Of all the mythological creatures, few have captured the human imagination as much as the dragon. It appears in the literature and legends of cultures as diverse as China, Japan, Iran, the Mayans, classical Greece, Rome, Judaism, the Babylonians, ancient Egypt, and medieval Europe.
These fascinating creatures have taken different forms and qualities in the mythologies of different cultures throughout history. To the Chinese, a dragon was an immensely wise animal which brought good luck. But for the Norsemen of Scandinavia, it was an evil, terrifying and treacherous monster.
And to the ancient Greeks, the dragon was often a creature of intelligence and virtue - and might be found guarding shrines dedicated to the gods. All these dragons do have some things in common, however. They tend to be shown with huge bat -like wings, long toothed jaws like a crocodile, piercing eyes, sharp eagle -like talons and huge scaly bodies - and they can often breathe fire. Another common point is that they're always creatures of immense power and strength.
But where do dragons come from? The creatures they most resemble, in size and shape, are dinosaurs - but since the last dinosaurs died out tens of millions of years before the first humans ever appeared, that seems an unlikely source of inspiration. One theory is that the earliest humans may have evolved when huge lizards - smaller than dinosaurs, but larger than anything known today - were still around. Another theory is that the dragon represents something submerged in the human subconscious. It's fun to speculate, but nobody knows for sure.
Find the words in the text that mean: (?)
Ayuda: :clever (= listo) es un adjetivo igual que su sinÃ³nimo wise.
Ayuda: keeping es un verbo en gerundio (acaba en –ing). Significa “guardar, conservar”. Su sinÃ³nimo debe ser otro verbo en gerundio: guarding.
Ayuda: look like es un verbo transitivo que significa “parecerse a”. Su sinÃ³nimo es otro verbo de igual significado: resemble.
Ayuda: hidden es un participio irregular (hide – hid – hidden) que significa escondido. Submerged es un participio regular (acaba en –ed) con un significado parecido.