1. Complete the sentences from the text:

1. A unique characteristic of the Chinese system was its in…..of an acoustic dimension.

2. The …., a unit of land measure.

3. Measures based on the length of a pitch pipe and its subdivision in terms of millet grains supplanted ….. …… based on the human body.

4. …… ….. used for measuring grain and wine was defined not only as to weight but also as to pitch when struck.

5. The basic weight, the shih, or tan, was fixed at about ….. …. .

2. Answer the questions.

1 Was a unique characteristic of the Chinese system its inclusion of an acoustic dimension?

2.What did it employ as a source of units ?

3. What kind of measure was the mou ?

4. Did a standard vessel use for measuring grain and wine ?

Text 5

Medieval systems

Vocabulary:

1. inherit-наследовать

2. proliferate-распространяться

3. vain-напрасный

4. liquid-

5. pace-шагать

6. vanish -пропадать

7. fairgrounds-ярмарочная площадь

Medieval Europe inherited the Roman system, with its Greek, Babylonian, and Egyptian roots. It soon proliferated through daily use and language variations into a great number of national and regional variants, with elements borrowed from Scandinavia and from the Arabs and original contributions growing out of the needs of medieval commerce.

A determined effort by Charlemagne to impose uniformity at the beginning of the 9th century was in vain; differing usages hardened. The great trade fairs, such as the Champagne Fairs of the 12th and 13th centuries, enforced rigid uniformity on merchants of all nationalities within the fairgrounds and had some effect on standardizing differences among regions, but the variations remained. A good example is the ell, the universal measure for wool cloth, the great trading staple of the Middle Ages. The ell of Champagne, two feet six inches, measured against an iron standard in the hands of the Keeper of the Fair, was accepted by Ypres and Ghent, both in modern Belgium; by Arras, in modern France; and by the other great cloth-manufacturing cities of northwest Europe, even though their bolts varied in length. In several other parts of Europe, the ell itself varied, however.

The basic Roman unit of weight, the libra, acquired a Germanic name in parts of northern Europe but retained its Roman identity in the English abbreviation of pound as lb. Similarly the Roman mile survived, while the pace on which it was based vanished; it ceased to be a thousand of anything and instead became varying numbers of feet and yards, measures inherited from earlier northern Europe.

Medieval liquid measure was generally based on the pinte, or pint, which was approximately equal to the modern English quart; the quart was a medieval unit of dry measure, very close to its modern English equivalent in volume