The ANCIENT CIVILIZATION of Egypt

LESSON 4. The aim of the lesson is to teach you to select and group information, to analyze it and to find out what makes it belong to this or that style, so as to transform one functional style into another.

1. Read the given information, reproduce the gist of it and add a sentence or two to prove that the high-flown tone of the lecture on the Pyramids is justified:

As we approach the three large Pyramids at Gizeh (the last remains of the seven ancient wonders), perhaps swaying uncomfortably on the back of a camel, we may at first be a little disappointed. The structures in the distance are familiar, for they remind us of a hundred photographs we have seen in books and magazines. But then, as we reach the straight base of stones, they begin to encircle us, so that the normal sense of scale values crumbles. Against such massive forms, the human being is dwarfed in space, and, glimpsing eternity in the mass before him, he also feels contracted in time. It is as though these stones distort human history itself. There is something so superhuman in their construction that it would be easy to credit the ancient legends that they were built by giants or gods, or carried here by magicians using the anti-gravitational forces once known to the priests of the fabled continent of Atlantis.

2. Re-arrange the information according to the beginning offered below and speak about the similarities between the two great civilizations - Egypt and Mesopotamia (listen to the text “The Dawn of Civilization”):

Many of the distinctive features of Egyptian civilization can be traced to the country's unusual geography. Egypt is a place of contrasts. And the greatest contrast of all is between the Red Land of the desert and the Black Land of the lush Nile Valley. The skies of Ancient Egypt were clear brilliant blue and rain was almost unheard of. Only the presence of the river Nile, with its annual flood made it possible to grow crops.

In the North, the Nile splits up into many branches before reaching the Mediterranean Sea. Much of the fertile land in the Delta was too marshy to be cultivated, but it was rich in birds and fish, papyrus-plants for paper making and reeds for hut and boat building. The marches and numerous waterways made it difficult to travel across the Delta, but in the South the single broad river ensures easy communications.

The people of the North sailed the Mediterranean, traded with other Near Eastern countries and wore open to foreign influence. The people of the South, seal off from the world by the surrounding deserts, were more conservative and had stronger sense of unity. In about 30.000 B.C. the South conquered the North, and the united country consisting of Upper and Lower Egypt had Memphis for its capital.

Begin with: "Herodotus described Egypt as THE GIFT OF THE NILE...

See if you can make use of these phrases:

*** arable land, to cultivate land, irrigation, agriculture, an oasis, the fertility of the land, a narrow strip of land …………

3. Enlarge upon the given information using the tape. But the style of your speech should this time be more neutral, according to the given beginning:

One thing that did unite all Egyptians was a reverence for kingship. The pharaoh was sacred, the living image of the Sun God himself. It was thought to be important to the whole country that the dead pharaoh was accepted by the gods into an afterlife, to triumph over death just as the sun triumphed over darkness with each new dawn. Because of this idea the burial rites of an Egyptian pharaoh were costly and complex and their most spectacular feature was the erection of a pyramid. …

4. What is your theory as to the purpose of the pyramids? Explain.

It is of course generally believed that the pyramids were vast tombs. Indeed, most of the later small pyramids were in fact mausoleums, and certain of the early large pyramids (such as the Step Pyramid at Saqqara) were used to bury mummified royal corpses, yet there is no sure evidence that this was their original purpose. It is certain that no pharaoh was buried in the Great Pyramid, for example. But if there is a shortage of fact about the purpose of these structures, there is no shortage of guesswork and theory, ranging from the ridiculous to sublime. It has been suggested that they were gigantic lighthouses for the naval traffic of the Nile; that they were massive ramparts against the invading desert sands; that they were cosmic clocks, regulated to the drift of the stars; and even carefully wrought predictions relating to our immediate future, warning of the coming of the two World Wars. Careful measurements have revealed many astonishing facts: for example, ratios within the structure of the Great Pyramid are based on the pi ratio of 3.14159, and the exact number of the days in a solar year; not only is the Pyramid orientated precisely to the cardinal points, but is also located exactly upon the geometric centre and southern extremity of the quadrant which encloses the entire Nile delta! Such facts, allied to the findings recent researchers, would suggest that they had a spiritual purpose - probably to provide initiation chambers schools for the priestcraft associated with the Egyptian mystery cults relating to the god Osiris and his consort Isis.

5. Give a ONE-SENTENCE SUMMARY of the ideas expressed in the verse. What is the Sphinx's challenge? Quote the necessary pieces of information from the tape to prove that man's immortal creations defy Time.

THE SPHINX SPEAKS

Carved by a mighty race, whose vanished hands

Formed empires more distructible than I,

In sultry silence I forever lie,

Wrapped in the shifting garments of the sands.

Below me, Pharaoh's scintillating bands

With clashings of loud cymbals have passed by,

And the eternal reverence of the sky

Falls royally on me and all my lands.

The record of the future broods in me,

I have with worlds of blazing stars been crowned,

But none my subtle mystery hath known

Save one, who made his way through blood and sea,

The Corsican, prophetic and renowned,

To whom I spoke, one awful night alone.

(F. S. Saltus)

6. Why do people come to see the Pyramids?

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Home task. Translate the following piece into Russian:

What is there in the ancient monuments that defies Time? An integral part of this complex of pyramids at Gizeh is the mysterious, crouching Sphinx, which ancient Egyptians called Hu. It was the Greeks who gave it the name we now use, the Sphinx meant in their tongue 'strangler', for they no doubt confused it with their own female-headed, female-breasted monster, who destroyed these unfortunates unable to solve their riddles. The Egyptian Sphinx was no such creature, however, and was supposed to be the material form into which the Egyptian Sun-god Ra would incarnate in order to protect his worshippers. The face is not, as is generally assumed that of a woman - it is badly eroded and said by some to be a portrait of the Pharaoh Chaphren in his royal headgear and false beard.

The erosion of the Sphinx reminds us of the fact that the ancient constructions would have been something very different from what meet modern eyes in this remarkable place. Originally they were concourses of temples, mausoleums, ritual chambers and smaller pyramids in ordered profusion around, and there would have been a careful landscaping of trees and plants, where we now see desert sand. There would also be the Jura limestone which originally covered the outer surface of the pyramids, this was removed by the Arabs only some six centuries ago, and used to build their mosque in Cairo. Such an expanse of white must have been very striking in contrast with the azure Egyptian skies, and perhaps accounts for one of the names given to the pyramid by the Egyptians: "the Great Light". Now of course the unprotected walls are crumbling into decay, and one may also imagine the surface of smooth white light which was known to the ancients.

Date: 2015-01-29; view: 1464