Представьте, что вы рассказываете туристам об истории наскальных рисунков.

UNIT 2

Types of Writing

Writing is a way of showing speech, or spoken language, with marks. People can make these marks on stone, paper, or a computer screen. People use writing to communicate with others.

The simplest type of writing uses pictures to stand for words or ideas. Many Native American groups used this type of writing. In other types of writing, marks of various designs can stand for whole words or parts of words. Chinese and Japanese characters are examples of this kind of writing. In alphabetic writing, marks called letters each stand for a different sound. The alphabet used for English is an example of this type of writing.

In prehistoric times people scratched marks on stones or wood. Some made cave paintings that showed people and animals. But these marks and drawings were not true writing systems.

As people began to trade, they developed systems for keeping records of their business. They created counting tokens to show how many animals or crops they had traded. Eventually different marks came to stand for the different goods. For example, a mark representing a cow looked much like a cow.

An important advance in writing took place when people began using marks to stand for more than just objects. Certain marks could then represent ideas, such as love or morning. At some point people started using marks to stand for the sounds of speech.

The Sumerians of Mesopotamia (in modern Iraq) invented the first real writing system about 5,000 years ago. This writing, called cuneiform, was a system of wedge-shaped dents pressed into slabs of mud or clay. Not much later the Egyptians invented their own writing system, called hieroglyphics. About 3,000 years ago Semitic peoples in the Middle East created the first alphabets.

For hundreds of years most people did not know how to read or write. In many places people called scribes wrote things down for others. By the AD 1400s, however, more people were becoming educated. The invention of the printing press in the middle of the 1400s helped make books and other writings widely available. By the 1900s many countries were requiring their children to go to school to learn how to read and write. Today most people in the world are literate.

Упражненияктексту

Дайтерусскиеэквивалентысловаминтернациональногокорня. К каким частям речи они относятся?

Speech, computer, mark, communicate, type, idea, group, character, alphabetic, prehistoric, system, represent, objects, real, shape, hieroglyphics, printing press, time, animal, modern, literate, business.

2. Найдитевтекстесинонимыкследующимсловам: human beings, employ, kind, letters, call, various, depict, drawing, for instance, begin, wares, ago, approximately, location, educated, assist, available, demand.

3. Найдитевтекстеантонимыкследующимсловам: human beings, difficult, the same, few, false, finish, initially, unlike, unimportant, uncertain, hatred, evening, last, earlier, forget, uneducated, narrow, grown-ups, language, destroy, regress, less.

4. Ответьтенавопросы:

1) Whatiswriting?

2) What is writing used for?

3) What is the simplest type of writing?

4) What types of writing do you know?

5) In what way do Chinese and Japanese characters differ from English, German, French and Russian?

6) When did an important advance in writing take place?

7) Who invented the first real writing system and the first alphabet?

8) Do Egyptians use hieroglyphics in their writing now?

9) In what way did printing-machines help to advance education?

Истинноэтоилиложно?

1) People use writing to communicate with each other.

2) Spoken language can be conveyed with marks.

3) Many people still continue to use pictures instead of writing.

4) Marks called letters were left by ancient people on the cave walls.

5) When people began to trade it became difficult to count animals and crops without writing.

6) A mark representing a cow was the first letter invented.

7) Cuneiform writing was introduced by Sumerians of Mesopotamia.

8) The Middle East is the homeland of the first alphabet.

Пользуясь текстом, напишите мини-реферат, посвященный истории мировой письменности.

UNIT 3

Egyptian Art

In the field of art, the Ancient Egyptians expressed their ideas in sculpture, painting, reliefs and architecture. Their art was expressive. For the first time in monumental form appeared the amazing manifestations of the belief in existence beyond death that dominated the Egyptian life and thought. For the Ancient Egyp­tians there was only a likeness of death when all signs of life ceased, for the hu­man being still continued to exist in every other way. But to survive they required the support of the body through mummification or through image. Statues and statuettes, bas-reliefs: and tomb paintings are there to immortalize the life of the individual in the after-world. To heighten the intensity of the gaze, the eyes of the statues were inlaid, and even the eyebrows were fashioned in copper or silver. The eyeballs were made of white quartz and the pupils were made of resin. This re­quired great skill and experience in the shaping of metal, which can be seen in the large number of statues dating from every historical period which have been found in various archaeological sites.

A splendid seated statue of Zoser in limestone has survived relatively intact. Of the earliest knownstatues of the King and his family only fragments survive. In its majestic pose we have the prototype of all subsequent seated statues for the rest of Egyptian history. The statue’s appearance was less solemn when the rock crystal eyes, gouged out long ago by the tomb robbers, and the original surface paint were intact. The king wears the “divine” false beard, and his massive wig is partly con­cealed by the royal linen covering. He is swathed in a long mantle descending almost to his feet. The statue is absolutely immobile and perfectly calm.

In the field of minor arts, the Ancient Egyptians produced a very large number of amulets, scarabs and seals, and also ornamental objects and jewelry, which are not less beautiful because of their small size. These small objects were widespread and esteemed in Africa, the Near East and even in Europe. The wide distribution of these objects makes it possible to discover the bonds which linked Egypt to other nations long ago.

Упражнения к тексту