Текст для чтения среднего уровня сложности.
Apart from a few short references in classical literature, knowledge of Britain before the Roman conquest (begun AD 43) is derived entirely from archaeological research. It is thus lacking in detail, for archaeology can rarely identify personalities, motives or exact dates. All that is available is a picture of successive cultures and some knowledge of economic development. But even in Roman times Britain lay on the periphery of the civilized world, and Roman historians, for the most part, provide for that period only a framework into which the results of archaeological research can be fitted. Britain truly emerged into the light of history only after the Saxon settlements in the fifth century AD.
Until late in the Mesolithic period, Britain formed part of the continental landmass and was easily accessible to migrating hunters. The cutting of the land bridge, c. 6000-5000 BC, had important effects: migration became more difficult and remained for long impossible to large numbers. Thus Britain developed insular characteristics, absorbing and adapting rather than fully participating in successive continental cultures. And within the island geography worked to a similar end; the fertile southeast was more receptive of influence from the adjacent continent than were the less-accessible hill areas of the west and north. Yet in certain periods the use of sea routes brought these too within the ambit of the continent.
Слова:
reference — упоминание, сноска, справка, намек
conquest — завоевание, покорение
to derive — получать, происходить, извлекать
available — доступный, имеющийся в распоряжении, наличный
successive — следующий один за другим, последующий
framework — остов, каркас, обрамление
to emerge — появляться, возникать
landmass — земля, континент, суша
insular — островной, замкнутый
