Teens B2T2-Reading and Use of English 1 p.32 and 33

Book pages 32 and 33

1. The discovery of fire ____________ the essential step in glass bead making.

2. There is evidence as early as 2340 - 2180 BC in Mesopotamia of a method known as “core-forming” where they used a metal mandrel ____________ pieces of glass held over a flame.

3. Gradually, as the glass softened, they ____________ wrap it round the mandrel forming intricate ornaments.

4. ____________ early beads or vessels were considered valuable and were preserved as they were placed in burial tombs. In Nuzi (130 miles north of Baghdad), beads were discovered and they date to round 1400 BC. Even today, we make beads by holding glass rods over a flame, then gently winding the molten glass over the mandrels.

5. The invention of the blowpipe gave way to the creation of the Rosetta bead and the seed beads which ____________ the bead making industry in Venice for centuries. Beadmaking is truly an ancient art form.

Beadmaking in Venice

6. The history of Beadmaking in Venice goes back to the days of Marco Polo when he returned from his (6) ____________ with the beads of Asia. Local artisans took their glass making skills to reproduce in glass the precious stones of Marco Polo.

7. In Venice and Murano, the beading industry ____________ historically been a woman’s work. During the 1920s – 1930s, the conterie (seed bead) industry sustained Venice’s glass industry. The wars took the men from the furnaces and between World War I and World War II there was little time to build up the industry.

8. During the 1930s there were as ____________ as 30 companies making the tiny beads, employing hundreds of women.

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