build a railroad, pillaged the area for bricks. In the 1920s, archaeologists began serious excavations. They found at the site a lost civilization occupying an area greater than that of Pakistan. It was a complex, literate, urbanized, centrally located society. Raw materials located in the area indicated that the civilization had long-distance trade with Mesopotamia. The civilization ended between 1900 and 1700, which archaeologists accredit to a new group of horse-riding invaders. However, there is no evidence to prove any hypothesis of why the civilization might have become extinct.

With the passage of time, Hamunaptra became a lost city, the subject of legends. As a result, by the 1920s, the decade in which most of the film's action takes place, its existence is doubted by serious scholars.

Questions:

1. What was another name for Hamunaptra? 2. Where was it found and when? 3. What kind of society was it? 4. What happened to civilization next? 5. Was it a real place? What do you think about it?

1.3 Read and retell the text using the vocabulary notes:

Vocabulary notes:

urban areas – заселенные места

on the very edge of the city – на окраине города

ancient temples – древние храмы

ancient tombs – древние гробницы

noisy honking of horns – шумное гудение клаксонов

grandest accommodations – великолепные апартаменты

incredible selection of – невероятное разнообразие

Cairo, Egypt

Cairo, Egypt, the Triumphant City is one of the world's largest urban areas and offers many sites to see. It is the administrative capital of Egypt and, close by, is almost every Egypt Pyramid, such as the Great Pyramids of Giza on the very edge of the city. But there are also ancient temples, tombs, Christian churches, magnificent Muslim monuments, and of course, the Egyptian Antiquities Museum all either within or nearby the city.

Cairo, Egypt is an amazing city full of life and movement, and it is that way almost 24 hours every day, with the noisy honking of horns, children playing in the streets and merchants selling their wears and services. And here, the Egyptians are most at home in this powerful, modern and ancient city.

Cairo, Egypt provides great culture, including art galleries and music halls, such as the Cairo Opera House, as well it should, being one of the largest cities in the world. It also provides some of the grandest accommodations and restaurants in the world, such as the Four Seasons and the Cairo Marriott.

Cairo offers an incredible selection of shopping, leisure and nightlife activities. This is, and has been for over a thousand years, truly a shopper's paradise.

1.4 Read and retell the text using the vocabulary notes: The ten plagues in Egypt

Vocabulary notes:

to turn to blood – обратиться в кровь

to stretch out – распространиться

frog spawn – лягушачья икра

gnats – комары

the only obstacle – единственное препятствие

polluted river – загрязнённая река

without moisture – без влаги

to remove obstacle – удалять препятствие

insect explosion – нашествие насекомых

to be distinguished from – отличаться от

grievous swarm – ужасный рой мух

grievous murrain – тяжелая чума (рогатого скота)

to go unharvested – стать неурожайным

a boil breaking forth with blains – нарыв со страшными язвами

hailstorms – огненный дождь

livelihood – средства к существованию

to cause boils and blisters – вызывать нарывы и язвы

to strip crops – грабить урожай

to eat the residue – доедать остатки

culprit – виновник, преступник

to black out the sky – затемнить небо

1. Water to Blood

The Bible says: the Nile turned to blood at the touch of Moses's staff.

It stretches out upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt.

2. Frogs

All the fish will be killed; no fish means more frog spawn, which means more frogs. And a polluted river would drive them on to the land in their millions.

3. Gnats

Without moisture the frogs died, removing the only obstacle to an insect explosion – and the biblical story is long before "lice" were distinguished from other insects. It may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt.

4. Flies

The Bible says: there came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh. Fly swarms are not uncommon, and this plague was probably of stable flies, which bite.

5. Livestock Diseased (Sick animals)

It stretches out upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there will be a very grievous murrain.

6. Boils

A disease causing boils and blisters struck next - perhaps the ancient disease "Glanders", which is spread by stable flies. As a result, the crops went unharvested. It shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt.

7. Thunder and Hail

Only last year hailstorms hit Israel and Jordan. They're not rare, but to the weakened Egyptians, whose crops were their whole livelihood, a hailstorm at this time would be a cruel blow.

It causes to rain a very grievous hail, such as has not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now.

8. Locusts

Again, locusts have been known to swarm since ancient times, stripping crops. But to the Egyptians, like the hail, a locust plague now couldn't come at a worse time. It brings the locusts into the coast. And they would cover the face of the earth, that one cannot be able to see the earth. And they would eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remained onto you from the hail, and would eat every tree which grew for you out of the field.

9. Darkness

The Bible says a three-day darkness fell next. A sandstorm is the likely culprit: one in Cairo in 1997 blacked out the sky for three days. The sand would cover any food supplies remaining. There may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt.