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                                                                CHALKING DAY

It’s early morning and I am standing in the valley near the village of Uffington in Oxfordshire,
England, looking up at the high curve of grassland above me. One thing dominates the view.
Across the side of the hill runs an enormous white stick figure, a horse cut from the chalk.
It has a thin body, a curiously long tail and a round eye set in a square head. This is the
Uffington White Horse, the oldest of the English hill figures, the size of a football field and
visible from 20 miles away. 5.1. _____ They are volunteers who are coming to clean it.
It’s chalking day, a cleaning ritual that has happened here regularly for three millennia.
Hammers, buckets of chalk and kneepads are handed out, and then everyone is allocated
an area. 5.2. _____ Commenting on the job they are doing, one of the participants
jokes: “It’s the world’s largest colouring book.”
“Chalking” the horse was already an ancient custom when the historian Francis Wise wrote
about it in 1736. 5.3. _____ These days, it’s a quieter event. The only sounds are the wind,
distant birdsong and the thumping of hammers on the chalk. Still, the tradition of maintaining
the horse’s elegant lines and clearing it of weeds is continued. The volunteers of today are
following in the footsteps of the ancients, caring for the horse in much the same way as it
was done 3,000 years ago.
It might seem strange that the horse has such an unstable form, which tends to disappear
slowly with the passing of time. 5.4. _____ The need to maintain it might have been the
horse’s original function – to gather people to do a common task. Today’s cleaning is thus
an echo of an early ritual.
Up on the hill, it’s not possible to view the whole horse at once; the curve of the slope gets in
the way and the sheer scale of it confuses the eye. It is only from the valley below that the
whole picture can be taken in. 5.5. _____ Reportedly, they even arrange their rooms so that
they sit facing the horse.

Arkusz egzaminacyjny: wersja A

A. Back then, thousands of people used to come for the chalking every four years, after
which they held a fair, with dancing and singing, in the circle of a prehistoric fort nearby.

B. Looking at the lower part of the slope, I notice the small figures of people climbing slowly
towards the hillside where the chalk horse is.

C. To the people who live there, the white figure of a horse springing timelessly across
the side of the hill is part of the background of their daily life.

D. For example, during World War II, it was covered over with grass and leaves so that
Luftwaffe bombers couldn’t use it for navigation.

E. Archaeologists, however, believe this could have been intentional, as from the start
the horse required regular upkeep to stay visible.

F. The cleaners, commonly called “chalkers”, kneel and whiten the stony pathways with
chalk inch by inch.

 

Arkusz egzaminacyjny: wersja B

A. Looking at the lower part of the slope, I notice the small figures of people climbing slowly
towards the hillside where the chalk horse is.

B. To the people who live there, the white figure of a horse springing timelessly across
the side of the hill is part of the background of their daily life.

C. Back then, thousands of people used to come for the chalking every four years, after
which they held a fair, with dancing and singing, in the circle of a prehistoric fort nearby.

D. For example, during World War II, it was covered over with grass and leaves so that
Luftwaffe bombers couldn’t use it for navigation.

E. The cleaners, commonly called “chalkers”, kneel and whiten the stony pathways with
chalk inch by inch.

F. Archaeologists, however, believe this could have been intentional, as from the start
the horse required regular upkeep to stay visible.