THE UNITED KINGDOM: From King Arthur to Brexit

A Brief History of the Island of Britain

Task 1: SPEAKING British History Quiz

History Round (18 points)

With your partner try to guess these questions about British History. This is based on the British tradition of a “pub quiz” where friends meet to compete in quizzes in local pubs. Often the questions are very difficult so you have to think carefully and guess the answer!Ancient times (5 Points)

1) King Arthur’s name means a. Noble Warriorb. “He will return”c. Wolf Kingd. Bear

2) The name Britain comes from a word meaninga. Land of the Irishb. The Painted Peoplec. Well Fedd. Foreigners

3) According to DNA research native British and Irish people are most closely related to

a. The Danesb. The Germans and Dutchc. The Frenchd. The Spanish

4) Before the Roman invasion, educated people in Ancient Greek and Rome thought that Britain was

a. A legend invented by sailorsb. A country inhabited by giantsc. A Frozen helld. Located off the coast of Spain

5) When the Romans invaded Britain the second time, the emperor Claudius decided to scare the Britons

a) By using lionsb) With Elephantsc) By painting his soldiers blued) By pretending to be the god Jupiter

Anglo-Saxons and Celts (5 points)

6) According to legend, the Anglo-Saxons came to Britain a) Because the Roman emperor gave them the

island so they wouldn’t attack Romeb) Because the Ancient Britons invited them to

defend them from the Scotsc) They were pirates and saw that Britain was

undefended after the Roman army leftd) Their own lands were under attack by other

tribes, such as the Huns from Eastern Europe

7) The Days of the Week in English are named after a) The planetsb) The Anglo-Saxon Godsc) Numbers (Tuesday is Two-day etc)d) Activities e.g. Washing Day etc

8) Alfred the Great (849-899) was the most famous Anglo-Saxon King (and the best, which is why he’s called Alfred the Great). Which of these things DIDN’T King Alfred doa) Translate Latin philosophy into English in his

free timeb) Defeat the Viking invadersc) Be the first king of the “English”d) Start the English navy

9) The language of the ancient Britons survives today as what modern language:a) Gaelicb) Scotsc) Welshd) Cornish

10) The Welsh language has no words fora) Yes and Nob) Me and Youc) Past and Futured) Please and Thank you

Vikings and Normans (4 points)

11) The Vikings invaded Britain several times between the 8th and 11th Centuries and often ruled large parts of the island. They were also famous for having unusual names. Which of these WASN’T a Viking ruler of at least part of the UK?a) Thorfinn Skull-splitterb) Ivar the Boneless, son of Ragnar Hairy

Trousersc) Eirik Bloodaxed) Olaf Sandals

12) The Vikings had a big effect on British society. Which of these WASN’T a result of the Viking invasions in England?a) People in the North of England speaking

with a strange accentb) English’s relatively simple grammar

compared to Germanc) The Anglo-Saxons became very good at

bureaucracyd) Sarcasm and the British sense of humour

13) William the Conqueror was the Duke of Normandy who invaded Britain in 1066. The Normans spoke French but they were originallya) Celtsb) Vikings (again)c) Romansd) From the same part of the Germany as the

Anglo-Saxons

14) English has different words for animals and for the meat that comes from them, e.g. “pig” and “pork”. This is becausea) The cooks were all Frenchb) The French speaking Normans were the

only people rich enough to eat meatc) The butchers who sold meat all spoke

Frenchd) French was a more fashionable language

and it made meals sound more elegant

How the UK was formed (4 points)

15) King Henry VIII (1491-1547) of England started a new religion becausea) He was influenced by German protestants

and disagreed with Catholic theologyb) The pope had insulted him when he

visited Romec) He wanted to get a divorce so he could

marry another woman and the Pope wouldn’t allow it

d) He wanted to publish the Bible in English, not in Latin

16) The English (and Scottish and Irish and Welsh) Civil Wars in the 17th century were fought betweena) Catholics and Protestantsb) The English and Scottish and Irish and

Welshc) King Charles and the Parliaments of

England and Scotlandd) Two different people wanting to be king

17) After the Civil War, Oliver Cromwell’s military dictatorship made which of the following illegal:a) Dancingb) Christmasc) Musicd) Drinking Alcohole) Dancing, Christmas, music, drinking

alcohol, Halloween, kissing in public, eating hot food on Sunday, using bad language and a lot of other things

18) Scotland joined the UK in 1707 aftera) The King of Scotland became the King of

Englandb) It was invaded by Englandc) The Scots decided that it was better to be

one country after the violence of the Civil War

d) Scotland lost all its money trying to start a colony in Panama where everyone died of malaria

Geography Round (4 points, ½ each)

Where in the UK do you think these places are? Anglo-Saxon names are found in England and parts of Scotland and sound more traditionally “English”. Names coming from the language of the Vikings sound harder than Anglo-Saxon names but are more similar than Gaelic (historically spoken in most of Scotland) or Welsh names which have a completely different sound. Write the number on the map.

19.Ingliston20.Helvelyn21.Wokingham22.Auchtermuchty23.Scawthorpe24.Troutbeck25.Lochnagar26.Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrn-

drobwllllantysiliogogogoch

Picture Round (5 points)

A lot of British traditions come from the pagan religions of the Anglo-Saxons, Celts, and Vikings. Match these names to the pictures on the next page. 27.Up Helly Aa28.The Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling29.The Easter Bunny30.The Abbots Bromely Horn Dance31.Midsummer’s day

All images from Flickr.com, under creative commons license

Task 2: READING AND VOCABULARY British History

Ancient Times

The legendary King Arthur is one of the most famous people in early British history but someone we know almost nothing about. We know that his name means “Bear” in Old Welsh (it’s related to the word “Arctic” which is named after the constellation, the Great Bear). If he existed, he would have been a leader or general of the ancient Britons when they fought against the Anglo-Saxons. But who were the Britons and Anglo-Saxons? The name Britain means “painted people” because the ancient British used to paint their bodies and faces blue when they went into battle. (The name Scotland means “land of the Irish” because the Scots were a tribe from Ireland originally, the name Ireland is a mystery but it might mean “well-fed” and Wales means “Land of Foreigners” from the Anglo-Saxon “waelisc”).

The Ancient Greeks made a lot of things from bronze and they needed another metal, tin, to make it. Most of their tin came from Britain but they bought it from the Phoenicians, another civilization who kept the location a secret. The Greeks thought that the tin came from a group of islands off the coast of Spain. One Greek sailor called Pytheas visited Britain but when he came back many people didn’t believe him. Until Julius Caesar invaded Britain in 55BC many Romans and Greeks thought that Britain was just a legend. Julius Caesar wasn’t very successful but a hundred years later, the emperor Claudius defeated the Britons after he used war elephants to scare them!

Genetically, the ancient Britons were most related to the Spanish. It seems that the ancestors of the British migrated there from Spain at the end of the Ice Age.

Anglo-Saxons and Britons

When the Roman army left in the 5th century, the Britons had no-one to defend them against the Scots who were attacking from Ireland. According to legend they invited the Anglo-Saxons to Britain to defend them. Unfortunately, the Anglo-Saxons liked Briton so much they decided to stay and fought against the Britons for hundreds of years until they controlled most of what is now England (named after the Angles) and parts of Scotland. Their most famous king was Alfred the Great. He was not only a great warrior who defeated the Vikings, he also became the first king of all the English and was also very intelligent and produced the first English translation of the Latin philosopher Boethius. The Britons lost control of England but survived in Wales and Cornwall. Their language turned into the Welsh and Cornish languages but today only Welsh is still spoken. Cornish died out 200 years ago. Welsh was the original language of all of most of Britain and many linguists believe it has influenced English. It has no words for “yes” or “no”, which is why English answers yes/no questions with auxiliary verbs like Welsh as well as using yes and no like Anglo-Saxon.

The most common words in English are nearly all from Anglo-Saxon, including the days of the weeks. Many people think they are named after their gods, like Thor (who is now a Marvel superhero and the origin of Thursday), or Freya, the goddess of love (Friday), but the days are actually named after the planets which is why we have Moon-day and Sun-day – it’s just that the planets were given the names of the gods as well!

Vikings and Normans

The Anglo-Saxons soon came under attack from the Vikings, particularly Vikings from Denmark. They established a kingdom in Northern England called the Danelaw. They are the reason why people in Northern England often have blonde hair and why they have a different accent because their English is influenced by Danish. One of the reasons why English grammar is much simpler than Anglo-Saxon is probably because the Anglo-Saxons and Danes spoke languages which were similar enough to be understood but they had to speak more simply to communicate. Another effect was the Anglo-Saxon government developed a very efficient bureaucracy to raise enough money from taxes to pay the Vikings to stop them from attacking! Some people also claim that the typical British sarcasm comes from the Vikings but this isn’t likely as the Anglo-Saxons already had a similar sense of humour, judging from their poetry and other writings. Many Vikings had strange names, such as Eirik Bloodaxe and Olaf Sandals, both kings of York or Thorfinn SKullsplitter, Lord of Orkney or Ivar “the Boneless” Ragnarsson who lead the invasion of 865 AD but never became a king.

In 1066 Britain was invaded again, this time by the Normans. The Normans were originally Vikings too but they had settled in France and by the time of the invasion, spoke French. William the Conqueror became King of England and in the next few hundred years the Normans ruled England but also conquered Wales and parts of Ireland as well. Their attempts to rule Scotland were less successful and it remained independent. The upper class were all Norman and the poor people were all Anglo-Saxon. That is why English as separate words for the animal and the meat from that animal – the Anglo-Saxons looked after the animals, but the rich Normans ate it, which is why the words for types of meat are usually French, except for chicken which is what poorer people ate.

How the UK was formed

King Henry VIII who died in 1547 is famous for being the first Protestant English king. He founded the Church of England after the Pope refused to let him get divorced and marry Anne Boleyn, his second wife. He wasn’t really interested in the theological differences between the two religions. His daughter Elizabeth became queen but she died without having any children, so then the King of Scotland, James the VI and I became king of both countries. His son King Charles I was very unpopular and the parliaments of England and Scotland declared war on him and this lead to the Civil Wars. Huge numbers of people died from hunger and disease and the wars lasted 10 years before the King was executed as an enemy of his own people. Unfortunately, Parliament winning didn’t create a democracy. Instead, Oliver Cromwell, the leader of the army became the military dictator of England, Scotland and Ireland. He was a very strict, religious man and his government banned everything from Christmas to dancing, from kissing to eating hot food on Sunday.

Not long after the Civil Wars, in 1707, the Scottish government voted to join with England and create the United Kingdom. This happened because Scotland tried to colonise Panama in central America but all the colonists died of malaria and the country lost all its money. They did it to save themselves from financial ruin.

Geography Round

The different groups (Anglo-Saxons, Britons, Scots, Vikings) created the different countries and regions of the modern UK. England is named after the Anglo-Saxons and many place names such as Wokingham (“home or farm of the people of Wocca”). The Anglo-Saxons also lived in parts of Scotland and gave names like Ingliston, near Edinburgh, which actually means “settlement of the English”. Scotland has place names from several languages – Pictish (similar to the language of the Britons) names like Auchtermuchty, Gaelic names like “Lochnagar” – “Loch” means “lake”, like the famous Loch Ness.

Northern England usually has names that come from the Danes such as “Scawthorpe” or “Troutbeck”. “Thorpe” means village and “beck” means a stream or small river.

Naturally, in Wales most names come from the Welsh language. The most famous is perhaps Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch which was invented in the 19th century because they thought a really long name would attract tourists. Locals just call it Llanfair PG. The Welsh language was still spoken in parts of Scotland and Northern England until about 1200 which is why some place names like the mountain Helvelyn in North West England have very Celtic sounding names.

Picture Round

Many British traditions have their roots in the pre-Christian, pagan religions of the Anglo-Saxons, Britons and Vikings. For example, the famous (and surprisingly dangerous) Cheese Rolling festival where people roll a (fake) piece of cheese down a hill and chase after it is believed to come from a Celtic tradition. Easter, although a Christian festival, is named after the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring, Eostre, and a lot of the symbols such as the Easter Rabbit or Bunny, come from that. A strange village tradition is the Horn Dance where men dance wearing antlers (the horns of a deer) in an old hunting ritual. The antlers have been DNA tested and are around 1000 years old. Some traditions were invented in the 19th century. The Shetland festival of Up Helly Aa involves men dressing like Vikings and then setting fire to wooden boats. And every year, Druids, people who follow a modern interpretation of the ancient Britons’ Celtic religion, meet at Stonehenge to celebrate Midsummer.

VOCABULARY

Find words which match these definitions in the text you’ve just read.

Ancient Times

An adjective for something or someone people tell stories about _________

The leader of an army _________

A group of people with a common culture _________

Someone who isn’t from your country _________

To enter another country with your army in a war _________

The people who come before you in your family line _________

Anglo-Saxons and Britons

To protect someone who is under attack _________

When you say what someone is saying _________

To beat someone in sport or in a war _________

To become _________

To go extinct like the dinosaurs or the dodo _________

Vikings and Normans

To create and improve something over time _________

The money that you pay to the government _________

The things that you find funny, the way you tell jokes _________

When you try to do something _________

The richest and most powerful people in society _________

How the UK was formed

When you start something from nothing like a company, institution or city _________

When you want to stop being married to someone _________

When no-one likes you _________

Illness, when you are sick _________

Geography Round

A small river _________

Picture Round

To date back to, to have its origin in _________

Pre-Christian religion _________

Not safe _________

The word that goes with „fire” when you make a fire with something _________

Adjective for „made from trees” _________

Task 3: LISTENING AND GRAMMAR – Cheese Rolling Passives

Exercise 1

With your partner, decide which sentences are True and which ones are False! Write T or F next to them. Now watch the video and check your answers. Change the False sentences to make them true.

1. The cheese is really made of wood.

2. The cheese rolling festival is very safe.

3. The cheese is thrown down a street.

4. Some people are taken to hospital every year.

5. The person who won has some fingers missing.

6. The man who won loves cheese!

7. Only men take part in the race.

In which sentences do we know who does the action?

In which sentences don’t we know or care who does the action?

What verb form do we use when we don’t know or care who performs an action?

How is it formed? __________ + ______________

Exercise 2

Put these sentences into the present simple passive. Remember if we don’t know who does something or if it’s not important, we don’t need to say who it is.

1. They make Manchego cheese in Spain.2. They make most cameras in Japan.3. They grow coffee in hot countries like Brazil or Ethiopia.4. Unknown people steal thousands of cars every year.5. Teachers teach English in most schools in my country.

Task 4: SPEAKING Design your own festival

Your town needs more tourists! They are getting bored of all the traditional activities like museums and shops. We need an exciting new festival to attract more people.

For example:

The Angry Sheep Festival

Thing of four things you need for your festival

• Sheep, swimming goggles, tomatoes, rollerblades

Now describe what happens in your festival using the passive.

• First, the rollerblades are placed on the sheep’s feet.

• Swimming goggles are worn to protect the sheep’s eyes.

• Then, tomatoes are thrown at the sheep to make them angry.

• The angry sheep chase the tourists around the town. This will be an exciting event that will receive attention from TV companies and guidebook writers from all around the world!

Do you like my idea? No? Of course not! It’s a terrible idea! Now invent your own new festival with your partner.

THE UNITED KINGDOM: From King Arthur to Brexit

A Brief History of the Island of Britain Teachers’ Notes

Level: B1/B2Aims: Reading for detail, Practice present passive, Cultural Information about UK history.

The first task is designed to be like a UK “Pub Quiz”, but with the theme of British history. The first part is communicative where teams work together to try to guess the answers (in most quizzes of this type the answers are quite difficult but can be guessed intelligently). Once the teams have predicted the answers they then look around the classroom to find the specific information needed to answer the question in a jigsaw reading activity. The team who answer all the questions correctly first are the winners. Doing the reading in this way should not only make it more enjoyable for students, but will also reduce the workload for individuals. The text is rather long but doing it as a collaborative jigsaw task will make it more manageable.

The task may be quite challenging for B1 level students (though well within the capabilities of B2 students). If this is the case, or if time pressure makes it impossible to do the full quiz, the last two “rounds” of the quiz – the geography and picture round can be done separately as introduction to the idea of festivals that is used in task 3.

Festivals are often a good chance to revise or teach the passive or practice it in a more task based/communication focused way, as they involve lots of activities done by “people in general” rather than by specific known persons. Students tend to find the cheese rolling festival entertaining as it is much more dramatic than it sounds due to the steepness of the hill. Task 3 is a follow up where students then design their own festival to attract more tourists to their town.

Procedure

1. Task 1: Speaking British History Quiz Explain to students what a “Pub Quiz” is and divide students into pairs or

groups of 3-4 depending on the number of students in the class. Hand each group a copy of the questions and tell them to discuss the answers in their group and guess the correct option. Students will not realistically know the answers to most of these so they are to try and guess intelligently from the multiple-choice options.

2. Task 2: Reading British History Put the different sections of the reading on the wall in different parts of

the room. Tell students to find the correct answers to correct their quizzes. This is done as a jigsaw where different members of each team

read different parts of the text and work cooperatively to find all the correct answers to mark their quiz. The team that finishes first wins.

3. Vocabulary: British History When the teams have finished the quiz, they are to do a vocabulary hunt,

looking for words that match the definitions in each section. They can work collaboratively again, with different members of each team looking for words in a different part of the reading. It may be easier to give each group their own copy of the text at this point.

Students chose the 10 most useful words in the new vocabulary and write sentences about their own country that will help them remember. They can test members of another team by reading the sentences without the key word, if the other team will guess, this will show that the example sentence was a good one.

4. Task 3: Listening and Grammar Festivals Tell students that you are going to show them a video of the Cheese

Rolling festival that was mentioned in the quiz. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GdVnzDFyLg Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling 2012 by SoGlos.

Students then correct the True/False statements on their handout, changing the false statements to make them true.

The teacher can then revise the rules for the present passive at this point, point out that we don’t know how does the actions that are described in the passive, that they are done by people in general, that the verbs are transitive etc.

Students put the sentences in exercise 2 into the passive.5. Task 4: Speaking Design a festival.

In my festival, I have taken 4 random things and connected them to make a new festival to attract tourists to my region. I have written sentences describing the festival using the passive to describe what unknown people/people in general do in the course of the event. Students are to think of their own 4 things and then build a festival around it, writing a description to explain it to the rest of the class.

Each group then explains their new festival to the class and explains why they think it will attract tourists. The teacher writes down key words to summarise each event or draws a picture to help the students remember who has suggested what. Then students vote for the best festival (they can’t vote for their own idea).

Answer Key

Task 1: British History Quiz

1. D 2. B 3. D 4. A 5. B 6. D 7. A. 8. D. 9. C 10. A 11. B 12. D 13. B 14. B 15. C 16. C 17. E 18. D19. Scotland 20. England 21. England 22. Scotland 23. England 24. England 25. Scotland 26. England

2927 3130 28

Task 2: Reading and Vocabulary British History

Ancient Times

An adjective for something or someone people tell stories about legendary

The leader of an army general

A group of people with a common culture tribe

Someone who isn’t from your country foreigner

To enter another country with your army in a war to invade

The people who come before you in your family line ancestors

Anglo-Saxons and Britons

To protect someone who is under attack defend someone (against)

When you say what someone is saying According to

To beat someone in sport or in a war to defeat

To become to turn into

To go extinct like the dinosaurs or the dodo to die out

Vikings and Normans

To create and improve something over time to develop

The money that you pay to the government tax (sing)/taxes (plural)

The things that you find funny, the way you tell jokes sense of humour

When you try to do something an attempt

The richest and most powerful people in society the upper class

How the UK was formed

When you start something from nothing like a company, institution or city to found something (past founded)

When you want to stop being married to someone to get divorced

When no-one likes you to be unpopular

Illness, when you are sick disease

Geography Round

A small river a stream

Picture Round

To date back to, to have its origin in to have its roots in

Pre-Christian religion pagan (adj), paganism (noun)

Not safe dangerous

The word that goes with „fire” when you make a fire with something to set fire to

Adjective for „made from trees” wooden

Task 3: Listening and Grammar Cheese Rolling Video

1. The cheese is really made of wood. TRUE2. The cheese rolling festival is very safe dangerous.3. The cheese is thrown down a street hill.4. Some people are taken to hospital every year. TRUE5. The person who won has some fingers teeth missing.6. The man who wins, loves doesn’t like cheese!7. Only men Men and women take part in the race