Ancient Mariners Sailed Between Mexico and South America

 

http://www.sciam.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=2AB9DADC-EF95-2483-46A5C1D78227344A

Vocabulary

raft - a flat float (usually made of logs or planks) that can be used for transport or as a platform for swimmers

balsa wood - strong lightweight wood of the balsa tree used especially for floats

(пробковое дерево)

to succumb - сonsent reluctantly, yield, surrender

Answer the questions:

 

· What kind of relationships Western Mexico and countries on the west coast of South American had?

· Where was the study by MIT students published?

· Where did they take the information about building a raft?

· Where did they test the raft?

· What did they test with the help of computerized engineering design programs?

· Why did they also turn to biology?

· How long a voyage would take?

· How long would a raft last?

 

Prepare a talk about a famous explorer of your choice

7.7 ¾ Watch a part from the BBC series Blood of the Vikings: The Sea Road

http://quicksilverscreen.com/watch?video=46268

 

Vocabulary

antler – adeciduous horn of a member of the deer family

brooch – a small piece of jewellery with a pin at the back that is fastened to clothes

debris – the remains of something that has been destroyed or broken up

DNA markers of the Y-chromosome: DNA – deoxyribonucleic acid: the chemical at the centre of the cells of living things, which controls the structure and purpose of each cell and carries the genetic information during reproduction; Y- chromosome – a sex chromosome that exists only in male cells

hoard – collection of large amounts of something that is kept in a safe, often secret, place

Lindisfarne – is a tidal island off the north-east coast of England. The monastery of Lindisfarne was founded by Irish born Saint Aidan, who had been sent from Iona off the west coast of Scotland to Northumbria at the request of King Oswald around AD 635. It became the base for Christian evangelising in the North of England and also sent a successful mission to Mercia. Monks from the community of Iona settled on the island. Northumberland's patron saint, Saint Cuthbert, was a monk and later Abbot of the monastery, and his miracles and life are recorded by the Venerable Bede. Cuthbert later became Bishop of Lindisfarne. In A.D. 793 (796 per some authorities), a Viking raid on Lindisfarne caused much consternation throughout the Christian west, and is now often taken as the beginning of the Viking Age.

Norse – 1) the northern family of Germanic languages that are spoken in Scandinavia and Iceland; 2) an inhabitant of Scandinavia; 3) a native or inhabitant of Norway

Picts – a confederation of tribes in what was later to become eastern and northern Scotland from Roman times until the 10th century. They lived to the north of the Forth and Clyde. Archaeology gives some impression of the society of the Picts. Although very little in the way of Pictish writing has survived, Pictish history since late 6th century is known from a variety of sources, including Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, saints' lives and various Irish annals. Although the popular impression of the Picts may be one of an obscure, mysterious people, this is far from being the case. When compared with the generality of Northern, Central and Eastern Europe in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, Pictish history and society are well attested.

plaque – a flat piece of metal, stone, wood or plastic

quiver – a case for holding arrows

reindeer – also known as the caribou when wild in North America, is an Arctic and Subarctic-dwelling deer, widespread and numerous across the northern Holarctic. Originally it was found in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, Russia, Mongolia, and northern China north of the 50th latitude.

red deer – is one of the largest deer species. It inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Asia Minor and parts of western and central Asia. It also inhabits the Atlas Mountains region between Algeria and Tunisia in northwestern Africa, being the only species of deer to inhabit Africa.

rivet – heavy pin having a head at one end and the other end being hammered flat after being passed through holes in the pieces that are fastened together

sampling – items selected at random from a population and used to test hypotheses about the population

sickle – an edge tool for cutting grass or crops; has a curved blade and a short handle

soap stone – a metamorphic rock, a talc-schist. It is largely composed of the mineral talc and is rich in magnesium. It has been a medium for carving for thousands of years

spindle – a part of a machine around which something turns, or a rod onto which thread is twisted when it is spun

to annihilate – kill in large numbers; destroy completely so that nothing is left

to loot – steal money and valuable objects, especially by an army from a defeated enemy

to plunder – steal goods violently from a place, especially during a war

to slaughter – kill many people cruelly and unfairly, especially in a war

Answer the questions:

· Where are the Viking settlements described in the film situated?

· How does western Norway look like in winter?

· Why did Vikings head west to the Orkneys and Shetlands?

· What is the evidence of the Viking presence on the Orkneys and Shetlands?

· Do we know how many Vikings came to the Orkneys and Shetlands? What methods were used to estimate the scale of Viking settlements?

· Why were they sampling only men?

· How do they lessen the distorting effects of recent population movement on ancient genetic patterns?

· What are the preliminary results of these genetic tests?

· Were the Picts pagans like the Vikings?

· Do we know for sure what happened to the Picts? What do the place names tell us about it? Why was an example of Tasmania used?

· What does archeology say about the presence of the Picts on the islands?

· Are there any discoveries contradicting the hypothesis that the Pictish population was wiped out by the Vikings?

· Which of the two theories – slautering of the Picts or coexistence with the Vikings – do you think to be the most convincing?

· What does the monk record of the raid on Lindisfarne say? When did this happen?

· Why are the bone combs of the 7^th century so important for answering a question about the early Viking contacts?

· What kind of evidence about the time of the Viking arrival did Dr. James Barret find in the ancient rubbish dumps on one of the Orkney Islands?

· Why was there such an explosion in the use of marine resources if there was no increase in the fish consumption based on the dietary evidence from the humane bones?

· Why are Viking burial places a rich source of information about their everyday life?

· What did a farmer find on one of the Orkney islands together with the human bones on the beach? Why was this find important? What did they excavate afterwards?

· Which artifacts were found in the man’s grave?

· Which artifacts were found in the woman’s grave? What makes the scientists think that she was rich?

· What did a landlord of the local pub discover when he was repairing the neighbours wall?

· Where did the Vikings go after settling on the Orkneys and Shetlands?

· What is so special about the Viking long house found on South Uist?

· Why is the discovery of pottery there so important? What did the Vikings usually use instead of pottery?

· What kind of evidence do we get from examining the fish bones found on South Uist?

· Why did the Vikings want to get to Ireland?

· Were they just robbing the land or they also settled in Ireland? What evidence do we have in the annals, from archeology?

· Where was the most important Viking long fort situated in Ireland?

· What was found in the burial places in Ireland? In which way do they differ from the finds in the north?

· Why are some of the swords bent?

· Why did the Vikings bury so much silver in Ireland? Where did this silver originally come from?

· What leads us to the idea that large part of Viking trade in Ireland was in slaves?

7.8 8 Work with the following on-line quizzes:

 

http://www.123facts.com/play-quiz/The-Great-Geographical-Discoveries-224.html

http://www.schoolhistory.co.uk/quizzes/explorers/explorers.htm

http://www.triviapark.com/quizzes/explorers.html

http://www.worldbook.com/wb/Quiz?Explorers&sc=0

http://www.funtrivia.com/trivia-quiz/People/Great-Explorers-and-Navigators-1400-1600-198244.html

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/departments/homework/?page=quiz148&quizid=148

http://www.coolantarctica.com/schools/quiz/antarctica_quiz_2.htm

http://www.infoplease.com/quizzes/famous-explorers/1.html

http://www.purposegames.com/game/234

http://www.historyonthenet.com/Tudors/discoverexplorequickquiz.htm

http://schools.hpedsb.on.ca/smood/explore/quiz1.htm

http://www.softschools.com/quizzes/social_studies/spanish_xplorers/quiz299.html

 

UNIT 8

WORLD WONDERS

VOCABULARY.

Acts of Apostles, Amazonomachy, burial chamber, caldera, canopy, chiseled stones, Chryselephantine sculpture, deteriorated, Eleusinian stone, foliage, game reserve, globetrotter, heyday, hippodrome, in disrepair, inflatable boat, influx of visitors, lighthouse, lookout post, mausoleum, military stronghold, masonry, moat, mortar, national park, nomadic, overwhelmed by the jungle, oecumene, pagoda, papyrus, pharaoh, rapids, rattlesnake, rhetoric, rim, sarcophagus (pl. sarcophagi), shrine, stele, stonework, temple, tomb robbers, vantage point, wildebeest.

 

Great Pyramids of Giza: Khufu's Pyramid (Pyramid of Cheops), Pyramid of Khafre (Chephren), Pyramid of Menkaure(Mycerinus), Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Statue of Zeus at Olympia, Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, Mausoleum of Maussollos at Halicarnassus, Colossus of Rhodes, Lighthouse of Alexandria, Acropolis, Colosseum/Coliseum, Capitol, Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom), Noah’s Ark, singing statues of Memnon (the Colossi of Memnon).

 

Aphrodite, Artemis, Asclepius, AthenaParthenos (the Virgin), Helios, Poseidon, Zeus.

 

Apelles, Bryaxis, Chares of Lindos, Chersiphron of Knossos, Deinocrates (Dinocrates), Hemiunu, Leochares, Panaenus, Phidias, Praxiteles, Pythius, Satyrus,

Scopas (Skopas), Timotheus.

 

Antipater (Antipatros) of Sidon, Herodotus, Philo of Alexandria, Pliny the Elder, Simeon of Polotsk (Simeon Polotsky), Socrates, Sostratus of Cnidus, Strabo, Xenophon.

 

Alexandre the Great, Artemisia, Cyrus the Great, Demetrius Poliorcetes, Herostratus, Maussollos, Nebuchadnezzar, Ptolemy I Soter, Semiramis (Semiramide, Shamiram).

 

Assyria (Assyrian adj.), Bodrum, Caria, Constantinople/Istanbul, Epidaurus, Halicarnassus, island of Pharos, island of Rhodes, Kyzikos, Media (Median adj.), Persepolis.