02 History

SECTION A Quiz 9
Choose the correct answer.
1 What is Stonehenge?
A a royal castle
B a prehistoric monument
C a historic document
2 What was Magna Carta?
A a royal castle
B a prehistoric monument
C a historic document
3 Where is Hadrian’s Wall?
A in London ^
B in Edinburgh
C on the English-Scottish border
4 Who won the Civil War in the seventeenth century?
A the Cavaliers
B the Roundheads
C the Vikings
5 In what part o f England is Wessex?
A the north-west
B the north-east
C the south-west
6 Which o f these place names is of partly Roman origin?
A Birmingham
B Leeds
C Manchester
7 Which people settled in large numbers in Britain?
A the Anglo-Saxons
B the Normans
C the Romans
8 In which century was there a single parliament for the
whole o f Britain and Ireland?
A the seventeenth
B the eighteenth
C the nineteenth
9. In which century did England and Scotland first have the same monarch?
A the seventeenth
B the eighteenth

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C the nineteenth
D the twentieth
10. In which century did England and Scotland first have
the same parliament?
A the seventeenth
B the eighteenth
C the nineteenth
D the twentieth
11. Which century saw the greatest extent of the British empire?
A the seventeenth
B the eighteenth
C the nineteenth
D the twentieth
12. In which century was the last battle to be fought on British soil?
A the seventeenth
B the eighteenth
C the nineteenth
D the twentieth
13. In the middle of the twentieth century, a joke history book was published. It
satirized the way history was taught in schools at that time, which typically
involved the memorizing of lots of dates. What do you think its title was?
A. 1066 And All That
B. 1328 And All That
C. 1492 And All That
14. In the 1980s, the BBC compiled a computer video
package o f very detailed information about every
place in Britain. It timed the publication to fall on a
particular anniversary. In which year was it published?
A 1985
B 1986
C 1987

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 SECTION B Quiz on British monarchs
Answer the questions, using the letters from the box.
You will need to use some letters more that once.
A Alfred 2 Who was executed after a formal trial? Charles I
B Arthur 3 Who is famous for burning some cakes? Alfred
C Charles I 4 Who is the longest-reigning monarch in British history so far?
D Elizabeth I Victoria
E Henry II 5 Whose soldiers murdered the Archbishop o f Canterbury? Henry II
F Henry VIII 6 Who was forced to sign the Magna Carta? John
G John 7 Who is famous for never having married? Elizabeth I
H Victoria 8 Who is famous because o f Camelot and the knights of the round
table? Arthur
1 Who is famous for 9 Who is often known as ‘the Great’? Alfred
having six wives? Henry 10 Who was the first head o f the Church of England? Henry VIII
VIII

1-F 6-G
2-C 7-D
3-A 8-B
4-H 9-A
5-E 10-F
SECTION C British words and phrases
Find the word or phrase in chapter 2 o f Britain which is used to mean or describe:
1 the record of all the people and things in his country compiled by William I (‘the
Conqueror’)
1 The Domesday Book
2 the famous stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer
2 The Canterbury Tales
3 leave behind for your successors after you go or die (verb)
3 bequeath
4 when a group of people refuse to work
4 strike
5 a festival of Welsh music and poetry
5 Eisteddfod
6 being able to make or grow everything you need to live yourself
6 self-sufficient
7 the phrase used by the poet Rudyard Kipling to describe the sense of moral
obligation among
British empire builders
7 the white man's burden'
8 women who campaigned for the right to vote in the early twentieth century
8 the Suffragettes

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9 an area of land which used to be available for use by everybody in a village
9 the common SECTION D

10 the set of laws passed in the sixteenth century which took away the power o f
the Roman Catholic Church in England
10 the Reformation

SECTION D Extension
Put the following sentences into the correct order to complete the paragraph.
BRITAIN’S DNA MAP
Modern genetic science throws up some worrying
questions. But it is at least producing one very valuable
finding. It is showing that national and ethnic differences
have very little to do with race and much more to do with
culture instead.
10 Take the story o f Britain, for instance, which can seem like one o f repeated
mass killings and mass migrations.
8 Around 700BC, we are told, Britain was invaded by the Celts, who displaced the
indigenous people.
1 Then, the Romans conquered it and stayed for nearly four centuries.
6 In the next five centuries, first the Anglo-Saxons and then the Vikings arrived.
9 The story goes that, during this time o f Germanic invasions, the native Celts
were all either killed or driven north and west.
2 This is why in modern times we talk about England on the one hand and the
‘Celtic nations’ o f Scotland, Wales, and Ireland on the other.
4 In 1066, England was invaded again, this time by the Normans from France.
3 And yet all these successive invasions appear to have made little difference to the
modern gene pool.
7 Research has found, for example, that around 60% of all men in southern
England are directly descended from Celts.
5 Moreover, it turns out that the vast majority of people in Britain and Ireland have
maternal genes dating back at least 10,000 years.

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The conclusion we must draw from these findings is that history is often less
bloody than we assume it to be and that earlier people in Britain were not all killed
or displaced. Instead, most o f them were assimilated into the newly dominant
culture.

SECTION E Talking points

1 In Britain, as in most countries, history and popular myth are mixed up together.
How many cases can you find in chapter 2 of Britain o f stories which are o f
doubtful historical truth?
2 Which o f the famous names in popular British history could be described as
‘resistance fighters’?
3 At present there is discussion in Britain about the idea of establishing a ‘national
d a / (which it has never had). National days usually commemorate some important
event in a country's history. Which event in British history do you think is most
worthy o f such commemoration?

4 How would you describe the changing relations between religion and politics in
British history? Are the changes that have taken place similar to those in your
country?
5 Around the year 1500, about five million people used the English language - less
than the population of Britain at the time. Today, it is estimated that between 600
million and 1,000 million people use English in everyday life - at least ten times
the present population of Britain. Why has the use of English expanded so much in
the last 500 years?