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CEFR READING PART PRACTICE - MATCH THE ANSWERS
Read the questions 1-6 and match them with suitable answers from A-F. Use one
letter once only, you have one extra answer which is not used.
TASK 4
Where in the text can a reader find information about
1. the probable creators of Stonehenge?
2. the location of Stonehenge?
3. the most common idea of constructing Stonehenge?
4. the size and form of Stonehenge?
5. the skeptical attitude to the recent concept of constructing Stonehenge?
6. the modern notion of Stonehenge use?
A
Stonehenge, a prehistoric monument near Salisbury in
southwestern England, dates from the late
Stone and early Bronze ages. Stonehenge was a ritual monument for prehistoric peoples.
B
The monument, now in ruins, consists of a circular group of large upright
stones surrounded by a
circular earthwork. Stonehenge is the best preserved and most celebrated of the megalithic
monuments of Europe. It is not a single structure, but a series of structures
that were rebuilt, revised,
and remodelled over a period of approximately 1,500 years.
C
Little is known of Stonehenge’s architects. In the 17th century, English antiquary John Aubrey
proposed that Stonehenge was a temple built by Druids, a caste of Celtic
priests encountered by the
Romans as they conquered ancient Britain in the 1st century AD. Another early notion was that the
Romans themselves constructed the monument. These theories were disproved in the 20th century,
when archaeologists showed that work on Stonehenge began some 2,000 years before Celts, and
later Romans, had arrived in the area. Today it is widely believed that Neolithic peoples of the
British Isles began constructing the monument about 5,000 years ago.
D
Why Stonehenge was constructed remains unknown. Most scholars agree that it must have been a
sacred and special place of religious rituals or ceremonies. Many have
speculated that Stonehenge
was built by Sun worshipers. The axis of Stonehenge, which divides the sarsen horseshoe and aligns
with the monument’s
entrance, is oriented broadly toward the direction of the midsummer sunrise.
E
In the early 1960s, American astronomer Gerald S. Hawkins theorized that Stonehenge was an
astronomical observatory and calendar of surprising complexity. Hawkins suggested that ancient
peoples used the monument to anticipate a wide range of astronomical phenomena,
including the summer and winter solstices and eclipses of both the Sun and the Moon.
F
The astronomical interpretation of Stonehenge remains popular today, despite many
uncertainties. Some scholars are doubtful that the peoples who constructed Stonehenge and
other sites of the era possessed the mathemati cal sophistication necessary to predict many of
the events that Hawkins theorized. They note that Stonehenge's architects may have been
aware of the subtle movements of the Sun, Moon, and other heavenly bodies without having
an analytically advanced understanding of astronomy.