Watch this short BBC video clip where a group of Italian archeologists are looking for the skeleton of Lisa Gherardini, who is believed to be the real Mona Lisa, and say what the following words refer to in the clip.
controversy
silk merchant
convent
three
carbon 14
skull
You can check your answers with the transcript below.
Could this possibly be her? The remains of the woman who inspired the world’s most famous painting, the Mona Lisa. Her identity’s been a source of huge controversy, but now she is quite widely believed to be Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a silk merchant. And the team searching for her remains reckons she was buried here, in what used to be a convent. This skeleton is the latest of three to have been unearthed so far.
Now we are entering the heart of the search, which is the most important moment. The skeleton has to be analised through carbon 14 and histological tests to gauge its age.
If they do discover Lisa Gherardini’s remains they’ll attempt to build an image of her face from the shape of her skull, and just maybe they’ll shed a little light on the reason for that mysterious smile.
Alan Johnston BBC news, Rome.
