Stonehenge – An Ongoing Mystery (B2)

A – Before you start

Answer the questions with a partner.
1. What do you know about Stonehenge? (What is it? Where is it?)
2. Have you got any similar monuments in Brazil?
3. If so, where are they?

B – Read and answer

Read the main article and answer the questions.
1. What do people celebrate at Stonehenge in December?
2. How old is Stonehenge?
3. What are the theories about why the site was built?
4. What surprising facts have scientists discovered about the area?
5. What tells us that the people who built Stonehenge belonged to a sophisticated and well-
organised society?
6. Where did the stones come from?
7. Where were they shaped?
8. What is the Hidden Landscape project?

C – Listen and answer

N.B. This interview is graded as C1, so don’t be discouraged if you find it difficult. Try to understand the main
points.
Read these statements. Then listen to the interview with Susan Greaney, without reading, and write
T (true) or F (false).
1. Pagans, Druids, New Agers and hippies gather at Stonehenge on 22nd December to watch the sun
come up.
2. At the winter and summer solstice, the sun shines through the space between the tallest stones.
3. Susan Greaney thinks Midwinter’s Day was considered important by prehistoric people.
4. Druids and Pagans aren’t allowed to get close to the stones at the winter and summer solstice.
5. Susan Greaney says the people who built Stonehenge were very different from us.
6. She thinks they had some skills that we have now lost.
7. The builders of Stonehenge had some sophisticated tools.
8. Greaney estimates it took 20 to 30 years to build Stonehenge.

D – Listen, read and check your answers

Listen to the interview while reading the text.(If you did Exercise C, check your answers while
reading.)

E – Learn it! Use it!

Complete these sentences with words from the glossary. (You may have to adapt the expression in
some way; e.g. change the verb tense or change from plural to singular.)
1. James hit his finger with a ________ while he was trying to hang a picture on the wall.
2. The police are calling for anyone who ________ the accident to come forward.
3. Congratulations! Redecorating your bedroom in one day was a great ________.
4. They say that hanging a ________ on the front door of your house or flat brings good luck.
5. That photo is magnificent. You ought to have it ________.
6. We had no problems with the online application. It was very ________.
7. Anna is so ________ that she has to buy children’s clothes.
8. The cottage had beautiful ________ on either side of it.
F – Ready for FCE? (Reading and Use of English, Part 1)
Read the text and decide which word in brackets best fits each gap.
Stonehenge: a new theory
Recently, a new theory about the purpose of Stonehenge 1________ (is/was/were/has) been put
forward by some experts. They suggest that the site was a place of healing, rather 2________
(as/like/similar/so) present-day Lourdes. This would 3________ (provide/count/account/explain) for
the many burial places in the area, and the fact that a large 4________
(deal/amount/number/quantity) of the people buried there had deformities which 5________
(suggested/proposed/agreed/denied) they were suffering 6________ (of/from/because/through)
traumatic injuries. 7________ (However/Whatever/Whereas/While), the same experts also agree that
the site was probably multifunctional, as it seems to have been used for ancestor worship 8________
(also/very/so/as) well.

G – Write about it
Write about an ancient monument in Brazil. Mention:
- its location;
- what it consists of;
- when it was built and who it was built by;
- what its purpose was;
- whether there is any mystery attached to it;
- how/when it can be visited.
Answers
B – Read and answer
1. They celebrate the winter solstice (the longest night and the shortest day). 2. It’s about 4,500
years old. 3. The theories are that it was a temple and a place of worship, or a meeting place, or a
symbol of power and authority. 4. That Stonehenge is just one of many monuments and burial
places located in the area. 5. The fact that a similar monument required a lot of planning and
engineering skills. 6. The largest stones came from 30 km. away. The smaller bluestones were
brought from the Preseli Hills in Wales, 240 km. west of Stonehenge. 7. They were shaped on
site, at Stonehenge. 8. A project which uses high-tech surveys (e.g. radar, aerial photography,
scans, etc.) to reveal monuments hidden under the ground.
D – Listen, read and check your answers
1. F – They gather to watch the sun go down. 2. T 3. T 4. F – She says they give access to the
site. 5. F – She says they were very much like modern people. 6. T – 7. F – They were using
simple antler picks and stone hammers. 8. F – That was the time it took to plan and build the
Visitor Centre.
E – Learn it! Use it!
1. hammer 2. witnessed 3. feat 4. horseshoe 5. framed 6. straightforward 7. tiny
8. woodland
F – Ready for FCE?
1. has 2. like 3. account 4. number 5. suggested 6. from 7. However 8. as