Prose Unseens for A-Level Latin: A Guide through Roman History, Mathew Owen

This volume is designed to accompany the OCR A-Level specification in Latin (first teaching September 2016), with practice unseen passages from Livy, the set prose for Paper 1, together with passages from a selection of other writers to support Paper 2, for which no author is set. A bank of 80 passages aims to take Sixth Form students from the level of heavily adapted post-GCSE (AS-equivalent) passages and develop their knowledge and skills to reach A-Level standard.

But this is not just a book of unseen passages: there is a chronological progression through the unseens in order to give the reader a sense of the narrative of Roman history, exploring key events through the words of original texts. Every passage begins with an introduction, outlining the basic content of the passage, followed by a lead-in sentence, paraphrasing the few lines before the passage begins. Part 1 passages are straight translation exercises on the model of the A-Level Paper 1. They also feature, however, a Discendum box, highlighting a facet of Latin prose with which students may not be familiar, or extension questions on grammar and style. Part 2 passages are accompanied by questions on comprehension, translation and grammar, replicating the demands of Paper 2 in full.

An extensive word list is provided in the form of checklists which build the readers knowledge of the most commonly occurring words and phrases in Latin prose. The passages are punctuated with discussions of Roman history during the periods covered in the passages, and a comprehensive introduction includes portraits of the authors featured in the book, as well as grammatical reminders to help readers deal with both the trickier elements of unseen prose and with A-Level grammatical analysis questions.