THEME PARK

People in History

Reading

I

The World of Norse Mythology

Today the Norse myths are read as adventure stories about gods, giants, and dwarfs. But there was a time long, long ago when the gods were very real to the Norsemen who lived in northern Europe. These people created a whole universe around them. In the center of the universe was the shining city of Asgard where all the gods lived in golden palaces. Asgard stood on top of a high mountain, surrounded by clouds and a giant wall. Stretching from the gates of Asgard to the Earth below was a beautiful rainbow bridge. The Earth was called Midgard and it was here where all the humans lived. And beneath Midgard in deep, dark caves lived the dwarfs who made magic things for the gods. On the frozen edges of the world lived the evil giants in their city called Utgard. This city was a place of frozen hills, deep valleys, and endless mountains covered by dark forests.

A Special Norse God

Since the gods were supposed to protect the universe from the forces of evil, the Norsemen created gods with special strengths and powers. One of these gods was Thor. As the son of Odin, the father of all the gods, Thor held a special place in the universe.

Look at this picture of Thor. What are some of the strengths and powers that show Thor was a special Norse god? List below the things you see.

Listening

I

The Maori People

Trevor Tyler is a historian. He has spent many years studying the Maori natives of New Zealand. An ESL Reporter is interviewing him.

Listen to the dialogue and say what was special about the Maori, natives of New Zealand.

ESL: How far back do the Maori in New Zealand go?
T: Well, they arrived some time in the 14th century.
ESL: What sort of people were they?
T: They were fighters, mainly. They were very brave. There’s a story – we don’t know if it’s true or not. But there’s a story about the Maori fighting Captain Cook. When Cook and his men were just about beaten, the Maori sent food to them so they could fight longer!
ESL: Was the land and climate the same then?
T: Yes, it was. The earliest settlers of New Zealand found a subtropical climate of New Zealand. They found beautiful mountains, lakes, forests, and fiords.
ESL: How did the Maori live?
T: They lived in villages. There was always a fortress near each village. They called it a “Pa.” Each group had its own chief.
ESL: Didn’t they have a lot of gods?
T: Yes. The most powerful god was called Io. The Maoris also believed in the laws of Tapu. Tapu protected the chief and the lands of the tribe. If you broke the Tapu, they believed, you’d be punished.
ESL: Tapu?
T: Yes, that’s right. It’s the same as the English word taboo, which means something forbidden.

Speaking

I

In Olden Times

Section A: Structural Practice

1. Think of as many things as possible that would have been different (would have + pp for past habits/practices) a 100 years ago. If students need prompting, mention travel, clothes, sources of energy.

2. Look at the picture. Write on the board as many items from the class about the picture as you can:

people would have travelled on horseback/by carriage
men /worn top hats
women/ worn long dresses
lamps/ been lit by gas
people/ridden bicycles

3. Ask how many items would no longer be found in the streets of a modern city:

penny-farthing
horse-drawn carriage
gas lamps
cobble-stones

4. Now practice all these items to check pronunciation.

5. Make one or two sentences each comparing current practice with what happened before: e.g. The streets used to be full of horses and bicycles but now they’re full of traffic.
Collect and correct the sentences on the board.

Section B: Fluency Practice

1. Take on the identity of a nineteenth-century person you know about, admire, or find interesting. Fictional as well as real people may be used. Each student should make a name label for their character and pin it to their shirt.
Mix and mingle as if at a party. Greet the characters you meet, introduce yourself and question each other: what do you do? /where do you come from?/ why are you here?/ have you any family?/ etc.
Speak to about three different people. Tell the class who you met at the party and what you were able to find out about them.

2. Write on a slip of paper one modern day invention which you would miss most if you had to live a century ago. Each slip must be signed. Put the slips in a bag and pass the bag around the class. Draw a slip and the person whose invention is chosen can be questioned to explain their choice.

3. Repeat the exercise, but this time ask one thing that has changed for the worse.

Section C: Written Exercises

1. Co-operative composition

In groups of 3 write letter: A, B, or C. All students with the letter A should write three sentences about what the picture shows us about travelling in the past.
All students with the letter В should write 3 sentences telling us what the picture shows us about dress in the past.
All students with the letter С should write three sentences describing general impressions about what life was like from the picture.
Divide the board into 3 vertical columns, A, B and C. Let students from group A dictate their sentences to students from group В - each student to write 3 sentences on the board. Repeat for each group until all the sentences are on the board. Construct a description of the picture from the choices of sentence available. Read your composition aloud.

2. Reported Interviews

Work in pairs. Use the following list of questions:

1. Which 19th century person do you most admire?
2. Which one do you most despise?
3. Which is your favourite work of art from the previous century?
4. Which is your favourite old building?
5. Would you have preferred to live then rather than now? If so, why? If not, why not?
6. If you could travel back in time, where and when would you like to live?
7. Interview your partner and write down the answers you receive.

Write a report of the interview you had with your partner.

Section D: Further Ideas for Exploiting the Picture:

1. What must life have been like...?
2. Travel is better today because...

faster, cleaner, safer, cheaper, more extensive, there is more choice...

3. If only we could turn the clock back we needn’t have so much pollution, etc. there would be less.../fewer people would be.../there could be more...

Writing

I

Dining with Historical Figures

Think of all the interesting people you have learned about in history. What if you could invite anyone from the past to dinner? Use the questions below to create your own dinner party with historical figures.

Guests

List four to six guests whom you would like to invite to dinner.

1. ____________
2. ____________
3. ____________
4. ____________
5. ____________
6. ____________

Seating Arrangement

Think of the best way to seat your guests to make them comfortable and to encourage interesting conversation. Make a diagram of your seating arrangement below.
Explain your reasoning for this seating arrangement.

Conversation Topics

List five or six conversation topics for your dinner party. Be sure to identify topics that would engage all the guests at your party.

1. ____________
2. ____________
3. ____________
4. ____________
5. ____________
6. ____________

Conversation Starters

Write one question for each of your guests. Remember: this is your chance to find out something unique about this person. What would you ask?

Guest 1: _______________________________
Question: ______________________________
Guest 2: _______________________________
Question: ______________________________
Guest 3: _______________________________
Question: ______________________________
Guest 4: _______________________________
Question: ______________________________
Guest 5: _______________________________
Question: ______________________________
Guest 6: _______________________________
Question: ______________________________

Food

Don’t forget the food. Would you serve food from the present day or would you try to match the food with the historical era your guests are from?

Write down the menu for your dinner party. Explain the reasons for your choices.

Speaking

A

The 15 Most Important People in History

I. Read

Incredible! A fleet of space ships has just landed on Earth. The space beings are friendly, and they would like to learn about Earth history. These space people believe they can understand Earth if they learn about its most important leaders. They want you to provide a list of the 15 most important people who have lived in the last 4000 years.

II. Consider

1. These 15 people may not necessarily be the most famous people in history. They should be chosen because of the impact they have had on human culture.
2. You must choose at least three people who are not on the following list.
3. Here is a list of possibilities:

 Political and Military Leader

• Alexander the Great (356–323 B.C.): Macedonian conqueror of much of the known world

• Simon Bolivar (1783–1830): Venezuelan liberator of much of South America

• Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821): French conqueror of central Europe

• Augustus Caesar (27 B.C. –14 A.D.): Emperor at the height of the Empire

• Dwight Eisenhower (1890–1969): Victorious Allied Army Commander, World War II, U.S. President

• Elizabeth Tudor (1553–1603): Queen of England during the age of colonization

• Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826): Writer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence

• Jomo Kenyatta (1893–1978): African political leader

• Genghis Khan (1167–1227): Mongolian conqueror of Asia and Eastern Europe

• Adolf Hitler (1889–1945): German dictator who started World War II

• Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924): Founder of the USSR

• Mao Tse-tung (1893–1976): Founder of the People’s Republic of China

Writers, Artists, Musicians

• Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827): German composer

• Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564): Italian artist and sculptor

• Pablo Picasso (1881–1973): Spanish initiator of modern art

• Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519): Italian painter, sculptor, scientist, inventor

• Wolfgang A. Mozart (1756–1791): Austrian composer

• William Shakespeare (1564–1616): English poet and playwright

• Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910): Russian writer

PhilosOphers and Religionists

• Aristotle (384–322 B.C.): Greek philosopher and scientist

• Buddha (563–483 B.C.): Indian philosopher, founder of Buddhism

• Confucius (559–471 B.C.): Chinese philosopher

• Mohandas Gandhi (1869–1949): Indian philosopher

• Jesus (1 A.D. –34 A.D.): Founder of Christianity

• Moses (14th century B.C.): Jewish leader who received the 10 Commandments

• Karl Marx (1818–1883): German philosopher

• Mohammed (570–632): Arabic founder of Islam

• Plato (427–347 B.C.): Greek philosopher

• Lao-Tzu (604–531 B.C.): Chinese founder of Taoism

Scientists

• Howard Aiken (1900–1973): U.S. mathematician who designed the first large computer

• Niels Bohr (1885–1962): Danish physicist, developer of quantum theory

• Marie Curie (1867–1935): Polish chemist, renowned for work on radium

• Charles Darwin (1809–1882): British naturalist, developed theory of evolution

• Albert Einstein (1879–1955): German-American, developer of theory of relativity

• Alexander Fleming (1881–1955): British bacteriologist, discovered penicillin

• Sigmund Freud (1856–1939): Austrian founder of psychoanalysis

• Galileo (1564–1642): Italian astronomer, founder of the experimental method

• Hippocrates (460–377 B.C.): Greek, called the “Father of Medicine”

• Johannes Kepler (1571–1630): German discoverer of the laws of planetary motion

• Al-Khwarizmi (780–850): Arabian mathematician who developed algebra

• Antoine Lavoisier (1743–1794): French founder of modern chemistry

• Gregor Mendel (1822–1884): Austrian founder of genetics

• Isaac Newton (1642–1727): British discoverer of the laws of motion and gravitation

• William Roentgen (1845–1923): German discoverer of x-rays

• Abdullah Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (979–1037): Arabian physician who helped lay the basis of modern medicine

Businessmen

• John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937): American who founded the first oil company

• Bill Gates (1955): founder of Microsoft

Explorers

• Christopher Columbus (1446–1506): Italian who traveled to America

• Ferdinand Magellan (1480–1521): Portuguese navigator, first to circumnavigate the world

• Marco Polo (1254–1324): Italian who first journeyed to China

Inventors

• Alexander G. Bell (1847–1922): Scottish inventor of the telephone

• Thomas Edison (1847–1931): U.S. inventor of the incandescent lamp, phonograph

• Johann Gutenberg (1398–1463): German inventor of the printing press

• Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723): Dutch inventor of the microscope

• Alfred Nobel (1833–1896): Swedish inventor of dynamite

• Orville (1871–1948) and Wilbur (1867–1912) Wright: U.S. inventors of the airplane

Decide and Write

Person 1: ____________________________________________________________________________
Reason: _____________________________________________________________________________
Person 2: ____________________________________________________________________________
Reason: _____________________________________________________________________________
Person 3: ____________________________________________________________________________
Reason: _____________________________________________________________________________
Person 4: ____________________________________________________________________________
Reason: _____________________________________________________________________________
Person 5: ____________________________________________________________________________
Reason: _____________________________________________________________________________
Person 6: ____________________________________________________________________________
Reason: _____________________________________________________________________________
Person 7: ____________________________________________________________________________
Reason: _____________________________________________________________________________
Person 8: ____________________________________________________________________________
Reason: _____________________________________________________________________________
Person 9: ____________________________________________________________________________
Reason: _____________________________________________________________________________
Person 10: ___________________________________________________________________________
Reason: _____________________________________________________________________________
Person 11: ___________________________________________________________________________
Reason: _____________________________________________________________________________
Person 12: ___________________________________________________________________________
Reason: _____________________________________________________________________________
Person 13: ___________________________________________________________________________
Reason: _____________________________________________________________________________
Person 14: ___________________________________________________________________________
Reason: _____________________________________________________________________________
Person 15: ___________________________________________________________________________
Reason: _____________________________________________________________________________

Discuss

Verbally compare your decisions with those of the classmates in your discussion group. Explain and defend your opinions. Listen carefully to your classmates’ opinions, but do not be afraid to disagree with those opinions. Try to reach a group consensus on the best solution to the problem. One person in the group should write down the group’s decision.

Extend

1. What makes a great person? In other words, what characteristics do great people generally have in common?
2. Who is the most famous person in the history of your country? Would you like to be famous some day?
3. A well-known expression is that “Fame is fleeting”. What does this mean? Why is it usually true?
4. Are there any people alive today who you think will be famous in 2000 years? If so, who?
5. If you could be one person in history, who would it be? Write a composition explaining your choice.

I

Pirates

Read the materials below and tell your partners what is special about the characters described and whether you consider them to be famous or notorious.

The word “pirate” simply means one who robs or plunders on the sea. Now piracy is only a term for sea-robbery, piracy being a robbery committed within the jurisdiction of the Admiralty.
To stress the point that a pirate’s crimes had been committed within the jurisdiction of the Admiralty pirates were hanged at the low-tide mark at Wapping (above that mark the civil courts took over).

Corsair

This term is used for pirates or privateers who operated in the Mediterranean. The most famous were the Barbary Corsairs from the Barbary Coast of North Africa (so called by the European crusaders who called their Muslim opponents “barbarians”) who were authorized by their governments to attack the shipping of Christian countries.
Less well known are the Maltese Corsairs who led the fight against the Turks, authorized by Knights of St. John. Initially they were driven by religion but after a while the rewards of piracy became paramount.

Privateer

The term privateer could apply to an armed vessel, its captain or its crew. The main difference between a privateer and a pirate was that a privateer was authorized by a commission or a letter of marque from the government to capture the merchant vessels of a hostile nation.
A letter of marque was recognized by international law and, in theory, a privateer could not be charged with piracy. Maritime nations made use of privateers in times of war as a cheap way of attacking enemy shipping (saving the cost of building and maintaining a navy).

Buccaneer

Originally hunters of cattle and pigs on the Caribbean island of Hispanola (now Haiti and Dominica), buccaneers got their name from the French word “boucan” which means barbeque. This was because of the way they barbequed their meat on grills (as they had been shown by Arawak Indians).
Driven out by the Spanish, the hunters joined the groups of runaway slaves, deserters and others who preyed on the ships of the hated Spanish.
By the end of the 17th century the word buccaneer was being applied generally to most of the pirates and privateers who had bases in the West Indies.

FAMOUS PIRATES

A. Samuel Bellamy – Black Bellamy (English pirate, active 1716–1717)

According to the legends preserved by the old timers on Cape Cod, Samuel Bellamy was a young English sailor who arrived in the new world colonies seeking fame and fortune. In 1715 he persuaded a wealthy patron to finance a ship and crew and sailed south to search of sunken Spanish treasure off the coast of Florida.

Treasure was not the only thing on young Bellamy’s mind as he promised local beauty Maria Hallet that he would return one day sailing the longest, tallest ship ever seen. He made no predictions on speed records, however, as he hoped the ship would be laden with gold and silver.

The treasure hunt failed but Bellamy was loath to return to Massachusetts and Maria empty-handed, and the step to piracy was a small one. In little more than a year Samuel, now known as “Black Bellamy”, was captain of a notorious pirate crew that plundered more than 50 ships.

One morning off Cuba, Bellamy and his buccaneers captured the Whydah, a 100-foot three-masted galley packed with ivory, indigo and thousands of silver and gold coins. Excited with his prize, he designated it as his flagship.

His fortune secured, Bellamy headed for home. By April 1717 he was off Cape Cod when his fleet was stuck by a stormy tempest complete with 70 mph gales and 40 foot tall waves. The Whydah was top heavy and highly susceptible to the driving winds blowing her ever closer to the shore. Amid scenes of mayhem the Whydah capsized, breaking her back with a heart-rendering crack.

Only two men survived the natural holocaust. One was an Indian pilot who quickly disappeared into the mists of history, the other Thomas Davis, a Welsh carpenter, whose vivid account of the shipwreck was preserved and passed from generation to generation through Cape Cod folklore.

B. Edward Teach – Blackbeard (English pirate, active 1716–1718)

Thought to have been born in Bristol around 1680 Edward Teach served as a seaman on privateers sailing out of Jamaica before turning to piracy in 1716.

He was made captain of a captured trading sloop whilst serving under the pirate Captain Benjamin Hornigold. The later capture of a French merchant ship the Concord provided Teach with his flagship which he renamed the Queen Anne’s Revenge. Famed for his alarming appearance, Teach had a thick, jet-black beard (the obvious source of his nickname) which was plaited and tied with ribbons. He went into battle with three pairs of pistols strapped across his chest, a number of daggers and pistols in his belt, a cutlass and slow-burning fuses (made from thick hemp cord) tucked under his hat.

Teach maintained his cruel reputation by being as savage with his crew as he was with his prisoners. In his General History, Captain Johnson tells a story of Blackbeard shooting his first mate Israel Hands at point-blank range whilst in his cabin having a drink. Hands was hit in the knee and crippled for life. Blackbeard explained “if he did not now and then kill one of them they would forget who he was”.

Blackbeard’s pirate career was short-lived. In 1718 the Governor of Virginia, Alexander Spotswood, offered a Ј100 reward for the capture of Blackbeard -DEAD OR ALIVE!

He commissioned Lieutenant Robert Maynard of HMS Pearl who tracked Blackbeard down to one of his favoured anchorages at Ocracoke Inlet, North Carolina. After a confused and bloody battle in which Maynard engaged Blackbeard in a hand-to-hand fight on the deck of the pirate ship, Blackbeard collapsed in a pool of blood with 20 cutlass wounds and 5 pistol shots. On seeing their captain fall the pirates surrendered.

Maynard had Blackbeard’s head cut off and returned for his reward with it hanging from the bowsprit of his ship. Blackbeard’s crew were tried in Virginia and all but one was found guilty and hung.

C. William Kidd (c.1645–1701) (Scottish-born privateer and pirate, active 1697–1699)

The notorious Captain Kidd was neither particularly ruthless nor successful. A New York merchant who had previously served as a privateer against the French in the West Indies, he was commissioned in 1696 to hunt pirates but after a series of misfortunes began to raid vessels in the Indian Ocean.

He was arrested on his return to America in 1699 and sent to England to stand trial for piracy. Kidd bungled his own defence and vital documents were concealed by his former backers. He was hanged at Execution Dock and his body suspended in an iron cage off Tilbury Point for years as a warning to other seamen against piracy.

D. Sir Francis Drake (c. 1543–1596) (English admiral privateer, active 1567–1596)

A legendary privateer Drake was the first captain to take his own ship around the world. During his long career he made no more than seven voyages to the Spanish Main in search of treasure, adventure and revenge. One of his most famous exploits was the night attack on Nombre de Dios in 1572.

In 1577–80 he made the first circumnavigation of the world by an Englishman and returned with a cargo of splendid plunder taken from Spanish galleons and raids upon the coasts of Chile and Peru.

E. Sir Henry Morgan (c. 1635–1688) (Welsh buccaneer, active 1660s–1670s)

Celebrated in ballads as the greatest of the buccaneers, Morgan was the leader of the Port Royal buccaneers in the late 1660s. His boldest exploit was the taking of Panama, which was thought the wealthiest settlement of the New World in 1671. He subsequently became Deputy Governor of Jamaica.

WOMEN PIRATES

Any woman who wanted to enter the man’s world of piracy had to dress and behave like a man. The very nature of this deceit has meant that those who succeeded have passed unnoticed through history but there are a few cases in which the truth has come into light.

F. Mary Read (died 1720) (English pirate, active 1710s)

Dressed in men’s clothes Read had fought as a soldier in Flanders. Still dressed as a man, she sailed with Anne Bonny (see below) in the ship of John Calico Jack Rackham. At her trial in 1720 she escaped the death sentence by virtue of her pregnancy, but died of an illness shortly afterwards.

G. Anne Bonny (Irish-born pirate, active 1720)

Bonny was married to a penniles neer-do-well in the Bahamas when she met the swaggering Captain Calico Jack Rackham and joined his pirate ship dressed as a man. When their ship was attacked by a British Navy sloop off the coast of Jamaica in 1720 Bonny and fellow female pirate, Mary Read, drew their pistols and cutlasses and fought like demons.
The rest of the pirates, drunk on rum, cowered in the hold. Like Mary Read, she escaped the death sentence at her trial because she was pregnant. Nothing is known of her subsequent fate.

Quiz

This is a quiz about people of real influence. You all have heard of them. Read the hints and come up with the guy.

1. This 7th Century religious and political leader was orphaned at age 6, married a wealthy widow and at age 40 founded one of the world’s great religions. Considered a dangerous nuisance he and his followers fled his home town only to return 8 years later as a conquering hero.

a. Budddah
b. Confucius
c. ‘Umar ibn al Khattab
d. Muhammad

2. This English born scientist has been called the most influential scientist in history. His study of light and motion and mathematics revolutionized scientific theory.

a. Isaac Newton
b. John Dalton
c. Edward Jenner
d. Frances Bacon

3. This secular philosopher’s teaching influenced life and thought in his country for over 2 thousand years. His basic tenets were morality and concern for one’s fellow man.

a. Buddah
b. Plato
c. Aristotle
d. Confucius

4. Ts’ai Lun is perhaps history’s most influential inventor. Born in China in the 2nd century, little is known of his life, but without his invention little else would have followed. What invention should make Ts’ai Lun a household name?

a. paper
b. dynamite
c. ink
d. alphabet

5. This scientist was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for his explanation of photoelectric effect.

a. Charles Darwin
b. James Clerk Maxwell
c. Albert Einstein
d. Gregor Mendel

6. This Greek mathematician is known as ‘The Father of Geometry’.

a. Aristotle
b. Plato
c. Mencius
d. Euclid

7. The Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote on many subjects, but is perhaps best known for his theories on ______________.

a. education
b. logic
c. ethics
d. economics

8. This military leader rose from junior officer to become dictator of his country in only 6 years. He was responsible for the creation of a civil code of laws whose basic tenets are in use today in many countries.

a. Simon Bolivar
b. Napoleon Bonaparte
c. Alexander the Great
d. Augustus Caesar

9. This German physicist is best known as ‘The Father of Quantum Physics’.

a. Albert Einstein
c. Max Planck
b. Johannes Kepler
d. Nikolas August Otto

10. Who was the first Christian emperor of Rome?

a. Diocletian
c. Constantine the Great
b. Augustus Caesar
d. Justinian I

Key: 1. d; 2. a; 3. d; 4. a; 5. c; 6. d; 7. b; 8. b; 9. c; 10. c

Compiled by Galina Goumovskaya