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TIMESAVER BRITISH HISTORY HIGHLIGHTS Dreadful disasters

The Black Death

The Black Death* was a horrible illness*. It came to Britain in 1348
and travelled across the country. It killed thousands of people.

1 Read the text and draw the route of the Black Death on the map.

The path* of death

The Black Death came to London in
the summer of 1348. Then it travelled
SCOTLAND
along the coast to East Anglia. After
that, it arrived in the Midlands and
then in Wales. In the late summer
of 1349 it went across the sea to
Northern Ireland.
The Scots hated the English at this Durham
time. They thought, ‘Good! The NORTHERN
English aren’t strong at the moment. IRELAND
Let’s go and fight them!’ They decided
to invade* Durham in the north of
England. Perhaps they caught the
illness there. In 1350, the Black Death
arrived in Scotland. It was impossible Midlands East
Anglia
to escape from this terrible illness.
WALES

ENGLAND

London

2 Write the words from the rat in the correct places in the table.

Signs of the illness Causes* Treatment*

headache
............................................................................... ............................................................................... ..............................................................................

............................................................................... ............................................................................... ..............................................................................

............................................................................... ............................................................................... ..............................................................................

............................................................................... ............................................................................... ..............................................................................

............................................................................... ............................................................................... ..............................................................................

3 What was the real cause and the best treatment?

headache
Read the text on the next page and check your ideas.
God was angry fever*
1 The real cause was coughing* up blood eating grass
touching an ill person drinking bad water
............................................................................... rats swellings* on the body
taking blood from the ill person
2 The best treatment was killing cats and dogs
leaving the cities
...............................................................................
bad air*

44 TIMESAVER BRITISH HISTORY HIGHLIGHTS © MARY GLASGOW MAGAZINES, AN IMPRINT OF SCHOLASTIC INC.
TS_history2 15/9/05 12:46 pm Page 45
TIMESAVER BRITISH HISTORY HIGHLIGHTS Dreadful disasters
The signs of illness
The ill person felt tired and had a headache and fever.
They had swellings under their arms and on other
parts of their body. Then they started to cough blood.
They usually died about three days later.
What was the cause? For many years, nobody
knew the real cause. People had different ideas:
‘God is angry with the world and he wants
to show us that.’
‘Don’t touch the ill people. They will give
us the illness too!’
‘Don’t drink the water. It’s bad!’
‘The air is bad! Put something over your face!’
‘It’s the rats! They’re bringing the illness
into our streets and houses!’
It wasn’t exactly the rats. The fleas* on the rats were
the real cause. They carried germs*. When a rat died,
the fleas looked for a new place to live. They jumped
onto cats, dogs and, of course, people!
The Great Plague*
4 Read the texts about the Black Death and the Great Plague again.
Answer these questions.
1 When did the Black Death first come to London?
2 When did it arrive in Scotland?
3 How long did it usually take to kill someone?
4 How many people in London died of it in the 1340s?
5 What did people call the illness in 1665?
6 How many people in London died of it between
1665 and 1666?
TIMESAVER BRITISH HISTORY HIGHLIGHTS © MARY GLASGOW MAGAZINES, AN IMPRINT OF SCHOLASTIC INC.
What was the treatment? People tried everything
to stop the illness. They ate strange things like grass
and made horrible drinks. Some doctors said, ‘This
illness is in the blood!’ And they took blood from
the ill person’s body. Some people killed their cats
and dogs. They believed the illness came from them.
The best idea was to escape from the towns and
cities, and go into the country. But only rich people
could do that.
Poor people
had to stay in
their houses.
The Black Death was terrible. About half the people
of London died in the 1340s because of the Black
Death. But the illness didn’t disappear. In 1665 it
came back to London. This time people called
it, ‘The Great Plague.’
When a family got the plague, people drew a cross on
the front door of their house. Carts went around the
city, and the driver shouted, ‘Bring out your dead.’
Then he took the dead bodies away.
One third of the people in London died of the plague
between 1665 and 1666.
Now we know the cause of the illness and we can
fight it. But in some parts of the world, the plague
has not disappeared. It is still killing people today.
Personal Project
- Were there any terrible
in 1348
............................................... illnesses in your country in the
............................................... past? Why did people get
them? What were the cures?
............................................... - Choose one past illness and
...............................................
find out more about it.
...............................................
............................................... * What is it in your language?
Find out!
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