It can't be a temple-but it could be a calendar.
Section 1 Before You Read
PAIRWORK
Look at the pictures.
Who built these things?
Why did they build them?
Discuss with your partner.
Section 2 While You Read
Learning strategy:
RETAINING LANGUAGE
After doing exercises in your books,try writing
the answers in full sentences somewhere else.
Come back to these sentences another day and recite them a few times.
This will help you to learn and retain new language.
It can't be a temple-but it could be a calendar.
Every year,thousands of tourists from all over the world visit Stonehenge.
This is not only one of England's most famous historical places,
but also one of its greatest mysteries.
Why was it built?
For a long time,historians believed that
Stonehenge was a temple where special priests prayed to ancient earth gods.
However,historian Paul Stoker thinks this isn't true.
"Stonehenge can't be a temple,"he says,
"because those priests didn't arrive in England until a few hundred years BC.
And we know that Stonehenge was built many,
many centuries earlier than that."
Another popular idea is that Stonehenge might be a kind of calendar.
This is because the large stones have been
put in position so that on a midsummer's morning the sun's rays go directly into the center.
And some people believe it was used to predict an eclipse of the sun.
Again,no one is sure what Stonehenge was usedfor,
but most historians agree that the position of the stones must be used for
a special purpose.
There are other ideas,too.
Some historians think it might be a burial place or a place to honor ancestors.
Others think that it was built to celebrate a great victory over an enemy.
Who built it?
Stonehenge was bulit in several stages,
but most historians think it must be almost
5,000 years old.
One of the greatest mysteries is
how it was built,
because the stones are so big and heavy.
In 2001,a group of English volunteers tried
to build another Stonehenge,but they couldn't.
"We don't know who built Stonehenge,
or how they did it."says Paul Stoker,
"and perhaps we might never know.
But we do know that they must have been very organized and hardworking people."
Section 3 After You Read
3a Write sentences to show what historians
think Stonehenge might be,or can't be.
3b Match each word with its meaning.
Now write full sentences in your notebooks using each word.
Section 4 Go For It!
Discuss the picture with your partner.
Use the words or phrases below to help you.
soldier horses emperor
teacher 210 BC 1000 BC
dig burial place death
Xi'an the war tourists statues
belong to stones
The Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum
If you have time!
Write an article for Mystery magazine.
Choose any subject you think is interesting to historians or scientists.
Share your article with your group.