History of the uk reading ex Read the following text and do the tests bellow. The Iberians

Read the following text and do the tests bellow.

Roman Invasion in Britain

In the first century B.C two thousand years ago the Romans were the most

powerful people while the Celts were still living in tribes and primitive society,

Romans had a slave society. The slave owners possessed the land, tools buildings

and slaves. In the 1st century B.C and first century A.D slavery spread widely in

the Roman Empire.

In 55 ВС Britain was invaded by Julius Caesar, а Roman general and

governor of Gaul (France), soon to be, in all but name, the first Roman emperor.

At that time the city of Rome was about 700 years old, but the Roman

Empire was much younger. As late as 211 ВС Rome had narrowly escaped

destruction by the Carthaginian general, Hannibal. But Hannibal's defeat left Rome

without а serious rival, and by Caesar's time it

controlled an empire that stretched from Spain

to the Near East.

Romans conquered the South East. Other

parts of the country were taken from time to

time during the next 40 years. Romans made

several roads, bridges, walls as a result of the

conquest. Roman civilize spread over Britain.

They built towns, splendid villas, and public

baths New York, London, Lincoln, Manchester

about fifty smaller towns. The towns grew up

as markets; plenty of shops merchants sold

their goods. The houses were built of stone

supplied with pure water. The Roman towns were surrounded by walls for defense

the Romans remained in Britain for about four centuries and later in the 3-4th

centuries the power of the Roman Empire gradually weekend. Slavers became an

obstacle to technical progress.

We can see the Roman walls in Britain even now. The Romans left the

country only in the second half of the fifth century. The Roman armies were called

back to Italy to defend the country from enemies.

The spread of Christianity gave possibility for learning. Such words by

Greek origin as arithmetic, mathematics, theatre and geography, school paper,

candle and others appeared in English as a result of Greek influence.

Two places more different than imperial Rome and Celtic Britain could

hardly have existed. Roman society was urban, with grand public buildings built of

marble. Britain was а country of mud huts, with no settlement large enough to be

called а town. An upper-class Roman lived in greater comfort than any British

before the 15th century. His house even had central heating.

The Romans, as heirs of the civilization of Ancient Greece, were interested

in art, philosophy and history (Caesar himself wrote good military history in

simple prose). The British could neither read nor write. They were not savages, and

in some ways Celtic art was superior to Roman, or so it seems to us, but the

Romans naturally thought of them as hopelessly primitive barbarians. То the

Romans - and to many non-Romans too - there was but one worthwhile form of

society, and that was their own. The only useful function of other peoples was to

contribute to the glory of Rome.

Britain was а mysterious isle to the Romans. But Caesar knew it contained

valuable minerals, and he knew also that the British were helping their cousins in

Gaul against Rome.