Read the text and match its paragrafhs (a—f) with the titles (1—7). There is one title you don't have to use.

When was the Umbrella invented?

1) The Unmbrella' s Firist Appearance in Europe.
2) The Umbrella as a Weapon
3) The Latest Changes in the Umbrella Style
4) The First Function of the Umbrella
5) The Umbrella' s Disappearance and Reappearance in Europe.
6) The Umbrella as a Symbol of a Person' s Importance
7) The Nation That Invented the Umbrella

a) It seems so natural to put up an umbrella to keep the water off when it rains. But the imbrella was not invented profection against rain. Its first use was to protect people against the sun.
b) Nobody knows who first invented it, but the umbrella was used in very ancient times. Probably the first to use it were the Chihnese is the eleventh century B.C.! We knkw that the umbrella was used in ancient Egypt too.

c) And there was a strange thing about the umbrella in those days. It showed that a person who hand it belonged to people of high social status. In the Far East in ancient times, the umbrella wasn allowed to be used only by the members of royal familiens or by thouse in high office.

b) In Europe, the Creeks were the first to use the umbrella and they used it as protection against the umbrella as protection against the rain, were the ancient Pomans.

e) During the Middle Ages the umbrella practically stopped being used. Then people began making them again in italy in the late sixteenth century. And again it was suppsosed to be a symbol of power and authority. By 1680, the umbrella appeared in Frence, and later on in England.

f) By the nineteenth century, the umbrella was used agaist rain by peoples of most Evropean countres. Umbrellas have not shanged much in style durning all this time, though they have become much linghter in weight. It wash' t until the twentieth century that women' s umbrellas began to be made in different colours.