Comprehension Check Exercises

I. Fill in the blank with the correct word:

II. Complete the sentence with the best answer (a, b or c) according to the information in the text:

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III. Find out whether the statement is true or false according to the information in the text:

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IV. Questions:

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V. Do you remember?

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Demographics

With increasing industrialisation, London's population grew rapidly throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, and was the most populated city in the world until overtaken by New York in 1925. Its population peaked at 8,615,245 in 1939.

There were an estimated 7,517,700 people living in the Greater London area in mid-2005. However, London's continuous urban area extends beyond the borders of Greater London and was home to 8,278,251 people at the 2001 UK census, whilst its wider metropolitan area has a population of between 12 and 14 million depending on the definition of that area. As per Eurostat, London is the most populous city and metropolitan area of the European Union.

It is one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the industrialised world, with more than 300 languages spoken and 50 non-indigenous communities with a population of more than 10,000 living in London. The 2001 census showed that about 27% of London's population were born outside the UK, and about 29% were classified as non-white.

In terms of religion, London is historically dominated by Christianity, and has a large number of churches, particularly in the City. The famous St Paul's Cathedral in the City and Southwark Cathedral south of the river are Anglican administrative centres, whilst important national and royal ceremonies are shared between St Paul's and Westminster Abbey. The Abbey is not to be confused with nearby Westminster Cathedral, a relatively recent edifice which is the largest Roman Catholic cathedral in England and Wales. Despite all of this, observance is very low within the Anglican denomination and yet considerably higher among London's Roman Catholic and Christian Orthodox communities.

St Paul's Cathedral

St Paul's Cathedral from the south

St Paul's Cathedral is a cathedral on Ludgate Hill, in the City of London, England and the seat of the Bishop of London. The present building dates from the 17th century, and is generally reckoned to be London's fourth St Paul's Cathedral, although the number is higher if every major medieval reconstruction is counted as a new cathedral. The cathedral is one of London's most visited sites.

// The previous cathedrals

Pre-Norman

1. The first, Saxon cathedral was built, in wood, and dedicated to Saint Paul,probably by Mellitus or another of the Augustinian missionaries on the re-foundation (there had been a late-Roman see in the city) of the See of London in AD 604, on Ludgate Hill in the western part of the old Roman city (it was these missionaries' habit, also done on the continent, to build cathedrals within old Roman city-walls) and the eastern part of Lundenwic. This building was traditionally said to be on the site of an ancient megalith, or stone circle. and a temple dedicated to the goddess Diana, in alignment with the Apollo Temple which once stood at Westminster (although Christopher Wren found no evidence of this). Template:Kruger, 1943. This would have only been a modest chapel at first and may well have been destroyed after he was briefly expelled from the city by Saeberht's pagan successors. It burned down in 675.

2. The cathedral was rebuilt, in stone, in 685. In it was buried King or Saint Sebbi of Essex. It was sacked by the Vikings in 961 as is cited by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

3. The third cathedral was begun in 962, again in stone. In it was buried Ethelred the Unready. It burnt, with the whole city, in a fire of 1087 (in Anglo-Saxon Chronicle).

'Old St Paul's'

Old St Paul's Cathedral from the Thames, between 1630 and 1666	Old St Paul's Cathedral from the south, between 1630 and 1666	Old St Paul's Cathedral from the north, between 1630 and 1666	Old St Paul's Cathedral from the east, between 1630 and 1666
Old St Paul's Cathedral from the west, between 1630 and 1666	Old St Paul's Cathedral in flames, 1666	Old St Paul's Cathedral after the fire, 1666	Old St. Paul's prior to 1561, with intact spire.

The third St Paul's (known as Old St Paul's, a nineteenth century coinage, or the pre-Great Fire St Paul's), was begun by the Normans after the 1087 fire. Work took over two hundred years, and a great deal was lost in a fire in 1136. Nonetheless the roof was once more built of wood, which was ultimately to doom the building. The church was consecrated in 1240, but a change of heart soon led to the commencement of an enlargement programme in 1256. This 'New Work' was completed in 1314. The cathedral was however consecrated in 1300. It was the third longest church in Europe. Excavations in 1878, by Francis Penrose showed it had been at 585 feet long, 100 feet wide (290 feet across the transepts and crossing), and had one of Europe's tallest spires at some 489 feet (149 metres).

By the 16th century the building was decaying. Under Henry VIII and Edward VI, the Dissolution of the Monasteries and Chantries Acts led to the destruction of interior ornamentation in the cathedral as well as the cloisters, charnels, crypts, chapels, shrines, chantries and various other buildings in the churchyard. Many of these former religious sites in St Paul's Churchyard, having been seized by the crown, were sold as shops and rental properties, especially to printers and booksellers who were often evangelical Protestants. Buildings that were razed often supplied ready-dressed building material for new construction projects, such as the Lord Protector's city palace, Somerset House.

Crowds were drawn to the northeast corner of the Churchyard, St Paul's Cross, where open air preaching took place. It was there in the Cross Yard in 1549 that radical Protestant preachers incited a mob to destroy many of the cathedral's interior decorations. In 1561 the spire was destroyed by lightning and it was not replaced; this event was taken by Protestants and Catholics alike as a sign of God's displeasure of the other faction's actions.

England's first classical architect Sir Inigo Jones added the cathedral's new west front in the 1630s, but there was much defacement and mistreatment of the building by Parliamentarian forces during the English Civil War, when the old documents and charters were dispersed and destroyed (Kelly 2004). "Old St Paul's" was finally gutted in the Great Fire of London of 1666. While it might have been salvageable, albeit with almost complete reconstruction, a decision was taken to build a new cathedral in a modern style instead. Indeed this had been contemplated even before the fire.

Wren's St Paul's

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 737