3rd year L/P Final Examination
Part One: Reading
A/ Comprehension
The fall of the Roman Empire was very complex and is still debated among historians today. But things that are agreed upon are the following. As the Roman Empire grew, it required more soldiers to patrol its borders and frontiers. This brought a high tax burden on a population that was decreasing because of plague and poverty. Likewise, Rome Emperors and the upper classes adopted increasingly luxurious and extravagant lifestyles at the expense of the taxpaying citizens. This caused not only great resentment among the lower classes, but the upper classes became more self-centered and less concerned about social and political responsibilities. New artistic and cultural styles were not being created. People came to view life as futile and meaningless. Weakened politically, economically, culturally, and psychologically, the Roman Empire no longer had the strength or the desire to fend off the Germanic invaders.
As the empire started to weaken, farmers and laborers clustered around powerful regional landowners to whom they surrendered full allegiance in return for military protection. Thus people looked to their local landlords rather than to the Empire for protection and stability. As this decentralization took place, the vast Mediterranean trade routes fell out of Roman hands.
Read the text above then do the activities that follow.
1-Say whether the following statements are true or false according to the text.
a) Historians agree on the real causes of the collapse of the Roman empire.
b) Most Romans were poor.
c) The upper class led to the fall of the empire.
d) Landowners became more powerful than the government.
2-Choose the letter that corresponds to the right answer.
A/The text is ……………a) narrative b) descriptive c) expository
B/The text is about the……… civilization. a) Chinese b) Roman c) Greek
C/The title of the text could be….a) The Rise of the Roman Empire
b) The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire.
c) The Collapse of the Roman Empire.
3-Answer the following questions according to the text.
a)Why did the Roman Empire require more soldiers?
b) How did the upper class citizens live?
c) What did the working class do when the empire became weak?
4-What/ Who do the underlined words refer to in the text?
a) That§1 b) whom §2 c) their §2
B/ Text Exploration.
1-Find in the first paragraph the word whose definition follows.
A monarch who rules or reigns over an empire.
2-Find in the text words that are closest in meaning to:
a) heavy load §1 b) bitterness §1 c) Loyalty §2 d) commerce §2
3-Complete in the chart as shown in the example.
Verb Noun Adjective
Example : weaken Weakness Weak
a)…………………… ………… Powerful
b)…………………… Meaning ……………
c)Strengthen ……………. ……………………
Rich
4-Join the following pairs of sentences with the connectors in brackets.
a) The Muslims lost Andalusia. They had luxurious and extravagant lifestyles. (Because of)
b) Nations don’t develop. Citizens don’t work seriously. (As long as)
5-Classify the following words according to the number of their syllables.
Roman - powerful - meaningless - civilization - farming - trade
Part two: Written expression
Write an essay of about 120 to 150 words on the following topic
How do civilizations enrich one another?
Take the example of the Islamic civilization: medicine, maths –music – arts - architecture………translations etc…….
Good Luck