Unit 4 cities and countries
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Not only is the universe queerer then we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose
J.D.S. Handle, British geneticist
Lead-in
Complete the questionnaire given below in writing.
What is the capital of our
country famous for?
Does it attract a lot of
tourists?
Do you come from a city, town
or village?
Are there any tourist sights at
your birthplace?
Which of the attractions
outside the capital would you advise to see to a foreign visitor?
Which capital city would you
most like to spend a weekend and why?
Reading comprehension
2. A) You are to read a passage dedicated to the early history of Great Britain. Before you start reading make sure you can read and understand the following proper names:
* Iberians –іберійці
* Stonehenge – Стоунхедж, стародавня пам’ятка кельтської культури
* Celtic – кельтський
* Julius Caesar – Юлій Цезар
* emperor Claudius – імператор Клавдій
* Hadrian – Адріан
* Boadicea – Боадіція, королева Британців, 43 р. до нашої ери
* Caledonia – Каледонія
* Angles, Saxons , Jutes – Англи, Сакси, Юти – германські племена
* William the Conqueror – Вільгельм Завойовник
* Centerbyry – Кентербері, резиденція Британського архієпископа
b) Read the passage and pay special attention to the role that the invasions played in the history of Great Britain.
THE ROOTS OF THE NATION: MILLENIUM OF INVASIONS
(a sketch of the British history from earliest to 1066)
For how long the windswept islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe were inhabited remains a mystery. When and why the first human beings set foot on the British and Irish land must also remain a matter for speculation. What is known is that those first adventurers were followed by various identifiable groups of migrants who settled into their new home.
In ancient times Britain was inhabited by Iberians. Little is known of these people who left behind them the barrows that can still be seen in the south of the island and at Stonehenge, a mysterious circle of stones.
Between 2000 and 1200 BC, the Celts began to migrate to Britain from north-West Germany. They spoke their Celtic language, and were known as Britons. The Celts lived in round, wooden huts in small villages and were mainly farmers. They organized themselves into tribes with a king or queen as leader and intertribal wars were very common.
In 55 B.C. Julius Caesar landed in Britain having conquered Gaul. After a number of military campaigns, small Roman settlements were created in the south and east. Nearly a hundred years later, in 43 B.C., the emperor Claudius sent a large army to extend Roman control over a wider area. The Britons, led by Queen Boadicea, fought bravely, but were defeated. Boadicea chose to drink poison rather than be taken prisoner. All of England and Wales were subdued.
The Romans introduced their civilization and language and built the towns, roads, baths and temples. Many of the towns were originally army camps and the Latin name for “camp”, castra, has remained in many modern town names ending in “caster”, “chester” or “cester”, such as Doncaster, Manchester or Leicester. Most of the Roman roads are still in existence today.
The Romans tried for over a century to conquer Caledonia, as they called Scotland, but they did not succeed. In the end, Emperor Hadrian ordered the building of a wall across the north of England to act as a great defensive barrier to stop attack from the Scottish tribes, who were known as Picts.
At the beginning of the fifth century AD, Rome withdrew its legions from Britain to the continent to defend the boarders of the empire against barbarian attacks.
New invaders saw the opportunity for expansion and began to settle on the island; the Angles, Saxons and Jutes came from the regions of continental Europe that correspond to modern territories of Holland, Southern Denmark and Western Germany. They gradually took over the area that is now known as England (the land of the Angles) while the Celts retreated north and west to Scotland and Wales. The new settlers brought with them an extensive body of tribal cultures in the form of alliterative verse*. Some of them also used a runic alphabet to carve messages, mostly on wooden sticks, but writing was not used extensively until the conversion to Christianity, when manuscript technology was introduced from Rome and Ireland. The Anglo-Saxons lived in small villages; their houses were made of mud, wood and straw and were grouped around the house of their lord. The Anglo-Saxons liked fighting, gambling and drinking. They also liked music and singing. Their sense of hospitality was renowned, as was the high respect they showed for their women. Life expectancy was not very long. The climate of England was colder and damper at that time and few people lived beyond the age of forty-five. Epidemics and famine contributed to the high rate of mortality.
The “thane” was the most important man in the village; he kept order and made his people obey the law. There were no prisons and punishment varied according to the crime. Criminals were mutilated, hanged, or compelled to pay a sum of money called “wergild”.
Anglo-Saxons, pagan by their beliefs, pushed out Christianity, brought earlier by the Romans, westward and northward, where it survived in Wales, parts of Scotland and above all in Ireland. At the end of the sixths century Pope Gregory I sent a monk Augustine to revive Christianity in England. Augustine established the first Christian community in Canterbury and became the first Archbishop of Canterbury. With Christianity came Latin Learning and the converted Anglo-Saxons produced academic and scientific works of remarkable quality for the period – the first history of England written in Latin by the scholar Venerable Bede.
The Vikings, who came from Norway and Denmark, raided northern and western Europe between the eighth and the ninth centuries, carrying off anything of value they could find. During their raids the Vikings built temporary camps and their word for “camp” wik can still be found in modern place names such as Warwick and Norwich the most successful Viking invasions established settlements along the north-east coast. The Anglo-Saxons were unable to repel them and in 878 King Alfred the Great signed a treaty leaving the Vikings in control of northern England while he maintained power in the south.
The Vikings eventually blended with the Anglo-Saxons and made important contributions to the English language: for example, nouns like skirt and sky and pronouns they and them are of Viking origin.
The power of the Anglo-Saxons was broken in AD 1066 by the Normans. The Normans came originally from Denmark, but after settling on the French coast they adopted French customs and a dialect of the French language. The Norman king William I (William the Conqueror) defeated the last Anglo-Saxon king Harold II at the battle of Hastings in 1066 and took control of southern England.
Sporadic resistance in the rest of the country was then crushed with the help of advanced military technology including moats and stone castles (Anglo-Saxon castles were made of wood).
After the Norman conquest, Anglo-Saxon elements of English culture survived primarily among the lower classes, while French and Latin elements predominated in aristocratic circles. The animals tended by herders, for example, had Anglo-Saxon names (cow, lamb, pig) while the finished products served up on aristocratic tables had names derived from French (beef, mutton, pork). Important aspects of Anglo-Saxon law were, however incorporated into English law.
The Norman invasion was the last in British history, but it was by far the most significant, and its effects were to be felt for many centuries after William’s historic victory at the Battle of Hastings.
c) Answer the following questions.
1. When did the first human beings set foot on the British land? 2. Which tribes were known as Britons? 3. Who was the first of the Briton’s leaders to resist the Roman invaders? 4. What part of Britain is also known as Caledonia? 5. Had the Romans succeeded in conquering Scotland? 6. What made the Romans withdraw their troops from Britain? 7. What was the average life expectancy of Anglo-Saxons and why? 8. How did the Anglo-Saxons punish their criminals? 9. How did Britain become a Christian country and was the impact of Christianity on the culture of Anglo-Saxons? 10. Which part of the British Isles got under the Vikings’ control? 11. Which of the invasions that happened in the history of Britain had the strongest impact on its today’s culture and language?
d) Give a written literary Ukrainian translation of the paragraph starting with “For how long the windswept …” up to “...intertribal wars were very common”.
e) Return to the text and fill in the following chart of the invasions that influenced the formation of the British nation and Britain’s languages following the example:
|
Invaders |
Time of invasion |
Origin |
Impact on culture |
Impact on the languages |
|
Iberians |
Exact time unknown |
North Africa, Iberian peninsular |
Left behind them the mound graves made of earth and stone |
No signs are presently traced |