Task IV

Finish the statements:

to estimate, alluring, scaffolds, omnipresent, tough, wise,

aligned, Saracen, sloping, incredible.

1. The construction job was really ______.

2. Dramatic and _____ Stonehenge dominates Salisbury plain.

3. The Druids were known as _____ people.

4. Modern technologies helped to ______ the final phase of construction.

5. ______ stones were taken 20 miles from Stonehenge.

6. To raise all the large top stones builders needed to build big wooden ______.

7. People believe that stones have been carefully ______ with the stars in the heavens.

8. Stones were perfectly leveled despite being built on the _____ ground.

9. Stonehenge towered over the worshipers reminding them of the ______ gods.

10. Stonehenge is _______ construction to the ingenuity of the human mind.

Task IX.

Make 5 more questions for more information about Stonehenge.

Task X.

Give a summary of the texts above.

Task XI.

Choose one of the suggested topics for your speaking activity:

ü The story of megalithic monuments;

ü Different types of megaliths;

ü Stonehenge as a part of English history and culture.

 

 

UNIT 4. Ancient Civilizations

Mesopotamian Civilization

Text 1

Study the map of ancient Mesopotamian civilization and explain why this territory was called “Fertile Crescent”.

The earliest of river valley civilizations developed in southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq).The people of this land built communities, farmed and wrote down laws.

During the New Stone Age, about 6, 000 years ago, nomadic herders settled in the southern part of Mesopotamia. They learned to deal with flooding of rivers and gradually changed to the farming way of life. The people drained the swamps, built dams and dikes, irrigation canals.

Into this farming area, about 3200 B.C., came Sumerian nomads. The Sumerians mixed with the farming people, and southern Mesopotamia became known as Sumer. It was here that the world’s first advanced civilization arose.

The Greeks called the area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers Mesopotamia, meaning “land between rivers”. It stretched from the Persian Gulf to the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. The history and culture of Mesopotamian civilization is closely connected with the ebb and flow of the Tigris and Euphrates River. The earliest communities developed to the north but since rainfall in that area was so unpredictable, by 5000 B.C. communities had spread south.

Floods and torrential rains were a significant theme in Mesopotamian literature as depicted in the Epic of Gilgamesh.

 

The rampant flood which no man can oppose,
Which shakes the heavens and causes earth to tremble,
In an appalling blanket folds mother and child,
Beats down the canebrake's full luxuriant greenery,
And drowns the harvest in its time of ripeness.

Rising waters, grievous to eyes of man,
All-powerful flood, which forces the embankments
And mows down mighty trees,
Frenzied storm, tearing all things in massed confusion
With it in hurling speed.

 

· Challenge: Learn more about Gilgamesh from http: //www.mesopotamia.co.uk