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Wonders of the world

Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
Seven Wonders of the World, works of art and architecture regarded (= považované) by ancient Greek and Roman observers (= pozorovatelia) as the most extraordinary structures of antiquity (= starovek).

Temple of Artemis
The temple was built in Greece in 356 BC and was destroyed by the Goths in AD 262.

Colossus of Rhodes
The Colossus of Rhodes built about 280 BC was a bronze statue of the Greek sun god Helios. Standing 30 m high, it was built to guard the entrance to the harbour at Rhodes and it was destroyed about 55 years later.

Pharos of Alexandria
The Pharos of Alexandria (cca. 280 BC) is an ancient lighthouse. The lighthouse stood on an island in the harbour of Alexandria and was over 134 m tall. It was destroyed in the 14th century.

Mausoleum of Halicarnassus
The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus was built about 353 BC. The mausoleum was a huge marble tomb built for King Mausolus of Cana in Asia Minor (= Malá Ázia), only fragments remain.

Statue of Zeus
The Greek sculptor (= sochár) Phidias created the 12-m tall Statue of Zeus in about 435 BC. The statue stood in Olympia, and was perhaps the most famous sculpture in ancient Greece and the central feature of the Temple of Zeus.

Pyramids of Egypt
The famous pyramids located in Giza near the city of Cairo, Egypt, are the oldest and best preserved of the Seven Wonders of the World. Ancient Egyptian kings had them built as their tombs, although ancient Greeks and Romans believed the structures to be purely ornamental. The largest pyramid, called the Great Pyramid, now stands 137 m tall. The Great Pyramid and two other pyramids, built from about 2600 to 2500 BC, are the best remaining examples of this Egyptian architectural feat (výkon, čin).

Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Technically, the gardens did not hang, but grew on the roofs and terraces of the royal palace in Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar II, the Chaldean king probably built the gardens in about 600 BC as a consolation (= útecha) to his wife who missed the natural surroundings of her homeland.

Seven Wonders of Britain
Double-decker bus
The first double-deckers appeared in London in 1851. They were invented to carry the people who visited the Great Exhibition that was held that year. The first double-deckers were pulled by horses and they didn’t have a roof. Today there are three and a half thousand double-deckers in London alone. There are seven different types, and they can carry 89 passengers. We can see double-deckers also in South Africa, the Netherlands, Singapore, Hong Kong and Berlin.

Parliament
The British Parliament has become the model that is followed by all democratic countries. It is the main law-making body in Britain and consists of the House of Lords and House of Commons. The House of Commons has six hundred and fifty-one elected members. Here are all new laws debated. In 1605 there was an unsuccessful attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament. It is celebrated as Guy Fawkes Day on November the 5th every year.

The Milkman
The typical milkman gets up at about three o’clock in the morning to deliver milk to the doorsteps of about five hundred houses. Nearly 95% of British people think that having milk delivered by milkman is great tradition, which should not be lost, but only 40% actually buy their milk from the milkman! However, that is still 4.45 billion pints (= 0.57 l) of milk each year! Most milk is delivered in glass bottles. Mass production of milk bottles started in 1920s when pasteurisation was introduced. Today the bottles are washed and re-used at least twelve times.

Cricket
Cricket is a game, which is played by two teams of eleven players. One team bowls (= nadhadzuje) and the other team bats (= pálkuje). The team who are batting try to hit the ball as far as possible. The other team try to hit the wicket (= kriketová bránka) or to catch the ball to get batsman out. The first known cricket rules were written in 1744 and the sport’s governing body, the Marylebone Cricket Club known as the MCC, was formed in 1787. Cricket matches can last from an afternoon to five days for an international game that is called a Test Match.

The English Country Garden
The English country garden was originated in medieval times. Then it was a place to grow herbs like parsley (= petržlen), sage (= šalvia) and rosemary (= rozmarín) which were used to flavour food. Later the other plants were introduced, especially flowers for decoration. Gardening has become one of the most popular British hobbies.

The weather
The British weather has a bad reputation. People are always complaining about it, and going abroad for holidays has become a popular way of avoiding it. The British climate is actually quite good, the winters are relatively mild and the summers are not too hot. The problem is that British weather is very changeable. This is because Britain is an island on the edge of Europe and might receive wet weather from Atlantic, hot weather from Africa or cold weather from the Arctic.

Stonehenge
Stonehenge on Salisbury plain in Wiltshire is one of the most mysterious prehistoric sites in Britain. The stone circle was built approximately four and a half thousand years ago, probably as a site for religious ceremonies. Stonehenge may also have been used as an astronomic observatory. Watching the sun and moon rise over certain stones would have shown the exact time of year. These stones weigh nearly 4 tones. The people who built Stonehenge probably dragged (= vliecť, ťahať) some of these stones all the way from South Wales, a distance of almost four hundred kilometres!

Wonders of the Modern Life
All wonders of ancient world were statues and buildings. In the last two centuries we have seen unprecedented (= bezpríkladné) technical and scientific achievements (= čin, výkon). These are surely our modern wonders. We can mention e.g. computers, space travel, medical science, holidays, the Olympic Games, agriculture or the fact that we are still here.

Computers
They have already revolutionised the way we live and work. But if is early days for computers. We don’t know how much they are still changing the world. More computer wonders are yet to come.

Space Travel
Only a few years before men were walking on the moon, reputable scientist declared that it was impossible. But in 1969 Neil Armstrong stepped out of his space capsule and made his famous statement “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Medical Science
Surely nothing has done more for the comfort and happiness of mankind than the advance of medical knowledge! How many millions of people have benefited from the humble aspirin? How many lives has penicillin saved? Average life expectancy in Europe has risen dramatically over the last hundred years from about 50 years in 1906 to about 75 years today.

Holidays
In fact there have always been holidays – in ancient Rome there were more than 150 a year – but a holiday used to mean simply a day when you didn’t work. Now holidaymakers travel to all parts of the world.

The Olympic Games
It is true that the Olympic Games are now commercialised and there is greed and drug abuse. However, it is a competition in which every country in the world takes part. Every four years, for a brief moment, we see these countries come together in peace and friendship. We feel hope again for the future of mankind.

Agriculture
In 1724 Jonathan Swift wrote: “Whoever makes two blades of grass or two ears of corn grow where only one grew before, serves mankind better than the whole race of politicians.” In Europe we can’t eat all the food we produce. If only the politicians could find a way to share if with those parts of the world where there is still famine.

We are still here
The last wonder of the modern world is simply that we are still here. We have bombs that could destroy the world but we have not used them. This is surely the greatest wonder of all!
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