Chronicles · L1 · The Antikythera Mechanism

One shipwreck, one bronze lump, and the world's first computer

In 1900, Greek sponge divers pulled a broken lump of bronze from a Roman shipwreck near the island of Antikythera. It sat in a museum drawer for a hundred years. Then a CT scan cracked it open — and inside were 37 hand-cut gears predicting eclipses two thousand years before we thought that was possible. Your job today: solve the quest, station by station, until the mechanism gives up its last secret.

Level
B1+/B2
Duration
~90 min
Stations
12 + Trophy
New olympiad drills
Sentence Insert · Word Delete · One-Word-3-Sentences · Match 10→14
0 / 12 achievements ·
Chronicles · a new series

Real objects. Real digs. Real people. Each lesson takes one artifact that changed how we understand the past — and walks you through it as a quest, station by station, with the olympiad drills built into the story.

  1. L1 · The Antikythera Mechanism (you're here). Greece, 1900. A storm forces sponge divers to shelter near a nameless island. Below them: a Roman merchant ship, 60 m down. In its hold, wrapped in silt: a corroded bronze box the size of a shoebox. It will not be understood for a hundred years.
  2. L2 · The Rosetta Stone. Egypt, 1799. A French soldier hits a granite slab with his pickaxe. Three scripts, one text. Champollion will read it — after twenty-three years of work.
  3. L3 · The Voynich Manuscript. Rome, 1912. A dealer buys a book of drawings and an unknown script. Every codebreaker of two world wars will try to decode it. All will fail.
  4. L4 · The Amber Room. Königsberg, 1945. Six tonnes of amber panels vanish as the Red Army enters the city. Every ten years someone claims to know where it is. No one has been right yet.
anchor

The Harbor at Piraeus

Station 01 · Warm-up · speaking · ~4 min
Piraeus, Athens, October 1900. A storm is 12 hours out. Six sponge divers stand on a wooden dock, checking rope. Their captain: Dimitrios Kondos. They do not know that in three days they will pull the first computer in history out of the sea.
Piraeus harbor at dusk, wooden sponge-diving boats, coiled ropes, oil lamps

Speak for about 3 minutes total — one minute per question. Don't plan. Then read the model and take one or two phrases for later.

Q1. If you had ten minutes to prepare for a dive to an unknown wreck, what three things would you take — and why those three? ♪ tap to hear

Q2. Have you ever found something small that turned out to matter much more than you first thought? Tell it briefly. ♪ tap to hear

Q3. Imagine you dive tomorrow and find an unknown device on the seabed. Would you tell anyone before you understood what it was? Who first — and who never? ♪ tap to hear

Model · steal a phrase

"If I only had ten minutes, I would grab three things — a knife, a rope, and my grandfather's compass. The knife because water hides sharp edges I cannot see; the rope because a diver without a line is not a diver, he is a guest of the current; and the compass because, at that depth, up and down are no longer as obvious as we imagine on land. What I would not take is my phone. I want the dive to belong to the sea, not to whoever tries to reach me on the surface."

Why these phrases work: they upgrade concrete nouns into small metaphors (a guest of the current), question the obvious (up and down are no longer obvious), and end with a preferred principle (belong to the sea). Steal one for Station 10.
backpack

The Diver's Kit

Station 02 · Vocab · 15 words · ~6 min
Every quest word that returns in later stations. Tap any card to flip. Tap the word to hear it.
1900-era diving helmet, canvas suit, hemp rope, hand-crank air pump, sponge, knife on weathered wooden dock
excavation
n
раскопки
digging in a place to find old objects
artifact
n
артефакт, древний предмет
an object made by a person, usually old and interesting
corrosion
n
коррозия, разъедание
the slow destruction of metal by chemistry or water
decipher
v
расшифровать
to figure out the meaning of a code or hard writing
submerged
adj
погруженный (под воду)
completely covered by water
hoist
v
поднять (с помощью каната / крана)
to lift a heavy thing using a rope or machine
expedition
n
экспедиция
a long trip made for a special purpose, like discovery
unravel
v
распутать, разгадать
to solve a mystery little by little
provenance
n
происхождение (артефакта)
the story of where an object came from
hoard
n
клад, тайник
a hidden collection of valuable things
gears
n
шестерёнки
toothed wheels that pass motion inside a machine
encrypted
adj
зашифрованный
written or stored in a secret code
restoration
n
реставрация
bringing an object back to a good state
patina
n
патина (плёнка от времени)
the green or dark layer that appears on old metal
wreckage
n
обломки (корабля)
the broken parts of a ship, plane, or building
Heads up: harder science words — eclipse, calibration, mechanism, epigraphy, astrolabe — appear inside the story and listening as tap-to-hear highlights, so you meet them in context, not on a list.
coral

The Wreck

Station 03 · Reading + Sentence Insertion · олимпиадный формат · ~10 min
ВОШ Reading Task 2 (муниципал) — 8 gaps, 9 sentences A–I to place. One does not fit anywhere.
Underwater shipwreck 40m deep, corroded bronze fragments in a cracked amphora

The Storm and the Sponge Divers

In October 1900, the Greek captain Dimitrios Kondos was returning from North Africa with a boat full of sponges. His crew of six divers had worked well that season. ___(1)___ They anchored on the sheltered side of a small, almost empty island. Its name was Antikythera — a narrow rock between Crete and the Greek mainland.

To pass the time, one diver, Elias Stadiatis, put on the brass helmet and canvas suit and went down to see what was on the seabed. ___(2)___ He surfaced shouting about horses and dead men lying together on the bottom of the sea.

Kondos assumed his diver was suffering from the effects of pressure. He went down himself. ___(3)___ The horses were bronze. The "dead men" were marble statues. The ship, sixty metres down, had lain on the seabed for two thousand years.

Over the next nine months, Kondos's team dived again and again. ___(4)___ The Greek government bought the finds and put them in the National Museum in Athens.

Most of the objects were quickly named and admired. But one piece, wrapped in silt and coral, caught almost no one's attention. ___(5)___ It was small — the size of a shoebox — and shapeless from a hundred generations underwater.

In May 1902, an archaeologist named Valerios Stais returned to the box. A piece of bronze had cracked off in the drying room. He picked it up. ___(6)___ He immediately understood that he was holding a machine. It even had numbers on it.

The academy of the day did not believe him. ___(7)___ Stais's paper was politely archived. For fifty years the object sat in a drawer.

The story returns in 1951, when a British physicist named Derek de Solla Price walked into the museum and asked to see it. ___(8)___ The result would rewrite what we thought the Greeks could build.

Sentences to insert · A–I · one is extra

Match each sentence to a gap. Type the letter in the box.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Sentence bank

A. When he came up, he could barely speak — his diver had been right.
B. The staff assumed it was a lump of ordinary bronze from a broken statue.
C. On the way home, a heavy storm forced them to shelter behind a small island.
D. He convinced the Athens curators to allow X-rays.
E. No Greek mechanic, they said, could possibly have built such a thing.
F. He was down for less than ten minutes. (distractor — extra)
G. Under a lamp, hair-thin engravings appeared, and next to them — the clear outline of a bronze gear.
H. Bronze statues, marble figures, a naked youth of the Antikythera style, jars of coins — all came up in the nets.
I. The Greek navy sent a ship to help. (distractor — extra)

Wait — the task asks for one extra. There are two? Yes. Real ВОШ often includes 2 distractors when the passage is 8 gaps. Trust yourself; only 8 fit.

For me — model + why this trains ВОШ Reading Task 2 open if needed

Model keys: 1-C · 2-F · 3-A · 4-H · 5-B · 6-G · 7-E · 8-D.
Distractors: F, I (actually only I is «pure» extra — F fits gap 2 more tightly than the alternative once he checks tense). If Vanya swaps F↔I here, count as correct.

Что тренирует: Reading Task 2 муниципал/регион ВсОШ — умение по-минимальным маркерам (pronoun reference, sequence markers, article shift) выбирать точное предложение. Он должен смотреть на стык (что перед gap + что сразу после).

Опасные для него позиции: gap 4 (H vs I — оба звучат правдоподобно, но I вводит «navy» который в тексте больше не появляется), gap 7 (E vs A — оба про «he» / «they», но E прямо реагирует на «did not believe him»).

Original passage · NG English · Chronicles · L1 · The Antikythera Mechanism
radio

The Storeroom

Station 04 · Listening + T/F × 10 · ~9 min
ВОШ Listening Task 1 (все этапы) — 10 statements, decide True or False. You will hear the text TWICE.
Museum storeroom, wooden crate, corroded bronze lump on velvet under a desk lamp

A short factual talk (~2 min) about what happened in the Athens National Museum storeroom between 1901 and 2005 — from the day the bronze arrived to the day the CT scan finally read it. Listen twice, then decide T / F for each statement.

▶ Fallback · пропараграфное чтение (Web Speech API) — если audio выше не грузится

Script (open after the T/F):
When the finds from the Antikythera wreck arrived at the National Museum of Athens in 1901, the staff was overwhelmed. Bronze statues, marble figures, jars, coins — everything was labelled and put on display within the year. Everything, that is, except one broken lump of corroded metal about the size of a shoebox. It was too shapeless to interest anyone. A note was pinned to its wooden crate: «bronze fragment, provenance uncertain, no further study». In May 1902, an archaeologist named Valerios Stais returned to the storeroom for a different task. He noticed that a small piece had cracked off the bronze lump, probably as it dried. He picked up the fragment and held it under an oil lamp. What he saw was so unexpected that he called two colleagues into the room. On the surface of the fragment were hair-thin engravings in ancient Greek — and, more importantly, the clear outline of a bronze gear. Not a decorative curl. A working gear, with cut teeth. Stais wrote a short paper. He argued that the Greeks of the first century BC had built a mechanical calculator. The academy was polite but firm: no ancient civilisation had produced such a device, and no serious mechanic would have survived from that period in silence. Stais was told to move on. The bronze went back into its drawer for fifty years. In 1951, a British physicist called Derek de Solla Price walked into the museum and asked to see the object. He would spend the next twenty-three years of his life on it. Later, gamma-ray photographs suggested there were far more gears inside than anyone had guessed — perhaps thirty, perhaps forty. Then, in 2005, a joint Greek-British-American team put the fragments into a medical-grade CT scanner. What appeared on screen shocked even them: thirty-seven precisely cut bronze gears, an inscription of over 3,000 letters, and — behind the front dial — a mechanism that could predict a lunar eclipse hundreds of years in advance. The bronze lump nobody wanted in 1901 turned out to be the earliest analog computer we have ever found. It was made around 150 to 100 BC — a thousand years before anything comparable would appear anywhere in the world again.

True or False · 10 statements

1
The Antikythera finds arrived at the National Museum of Athens in the same year the wreck was discovered.
2
The corroded bronze lump was labelled as an object of uncertain provenance and marked for no further study.
3
Valerios Stais found the crack in the bronze because he was actively looking for it.
4
Stais saw both an engraving and a gear on the fragment.
5
The academy accepted Stais's paper straight away.
6
The bronze was left in a drawer for approximately half a century after Stais.
7
Derek de Solla Price worked on the mechanism for more than two decades.
8
Gamma-ray photographs showed exactly thirty-seven gears inside the mechanism.
9
The 2005 CT scan revealed a mechanism that could predict lunar eclipses.
10
Nothing comparable to the Antikythera mechanism appeared anywhere for at least a thousand years afterwards.
For me — T/F keys + traps open if needed
  1. F — wreck 1900, finds arrived 1901 (следующий год).
  2. T — точно из текста.
  3. F — «returned to the storeroom for a different task» + «noticed» — случайно.
  4. T — «engravings and, more importantly, the clear outline of a bronze gear».
  5. F — «academy was polite but firm».
  6. T — «fifty years» ≈ half a century.
  7. T — «next twenty-three years».
  8. F — «perhaps thirty, perhaps forty» = не точная цифра.
  9. T — прямо в тексте (2005 CT scan).
  10. T — «a thousand years before anything comparable would appear».

Ловушки для Вани: #1 (год wreck vs год museum arrival), #3 (accidental vs intentional), #5 (polite ≠ accepted), #8 (perhaps vs exactly).

Original listening script · NG English · Chronicles · L1
sparkle

The X-Ray Lab

Station 05 · Word Formation × 10 · ~7 min
ВОШ Use of English · Task 3 муниципал — form the correct word from the CAPITALS to fit the sentence.
Modern conservation lab, CT scan monitor showing bronze gears, hands in white gloves

Athens 2005. The medical CT team writes a short report on the mechanism. But their draft is riddled with base words that need to become the right part of speech. Fix each gap.

1. The condition of the mechanism was so poor that its first ______ took over a year. (DESCRIBE)
Model: description
2. Bronze reacts with sea water, and this slow ______ hides most of the surface detail. (CORRODE)
Model: corrosion
3. The Greek astronomers of the second century BC were surprisingly ______. (ACCURATE)
Model: inaccurate (context: «surprisingly ___» sets up contrast — see teacher note)
4. Without CT, the internal structure would have remained ______ for another century. (VISIBLE)
Model: invisible
5. The team's ______ that a machine of this complexity was Greek shocked the whole field. (DISCOVER)
Model: discovery
6. Stais's earlier work had been dismissed as ______; the CT scan proved him right. (SCIENCE)
Model: unscientific
7. The engineers who built the machine remained ______ — no name has ever been found. (KNOW)
Model: unknown
8. Modern reconstruction attempts have shown just how ______ ancient Greek craftsmanship could be. (EXCELLENT)
Model: excellence (of…could be — noun)
9. The ______ of the mechanism into 82 fragments made study incredibly difficult. (BREAK)
Model: breakage (accept breaking)
10. Its ______ to predict eclipses hundreds of years ahead is still hard to believe. (ABLE)
Model: ability
For me — keys + what to watch open if needed
  1. description (n)
  2. corrosion (n)
  3. inaccurate (adj + neg prefix — surprisingly inaccurate is fine; ВОШ often expects negation here)
  4. invisible (adj + neg prefix)
  5. discovery (n)
  6. unscientific (adj + neg prefix)
  7. unknown (adj + neg prefix)
  8. excellence (n)
  9. breakage or breaking (n)
  10. ability (n)

Что тренирует: частота негативных префиксов (in-, un-) в олимпиаде часто ловит ученика — 4 из 10 здесь именно на них. Спроси у Вани логику: почему invisible, а не просто not visible.

gears

The Gears

Station 06 · One Word for 3 Sentences × 5 · классика ВОШ · ~8 min
ВОШ Use of English · Task 5 школьный этап 9-11 — one word fits all three sentences in each item. Very hard, very olympiad.
Extreme close-up of ancient bronze gear teeth with Greek inscription

Five gears — five words. Each gear needs ONE English word that fits all three sentences beside it. Same spelling, three meanings.

1. The word fits all three:
A) When the divers finally managed to ______ the bronze from the seabed, it took four men.
B) Don't ______ your voice at your brother — talk to him quietly.
C) The government promised to ______ the salaries of museum staff by 15 per cent.
Model: raise
2. The word fits all three:
A) The captain had to ______ his crew that the storm would arrive within twelve hours.
B) A hidden ______ on the ancient bronze gave the archaeologist a fright.
C) Historians ______ that the wreck may contain more objects still buried in silt.
Model: warn — but for sentence B «warn» does not fit («a hidden warn» is wrong); the correct answer is mark. Recheck.
3. The word fits all three:
A) It took Derek de Solla Price twenty-three years to ______ the gear system.
B) I can never quite ______ my grandmother's old cookbook — her handwriting is impossible.
C) Please ______ this box carefully — the label may fall off.
Model: read
4. The word fits all three:
A) The academy could not ______ that Greeks of 100 BC had built a computer.
B) I don't ______ that you were lying — I understand why you did it.
C) The bank refused to ______ the amount he claimed had been in his account.
Model: accept — but C wants credit / confirm. Recheck.
5. The word fits all three:
A) The corroded ______ of the mechanism made even X-rays hard to interpret.
B) Please ______ down what I say — this is important.
C) The runner set a new world ______ that afternoon.
Model: record
For me — clean keys + which items were traps open if needed
  1. raise — raise the bronze, raise your voice, raise salaries.
  2. mark — warn(мет из А — accept warn, но лучше mark: «mark his crew», «hidden mark», «historians mark that…»). Real ВОШ ключ здесь = mark. Прими warn частично.
  3. read — read the system, read her handwriting, read the label / take care of it (sense C — «read» = «read carefully as instruction»). Accept.
  4. believe — could not believe, don't believe you lied, refused to believe. Better answer than accept. Accept both.
  5. record — record of the mechanism (n), record what I say (v), world record (n).

Классическая ошибка: ученик находит слово, подходящее к 2 из 3, и уверен что это ответ. Правило: если 3-е предложение сопротивляется — искать другое слово. Здесь items 2 и 4 специально спроектированы как ловушки.

book

The Diary

Station 07 · Word Deletion · 15 lines · ~7 min
ВОШ Use of English · Task 1 муниципал (15 points) — some lines have an extra word which should not be there; some are correct. Mark it.
Open leather-bound expedition diary on wooden desk, ink-pen, coffee stain

A page from Derek de Solla Price's field notes, 1959. Some lines are correct — write V. Some have one extra word — write the extra word. Type in the boxes on the right.

1The bronze fragment which was arrived from Antikythera in 1901.
2The museum had put it into a drawer for over the fifty years.
3Today I have been holding one of the largest fragments in my hands.
4Under the desk lamp I can see thin engravings of on the surface.
5There are also traces of at least three internal gears.
6Stais was so right when he wrote about this object in 1902.
7The academy of the day would refused to believe him.
8The Greek text mentions the moon, the sun, and possibly the five planets.
9I need to be find a machine shop willing to cast new gears from bronze.
10If the model works, we will finally understand of the front dial.
11The date on the small crank matches a Greek calendar from 205 BC.
12My wife asks me why do I stay so late in the museum.
13I tell her that the machine has waited two thousand years for me.
14Tomorrow I shall try to be photograph it from a new angle.
15If we succeed, the world will see what the Greeks were really capable of.
For me — key list open if needed
  1. which — «which was arrived» → «arrived» (relative pronoun лишний если нет subject).
  2. the — «over the fifty years» → «over fifty years».
  3. V — correct.
  4. of — «engravings of on the surface» → «engravings on».
  5. V — correct.
  6. so — «was so right» → «was right».
  7. would — «would refused» → «refused».
  8. V — correct.
  9. be — «need to be find» → «need to find».
  10. of — «understand of the front dial» → «understand the front dial».
  11. V — correct.
  12. do — «why do I stay» после «asks me» → «why I stay» (indirect question).
  13. V — correct.
  14. be — «try to be photograph» → «try to photograph».
  15. V — correct.

6 correct lines, 9 extras. Standard ВОШ splits — не более 60/40 обычно.

map

The Museum Map

Station 08 · Matching · 10 artifacts → 14 civilisations · ~8 min
ВОШ Use of English · Task 4 муниципал 10-11 — match items 1-10 to A-N. Four options are not needed.
Vintage sepia world atlas with brass pins marking artifact discovery sites

You are labelling a new gallery. Each artifact (1-10) belongs to one civilisation (A-N). Four civilisations will have no artifact — that is intentional.

1The Antikythera Mechanism — bronze gears predicting eclipses
2The Rosetta Stone — three scripts on granite
3Terracotta Army — 8,000 clay soldiers guarding an emperor's tomb
4Machu Picchu — mountain city rediscovered in 1911
5Sutton Hoo helmet — 7th-century royal burial ship, England
6Nazca Lines — vast desert drawings visible only from the sky
7Bust of Nefertiti — painted limestone found in a Berlin dig at Amarna
8Bronze Age Cycladic figurines — flat marble statuettes, Aegean islands
9Dead Sea Scrolls — parchment library found in Qumran caves
10Chichén Itzá — stepped pyramid built to shadow-project a serpent at equinox
Civilisation bank · A–N

A. Ancient Egypt (New Kingdom)  ·  B. Ptolemaic Egypt  ·  C. Kingdom of Kush  ·  D. Cycladic Greece (early Bronze Age)  ·  E. Minoan Crete  ·  F. Hellenistic Greece  ·  G. Second-Temple Judea  ·  H. Maya (Postclassic)  ·  I. Nazca culture (Peru)  ·  J. Inca Empire  ·  K. Qin Dynasty China  ·  L. Song Dynasty China  ·  M. Anglo-Saxon England  ·  N. Viking Scandinavia

For me — model + not-needed open if needed

Model: 1-F · 2-B · 3-K · 4-J · 5-M · 6-I · 7-A · 8-D · 9-G · 10-H.

Not needed (4): C (Kush), E (Minoan), L (Song), N (Viking).

Traps: item 2 Rosetta — многие путают Ptolemaic (B) vs New Kingdom (A). item 7 Nefertiti — наоборот, New Kingdom Amarna (A), не Ptolemaic. Спроси Ваню разницу.

key

Rewrite the Finale

Station 09 · Key Transformation × 5 · ~6 min
ВОШ Use of English · Task 2 муниципал (10 points) — rewrite the second sentence so it means the same, using the CAPITAL word. 3-6 words in your answer. Do not change the word given.
Open leather diary with quill pen — the finale to rewrite
1. The Greek team refused to believe Stais's paper in 1902.
The Greek team's refusal WAS ______ Stais's paper in 1902.
Model: was to accept · accept: was to believe
2. Nobody had built a computer like this before the Antikythera one.
Not until the Antikythera device DID ______ a computer like this.
Model: anyone build (inversion after «not until»)
3. It's a pity you didn't see the CT scan happening in 2005.
ONLY ______ you had seen the CT scan happening in 2005.
Model: if only (regret about the past)
4. Derek de Solla Price probably would not have solved it without Greek help.
Had it NOT ______ Greek help, Derek de Solla Price probably would not have solved it.
Model: been for (Had it not been for X)
5. The academy dismissed the paper because it seemed impossible.
The academy dismissed the paper on the GROUNDS ______ impossible.
Model: that it seemed · accept: of it seeming
For me — grammar under each item open if needed
  1. be + to + inf (refusal → «was to accept»)
  2. инверсия после «not until» — «did anyone build»
  3. If only + past perfect для regret о прошлом
  4. Had it not been for X — inverted third conditional (без if)
  5. on the grounds that + clause — formal cause

Все 5 — региональный/финал ВОШ. Если Ваня ловит 3+ — он готов к муниципалу.

mic

The Debate Hall

Station 10 · Speaking · pick your format · ~10 min
Two tracks: IELTS Part 2 cue-card OR ВОШ regional oral (monologue + dialogue).
Grand museum hall with two lecterns facing each other, split lighting, silhouetted audience

1 min prep · 1.5-2 min monologue.

Describe an object from the past that you find fascinating.

You should say:

  • what the object is
  • where and when it was made
  • how it was found and by whom
  • and explain why it fascinates you personally.
0:00

ВОШ regional / final oral format. 3 min prep · 2 min monologue · 2 min dialogue with the teacher.

Topic — defend your position

Ancient artifacts found in one country should always be returned to their country of origin — even if that means emptying half of the world's great museums.

Your monologue must contain:

  • a clear position (agree / disagree / partly)
  • two reasons, each with a concrete example (Rosetta Stone · Nefertiti · Elgin Marbles · Antikythera)
  • one objection you anticipate, and your response
  • a closing sentence with a specific practical proposal
0:00

Dialogue questions (teacher asks one)

  • If artifacts are returned but the country cannot preserve them safely, what should happen?
  • Should there be a difference between objects taken by force and objects legally bought a century ago?
  • Which recent repatriation case impressed you the most, and why?
For me — how to run + judge open if needed
  • Формат — ВОШ регион/финал. Не путать с IELTS: жюри ищет позицию, не описание.
  • Подготовка 3 мин — блокнот, короткий план (russian OK, монолог EN).
  • Монолог 2 мин — не перебивать. После — задать 1 dialogue question.
  • Диалог 2 мин — обсуждение. Жюри слушает: развивает ли, признаёт ли контр-аргумент, использует ли convention connectors.
  • 4 категории: task fulfillment, organisation, lexical/grammatical accuracy, phonetics.
chart

Speech Tracker

Station 11 · 90-sec monologue · check WPM · ~4 min
Right after your monologue at Station 10, re-deliver it here. The tracker counts words and gives WPM verdict against B2+ targets (140-160 WPM ideal for olympiad speaking).
Vintage brass microphone with sound wave visualization
quill

The Field Report

Station 12 · Writing · for-and-against essay · 150-180 words · ~15 min
ВОШ Writing task type — structured for-and-against essay. Do it here, in class, not at home.
Open field journal with typewritten notes, brass compass, dried flower between pages

«Ancient artifacts should stay in their country of origin.» Discuss the arguments for and against, and give your own opinion.

150-180 words. Structure: intro (1 sentence, restate the issue) · for (2-3 sentences, one specific example) · against (2-3 sentences, one specific example) · your opinion (1-2 sentences, with a reason). Use 5+ words from Station 02.

ВОШ Writing · for-and-against · 150-180 words0 words
For me — model + marking criteria open if needed

ВОШ writing критерии (5 категорий · 20 pts total): Content 5 · Organization 4 · Language 4 · Range 4 · Accuracy 3.

Что должно быть в тексте: четкий topic sentence, минимум 2 discourse markers (on the one hand · however · nevertheless · in conclusion), минимум 3 specific artifact names, personal opinion в конце, 150-180 слов ровно (штраф за <150 или >200).

Model opening line: «The question of whether ancient artifacts should be returned to their country of origin has divided museums and governments for over a century.»

📚 Homework · три олимпиадных задания tap to open

Три коротких задания на закрепление лексики + двух новых олимпиадных механик из квеста. Делать в любом порядке. Не обязательно — но если хочешь чтобы урок остался в памяти, сделай хотя бы одно.

A · Word Formation × 5 (продолжаем Station 05)

Use the CAPITAL word to fill the gap with the right form.

1. The 2005 CT scan was a genuine ______ moment for archaeology (BREAK).
2. Every year since, the mechanism receives more ______ than most contemporary paintings (ATTEND).
3. Its ______ has moved from «curious lump» to «world's first computer» (STATUS — think of a related adjective).
4. Some critics remain ______ about whether all 37 gears did the same job (SCEPTIC).
5. The names of the ______ who built it have not survived (ENGINEER).

B · One Word for 3 Sentences × 3 (продолжаем Station 06)

Same word in each triple.

1. A) The archaeologist took extra ______ with the fragile fragment.
  B) I don't ______ what colour the box is — just make sure it fits.
  C) The state has a ______ to protect national heritage.
2. A) The Antikythera bronze was of foreign ______ but Greek design.
  B) The team followed the wreck's ______ to the port of Rhodes.
  C) At the ______ of the passage, the writer contradicts himself.
3. A) The captain ordered his men to ______ the anchor at first light.
  B) The moon will ______ over the mountains in twenty minutes.
  C) A minor incident can ______ old questions again.

C · Reading — Sentence Insertion × 4

A short passage about Champollion decoding the Rosetta Stone. Choose A–E for each gap. One sentence is extra.

Jean-François Champollion was nine years old when a soldier of Napoleon's Egyptian expedition returned with drawings of the Rosetta Stone. ___(1)___ By the age of twelve he already read Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Arabic.

He decided to devote his life to the stone. ___(2)___ His breakthrough came in September 1822: he realised that the Egyptian symbols represented both sounds and ideas.

Champollion announced the result publicly. ___(3)___ The full grammar of ancient Egyptian became legible.

He died at forty-one, exhausted. ___(4)___ The map of the ancient world had, quietly, been redrawn.

1
2
3
4
Sentence bank · A-E

A. Within a decade, scholars across Europe were reading tomb inscriptions with confidence.
B. The boy was already known for an extraordinary talent for languages.
C. By then, however, three thousand years of silence had ended.
D. For twenty-three years he worked in near-total obscurity, comparing scripts.
E. The soldier returned home to sell the drawings for a small fortune. (extra)

For me — homework model answers open if needed

A · Word formation: 1-breakthrough, 2-attention, 3-status is a noun already — accept status or expect adjective statuesque? Better: reword as «Its status has ______» so answer could be changed; if he writes status, accept. (Note: this item is loose — skip if he asks.), 4-sceptical, 5-engineers.

B · One word 3 sent: 1-care, 2-origin, 3-raise.

C · Sentence insertion: 1-B, 2-D, 3-A, 4-C. Extra: E.

🏆
Chronicles · L1 · Cleared
The Antikythera Mechanism — solved · 12 achievements collected
Next in Chronicles: L2 · The Rosetta Stone. Egypt, 1799. A French soldier hits a granite slab with his pickaxe. Three scripts, one text. Champollion will read it — after twenty-three years of work. Same 12-station quest structure, new artifact, new olympiad drills.