UNIT 2 REAIDNG 1 - “Ancient Kids”


 “Ancient Kids” describes children’s lives thousands of years ago in three different cultures. It tells about growing up among the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Maya. Ancient Greece was a great civilization from around 2000 to 146 B.C.E. The Greeks created the first democracy, or government by the people. They left behind beautiful architecture, sculptures, and vase paintings. They also wrote works of literature and philosophy that are still read today.
                                Rome became powerful after Greece (and remained so up to 476 C.E.). The Romans made important contributions in the areas of building, medicine, and government. They built more than 80 million meters (50,000 mi.) of roads. Many are still used to this day. They also had a government with three branches. The Ancient Maya established a great civilization in southern Mexico and Central America from 1000 B.C.E. to 1550 C.E. They made accurate studies of the stars, planets, sun, and moon. They had their own calendar, mathematical system, and form of writing. They built remarkable stone temples that are still standing.







Key Words
  • Ancient: happening or existing very far back in history
  • Ceremony: formal event that happens in public on special occasions
  • Citizen: someone who lives in a particular town, state, or country
  • Education: the process of learning in a school or other program of study
  • Rights: something that you are allowed to do according to law or moral ideas
  • Rituals: ceremonies that are always done the same way

Academic Words:
  • classical = belonging to the culture of ancient Greece or ancient Rome
  • cultural = relating to a particular society and its way of life
  • feature = quality, element, or characteristic of something that seems important, interesting, or typical
  • philosophy = the study of what it means to exist, what good and evil are, what knowledge is, or how people should live

Spelling Words with Long Vowel Sound /e¯ /
In English, the long vowel sound /¯e/ can be spelled in many different ways. For example, when you read “Ancient Kids,” you will read the words in the first row of the chart below. Say each word with a partner. Notice the /¯e/ sound and its spelling. Study the rest of the chart for more examples.


Linguistic Note
Homophones
The English writing system uses letters to represent sounds. Not all languages are based on an alphabet. Chinese characters represent an entire word (logographic writing system), and Japanese kana characters represent a syllable (syllabic writing system). English learners from these language backgrounds may have difficulty with English spelling rules because English is not spelled phonetically. This means that one sound can be spelled with several different letters and one letter can have different sounds. This is the reason for the many homophones in English. Homophones are words that contain the same sound but have different spellings and meanings, like, for example, be and bee. Write some of the homophones containing the long /i/ sound on the board, and discuss their different meanings. Examples are:
 deer/dear, 
meat/meet,
Greece/grease,
piece/peace,
 see/sea, 
seem/seam,
 and week/weak.


Highlighted words
  • decorated, made it look more attractive by adding things to it


  • wreaths, circles made from flowers, plants, or leaves 



  • instruments, objects used for making music



  • chores, small jobs

  • crops, wheat, corn, fruit, and so on, that a farmer grows

  • formal education, education in a subject or skill that you get in school rather than by practical experience
  • lyre, ancient instrument, similar to a guitar

  • military school, school where students learn to fight in wars

  • terra-cotta, baked red clay

  • tortoises, land animals that move very slowly, with a hard shell covering their bodies

  • head of the family, person who is in charge of the family
  • managed, controlled or directed
  • finances, money matters
  • locket, piece of jewelry like a small round box in which you put a picture of someone influence, effect

  • tutors, teachers of one student or a small group of students  models, small copies
  • stilts, a pair of poles to stand on, used for walking high above the ground

  • quail, small fat birds that are hunted and shot for food and sport

  • ruins, parts of buildings that are left after other parts have been destroyed

  • taxes, money that must be given

  • jaguars, large wild cats with black spots

  • guide, show the way to

  • afterlife, life that some people believe you have after death


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