Plushtrap

26.01.2023 13:35 •  Английский язык

Part 2. Reading Text 1 Прочитайте текст. Установите соответствие между заголовками A-F и пронуме- рованными абзацами текста 1-5. Запишите свои ответы в таблицу. Используйте каждую букву только однн раз. В задании есть один лишний заголовок. A. Further development of design.
B. Umbrellas for any type of weather.
D. The original aim of the invention.
C. From the history of umbrellas in Asia.
E. The history of umbrellas in Europe.
F. The umbrellas of famous people.

1. Weather changes may be really dramatic in our life. Thus, experienced travellers are never lazy to have an umbrella in their handbags. The word "umbrella" is from the Latin word "umbra" for shade or shadow. An umbrella is an invention used to keep rain off a person. They are usually made by stretching material over a metal frame. Umbrellas are carried by hand and now they are usually used as protection from rain, although their first use was to hide from the sun.
2. The invention of the umbrella dates back to the earliest ages. Umbrellas first appeared in China about 3,000 years ago. in ancient China and Egypt umbrellas were symbols of social position and wealth. Important people had umbrellas made of leaves or feathers. They were held by servants over them for protection from the sun. The Greeks brought umbrellas as sunshades to Europe about 2,000 thousand years ago. The Romans used them to protect themselves from rain.
3. After falling out of use for several centuries, umbrellas appeared again in the late 16th century in Italy. The Roman Catholic Church adopted the devices as marks of distinction for the pope and other clergy. By the 18th century umbrellas were common in Europe. Small decorative umbrellas, called parasols, were fashionable in the 18th and 19th centuries. Often covered with silk, they were used to hide women's faces from the sunshine. Umbrella ribs were originally produced from whale-bone or cane. In the early 17th century in Italy, umbrellas were covered with leather to make them waterproof. In the middle of the 19th century light metal frames in umbrellas made them a better protection against wind and nasty weather.
4. Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe constructed his own umbrella in the imitation of the ones he had seen in Brazil. "I covered it with skins," he said, "the hair outwards, so that it kept off the rain and the sun so effectively that I could walk out in the hottest of weather with greater advantage than I could before in the coolest." From this description the original heavy umbrellas got the name of "Robinson" in England and France.
5. Since the 19th century umbrellas have gained popularity with men. They are traditionally of the black colour. However the 20th century fashioned brighter colours for both men and women. New materials such as cotton and nylon have replaced the original silk. They are now available in compact designs and they are much lighter in weight.