It is obvious that to do well in the CAE exam, you need to have a good a knowledge of vocabulary and grammatical structures in English. But what is also equally important is having a knowledge of the topics which you are likely to find used in the different parts of the Advanced exam (e.g. the arts, the environment, history etc...). The more you know about a topic (and the vocabulary commonly used with it) that you find used in the exam, the easier it will be to do.
The best way to improve especially your vocabulary and knowledge of topics is though regular reading in English.
To help you do this, we have a created a PDF eBook which contains 60 pieces of writing and is specifically designed for those doing the CAE exam (containing articles on the different topics used on the exam and written for the level of English which you find used in the exam).
Below is an article from this eBook for you to read. This one is on the topic of history and archaeology. It will help you improve your vocabulary and knowledge of the topic. Read the article and then guess the meaning of 7 key words from the article in the vocabulary exercise at the end (to help you understand and remember them).
The discovery that rewrote history
Summary
This is an article about how it was confirmed that the Vikings had been the first Europeans to arrive in the Americas. It starts by briefly talking about some of the many theories about which Europeans arrived their first, before talking about the Vikings and why people thought it was likely they had. It goes on to talk about the various searches which were done to find evidence of this and where it was eventually found. It then explains what was found there and ends by saying why they decided to leave.
For centuries it had been thought that the first Europeans to reach the Americas had been Christopher Columbus and his men in 1492. However, there had always been theories that others had reached what up to recently was referred to as ‘the New World’ before them.
Some of these seemed far-fetched, like the theory that a priest from Ireland had reached the coast of what is now called New England in the sixth century AD. While others seemed more feasible, like the fishermen from the Basque region of Northern Spain who some believe regularly landed on the continent in the centuries before Columbus’s discovery for supplies and shelter whilst on fishing expeditions in the rich waters off the Canadian coastline.
However, there was one theory above all which not only sounded extremely plausible, but would have been surprising if it had not occurred. And that is of the Vikings.
The Vikings
The seafaring abilities of this people have been well documented. From their homes in modern day Denmark, Sweden and Norway, from the 8th century AD the Vikings or Norsemen (as they were also known) embarked on voyages to and settled in Britain, Ireland and Iceland. But it was their reaching of another place which gave credence to the idea that they were the first Europeans to visit the Americas. And that was to Greenland. From the late 10th Century AD, Vikings had not only reached the island, but had established permanent settlements on it too. And Greenland is only a few hundred miles from the North American coast.
For a people with such a reputation for exploration, it would seem ludicrous that they would have reached Greenland and then decided to stop. Another thing which people used to support the theory that the Vikings had reached the Americas before Columbus, is the stories they left behind. The descendants of the Vikings left sagas - beautiful works of literature in which fact and fiction are often poetically intermixed. In these, they clearly state that the Viking explorer Leif Erikson led an expedition to the east coast of North America. They describe good harbours, and an abundance of natural resources. In the sagas, they even named the place ‘Vinland’, which has been translated from Norse (the language used by the Vikings) to mean ‘the land of wild grapes’.
Even though both of these things supported the idea of Vikings reaching the Americas before Columbus, no actual evidence was ever found to actually back it up. So although it sounded very compelling, it remained simply a theory. One which many archaeologists and historians sought to prove with actual evidence.
Searching for evidence
From the late 1890s, many archaeologists and historians from leading American and Canadian universities scoured the coastline from New York to Nova Scotia in Canada trying to find the ruins of abandoned Viking settlements or remains (particularly rotten wooden structures which resembled Viking longboats). They focused their search on this part of the coastline due to the fact that this was the region where wild grapes are known to grow or to have grown in the period when the Vikings were thought to have possibly landed. Although many promising sites were found, under examination most turned out to date from the post-Columbus era (from early British and French colonialists) or were abandoned settlements of Indigenous American origin.
However, in the late 1950s a Norwegian married couple: the explorer Helge Ingstad and the archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad, doubted whether the Old Norse name ‘Vinland’, mentioned in the Icelandic Sagas, actually meant "wine-land”. Instead, they proposed that it more likely meant “land of meadows”. If this meaning of the word were true, it meant that they had to look for an area of unforested land and that any settlement could be located further north up the coast than previously thought.
Not only was this part closer to Greenland, but both the terrain and vegetation resembled more of that of Iceland, on which the majority of the Viking explorers would have been born and grown up on.
Starting from 1959, the Ingstads focused their attention on the coast of Newfoundland, a Canadian region to the north of Nova Scotia and an area which most archaeologists had ruled out due to the absence of wild grapes. The first 3 sites where which carried out excavations, disappointedly turned out to be an abandoned seasonal whaling settlement and two colonial-era military outposts. But on the fourth site they visited, their luck changed.
It was in the spring of 1960 and they were taken to a group of mounds near the small fishing hamlet of L'Anse aux Meadows that the locals called the ‘old Indian camp’. These large mounds in the earth were covered with grass and looked very much like the remains of houses. The Ingstads carried out seven archaeological excavations there from 1961 to 1968. They identified on the site eight complete houses and the remains of a ninth. They determined that the site was of Norse origin because of definitive similarities between the characteristics of the structures and artefacts found at the site compared to sites in Greenland and Iceland from around 1000 AD.
What was found
All eight of the buildings found were made from timber sourced from local forests or woods. Based on both the associated artefacts found within them and their structures, the buildings were identified as dwellings or workshops.
The largest dwelling was that of a Viking longhouse. It measured 28.8 meters long and 15.6 metres wide (94 feet × 51 feet) and consisted of a main hall (where the majority of the settlement’s inhabitants ate, slept and lived) and several smaller rooms which were used for storage or for the settlement’s livestock to shelter in during the harsh winter months. Two of the smaller buildings found were workshops and another two were living quarters for lower-status crew or slaves.
The workshops were identified as an iron smithy (for metal weapons, tools and nails) and a carpentry workshop (where the wood for both repairing and constructing boats was cut and shaped). In addition, many Viking artefacts (including a sword, jewellery and a bone knitting needle) were found in the site. They also found the remains of several wooden carvings (of two horses and a wolf) which are likely to have adorned the outside of the longhouse.
This number of dwellings would suggest that it had the capacity of supporting between 30 to 160 people.
Subsequent carbon dating of samples taken from the Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows by scientists have estimated that it dates from between 990–1050 AD. This assessment tallies with the type of artefacts and structures found at the site.
Why they came and why they left
Today the area mostly consists of open grassy lands, but 1000 years ago there were forests that were convenient for boat-building, house-building and iron extraction. Another reason for why they probably decided to locate the settlement there, was the rich hunting and fishing possibilities. The excavations have found bones on the site from a vast array of different animals that once (or still do) inhabited the area. These included caribou, wolf, fox, bear, lynx, all types of birds and fish, seal, whale and walrus. This area is no longer as rich in game as it once was, due in large part to the harsher winters that it now suffers. This forced animals to either hibernate in winter or to abandon the area and venture south in search of milder conditions.
And the change in climate is believed to be one of the main reasons why the Vikings eventually abandoned the North American continent less than 100 years after they arrived. Meteorological evidence suggests that when the Vikings established the settlement the winters were a lot milder than they are today. But they gradually started to worsen whilst they occupied the area, making life considerably more difficult for the settlers in terms of an accessible supply of food. And if the Icelandic Sagas are to be believed, this problem was compounded by the incessant warfare between them and the several hostile indigenous tribes who then resided in the area.
If the Vikings had only decided to settle further south, then their settlement could have been sustainable. And if this had been the case, it is difficult to comprehend not only how different the Americas would be today if they had permanently settled, but also how different the rest of the world would have been too as a result.
Vocabulary exercise
1. plausible (paragraph 3)
However, there was one theory above all which not only sounded extremely plausible, but would have been surprising if it had not occurred. And that is of the Vikings.
2. resembled (paragraph 9)
Not only was this part closer to Greenland, but both the terrain and vegetation resembled more of that of Iceland, on which the majority of the Viking explorers would have been born and grown up on.
3. ruled out (paragraph 10)
the Ingstads focused their attention on the coast of Newfoundland, a Canadian region to the north of Nova Scotia and an area which most archaeologists had ruled out due to the absence of wild grapes
4. remains (paragraph 11)
These large mounds in the earth were covered with grass and looked very much like the remains of houses.
5. dwellings (paragraph 12)
Based on both the associated artefacts found within them and their structures, the buildings were identified as dwellings or workshops.
6. array of (paragraph 17)
The excavations have found bones on the site from a vast array of different animals that once (or still do) inhabited the area. These included caribou, wolf, fox, bear, lynx, all types of birds and fish, seal, whale and walrus.
7. was compounded by (paragraph 18)
And if the Icelandic Sagas are to be believed, this problem was compounded by the incessant warfare between them and the several hostile indigenous tribes