full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Mark Robinson: A day in the life of an ancient Greek architect

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Immense marble blocks for the Parthenon’s pediment have just arrived from quarries at monut polenietkn. The usual ramps would collapse under the wgeiht of these 2 to 3 ton stone bcklos, so Pheidias orders the coicsnuottrn of new pulleys.

After recording the additional expense and supervising the construction all afternoon, he finally avreirs at the sculpture workshop. His sculptors are carving 92 maicythl scenes, or metopes, to decorate the temple. Every carving depicts fighting from different epic battles— each a mythical representation of Greece’s victory over Persia about 40 years earlier. No temple has ever used so many mepteos before, and each scene adds to the temple’s ballooning expenses.

Open Cloze


Immense marble blocks for the Parthenon’s pediment have just arrived from quarries at _____ __________. The usual ramps would collapse under the ______ of these 2 to 3 ton stone ______, so Pheidias orders the ____________ of new pulleys.

After recording the additional expense and supervising the construction all afternoon, he finally _______ at the sculpture workshop. His sculptors are carving 92 ________ scenes, or metopes, to decorate the temple. Every carving depicts fighting from different epic battles— each a mythical representation of Greece’s victory over Persia about 40 years earlier. No temple has ever used so many _______ before, and each scene adds to the temple’s ballooning expenses.

Solution


  1. metopes
  2. blocks
  3. mythical
  4. construction
  5. arrives
  6. weight
  7. pentelikon
  8. mount

Original Text


Immense marble blocks for the Parthenon’s pediment have just arrived from quarries at Mount Pentelikon. The usual ramps would collapse under the weight of these 2 to 3 ton stone blocks, so Pheidias orders the construction of new pulleys.

After recording the additional expense and supervising the construction all afternoon, he finally arrives at the sculpture workshop. His sculptors are carving 92 mythical scenes, or metopes, to decorate the temple. Every carving depicts fighting from different epic battles— each a mythical representation of Greece’s victory over Persia about 40 years earlier. No temple has ever used so many metopes before, and each scene adds to the temple’s ballooning expenses.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations




Important Words


  1. additional
  2. adds
  3. afternoon
  4. arrived
  5. arrives
  6. ballooning
  7. blocks
  8. carving
  9. collapse
  10. construction
  11. decorate
  12. depicts
  13. earlier
  14. epic
  15. expense
  16. expenses
  17. fighting
  18. finally
  19. immense
  20. marble
  21. metopes
  22. mount
  23. mythical
  24. orders
  25. pediment
  26. pentelikon
  27. persia
  28. pheidias
  29. pulleys
  30. quarries
  31. ramps
  32. recording
  33. representation
  34. scene
  35. scenes
  36. sculptors
  37. sculpture
  38. stone
  39. supervising
  40. temple
  41. ton
  42. usual
  43. victory
  44. weight
  45. workshop
  46. years