Question

Why do men wear beards?

When you see a man with a beard, doesn’t he somehow look impressive and important? In the history of man, this has been the way people looked upon beards. It was a sign of manhood.

That’s why you will find that in ancient times, when an important person was shown, he was usually shown with beard. The Greek god, Zeus, was shown with a bird; drawing representing god showed a beard; Abraham and King Arthur were always pictured with beards.

In the western civilization, there is no general rule about beards. Sometimes they were considered stylish and right for man to have, sometimes no man would want to be seen with a beard.

Long before the conquests of England by the Normans, the beard was considered unfashionable and not worn by men. Then the style changed and beards became popular again. The kings of England, who set the fashions that men followed, demonstrated different tastes for beards. For example, Henry the second had a small beard, Henry the third had a long beard.

By the middle of the thirteenth century, most men were wearing full and curled beards, and it was common in the fourteenth century. Then beards disappeared again during the fifteenth century, and slowly began to come back into fashion with the sixteenth century. It was Henry the eighth, who made the beards the fashionable again.

During the time of Queen Elizabeth the first, lawyers, soldiers, courtiers and merchants all had beards. But Ann became queen of England, Nobody who was anybody either a beard or moustache or whiskers. In fact, when George the third was imprisoned and his beard was allowed to grow, many of his followers felt this was the most horrible and insulting thing of all.

So, you see that shaving the beard off for a man has not been simply a question of having a razor. These have existed for thousand of years. To wear a beard or not has been simply a question of style.

‘True’ or ‘False’?

ancient times people that a beard made a man look more important.

B2. Fashion for beards changed with time.

B3.On the British Isles men began shaving their beards off only as result of Norman conquest.

B4. All English kings wore small beards.

B5. Henry the eighth lived in the sixteenth century.

B6. Razors have appeared only recently and when they appeared the fashion for beards changed.

Answer 1

B2 true B3 false B4 true B5 true B6 false