Цель: читаем, переводим, запоминаем слова, выполняем задание, после текста имеется дополнительное задание. Есть вопросы? Спрашиваем в комментариях!

***

The task:

Sentences 1-5 are the first sentences from paragraphs a-e in the article. Read the sentences .Then read the article quickly and match the sentences to the paragraphs. Fill in the boxes with the sentence number (1-5).

1      At the beginning of the last millennium, baths were not considered healthy, because of the cold and often dirty water.

2      There was a revolution when we realised we could use underwear to change the shape of the body.

3      In Tudor days, black rotting teeth were a big problem.

4      Suntans first became popular in the twentieth century.

5      Hairstyles have had their ups and downs through the ages.

***

THE HISTORY OF BEAUTY

What would you do to have "Marilyn Monroe" looks ?

Just how far would you go? Well, you'd be amazed at some of the weird (not to mention deadly!) things people have done throughout history in the name of beauty.

 

a.   ________ Until then, only peasants who worked the

land had tanned skins - not the kind of image aristocrats wanted! In the sixteenth century the idea was to look as pale as possible. Women - including Elizabeth I (1533-1603), covered their faces in chalky powders to make them look very pale - almost white. Unfortunately, these powders often contained lead and if it got into your mouth you would be pale ... and dead. In eighteenth-century Italy more than 600 men died from getting too close to wives wearing arsenic make-up.

 

b.   ________ Toothbrushes    didn't    exist    until    the seventeenth century so a piece of cloth was used with a bit of pumice stone. It eventually removed the tooth enamel completely! It was customary (if you could afford it) to rinse your mouth with wine to make the breath smell sweeter, but that only made the decay worse.

c.   ________  However, nothing has ever compared to the two-metre high wigs of the 1770s that were held up with a wire frame and smoothed in place with pig fat. This attracted mice, which the servant had to deal with on a weekly basis. In Britain in those days, women didn't shave their legs - but they did shave their eyebrows. They then stuck on new ones cut from the skins of mice.

d.   ________ In the sixteenth century Elizabeth I only took four baths a year! Mary Queen of Scots chose to bathe in wine. Milk was recommended for a pale skin. In the next century water was still considered unhealthy and the wife of Samuel Pepys (1633- 1703) preferred to wash her face in puppy's urine.

e.    ________ It was the Georgians who developed the  corset  to  make  the waist  smaller,  push  out the chest and straighten the  back  - completely ignoring  the  damage  to their health. And how did women stop their dresses dragging in  the mud of medieval  Britain  when they weren't even allowed to show their ankles? By wearing platform shoes, of   course.   They were uncomfortable and completely impractical , as any modern wearer of platform shoes knows. However, given the terrible conditions of the roads  they were also very dangerous.

In 1770, the British government passed a law that said that a woman who tricked her husband with make-up was as bad as a witch. If he married her and found that she was ugly underneath all the powder and paint, then he could be "unmarried" any time he wanted.

Only time will tell what future generations will think of our techniques for achieving physical perfection and keeping our youthful looks. In the meantime, keep taking those vitamins and stay young and beautiful!

(adapted from The Sunday Mirror)

(с) Wavelength Intermediate

***

Additional task: Which of the methods in the article do you find the strangest? the funniest? the most disgusting?