UNIT 1. BRITAIN’S PREHISTORY

 

 

Exercise 1

Read the text. Translate it (orally). Make use of the Notes and the Vocabulary.

 

       Britain is an island, and Britain’s history has been closely connected with the sea. Until modern times it was as easy to travel across water as it was across land, where roads were frequently unusable. At moments of great peril Britain has been saved from danger by its surrounding seas. Britain’s history and its strong national sense have been shaped by the sea.

       But Britain has not always been an island. It became one only after the end of the last Ice Age. The temperature rose and the ice cap melted, flooding the lower-lying land that is now under the North Sea and the English Channel.

       The Ice Age was not just one long equally cold period. There were warmer times when the ice cap retreated, and colder periods when the ice cap reached as far south as the River Thames. Our first evidence of human life is a few stone tools, dating from one of the warmer periods, about 250,000 BC. These simple objects show that there were two different kinds of inhabitants. The earlier group made their tools from flakes of flint, similar in kind to stone tools found across the north European plain as far as Russia. The other group made tools from a central core of flint, probably the earliest method of human tool making, which spread from Africa to Europe. Hand axes made in this way have been found widely, as far north as Yorkshire and as far west as Wales.

       However, the ice advanced again and Britain became hardly habitable until another milder period, probably around 50,000 BC. During this time a new type of human being seems to have arrived, who was the ancestor of the modern British. These people looked similar to the modern British, but were probably smaller and had a life span of only about thirty years.

       Around 10,000 BC, as the Ice Age drew to a close, Britain was peopled by small groups of hunters, gatherers and fishers. Few had settled homes, and they seemed to have followed herds of deer which provided them with food and clothing. By about 5000 BC Britain had finally become an island, and had also become heavily forested. For the wanderer-hunter culture this was a disaster, because the cold-loving deer and other animals, on which they lived largely died out.

       About 3000 BC Neolithic (or New Stone Age), people crossed the narrow sea from Europe in small round boats of bent wood covered with animal skins. Each could carry one or two persons. These people kept animals and grew corn crops, and knew how to make pottery. They probably came from either the Iberian (Spanish) peninsula or even the North African coast. They were small, dark, and long-headed people, and may be the forefathers of dark-haired inhabitants of Wales and Cornwall today. They settled in the western parts of Britain and Ireland, from Cornwall at the southwest end of Britain all the way to the far north.

       These were the first of several waves of invaders before the first arrival of the Romans in 55 BC. It used to be thought that these waves of invaders marked fresh stages in British development. However, although they must have brought new ideas and methods, it is now thought that the changing pattern of Britain’s prehistory was the result of local economic and social forces.

       The great “public works” of this time, which needed a huge organisation of labour, tell us a little of how prehistoric Britain was developing. The earlier of these works were great “barrows”, or burial mounds, made of earth or stone. Most of these barrows are found on the chalk uplands of south Britain. Today these uplands have poor soil and few trees, but they were not like that then. They were airy woodlands that could easily be cleared for farming, and as a result were the most easily habitable part of the countryside. Eventually, and over a very long period, these areas became overfarmed, while by 1400 BC the climate became drier, and as a result this land could no longer support many people. It is difficult today to imagine these areas, particularly the uplands of Wiltshire and Dorset, as heavily peopled areas.

           

 

Notes

250,000 BC - двести пятьдесят тысяч лет до нашей эры (в западноевропейской практике при обозначении сотен и десятков тысяч ставится запятая)

the British - британцы

 

 

Vocabulary

flint, n кремень

wanderer-hunter, n кочевник

pottery, n гончарные изделия, керамика

forefather, n предок, праотец

barrow, n курган, могильный холм

 

 

Exercise 2

Translate the 7^th and the 8^th paragraphs of the text beginning with the words “These were the first of several waves...” and ending with the words “...as heavily peopled areas” (in written form).

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Exercise 3

Divide the text into logically connected parts and entitle them. Present the points of your plan in written form in the space below.

 

 

 

Exercise 4

Present the general idea of the text in 3-4 sentences. Do it in written form.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

Exercise 5

Give your opinion on Britain’s prehistory. Present your interpretation in the form of a thesis. Write it down in the space below.

 

 

 

TUTOR’S REMARKS

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Специальность  № 020800 - Историко-архивоведение

⇐ Предыдущая45678910111213Следующая ⇒

Поделиться: