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IELTS урок 3 от RBSM
Reading practice:
(40 minutes)
Dogon Tribe
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on your Reading Task 1 below.
A The Dogon are an ethnic group located mainly in the administrative districts of Bandiagara and Douentza in Mali, West Africa.
This area is composed of three distinct topographical regions: the plain, the cliffs, and the plateau.
The cliffs provide a spectacular physical setting for Dogon villages built on the sides of the escarpment.
B There are approximately 700 Dogon villages, most with fewer than 500 inhabitants.
A Dogon family compound in the village of Pegue is seen from the top of the Bandiagara escarpment.
During the hot season, the Dogon sleep on the roofs of their earthen homes.
C Without any equipment but his own muscle and expertise, a Dogon man climbs hundreds of meters above the ground. Ireli villagers use ropes made of baobab bark to climb the Bandiagara cliffs in search of pigeon guano and Tellem artifacts. The pigeon guano is used as fertilizer and can be sold at the market for $4 per sack. The Tellem artifacts, such as brass statues and wooden headrests, bring high prices from Western art collectors.
D The precise origin of the Dogon, like those of many other ancient cultures, is undetermined. Their civilization emerged, in much the same manner as ancient Sumer, both sharing tales of their creation by gods who came from the sky in space ships, who allegedly will return one day. The early histories are informed by oral traditions that differ according to the Dogon clan being consulted and archaeological excavation much more of which needs to be conducted.
E Certain theories suggest the tribe to be of ancient Egyptian descent - the Dogon next migrating to the region now called Libya, then moving on to somewhere in the regions of Guinea or Mauritania.
Around 1490 AD, fleeing invaders and/or drought, they migrated to the Bandiagara cliffs of central Mali. Carbon-14 dating techniques used on excavated remains found in the cliffs indicate that there were inhabitants in the region before the arrival of the Dogon. They were the Toloy culture of the 3rd to 2nd centuries BC, and the Tellem culture of the 11th to 15th centuries AD.
F The religious beliefs of the Dogon are enormously complex and knowledge of them varies greatly within Dogon society. Dogon religion is defined primarily through the worship of the ancestors and the spirits whom they encountered as they slowly migrated from their obscure ancestral homelands to the Bandiagara cliffs. They were called the 'Nommo'.
Questions 1-5: Reading Passage 1 has six paragraphs (A-F). Choose the most suitable heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below. Write the appropriate number (i-х) in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet. Paragraph A has been done for you as an example.
NB: There are more headings than paragraphs so you will not use all of them. You may use any heading more than once.
Example: Answer:
Paragraph A x
Paragraphs to be named: List of Headings
1. Paragraph B i Dogon men collect the artifacts and sell then for 4$ per sack
2. Paragraph C ii The origin of Dogon’ culture is known for sure
3. Paragraph D iii Usually there are less than half a thousand people living in each village
4. Paragraph E iv Dogon do not bury their dead
5. Paragraph F v Villagers make their money for living by gathering birds excrements and selling them
vi They believe that they came to Earth in a space ship
vii It is not determined from where this tribe gets its rituals and traditions
viii The place where Dogons relocated had been inhabited long before by another culture, called The Tolloy
ix They worship the ancestors and the spirits
x A spectacular physical setting for Dogon villages are provided by the cliffs
Questions 6-8:
6. Name the material the tribe builds its houses of: _________________
7. Give the synonym for the word “allegedly”: _____________________
8. When did Dogon do their last vast migration? ___________________
Questions 9-13: Tick the appropriate box whether these statements are:
true false not given
9 Dogon had never gone to Libya
10 Nommo were actually the ancestors of this tribe
11 Dogons fear the return of the spaceship
12 The head chief of the tribe is the oldest male
13 Dogons sell brass to the collectors
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-27 which are based on your Reading Task 2 below.
A There are three principal cults among the Dogon; the Awa, Lebe and Binu. The Awa is a cult of the dead, whose purpose is to reorder the spiritual forces disturbed by the death of Nommo, a mythological ancestor of great importance to the Dogon. Members of the Awa cult dance with ornate carved and painted masks during both funeral and death anniversary ceremonies. There are 78 different types of ritual masks among the Dogon and their iconographic messages go beyond the aesthetic, into the realm of religion and philosophy.
B The primary purpose of Awa dance ceremonies is to lead souls of the deceased to their final resting place in the family altars and to consecrate their passage to the ranks of the ancestors. The cult of Lebe, the Earth God, is primarily concerned with the agricultural cycle and its chief priest is called a Hogon. All Dogon villages have a Lebe shrine whose altars have bits of earth incorporated into them to encourage the continued fertility of the land.
C According to Dogon beliefs, the god Lebe visits the hogons every night in the form of a serpent and licks their skins in order to purify them and infuse them with life force. The hogons are responsible for guarding the purity of the soil and therefore officiate at many agricultural ceremonies. [Serpent is a metaphor for DNA] Nowadays, the Dogon blacksmiths forge mainly scrap metal recuperated from old railway lines or car wrecks. So, little by little, the long process of iron ore reduction, which demands a perfect knowledge of fire and its temperatures, has been abandoned.
D One of the last smeltings was done in Mali, in 1995, by the Dogon blacksmiths. The event became the subject of a film which was entitled 'Inagina, The Last House of Iron'. Eleven blacksmiths, who still hold the secrets of this ancestral activity, agreed to perform a last smelt. They gathered to invoke the spirits. They sunk a mine shaft, made charcoal, and built a furnace with earth and lumps of slag.
E The last furnace - or Inagina -meaning literally the 'house of iron' gave birth to 69 kilos of iron of excellent quality. With this, the blacksmiths forged traditional tools intended for agriculture, the making of weapons, and jewelery for the Dogon people. Allegedly, when the Dogon left Egypt, they brought with them sacred knowledge in the form of oral traditions, perhaps handed down by the ancient priests of Egypt.
F The Dogon creational tale is laced with metaphors that are similar to other legends of creation throughout the world. One need only compare them and understand their metaphoric content, to understand the nature of our reality, past, present, and future. According to Dogon mythology, Nommo was the first living being created by Amma, the sky god and creator of the universe. He soon multiplied to become six pairs of twins.
G One twin rebelled against the order established by Amma, thereby destabilizing the universe. [The focus in our duality has always been to restore balance, through healing, especially as many myths foretell that at the end of time there will be a judgment day.] In order to purify the cosmos and restore its order, Amma sacrificed another of the Nommo, whose body was cut up and scattered throughout the universe. This distribution of the parts of the Nommo's body is seen as the source for the proliferation of Binu shrines throughout the Dogon region. [This is similar to the story of Isis -- Osiris -- and Horus.]
Questions 14-27: Reading passage 2 has 7 paragraphs (A-G). State which paragraph discusses each of the points below. Write the appropriate letter (A-G) in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet.
Example: Answer:
The skills of the tribe’s blacksmiths’ became a theme of the movie shot in 1995. D
14 The village priest is responsible for the harvest and gets visits from the Earth God every night
15 Its altar always has bits of earth for the land to be fertile
16 The Dogons’ mythology of creation resembles the Egyptian but with other names though
17 The number for the traditional rituals and the names of the cults
18 The knowledge of smelting they brought from Egypt
19 A man was created by the God, the creator of all universe
Questions 20-23: There are three types of Dogons’ cults mentioned in the Reading passage. Name the cult which matches to the given description:
A if the cult is devoted to Awa
L if the cult is devoted to Lebe
B if the cult is devoted to Binu
20. One of the possible embodiments may be the snake
21. To please him all members must join in a ceremonial dance
22. He arises from the sacrificed parts of the human flash
23. Carved and ornate masks represent the spirit of this God
Questions 24-27: Using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS answer the following questions. Write your answers in boxes 24-27 on your answer sheet.
24 What type of ceremonies does the hogon rule?
25 What did Amma do to restore order and purify the universe?
26 What exactly is The Hogon?
27 What is Amma?
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 28-39 which are based on your Reading Task 3 below.
A The Dogon are famous for their astronomical knowledge taught through oral tradition, dating back thousands of years, referencing the star system, Sirius. Sirius is the dog star. It is linked with the Egyptian goddess Isis. The astronomical information known by the Dogon since that time, was not discovered and verified until the 19th and 20th centuries, making one wonder how the Dogon came by this knowledge. Their oral traditions say it was given to them by the Nommo. The source of their information may date back to the time of the ancient Egyptian priests.
B As the story goes ... in the late 1930s, four Dogon priests shared their most important secret tradition with two French anthropologists, Marcel Griaule and Germain Dieterlen after they had spent an apprenticeship of fifteen years living with the tribe. These were secret myths about the star Sirius, which is 8.6 light years from the Earth. The Dogon priests said that Sirius had a companion star that was invisible to the human eye. They also stated that the star moved in a 50-year elliptical orbit around Sirius, that it was small and incredibly heavy, and that it rotated on its axis.
C Since 1844, astronomers had suspected that Sirius A had a companion star. This was in part determined when it was observed that the path of the star wobbled. In 1862 Alvan Clark discovered the second star making Sirius a binary star system (two stars). In the 1920's it was determined that Sirius B, the companion of Sirius, was a white dwarf star. White dwarfs are small, dense stars that burn dimly. The pull of its gravity causes Sirius' wavy movement. Sirius B is smaller than planet Earth. The Dogon name for Sirius B is Po Tolo. It means star - tolo and smallest seed - po. Seed refers to creation. In this case, perhaps human creation. By this name they describe the star's smallness. It is, they say, the smallest thing there is. They also claim that it is 'the heaviest star' and is white in color. The Dogon thus attribute to Sirius B its three principal properties as a white dwarf: small, heavy, white.
D The Dogon elder, Ogotemelli, describes Nommo as having the upper part as a man and the lower portion as snake; or as having a ram's head with serpent body. Author Robert Temple describes the Nommo as amphibious beings sent to Earth from the Sirius star system for the benefit of humankind. They look like Merfolk; Mermaids and Mermen. After the landing in a space ship, something with four legs appeared and dragged the vessel to a hollow, which filled with water until the vessel floated in it. The Dogon call this spaceship 'Pelu Tolo' or 'Star of the Tenth Moon'. [4=4th dimension or 'time'. It also references closure]. [10=10101010 = computer programming for On, Off, On Off, etc. 10 also references 1 = New beginnings in Numerology.] Nommo supposedly came from the Sirius star system.
Their spaceship spiraled down from the sky. Spirals reference the golden ratio or the movement of consciousness from higher frequency into physical reality.
E The ship landed somewhere to the northeast of the Dogon's present homeland. There was a great noise and wind. The ship landed on three legs, skidded to a stop, scoring the ground. Four legs appeared and dragged the vessel to a hollow, which filled with water until the vessel floated.
At the same time a new star was seen in the sky, which possibly was a large space ship. The star was described by the Dogon as having a circle of reddish rays around it. This circle of rays was like a spreading spot yet it still remaining the same size. There is a Dogon drawing of the spaceship hovering in the sky, waiting for the Nommo who landed on the Earth. It represents three stages of 'Pelu Tolo' when it is spurting different amounts of blood or flames [as if it crash landed]. They called the Nommo 'Masters of the Water', 'The Monitors', 'The Teachers or Instructors', 'Saviors', and 'Spiritual Guardians'. Dogon art shows grids, perhaps depicting an understanding of the nature of our reality, based on grid programs. The earliest Egyptians believed Sirius - 'Sothis' - was the home of souls that have crossed over. It is the brightest star in our night sky. This belief is also shared with the Dogon.
F The Dogons have described perfectly the DNA pattern made by an elliptical orbit created by the two stars of Sirius as they rotate make around each other. They believe Sirius to be the axis of the universe, and from it all matter and all souls are produced in a great spiral motion. Some of the ancient Egyptian temples, such as the Temple of Isis at Denerah, were created so that the light of the helical rising of Sirius would travel down the main corridor to place its red glow upon the altar in the inner sanctum of the temple. When that light reached the altar, the beam of light from Sirius was transformed into Sothis, the Star Goddess, Isis.
Dogon oral traditions state that for thousands of years they have known that the Earth revolves around the Sun, and that Jupiter has moons and Saturn has rings.
The Dogons calendar is quite non-traditional in that its fifty year cycle is based neither on the Earth's rotation around the Sun (as is our Julian calendar) nor the cycles of the Moon (a lunar calendar). Instead, the Dogon culture centers around the rotation cycle Sirius B which encircles the primary star Sirius A every 49.9 - or 50 years.
Questions 28-39: Do the following statements agree with the information provided in paragraphs A-F of Reading Passage 3?
Example: Answer:
Dogons have a perfect idea of the DNA pattern YES
In boxes 28-31 on your answer sheet write: YES NO NG
28 The creature which landed was four legged
29 Sirius A is a white dwarf
30 It is presumed that there is also Sirius C - the youngest star
31 The Dogons’ calendar is connected to the Sirius B rotation
Questions 32-35: These questions are based on the paragraphs E-F. Match the list of processes describes in these paragraphs.
32. Paragraph E i. is the axis of the universe where all spirits and souls are produced
33. Paragraph F ii. the heliocentric theory was well known by this tribe for thousands of years
34. Paragraph F iii. the deoxyribonucleic acid cell was described by the tribe
35. Paragraph E iv. their knowledge about the world is expressed through secrete matrix tables
Questions 36-39: Based on your reading of passages C-D, complete the sentences below with words taken from the passages. Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.
The Po Tolo, according to the tribe’s knowledge has three important particularities, like: (36)___________________
The name of the ship can also be translated as: (37)_____________________________________
The spiral down movement may also represent the ratio of understanding from (38) _______________________
to (39)_________________________
Question 40: Choose the appropriate letter A-D to give the best possible heading for this passage:
A Dogons’ myth and fairy tales
B The biochemistry between Sirius A and B stars
C Ancient secrete knowledge confirmed by modern science
D The astronomy of ancient Egyptian
The KEY answer sheet
1 iii
2 v
3 vii
4 viii
5 ix
6 earth (soil)
7 Hopefully (as if)
8 1490 AD
9 F
10 T
11 F
12 NG
13 T
14 C
15 B
16 G
17 A
18 E
19 F
20 L
21 A
22 B
23 A
24 agricultural ceremonies
25 To sacrifice the Nommo
26 chief priest
27 the sky god
28 N
29 N
30 NG
31 Y
32 iv / i
33 iii/ii
34 ii / iii
35 i /iv
36 small, heavy, white
37 Star of the Tenth Moon
38 from higher frequency
39 into physical reality
40 C
