Text-based tasks.

1) Produce 5 sentences of your own, using the vocabulary. Read your sentences out in Russian and ask any of your friends to translate them back into English. Check if your sentences sound the same.

2) Text-based questions.

1. Name the UK nations of the Celtic origin.

2. To what historic period does the Celtic culture date back?

3. What memorials of the Roman times in Britain can you name?

4. In what areas did the Romans mostly spread their influence?

5. Who were the Anglo-Saxons and where did they settle?

6. What do you know about the start of Christianity in England?

7. Where did the Vikings come from?

8. When were the English and Gaelic kingdoms created?

9. What is the date of the Battle of Hastings? What was its result?

10. What did Britain gain from the Norman invasion?

11. What state system did the Normans bring? Characterize it.

12. Why is the monarch’s eldest son called “the Prince of Wales”? When did this custom appear?

13. Why did the Welsh language remain strong?

14. Did Scotland preserve their own language in the lowlands? Why?

15. What does the word “parliament” mean?

3) Put 8 more questions to the text and write them down.

4) What do these figures refer to?

13^th

150

8^th

597

43

5^th

793

9^th

2000

1066

10^th

250

6^th

410

1485

7^th

5) Explain these words in English.

o The prehistoric period

o Mystery

o Aristocracy

o Settlement

o European mainland

o Successful invasion

o Permission

o Independent

o Classes of society

o Cultural split

6) Make a crosswords based on the words from the text.

7) Word-building. Create new words based on the one given in the table.

Noun	Verb	adjective / present (past) participle
		original
Remains
	to survive
		cultural
Occupation
		dominant
Advance
		different
	to develop
Reminder
Invasion
	to settle
		responsible
	to own
		gradual

8) Underline all the irregular verbs in the text and give the three forms of them.

9) Write out all the tribe-names and illustrate the difference between them.

10) Translate this text from Russian into English.

Великая хартия вольностей

Великой хартией вольностей (лат. Magna Carta Libertatum, англ. The Great Charter) называется грамота, подписанная английским королем Иоанном Безземельным (King John Lackland) 15 июня 1215 года и ставшая в последующем одним из основополагающих конституционных актов Англии. Большинство пунктов Хартии было отменено более поздними Актами парламента, неизменными остаются 3 пункта из 63. Формально, до подписания Великой хартии она представляла собой петицию с изложением требований баронов и называлась «Баронские статьи».

Подписание Великой хартии вольностей стало результатом поражения короля в борьбе с восстанием баронов, которые были недовольны усилением королевской власти. В восстании участвовали и другие слои общества: рыцари и горожане, выступавшие в основном против увеличения налогового бремени, притеснений со стороны чиновников и неудачной внешней политики, проводимой королём. По сути, Великая хартия вольностей представляла собой договор короля с оппозицией, которой гарантировалось соблюдение определённых прав и привилегий свободных сословий. Хартия получила название Великой, поскольку содержала наиболее обширный к тому времени перечень материальных и политических требований о гарантиях прав и свобод, которые король вынужден был принять.

Великая хартия вольностей была аннулирована Иоанном уже в том же году, что и была подписана, однако в последующем подтверждалась королями Генрихом III, Эдуардом I и Эдуардом II. Великая хартия вольностей была почти забыта в XV и XVI веках, однако в дальнейшем сыграла значительную роль в Английской революции, будучи использованной парламентской оппозицией для обоснования права контролировать действия королевской власти. Хартия создавала комитет из 25 баронов, которые в случае нарушения обязательств королём имели право начать против него войну.

Особое значение в великой хартии вольностей имеет 39 статья, в которой запрещались арест, заключение в тюрьму, лишение владения, изгнание и иное ущемление прав феодалов как свободных людей, иначе как по законному приговору равных. Эти статьи и составили основу последующих редакций хартии, придали ей в дальнейшем силу конституционного документа и значение манифеста «прав человека и гражданина» — такую окончательную трактовку хартия получила в эпоху английской революции.

Великая хартия вольностей является памятником средневекового права Англии и частью британской конституции. Подписанная королём в 1215 году первая Великая хартия вольностей не сохранилась. До наших дней дошли четыре копии 1215 года — все они хранятся в Великобритании: две в Британской библиотеке, одна — в Соборе Линкольна (Lincoln Cathedral) и ещё одна — в Соборе Солсбери (Salisbury Cathedral).Также сохранилось тринадцать других копий Великой хартии вольностей, в том числе четыре — датируемых 1297 годом. В 2009 году ЮНЕСКО включило Великую хартию вольностей в реестр «Память мира».

11) Humour. Read, understand and enjoy the humour.

Ø Read the joke below and reproduce it in your own words:

An Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman were reading a newspaper article about which nationalities’ brains were for sale for transplant purposes. An Irishman’s or a Scotsman’s brain could be bought for £500 but an Englishman’s brain cost £10,000. That proves,’ said The Englishman, ‘that Englishmen are much cleverer than Irishmen or Scotsmen.’ ‘No it doesn’t,’ said The Irishman, ‘it just means that an Englishman’s brain has never been used.’

Ø Read some more jokes and guess, what nationalities are meant.

1.

A …….. enters a bus and asks the driver:

- Excuse me, is it necessary to pay the ticket for a flower?

- Sure not.

- Come on, Rose!

2.

Q: What do you call a sheep tied to a fence in …..?

A: A leisure center.

3.

Two …….., a father and his son, are going to America.

- Daddy, when we’ll arrive?

- Shut up and swim.

4.

Q. What do you call a …….. with many girlfriends?

A. A Shepherd.

PART 2.

Discussion.

1) The “why”-questions. Provocative thinking.

1. Why is there no written record of the pre-historic period in Britain?

2. Why are there almost no traces of the Roman culture on the British Isles?

3. Why did the Danes have much in common with the Anglo-Saxons?

4. Why didn’t the French language become official in Britain after the Norman invasion?

2) Research questions. Choose the issue that interests you most and search for more information. Prepare a report and deliver it to your classmates.

· Iron Age

· Silbury Hill

· Stonehenge

· Londinium

· King Arthur

· King Alfred

· The Vikings

· The Battle of Hastings

· Robin Hood

3) Two thousand years ago there was an Iron Age culture on the territory of the British Isles. Describe the Roman and Russian culture of the same period.

4) There is a 19^th century statue of Queen Boadicea outside the Houses of Parliament. Find out, when she lived and why she is remembered.

5) Find out more British toponyms (place names) that derive from the Roman root “casta”.

6) Find out more information about the leader of the Romans and the leader of the Normans at the time of their conquests of Britain and report some facts about them to your group-mates.

7) The name of St. Augustine is mentioned in the text. What was the name of the man who brought Christianity to Ireland? Search for some information about their lives and share it with your group-mates.

8) Read an extract from the text and translate it into good Russian. Find out what wall, towns and baths on the British territory are mentioned.

The Roman Occupation (from “1066 and All That” by C.W. Sellar, R.J. Yeatman)

“For some reason the Romans neglected to overrun the country with fire and sword, though they had both of these; in fact after the Conquest they did not mingle with the Britons at all but lived a semi-detached life in villas. They occupied their time for two or three hundred years in building Roman roads and having Roman Baths, this was called the Roman Occupation, and gave rise to the memorable Roman law, ‘He who baths first baths last’, which was a good thing and still is. The Roman roads ran absolutely straight in all the directions and all led to Rome. The Romans also built towns wherever they were wanted, and, in addition, a wall between England and Scotland to keep out the savage Picts and Scots”.

9) Write a composition named “Cultural differences have deep roots”.

FOLLOW-UPS.

Supplementary reading.

From “Growth and structure of the English language” by Otto Jespersen

Ch. IV. The Scandinavians (Extract)

It is true that the Scandinavians were, for a short time at least, the rulers of England, and we have found in the juridical loan-words linguistic corroboration of this fact; but the great majority of the settlers did not belong to the ruling class. Their social standing must have been, on the whole, slightly superior to the average of the English, but the difference cannot have been great, for the bulk of Scandinavian words are of purely democratic character. This is clearly brought out by a comparison with the French words introduced in the following centuries, for here language confirms what history tells us, that the French represent the rich, the ruling, the refined, the aristocratic element in the English nation. How different is the impression made by the Scandinavian loan-words. They are homely expressions for things and actions of everyday importance. The difference is also shown by so many of the French words having never penetrated into the speech of the people, so that they have been known and used by the ‘upper ten’, while the Scandinavian ones are used by high and low alike; their shortness too agrees with the monosyllabic character of the native stock of words, consequently they are far less felt as foreign elements than many French words; in fact, in many statistical calculations of the proportion of native to imported words in English, Scandinavian words have been more or less inadvertently included in the native elements. Just as it is impossible to speak or write in English about higher intellectual or emotional subjects or about fashionable mundane matters without drawing largely upon the French and Latin elements, in the same manner Scandinavian words will crop up together with the Anglo-Saxon ones in any conversation on the thousand nothings of daily life or on the five or six things of paramount importance to high and low alike. An Englishman cannot thrive or be ill or die without Scandinavian words; they are to the language what bread and eggs are to the daily fare.

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