PART I. WARMING UP ACTIVITY
TASK I. Either in pairs or as a class, have a talk on the following:
1. What is a calendar? Is it necessary? What does it read?
2. What types of calendars do you know?
3. Who usually records the history of times? What facts are usually selected from the great mass of evidence?
4. How is data accumulated?
5. Who are calendars aimed for?
6. When were first calendars used?
TASK II. Vocabulary in work. Match a noun in column A with its definition in column B.
A B
1. assumption a. sth (an object or a piece of information)
that helps to find an answer to a question
2. clue b. a system of words, letters, numbers used
instead of ordinary writing to keep it secret
3. evidence c. the arrival or coming of an important
period or invention
4. code d. sth that is taken as a fact or believed to be
true without proof
5. advent e. sth (a fact, sign, object) that gives proof
Now match a verb in column C with its definition in column D.
C D
6. to depict f. to cut (words, signs, pictures) on wood,
stone, metal
7. to engrave g. to reach a decision or judgement about (a
fact or situation) by using ones knowledge
8. to shed (light) h. to make it easier to understand by proving
more information
9. to deduce i. to represent or show in or as if in a picture
10.to provide j. to cause or arrange for someone to have or
use (sth needed or useful)
TASK II. Use a word from columns A and C in the correct form to fill each gap.
1. Films, gramophone records and magnetic tapes _________ future historians with a wide range of information about us.
2. In attempts to reconstruct the past, the scientists had to ________ what they could from the few ________ available.
3. Even seemingly insignificant remains can _________ light on the history of early man.
4. Recent scientific _____________ seems to indicate that the _________________ is incorrect.
5. A number of historians believe that calendars came into being with the ____________ of agriculture.
6. Hunting scenes _______________ on walls were not simply a form of artistic expression.
7. Ancient people _______________ dots, lines and symbols on the walls, bones and ivory tusks of mammoths, that seem to be a difficult _______________ to read.
TASK III. Working in pairs, connect the words clue, to engrave, and to deduce into a small story (of 3-4 sentences). One of you is a secretary who is to write it in the copy-book. Compare it with that of another pair.
TASK IV. Explain in your own words how different the italicized words are.
1. He has to deduce that
2. Up to now, historians have assumed that
3. Scientists have long been puzzled by dots
Write three sentences to show that you understand this difference.
TASK V. Which is the word in each line that doesnt belong? Explain why it doesnt belong with the other three words:
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1. interesting fascinating thrilling bewildering
2. select collect produce choose
3. embarrassed ashamed puzzled confident
4. simple primitive naive plain
PART II. LISTENING
TASK I. You will hear a part of the tape about some difficulties in making first calendars. As you listen, fill in the missing information in the sentences.
1. Future historians will be in a unique position when they come to record_________________1.
2. They will hardly know_______________2 from the great mass of evidence.
3. __________________3 will provide them with a bewildering amount of information.
4. These sources will enable them to see and hear us____________4.
5. The historian attempting to reconstruct the distant past is faced with ________________5, because he has ____________6 from the few scanty clues available.
6. Even seemingly insignificant remains can ____________7 on the history of early man.
TASK II. In pairs with your books closed, restore what you have just heard.
TASK III. Now you will hear a story of how calendars came into being. As you listen, for each phrase choose the answer that fits best.
1. Up to now, historians have assumed that calendars came into being
a. with the development of agriculture
b. with the onset of farming
c. with the need to understand the change in seasons
2. Recent scientific evidence indicates that
a. this is not quite so
b. the assumption needs a further verification
c. the historians were mistaken
3. In their research, historians have long been puzzled by
a. many dots and lines
b. bones and tusks that have been found
c. numerous engravings made by nomads who lived by hunting and fishing during the last Ice Age.
4. Some time later, scientists were able to read the meanings of the symbols by
a. correlating markings
b. connecting markings
c. contrasting markings made in various parts of the world.
5. Their research has shown that it is connected with
a. days changing one another
b. the phases of the moon
c. the course of days and phases of the moon
6. The hunting scenes depicted on the walls of the caves
a. proved that ancient people were intelligent
b. revealed a form of artistic expression
c. had a definite meaning
7. Finally historians have come to the conclusion that man was making a real effort
a. to understand the world
b. to correlate the hunting periods with seasons
c. to work out the change of different seasons
TASK IV. In pairs with your books closed, discuss what you have heard.
TASK V. Now answer the following questions.
1. Why will future historians not have to rely entirely on the written word when they come to record the history of our times?
2. What will films, gramophone records and magnetic tapes provide them with? What information do you think they will give about us?
3. Why do historians who write about distant past have a difficult task?
4. What can shed light on the history of early man?
5. When was it believed that calendars were first used? What for?
6. What did historians find that gave them an understanding of how people in the past lived?
7. What enabled the historians to read the engravings on walls, bones and ivory tusks of mammoths?
8. What was a primitive type of calendar like?
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9. What proves the fact that man was making a real effort to understand the seasons 20,000 years earlier than has been supposed?
TASK VI. In pairs restore all you remember from the listening passage helping each other and using the following as hints:
To come to record, to select facts from a great mass of evidence, to accumulate, gramophone records, magnetic tapes, to see and hear in action, to deduce from the few scanty clues available, to remain, to shed light on, to come into being, the advert of agriculture, to be puzzled, engraved on, to correlate markings, the passage of days, the phases of the moon, hunting scenes, to understand.
PART III. EXTENSION ACTIVITY
TASK I.
