Text 2

Pre - reading tasks.

1. Find the answers to the following questions:

1. What was Hephaestus?

2. Was he a lovely, healthy child?

3. Why was he returned to Olympus?

4. Did he help much to the gods of Olympus?

5. Did his children resemble him?

2. Give the titles to the paragraphs of the text.

3. What other Greek or Roman gods do you know? What did they patronize?

Pronouncing Dictionary

Hephaestus /hi’fi:sts/ Zeus /zju:s/ Hera /’hiar / Thetis /’etis/ Eurinome /ju‘rainm/ Artemis /’a:timis/ Apollo /ж‘polou/

Palaemon /’pжlmn/ Ardalus /’a:dls/

1. Hephaestus

Hephaestus was born into the family of Zeus and Hera, the supreme rulers of the Greek gods, who lived on Olympus. When Hera saw her ugly deformed child (he was lame), she threw him out. The infant fell into the ocean, where Thetis and Eurinome, the Oceanid found him and brought him up for nine years in their cave, unknown to the gods or Hera. It was here that he learnt his arts of a metalworker. He made a golden throne for his mother and sent it to her. There was a trap in the throne, and when Hera sat on it, she could not leave it, and none of the gods was able to help her. It was his revenge. So the gods sent for Hephaestus. They invited him to come to Olympus.

On Olympus he became a master craftsman, the smith and metal-founder for the gods. Hephaestus was very useful to the Olympians. He built splendid halls and palaces and enabled the gods to live in great luxury. He even made armour for mortal men when a goddess asked him about it.

Hephaestus had a workshop on Olympus where, in the great battle of the gods and giants, he used molten iron to quell the giant Mimas. Hephaestus also forged the chain that bound Prometheus to the top of Mount Caucasus; and he made Zeus’ thunderbolts and the arrows of Artemis and Apollo.

His children (mostly lame like himself) included the Argonaut Palaemon and Ardalus, inventor of the flute.

Task 2 Comprehension Check

Exercise 1. Here are the answers to some questions about the text.

Work out the questions.

1) Zeus and Hera were the supreme rulers of the Greek Gods. 2) Hera threw Hephaestus out because he was an ugly deformed child. 3) Hephaestus was returned to Olympus to free his mother Hera. 4) On Olympus he became a master craftsman. 5) Yes, he also became the smith and metal founder for the gods. 6) His son Ardalus was inventor of the flute. 7) No, Hephaestus didn’t use boiled water, he used molten iron to quell the giant Mimas.

Exercise 2. Read the text carefully and agree or disagree with the

statements given below.

1. Hephaestus was born by Athena. 2. Hephaestus was a charming, healthy child, and his mother loved him very much. 3. Hephaestus’ revenge was very crafty. 4. He made armour both for gods and for mortal men. 5. Hephaestus didn’t work on Olympus, he preferred working among mortal people. 6. He was the chief god of commerce. 7. He was very skilled and enabled gods to live in luxury.

Exercise 3. Look at the text and find words or phrases which mean the same as:

chief, main	newborn child	Produce
be able	Wonderful	Fight
avenge	give a possibility

Exercise 4. Put the jumbled sentences in the right order to get

an organized text.

1. William Shakespear, the greatest and most famous of English writers, was born in 1564.

2. There is a story that Shakespeare’s first job was to hold rich men’s horses at the theatre door.

3. The last half of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th centuries are known as the golden age of English literature.

4. His father, John Shakespeare, was a merchant and he had several houses in Stratford.

5. Later Shakespeare became an actor.

6. His mother, Mary Arden, was a farmer’s daughter.

7. Shakespeare wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets.

8. He was a great humanist and believed in the high and noble features of man’s mind.