Why Stonehenge is one of the Wonders of the world?

I

THE BRITISH ISLES

Reading

Ex. 18. Read the text and get the main ideas of it.

Great Britain is the largest of the British Isles, an archipelago made up of around 2,000 islands. It can be divided into two, not only because of its geography but also because of its climate and agriculture. If you draw a line from about the Bristol Channel to the Wash, then to the south of this line there are mainly lowlands and hills, and to the north there are highlands and mountains. These include the Welsh Mountains, the Highlands of the northwest Scotland, and the Pennines, which is a range of mountains that runs north to south, and is known as the backbone of England. It is wetter in the north because of the higher land, and drier and sunnier in the south. This has an effect on the agriculture. To the north there are sheep and cows because the grass is so well, and to the south there are arable farms growing crops and cereal.

The South-West of England is famous for its beautiful countryside and dramatic coastline. One particular area of natural beauty is Dartmoor, which is inhabited by wild ponies. The countryside in the South East is gentle, and there is a lot of fruit-growing. It is also the most heavily populated part of Britain. East Anglia is very flat and is famous for its vast fields of wheat and potatoes. The Midlands used to have a lot of heavy industry, but much of this has disappeared over recent years. Wales is characterized by mountains in the north and valleys in the south. In the northwest of England there is the beautiful Lake Distriсt, and the cities of Liverpool and Manchester. The North East used to have a lot of mining and ship building, but not any more unfortunately. Scotland is famous for its lakes known as lochs. The moors and mountains are beautiful and empty. Ireland is famed for its rain and its rich green grass, its romance and its mists.

II

Great Britain is distinguished from the United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) by the specific exclusion of any part of Ireland, and from the British Isles by the exclusion of the self-governing Isle of Man and Channel Islands.

The Isle of Man, in the Irish Sea midway between England and Ireland and 16 miles (25 km) from the Scottish coast, has a population of some 50,000. Its parliament, the House of Keys, is said to be the world’s oldest. The Manx language, from the same root as Gaelic, was spoken by half the inhabitants at the end of the 19^th century, but it has now died out. The island is famous for the tailless Manx cat, and for the use of the birch (= розги), an instrument of corporal (= телесный) punishment employed by the courts.

On the Channel Islands, in the Gulf of St Malo off the French coast and much closer to France than to Britain, French and English are both official languages. Popularized by the Bergerac television detective series, the islands are a tax haven and a residency (= право на проживание, вид на жительство) is hard to obtain, even for Britons. The two main islands are Jersey and Guernsey. The 2 sq.-mile (5 sq.-km) island of Sark is a feudal remnant (= остатки), ruled over by a hereditary seigneur. The idea of being of an island is clearly an attractive one and whole islands do occasionally come up for sale. They are almost exclusively on the western side of the country, running from the Scilly Isles off Land’s End in Cornwall, past Anglesea in Wales to the more prolific Western Isles of Scotland beyond its dramatic fjords. In the far northwest is the Hebrides; flying off the northeast the Orkney and Shetland Islands, where Britain’s most northerly inhabited island, Muckle Flugga, is manned by brave lighthouse keepers.

From having been traditionally the property of the landed aristocracy, many of the Scottish islands are now being bought by film stars, rock musicians, property speculators and tycoons (= магнаты). Owing an island still has a poetic appeal, no matter what the cost. Accordingly, prices have spiraled. The islanders have grown nervous; when an island is sold, the futures of its residents hang in the balance.

Even so, after all the money in the world has been spent and the new owner has taken possession, he is only the lord of all he can see when the tide (= морской прилив и отлив) is high. When the tide is low, he is surrounded by the Crown, because the monarch owns the foreshore.

Ex. 19. Look through the text, find and write down and comment or translate:

a) root adjectives and adjectives with different suffixes

b) sentences with there is/there are

c) Passive constructions.

Ex. 20. Find the words in the text, which mean the following:

1. suitable for agriculture 2. separated 3. very large 4. not long ago 5. stopped existing 6. populated 7. famed for 8. spreads 9. mild 10.exciting

11. residents 12. time and again 13. used by 14. different from 15. to get 16. coast line 17. except of 18. very rich people 19. appealing 20. have risen

Ex. 21. Read the text once again following the map and answer the questions after the text. Find out questions in Passive.

1. How many parts can the British Isles be divided?

2. In what part of Great Britain are there the lowlands and the hills, the highlands and mountains?

3. What is known as a backbone of England?

4. What is the climate in each part of British Isles?

5. What part of Great Britain is the most heavily populated?

6. How can East Anglia be characterized?

7. What did the Midlands use to have?

8. How does Wales look like?

9. Where is the Lake District situated?

10. What is Scotland famous for?

Ex. 22. Write a question for each of the following answers.

1. A range of mountains, called the Pennines, is known as the backbone of England.

2. The South West of England is famous for its beautiful countryside and dramatic coastline.

3. The wet climate in the north, the dry and sunny climate in the south has an effect to agriculture.

4. The South East is the most heavily populated part of Britain.

5. The North East used to have a lot of mining and ship building but any more unfortunately.

6. Ireland is famed for its rain and its rich green grass, its romance and its mists.

7. The Isle of Man has the population of fifty thousand people.

8. On the Channel Islands French and English are both official languages.

9. Muckle Flugga are manned by bravely lighthouse keepers.

10. Many of Scottish islands are now being bought by film stars, rock musicians, property speculators and tycoons.

Ex. 23. Read two text devoted to Stonehenge and compare them.

a) Pay attention to the adjective combinations versus noun attribute.

b) Sentences in Passive Voice.

A) The great and ancient stone circle of Stonehenge is one of the wonders of the world. It is as old as many of great temples and pyramids of Egypt. Stonehenge looks impressive and enigmatic (= mysterious, difficult to understand), as a prehistoric monument of unique importance. A World Heritage Site (= зд. Мирное наследие) is surrounded by the remains of ceremonial and domestic structures – some older than the monument itself. Many of these features – larth-works, burial mounds (= погребальные курганы) and other circular henge monuments are accessible by road or public foot paths.

Stonehenge’s orientation on the rising and setting sun has always been one of its remarkable features. Whether this was simply because the builders came from sun worshipping culture or because – as some scholars believe – the circle and its banks were a part of a huge astronomical calendar remains a mystery. This incredible feat of engineering must be discovered more to give an answer how these huge stones were transported hundreds of kilometers by sheer manpower.

B) Things had changed at Stonehenge since I was last there in the early Seventies. They’ve built a smart new gift shop and coffee bar, though there is still no interpretation center, which is entirely understandable. This is, after all, merely the most important prehistoric monument in Europe and one of the dozen most visited tourist attractions in England, so clearly there is no point in spending foolish sums making it interesting and instructive. The big change is that you can no longer go right up to the stones and scratch I love Denise or whatever in them, as you formerly were able. Now you are held back by a discreet rope (= веревка, зд. ограждение) of considerable distance from the mighty henge. This had actually enforced a considerable improvement. It means that the brooding stones aren’t lost among crowds of day-trippers but left in an understudied and singular glory.

Impressive as Stonehenge is, there comes a moment somewhere about 11 minutes after your arrival when you spend another 40 minutes walking around the perimeter rope looking at it out of a combination of politeness, embarrassment at being the first from your bus to leave and a keen desire to extract £ 2.80 worth of exposure from the experience. Eventually I wandered back to the gift shop and looked at the books and souvenirs, had a cup of coffee in a Styrofoam cup, then wandered back to the bus, thinking why they couldn’t provide benches and where on earth I might go next.

(Bill Bryson “Notes from a small island”)

Ex. 24. Find the words in the texts, which mean the following:

1. very old 2. incomparable 3. attributes 4. available 5. outstanding 6. praying 7. very large

8. translation 9. obviously 10. simply 11. informative 12. powerful 13. really 14. understand

Ex. 25. Choose the best answer to the questions.

a) because it is the World Heritage Site.

b) because it is as old as pyramids of Egypt.

c) because it looks impressive and enigmatic.

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