« The early days of Britain » Презентация на тему : « The early days of Britain » Выполнила: учитель английского языка Самойленко Светлана Васильевна.

Ancient Britons. About 500 – 600 BC new people – the Celts – appeared in Britain. They were tall, strong people with long red hair, armed with iron swords and knives. The Britons were skilful workers. They lived in caves and hunted animals for food. They learned to grow corn and made things out of iron, bronze, tin, clay and wood. They made money out of gold and silver. They began to make roads, along which they travelled about the country, buying and selling things.

These people were religious. They believed in many gods These people were religious. They believed in many gods. They believed that different gods lived in the thickest and darkest parts of the forests. Some historians think that the Britons were governed by a class of priests called Druids who had great power over them. Some temples which they built still stand in many parts of England and Scotland. They are just circles of great stones standing vertically. The greatest of them is Stonehenge in the south of England.

In the mountains and forests of the west and north there were people who did not know the use of iron and did not use money. They had no real houses, but still lived in caves. The parts in the south-east of Britain were most civilized, because they were nearest to the continent, from which people got new knowledge.

The coming of the Romans. In the year 55 BC the great Roman general Julius Caesar sailed to Britain with about 12,000 soldiers in eighty ships. The Roman soldiers landed and fought with the Britons. They won the battle, but did not stay long and soon departed. In the following year Julius Caesar came to Britain again. This time the Romans marched north-west where London stands today. The British attacked them in chariots and on foot, but the Romans had better arms and armour, and were much better trained.

Britain under the Romans. In the year 70 AD, when the Romans had been nearly thirty years in Britain, many Britons could not remember a time when the country had been free. There were still three legions of Roman soldiers in the country, but every thing was now so quiet that the soldiers spent most of their time enjoying themselves in sports or at the games in the amphitheatres. Although Britain was now fairly peaceful, the Romans realized that at any moment some tribe might try to revolt. So they built forts in many parts of the country, in which they stationed small groups of soldiers.

Нadrian’s Wall In the year 122 the Roman Emperor Hadrian came to Britain. Hadrian was a great traveller. Hadrian set Roman soldiers (about 20,000 men) the task of building a great wall running right across the country from Newcastle on the eastern shore to Carlisle on the western shore. Parts of this wall can still be seen.

Roman towns. The Romans remained in Britain for three hundred and fifty years, and during that time they built many towns. Many of these towns were large. Each large town had a theatre, open to the sky, with some seats in a great semi-circle. There were shops in all Roman-British towns.

The shops were of all kinds: butcher’s, baker’s and greengrocer’s; there were shoemaker’s and locksmith’s, carpenter’s and jeweller’s shops.

The customers were as varied as the merchants: Britons in rough woolen clothes, Romans in togas, soldiers in scarlet and brass, women in graceful dresses and cloaks, and slaves in short tunics. It was a busy scene.

Anglo-Saxon England. The Britons could not keep their land free for a long time. The Germanic tribes from Western Europe - Angles, Saxons and Jutes – attacked the coasts of Britain and after long wars with the Britons settled on the British Isles. The Anglo-Saxons formed many kingdoms – Kent, Essex, Wessex, which now are counties of Great Britain.

The Anglo-Saxons were tall, strong men, with blue eyes and long blond hair. They were dressed in tunics and cloaks which they fastened with a brooch above the right shoulder. On their feet they wore rough leather shoes. Their usual weapons were a spear and a shield. The women wore long dresses with wide sleeves. Their heads were covered with a hood.

The Anglo-Saxons lived in a small villages. Round each village there was a ditch and an earthen wall with a wooden fence on top. The earthen wall and the fence served to defend the village against robbers and wild beasts.

The Raids of the Danes. Beginning with the 8th century, pirates from Scandinavia and Denmark began raiding the eastern shores of Britain. They are known in English history as the Danes. They landed their long boats, killed and robbed the population of the towns and villages and sailed away. They returned over and over again. Gradually they began settling in Britain and seized more and more land.

Alfred the Great. Alfred is the only king of England who got the name “the Great”. He was really a great king. He built the first English navy. After the victory over the Danes King Alfred did much for his people. He opened schools, asked scholars to translate into English the best works of world literature and worked out the English code. He started the famous Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which is the first history of England.

1.U.B.Golitsensky “Great Britain” 2. V.V.Oschepkova “Britain in Brief” Literature : 1.U.B.Golitsensky “Great Britain” 2. V.V.Oschepkova “Britain in Brief” 3. E.G. Kopyl “English Reader”