Exercises of Student’s Book

Lesson 4 and 5

Skills focus

Before you start

Look at the picture. Who are these people? What are they doing?

They are ancient Egyptian scribes; educated men who wrote official documents and kept records for the merchants, politicians and rulers of the day.

1   Listen to the words below in context. Try to guess their meaning.

Audioscript

1. Look at that temple over there! It's so huge!
2. Excuse me, scribe. Could you write this down for me?
3. Alphabet is a set of letters used to represent the sounds of a language.
4. We got three geometric figures in our maths test. It was difficult!
5. The combination of the two colours red and yellow results in the colour orange.

Find the words

• To be a symbol of something (to represent)
• A person in the past who copied out documents (scribe)
• The act of joining two or more things (combination)

2 Work in pairs. Try to answer these questions before reading the article.

1. In which country was hieroglyphic writing originated?
2. In which direction do you think hieroglyphic writing was read?
3. Do you think there are any communities still using hieroglyphic writing today? Explain.

Students’ own answers.

3 Now, read through the article and check your answers.

Answers

1. Hieroglyphic writing originated in Egypt.
2. Hieroglyphic writing was read in columns and in rows (either from left to right or from right to left).
3. Suggested answer: No, I don't. Hieroglyphic writing is too complex compared to our current writing systems, and it is not very practical anymore.

4 Answer the following questions.

1. What do the pronouns in bold refer to?
2. What do the underlined words in the article mean?
3. Do you agree with the article that our writing system today is much simpler? Why / Why not?
4. Do you think that, in the future, new writing systems might be developed and be even simpler than the one we have today? Justify your answer.

Answers

1. "They" in line 3 refers to "Scribes"; "they" in line 8 refers to "the Egyptians"; "they" in line 11 refers to "the Egyptians"; "them" in line 22 refers to "hieroglyphics"; "it" in line 38 refers to "a symbol".
2. developed: invented; useful: able to be easily used; work out: understand; combination: the state of being joined in one unit
3. Students' own answers
4. Students' own answers

5 What can you remember? Cover the text and correct the false information in the following sentences.

1. The Egyptians developed writing about sixteen centuries ago. 2. Scribes decorated their temples with clay.
2. Before they discovered papyrus, the Egyptians wrote on clay. 4. People wrote hieroglyphics only in rows.

5. You should read symbols in columns from left to right.
6. Symbols could have more than one meaning.

Answers

1. The Egyptians developed writing about 6,000 years ago.
2. Scribes decorated their temples with hieroglyphics.
3. The Egyptians didn't write on clay.
4. People wrote hieroglyphics in rows or columns.
5. In the case of a column, you must read from top to bottom.
6. Each symbol had up to three meanings.

7 Now, listen again and check your answers.

Answers

When someone writes lightly, he is calm.

A pencil can draw a line that's 55 km long. Red ink shows that someone is dominant. You can see the writing on a pencil when you use the right hand.

Writing using attached letters means you are cautious.