LANGUAGE AND IDENTITIES

Greek

Gapped text. Put the verbs in brackets into Present Simple or Past Simple - Passive or Active. Change the word order, if necessary. (X stands for no article, and some articles are bolded)

For us X Greek and X Latin are the most important of the languages of the ancient world. Greek is the older of the two and much of Latin literature 1)………. (to base) on the Greek literature that went before it. The two languages often 2)………. (to learn) together because Greek and Latin grammar are alike in various ways. Many scholars think that Greek 3)………. (to come) from an even earlier language that 4)……….. (to write) from right to left, for the very Greek inscriptions are from right to left. The Greek writing of later times, however, which 5)………. (to know) better, 6)…………. (to follow) the usual pattern of left to right. The Greek alphabet, which is different from ours, 7)………. (to have) 24 letters.

X Ancient Greek 8)……….. (to speak) in many dialects, but the Attic speech which the inhabitants of X Athens 9)………. (to use) 10)……….. (to think) to be the purest kind. Greek 11)……….. (to spread) rapidly and 12)………. (to come) to be spoken in most of the lands around the Mediterranean, and the conquests of the Macedonian king and warrior Alexander the Great 13)………. (to carry) it also to many parts of X Asia Minor and the Near East. Later, in the Roman world, educated people 14)……….. (to employ) Greek as their second language, in the same way that English-speaking people 15)……….. (to learn) and 16)……….. (to use) French in later times.

After the Roman Empire 17)……….. (to break up) by the invasions of the barbarians in the 5th century AD, the study of Greek 18)……….. (to disappear) from X western Europe for a thousand years, but Greek 19)……….. (to live on) as the official tongue of the Byzantine Empire, in the city which 20)……….. (to call) later Constantinople, and 21)……….. (to know) now as Istanbul. When this stronghold 22)………. (to overrun) by the Turks in 1453, a great many Greek scholars 23)………. (to flee) westwards into X Europe bringing their learning with them. This 24)……….. (to be) at the beginning of the age of the Renaissance, or "rebirth" of learning, and a revival of interest in Greek 25)……….. (to become) an important part of the new learning, although the language was never again as well-known as Latin. In X Greece itself, however, and the countries of the eastern Mediterranean, Greek had continued to be spoken without interruption.

From Children's Britannica

Reading comprehension

1. Has Greek always been written from right to left?
2. What was the status of Greek in the Roman world?
3. What was the status of Greek in Western Europe and the Byzantine Empire after the break-up of the Roman Empire?
4. When was the interest in the Greek language renewed?

Vocabulary and language in use

I Supply the missing forms of the following words and use their appropriate forms in the sentences below.

NOUN	VERB	ADJECTIVE
literature
inscription
conquest
invasion
scholar
	disappear
		rapid
		various

1. They used the least ………………………….. methods in treating the disease.
2. Modern farming practice led to the virtual ………………………….. of this bird.
3. The chief value of this very ………………………….. book is to be found in its textual side.
4. The style changes with bewildering …………………………... .
5. They ………………………….. the monument with the soldiers' names.
6. Gender roles ………………………….. across cultures.
7. The city was ………………………….. by the ancient Romans.
8. Do his books have any ………………………….. merit?

II Match the following words with their synonyms below: alike (4), to employ (14), tongue (19), to overrun (21) , stronghold (21), to flee (22), revival (23).

Similar, the same -

To invade, to occupy -

Fortress, castle, bastion, centre -

Revitalization, regeneration, rejuvenation, improvement -

To run away, to escape -

Language -

To use/make use of/engage -

III Derive adjectives from the following names of countries, continents, cities.

NOUNS	ADJECTIVES
Byzantium
Greece
Rome
Europe
Asia
Egypt
Mycenae
Athens
Sparta
Mesopotamia
Persia

IV Supply the correct prepositions.

To be based ….. something

…… the same way

To write ….. right ….. left

To be different ….. someone/something

To be written ….. Greek

….. the beginning/end of (the age of Renaissance)

….. the beginning/….. the end

Interest …… something/someone

Grammar in context

Articles

Study the articles used in the text on Greek (bolded) and decide why the definite, indefinite or zero articles were used in given contexts. Fill in the table with the examples from the text.

used to refer to/or meaning	A/AN	THE	ZERO
Languages
countries geographical regions
political/administrative regions
nationalities periods/movements in history
`the only one`
`one`
Etc.