The Plague's Progress
Activity
Read the text and do the exercises
The plague started in China and made its way west across Asia to the Black Sea by 1347. One theory is that a group of infected Tartars besieged a Genoese outpost on the coast. To harass the trapped townspeople, the Tartars used their catapults to hurl the dead bodies of their comrades over the town walls spreading the epidemic among the Genoese. The panicked inhabitants fled the scene by ship showing up in the ports of northern Italy and bringing the Black Death to Europe
In the year, 1348, in Melcombe in the county of Dorset,
a little before the feast of St John the Baptist, two ships, one of
them from Bristol, came alongside. One of the sailors had brought with
him from Gascony the seeds of the terrible pestilence, and through him
the men of that town of Melcombe were the first in England to be
infected.- Grey Friar's Chronicle, Lynn.
Choose the correct answer1.- Who brought the plague to the Black Sea?
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The Genoese
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The Chinese
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The Tartars
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2.- What is the meaning of the verb 'besieged'?
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surrounded (a place) with armed forces in order to capture it or farce its surrender
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made helpless
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put in a very difficult situation
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3.- Why did the Tartars catapult the dead bodies of their camrades into the outpost?
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Because the dead bodies were infected.
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In order to spread the plague among the inhabitants of the outpost.
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4.- Click on the word 'Melcombe' in the text and find out where it is
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In the south-est of England
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In the south-west of England
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In the west of England
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