Architecture. Зайцева И.В. - 42 стр.

reckless enough to disregard the seemingly precarious balance of the hanging
stones-whence the name of the structure, the “Hanging Stones”, Stonehenge.
        During the invasion of Celts tribes (8-th-1st cc B.C.) fortresses were
built on hilltops, towns began to appear in the more wealthy south-east, true
they were at first no more than large groups of wattle-and-clay houses
enriched by a sort of fortificated fence.
        The invasion by the Romans (1c. B.C.-5c. A.D.) brought the country
into contact with the Roman civilization. Major systems of fortifications were
constructed as a defense.
        Then came the occupation of the country by Anglo-Saxon tribes. The
Anglo-Saxon had no big cities, only scattered villages and townships, that is,
arrangements of the lord’s house with the wattle-and-mud huts of the villagers
grouped round it. The huts were primitive affairs, of wood and clay while
timber was abundant with no chimney over the open hearth but a hole in the
roof to let the smoke out and to let the light in. The hearth was usually
nothing more complicated than just a large flat stone in the middle of the
earthen floor. Much of the smoke supposed to escape through the hole in the
roof remained in the low-roofed hut and blackened the beams of the roof with
soot. The walls were bare; the narrow holes cut them to admit light, admitted
much of the wind and the cold as well.
        The lord’s house had a large yard where much of the housekeeping
work was done with lots of auxiliary buildings like sheds and barns and the
like inside it. It was protected by a stout fence supplemented by a sort of
circular fortification, or mound. The interior arrangements were characteristic:
there was always a spacious hall where most of the family’s social life was
spent, where the lord had his meals with his family and his guests. The light
came through narrow holes in the walls covered with oiled linen. The walls
were hung with coarse but bright-patterned curtains, though quite often it was
only the part of the hall allotted for the master of house and his most
honoured guests that was thus decorated, the rest of the walls being bare. The
hearth was nothing much more elaborate that a flat broad stone and the
blackened roof beams were just as much the feature of the lord’s hall as they
were of the humble dwelling.

        4.3 Exercises to the text

       4.3.1 Find the false sentences using the information from the
text. Correct the false sentences:

1) The first inhabitants of the British Isles lived in the dry caves.
2) Towns appeared first in the more wealthy north-east.
3) During the Roman invasion no fortifications were constructed.
4) There were no big cities during the Anglo-Saxon period.
5) The huts of the villagers were made of wattle and clay.
6) The light came trough wide windows.
7) The walls of the lord’s house were painted.