English Vocabulary in Use: Advanced Book with Answers and Enhanced eBook Vocabulary Reference and Practice 3rd Edition

Over to 
you
•
How is your language written – in letters, pictograms or ideograms?
•
Do learners of your language find the syntax difficult? Why?
•
Does your language have diphthongs?
•
Does your language have modal verbs? If not, how does it express modality?
•
Do you know anyone who is very eloquent?
•
Have you ever been lost for words? When?
38.1
38.2
38.3
38.4
38.5

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84
English Vocabulary in Use Advanced
History: since the dawn of civilisation
39
History – the great and the ordinary
Archaeologists
1
patiently work among the remains of past civilisations, 
trying to understand once-powerful vast 
empires
2
, 
kingdoms
3
and 
dynasties
4
. Since the 
dawn
5
of civilisation, societies have recorded the 
reigns
6
of kings and emperors, the fate of their 
heirs
7
and 
successors
8
and 
major events such as 
coronations
9
, wars and 
conquests
10
. All this can be 
recorded in 
manuscripts
11
or on stone tablets. When an heir succeeds to the 
throne and is crowned, we usually learn how long he/she reigns. Meanwhile, 
the lives of the ordinary people, the 
peasants
12
and 
labourers
13
, the pattern 
of their days, the 
migrations
14
of social groups, oft en go unrecorded, and 
archaeologists and historians have a tougher task in interpreting whatever 
shreds
15
of evidence remain. But for many, this is the real history and 
archaeology, the true key to our past.
1
person who studies the material evidence of past societies
2
group of countries ruled by a single person
3
individual countries ruled by a king or queen
4
diff erent rulers who are all from the same family, or a period 
of time that a country is controlled by them
5
beginning
6
period that a king, queen or emperor rules
7
person who is legally entitled to continue the work of someone important who has died or who has the same 
position as they had
8
person who takes over from another person
9
event when a king or queen receives 
his/her crown
10
when someone or an army defeats and takes over another country
11
texts written by 
hand
12
person who works on the land and earns little, usually having a low social status
13
person who 
does unskilled manual work
14
moving from one place to another in large numbers
15
very small amounts