Little is known about the life of women in the Middle Ages, but without doubt it was hard. The Church taught that women should obey their husbands. It also spread two very different ideas about women: that they should be pure and holy like the Virgin Mary; and that, like Eve, they could not be trusted and were a moral danger to men. Such religious teaching led men both to worship and also to look down on women, and led women to give in to men’s authority. Mar-riage was usually the single most important event in the lives of men and women. But the decis-ion itself was made by the family, not the couples themselves. This was because by marriage a family could improve its wealth and social position. Everyone, both rich and poor, married for mainly financial reasons. Once married, a woman had to accept her husband as her master. A dis-obedient wife was usually beaten. It is unlikely that love played much of a part in most marria-ges. The first duty of every wife was to give her husband children, preferably sons. Because so many children died as babies, and because there was little that could be done if a birth went wrong, producing children was dangerous and exhausting. Yet, this was the future for every wife from twenty or younger until she was forty.
The wife of a noble had other responsibilities. When her lord was away, she was in charge of the manor and the village lands, all the servants and villagers, the harvest and the animals. She also had to defend the manor if it was attacked. She had to run the household, welcome visitors, and store enough food, including salted meat, for winter. She was expected to have enough knowledge of herbs and plants to make suitable medicines for those in the village who were sick. She probably visited the poor and the sick in the village, showing that the rulers “cared” for them. She had little time for her own children, who in any case were often sent away at the age of eight to another manor, the boys to “be made into men”.
Most women, of course, were peasants, busy making food, making cloth and making clothes from the cloth. They worked in the fields, looked after the children, the geese and grew the vegetables. The animals probably shared the family shelter at night. The family home was dark and smelly. A woman’s position improved if her husband died. She could get control of the money her family had given the husband at the time of marriage, usually about one-third of his total land and wealth. But she might have to marry again: men wanted her land, and it was difficult to look after it without the help of a man.
I. Consult your dictionary for the words in bold type from the text.
II. Match the words and their definitions:
a. Knight 9 1. A person who travels to a holy place for religious reasons
b. Squire 8 2. A man whose job is guiding a plough, especially one pulled by animals
c. Pilgrim 1 3.The religious and moral system of behavior which the perfect knight was
expected to follow
d. Plowman2 4. A young person who is training to become an officer in the Police or armed
forces
e. Chivalry3 5. A boy or a young man
f. Cadet 4 6. A piece of clothing that is worn over other clothes by judges
g. Lad 5 7. A sum of money demanded or paid for the release of a
captive
h. Gown 6 8. a man of high social status who owned most of the land in a particular
country area
i. Joust 10 9. A man of high social rank who had a duty to fight for his king
j. Ransom 7 10. to fight on horses using a ling stick to try to knock the other person off
their horse, especially as part of a formal contest
III. Match people and their descriptions:
1.simple-minded and book-loving n a. 1476
2.the first king of House of York h b. 1455-1485
3.the war of the Roses could have stopped but for c. James I
4.coined the name “War of Roses” l d. G. Chaucer
5.defeated Richard Gloucester at Bosworth m e. 1440
6.the first deposed English king k f. W.Caxton
7.Edward V and his younger brother were killed I 1483 g. 1483
8.Eton College e h. Edward IV
9.The War of the Roses i. Richard III
10.the first Stuart King of England k. Edward II
11.the Canterbury Tales d l. Walter Scott
12.English printing press a m. Henry VII
n. Henry VI
IV. Are these statements true or false:
1. The principle that kings were neither to be killed nor deposed was broken at the end of the 12th century. F During the 14th century
2. Some sixty families controlled England at that time and some of the nobles were very powerful and kept their own private armies. T
3. Edward won the throne in 1461after Henry VI died in battle. T
4. Walter Scott named these wars the “Wars of the Roses, because York’s symbol was a white rose and Lancaster’s a red one.T
5. But “Middle English”, the language of the 14th and 15th centuries, was very similar DIFFERENT to Anglo-Saxon. F
6. By the end of the Middle Ages, English as well as Latin was being used in legal writing and also in elementary schools. T
7. Winchester School was founded by William Wykeham at the end of the 12 14th century. F
8. Women were a moral danger to men.
9. Once married, a woman had to accept her husband as her master.T
10. A disobedient wife should be beaten. WAS USUALY BEATEN
11. Nothing that could be done if a birth went wrong. t
12. A noble lady was expected to have enough knowledge of medicine to treat those in the village who were sick. T
13. The animals lived under the family roof.
14. Children of a noble family were sent away at the age of seven. 8 F
V. Arrange the royal houses in the order they succeeded to the throne: House of Stuart, House of Plantagenet, House of Tudor, House of Normandy, House of York, House of Lancaster.
VI. Translate in writing the sentences underlined in the text.
VII. Put 15 questions to the text and send them to your teacher for checking up by 12.00 (noon) o’clock on the day previous to your English class.
VIII. Points to ponder. You are to prepare a statement on each point containing 4-5 sentences. You may make notes in your note-books.
1. Youngsters do not read books nowadays. Advantages and disadvantages
2. Marriage is usually the single most important event in the lives of men and women.
3. It’s better to have sons than daughters in the family.
4. Women are busy making career not families nowadays.
IX. Translate into English and smile:
Grammar: Present Perfect Progressive.
Text: Numbers
I. Put the verbs into Present Perfect Progressive
1. Mr. Johnson (work) for this company for ten years.
2. Those two students (study) English for six months now.
3. The children (watch) TV since dinner time.
4. I’m getting tired. I (drive) this car since 8.00 a.m.
5. It (rain) heavily since two o’clock this afternoon.
6. She (talk) on the phone for fifteen minutes.
7. He (write) his book for five years.
8. They (do) their homework for two hours.
II. Complete the sentences with the verbs using Present Perfect Progressive
1. He _______ for two hours, tell him to rest a little.
2 "I _______ a long time for you," said my friend with a displeased air.
3. They_______ a noise since I came here.
4. I'm tired. We______ for six hours already.
5. Your face is dirty with paint. What you______? ____ you_______the house?
6. They_______ this problem for more than two hours.
7. There is a lot of snow in the street as it ___since yesterday.
8. How long _____ your brother_____ as a doctor?
III. Read the situations and complete the sentences.
1. The rain started two hours ago. It’s still raining now. It _________________ for two hours.
2. We started waiting for the bus 20 minutes ago. We’re still waiting now. We ______________________ for 20 minutes.
3. I started Spanish classes in December. I’m still learning Spanish now. I ________________________________________.
4. Ann began looking for a job six months ago. She’s still looking now.
Ann ______________________________
5. Mary started working in London on 18 January. She’s still working there. Mary ______________________________.
6. Years ago you started writing to a penfriend. You still write to each other regularly now. We ________________________________.
IV. Open the brackets and put the verbs into the proper tense, either the Present Progressive or the Present Perfect Progressive Tense.
1. Don't come in. He (take) an exam. He (take) his exam for half an hour already.
2. Where are the children? — They (play volleyball). They (play volleyball) since two o'clock,
3. 1 (learn) to type for a month and can say that my typing (improve).
4. Nick (come) round to see as tonight.
5. He (stay) at his sister's for six weeks. He (try) to find somewhere to live.
6. We can't dance as my father (work) in the study. He (prepare) a report. He (write) it for the whole day.
7. Do you see what the child (do) with your hat? Òakå it from him.
8. They still (discuss) the article? But they (do) it since twelve o'clock!
9. The prices (go up). They (rise) since 1991,
10. What a strong wind (blow)! It (blow) since yesterday.
V. Write two sentences for each situation. Use Present Perfect or Present Perfect Progressive.
VI. Put the verbs into Present Simple, Present Continuous, Present Perfect, Present Perfect Continuous.
1. He (to run) now. He (to run) for ten minutes without any rest.
2. What they (to do) now? — They (to work) in the reading-room. They (to work) there for already three hours.
3. Where he (to be) now? — He (to be) in the garden. He (to play) volley-ball with his friends. They (to play) since breakfast time.
4. I (to live) in St. Petersburg. I (to live) in St. Petersburg since 1990.
5. She already (to do) her homework for two hours; but she (not do) half of it yet.
6. I (to wait) for you since two o'clock.
7. What you (to do)? — I (to read). I (to read) for already two hours. I already (to read) sixty pages.
8. This man (to be) a writer. He (to write) books. He (to write) books since he was a young man. He already (to write) eight books.
9. What you (to do) here since morning?
10. Lena is a very good girl. She always (to help) her mother about the house. Today she (to help) her mother since morning. They already (to wash) the floor and (to dust) the furniture. Now they (to cook) dinner together.
VII. Read the text and say what kinds of numbers are mentioned.
Numbers
A number is a mathematical object used to count and measure. A symbol that represents a number is called a numeral. In addition to their use in counting and measuring, numerals are often used for labels (telephone numbers), for ordering (serial numbers), and for codes (e.g., ISBNs). In mathematics, the definition of number has been extended over the years to include such numbers as zero, negative numbers, rational numbers, irrational numbers, and complex numbers.
Certain procedures that take one or more numbers as input and produce a number as output are called numerical operations. Unary operations take a single input number and produce a single output number. More common are binary operations, which take two input numbers and produce a single output number. Examples of binary operations include addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and exponentiation. The study of numerical operations is called arithmetic.
A negative number is any real number that is less than zero. Such numbers are often used to represent the amount of absence. For example, a decrease in some quantity may be thought of as a negative increase. Negative numbers are also used to describe values on a scale that goes below zero, such as the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales for temperature.
Negative numbers are usually written with a minus sign in front. For example, −3 would represent a negative quantity with a magnitude of three, and would be pronounced “minus three”. À number that is greater than zero is called positive; zero is usually thought of as neither positive nor negative.
In mathematics, every real number other than zero is either positive or negative. The positive whole numbers are referred to as natural numbers, while the positive and negative whole numbers (together with zero) are referred to as integers.
Negative numbers appeared for the first time in history in the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art (the period of the Chinese Han Dynasty (202 BC. – AD 220).
VIII. Mark the sentences as true or false.
· Every real number can be both positive and negative.
· A negative number is any real number that is less than zero.
· There are only binary operations in mathematics.
· The study of numerical operations is called geometry.
· Negative numbers appeared for the first time in history in the eleventh century.
· Exponentiation is a unary operation.
· Addition and multiplication are binary operations, but subtraction is a unary operation.
· The positive and negative whole numbers are called natural numbers.
IX. Prepare two questions for the text and ask your groupmates.
X. If you were to do a mind map of the text, what scheme would you make?
XI. Choose one of the topics and prepare a dialogue.
· You and your friend are thinking of a trip during your holidays. Discuss your plans.
· You spend all your time surfing the Internet. Your friend thinks that is really bad to spend all day long in front of the computer. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the Internet in everyday life.