NAME ________________________________________________________________________________ DATE _____________________________

UNIVERSITY SUCCESS Transition| Reading

TEST 3-1 | The Great Plague of London

READ

A Read the passage. As you read, mark and annotate as necessary.

The Great Plague of London
1 London in 1665 was a city of unparalleled squalor, bursting with overcrowded tenements and hemmed in
by narrow city streets that flowed with refuse and human and animal excrement. It was, in essence, a
wasteland primed for disease outbreak. Multiple plagues had already beset London during the preceding
centuries, beginning in the 14th century with the Black Death, a sweeping, global pandemic that resulted in
the death of more than half the population of the entire European continent. In London in 1665, the plague
struck again, this time killing approximately a quarter of the city’s population. The city suffered a secondary
fatal blow in 1666 when the Great Fire of London burned a large portion of the city to the ground. Following
the decimation of the city, the government rebuilt London into less of an overcrowded, grotesquely filthy
urban space. Along with revamped city planning, new health edicts improved public sanitation; both of these
factors may have contributed to the end of epidemic plague outbreaks in London.
2 What Londoners did not know then (and would not discover for another 200 hundred years or so) is that
the pestilence they faced was a disease carried by rodents that harbored fleas infected with the Yersinia
pestis bacteria. The plague occurs in three main forms: bubonic, septicemic, and pneumonic. If bitten by a
flea carrying this bacteria, humans can become infected with the most common form of the illness, the
bubonic plague, and develop “buboes,” or swollen lymph nodes. Septicemic plague can result from flea bites
or from untreated bubonic plague. In this form, the disease causes fever, chills, shock, and blackening
(necrosis) of the fingers, toes, and other tissue—hence the term, “Black Death.” If the bacteria reaches the
lungs of a person, the disease is considered the pneumonic form of plague, and can be spread from person to
person through the air. Today, this disease is extremely rare and can be treated with antibiotics. In the Middle
Ages, however, the plague was a beast that progressed with shocking virulence and killed an astonishing
number of individuals—young and elderly alike. In fact, due to its rapid spread and ghastly mortality rate,
some scholars have even speculated that the illness that clutched London in its cruel grip was not the plague,
but something else entirely, possibly a hemorrhagic fever virus, a form of anthrax, or some unknown illness.
Whatever the etiology of the disease, entire families perished in its wake.
3 Many public health edicts at the time of the outbreak were either not implemented or simply ineffective
at stopping the spread of the disease. The immediate response to the plague by city officials and medical
practitioners did nearly nothing to curtail the spread of it, particularly since people did not understand germ
theory. They treated the disease with worthless remedies such as bloodletting or by burning noxious
materials. Those who could afford to leave the city did, while the poor, who lived in crowded dwellings that
were hotspots for contagious illnesses, were left to fend for themselves. Long-standing recommendations by
physicians to fix sanitation concerns they believed caused the plague, such as open-air sewers, stagnant pools
of water, trash, and churchyards that held the corpses of the dead, had not been implemented at the time of
the acute outbreak of 1665.
4 Many government-issued edicts intended to help stop the epidemic actually made it worse. One law
imposed a forced quarantine on infected patients. Examiners marked doors with a red cross and the message
“Lord Have Mercy Upon Us,” and guards monitored the houses of the sick, allowing no one to leave nor
anyone to come into the house except individuals specially marked as examiners. This inhumane, forcible
quarantine resulted in certain death for the healthy family members remaining in the house, who would
watch one person after another die off. The public policy stopped neither the virulent spread of the illness
nor its high death toll. Another edict that was likely counterproductive was the mandate to kill dogs and cats,
which were believed to carry the illness. Since the plague is carried by fleas that are transported by rats, and
dogs and cats reduce the presence of rats, killing the wrong animals may have contributed to exacerbating
any rat problems.

UNIVERSITY SUCCESS Transition | Reading | Test 3

© 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. Permission granted to reproduce for classroom use.
NAME ________________________________________________________________________________ DATE _____________________________

5 Not all public health laws failed, however. The plague edicts that prohibited churches from meeting while
there were plague corpses on their grounds were one such example. Another successful edict marked the
individuals who transported corpses of the dead and forbade these carriers from casual contact with civilians.
Further laws were enacted in 1666 that may have helped to stop the continuing spread of the disease. Some
addressed the disposal of infected corpses by recommending the use of quicklime—a chemical solution used
for sanitary purposes—in burials. In addition, as burial sites began to become overcrowded, the government
stipulated that the bodies of plague victims be taken out of smaller churchyards in the center of the city and
brought to larger burial sites. The bodies were transported and buried at night when fewer people would
come into contact with the corpses.
6 Later the same year, urban planning efforts after the fire of 1666 led to the rebuilding of the city and an
improved cityscape that allowed for more open space. The designs not only created less of a risk for fire, they
also improved sanitation. The buildings of timber and pitch that were infested with plague-ridden fleas had all
gone up in flames, and in their place, citizens built brick and stone buildings. Streets were widened, and the
government mandated that garbage be carried away from the roads. In addition, open-air sewers were
banned, though a functioning sewer system would not be put in place in London until much later, during the
1800s.
7 The Great Plague of London marked the last major epidemic of plague in England. Since there were no
further widespread outbreaks in London, it is logical to assume that the laws and new urban design improved
public health and resulted in keeping London free from plague. The last major outbreak of the plague, known
as the Modern Plague, began in China and ended with the discovery of the cause of the illness. While the
plague is still present today, it is treatable and, thankfully, rare in most countries.

B Answer the questions. Use the reading and language skills you have learned.
1 As used in Paragraph 1, the word primed most nearly means

A chemically prepared.

B able to explode.

C prepared for use.

D highly susceptible.

2 Which sentence from the passage first suggests that the plague is a multi-stage disease that can get
progressively worse?

A Paragraph 1, Sentence 1

B Paragraph 2, Sentence 4

C Paragraph 3, Sentence 4

D Paragraph 4, Sentence 3

3 In which paragraph does the author suggest that many attempts to fight the plague caused more harm than
good?

A Paragraph 1

B Paragraph 2

C Paragraph 4

D Paragraph 5

UNIVERSITY SUCCESS Transition | Reading | Test 3

© 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. Permission granted to reproduce for classroom use.
NAME ________________________________________________________________________________ DATE _____________________________

4 According to the passage, what is the most probable outcome of replacing wooden buildings with brick and
mortar buildings?

A Rats and fleas are harder to reach, increasing the spread of the disease.

B Rats and fleas have fewer places to nest, decreasing the spread of the disease.

C Fires are less likely, diminishing any organized efforts to fight the disease.

D Feelings of security lead to improved immune systems, decreasing the threat of disease.

5 Which of the following is implied in Paragraph 3?

A Doctors of the time knew exactly what caused the plague.

B Doctors of the time believed there was a correlation between poor sanitation and the spread of disease.

C The spread of the plague would have definitely been prevented if sanitation issues had been improved
earlier.

D Bloodletting was an effective treatment for other diseases, but not for the plague.

6 Which statement summarizes the main idea of Paragraph 4?

A Martial law was the only way to effectively slow the spread of the plague.

B Both quarantine and extermination were utilized with some degree of success to slow the plague’s spread.

C Neither forced quarantine nor animal extermination helped to stop the spread of the disease.

D Strategies used to stop the spread of the plague were based on ideas that had proven successful in
previous epidemics.

UNIVERSITY SUCCESS Transition | Reading | Test 3

© 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. Permission granted to reproduce for classroom use.
NAME ________________________________________________________________________________ DATE _____________________________

THINKING CRITICALLY

C The author of the passage states that new laws and improved urban design prevented future incidents of
the plague. What other cause could reasonably explain the end of the plague in London? Write an argument
supporting your position below.

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

UNIVERSITY SUCCESS Transition | Reading | Test 3

© 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. Permission granted to reproduce for classroom use.
NAME ________________________________________________________________________________ DATE _____________________________

THINKING VISUALLY

D Figure 1 depicts the body disposal and burial carts that came into use during the great plague of London.
The epidemic seemed to slow down when corpses were disposed of more quickly. This is an early example of
biohazard disposal—a practice that would prove critically important to fighting disease effectively. Figure 2
shows a modern, sterile treatment room that is used to treat highly contagious diseases such as Ebola. What
similarities do you see between medieval practices and modern medicine? What are the most noteworthy
and important differences? Draw on the passage and your knowledge of modern medical practices to list at
least three similarities and three differences.

Figure 1 Figure 2

Similarities Differences

1 1

2 2

3 3

UNIVERSITY SUCCESS Transition | Reading | Test 3

© 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. Permission granted to reproduce for classroom use.
NAME ________________________________________________________________________________ DATE _____________________________

UNIVERSITY SUCCESS Transition| Reading

TEST 3-2 | The Great Plague of London

READ

A Read the passage. As you read, mark and annotate as necessary.

The Great Plague of London
1 London in 1665 was a city of unparalleled squalor, bursting with overcrowded tenements and hemmed in
by narrow city streets that flowed with refuse and human and animal excrement. It was, in essence, a
wasteland primed for disease outbreak. Multiple plagues had already beset London during the preceding
centuries, beginning in the 14th century with the Black Death, a sweeping, global pandemic that resulted in
the death of more than half the population of the entire European continent. In London in 1665, the plague
struck again, this time killing approximately a quarter of the city’s population. The city suffered a secondary
fatal blow in 1666 when the Great Fire of London burned a large portion of the city to the ground. Following
the decimation of the city, the government rebuilt London into less of an overcrowded, grotesquely filthy
urban space. Along with revamped city planning, new health edicts improved public sanitation; both of these
factors may have contributed to the end of epidemic plague outbreaks in London.
2 What Londoners did not know then (and would not discover for another 200 hundred years or so) is that
the pestilence they faced was a disease carried by rodents that harbored fleas infected with the Yersinia
pestis bacteria. The plague occurs in three main forms: bubonic, septicemic, and pneumonic. If bitten by a
flea carrying this bacteria, humans can become infected with the most common form of the illness, the
bubonic plague, and develop “buboes,” or swollen lymph nodes. Septicemic plague can result from flea bites
or from untreated bubonic plague. In this form, the disease causes fever, chills, shock, and blackening
(necrosis) of the fingers, toes, and other tissue—hence the term, “Black Death.” If the bacteria reaches the
lungs of a person, the disease is considered the pneumonic form of plague, and can be spread from person to
person through the air. Today, this disease is extremely rare and can be treated with antibiotics. In the Middle
Ages, however, the plague was a beast that progressed with shocking virulence and killed an astonishing
number of individuals—young and elderly alike. In fact, due to its rapid spread and ghastly mortality rate,
some scholars have even speculated that the illness that clutched London in its cruel grip was not the plague,
but something else entirely, possibly a hemorrhagic fever virus, a form of anthrax, or some unknown illness.
Whatever the etiology of the disease, entire families perished in its wake.
3 Many public health edicts at the time of the outbreak were either not implemented or simply ineffective
at stopping the spread of the disease. The immediate response to the plague by city officials and medical
practitioners did nearly nothing to curtail the spread of it, particularly since people did not understand germ
theory. They treated the disease with worthless remedies such as bloodletting or by burning noxious
materials. Those who could afford to leave the city did, while the poor, who lived in crowded dwellings that
were hotspots for contagious illnesses, were left to fend for themselves. Long-standing recommendations by
physicians to fix sanitation concerns they believed caused the plague, such as open-air sewers, stagnant pools
of water, trash, and churchyards that held the corpses of the dead, had not been implemented at the time of
the acute outbreak of 1665.
4 Many government-issued edicts intended to help stop the epidemic actually made it worse. One law
imposed a forced quarantine on infected patients. Examiners marked doors with a red cross and the message
“Lord Have Mercy Upon Us,” and guards monitored the houses of the sick, allowing no one to leave nor
anyone to come into the house except individuals specially marked as examiners. This inhumane, forcible
quarantine resulted in certain death for the healthy family members remaining in the house, who would
watch one person after another die off. The public policy stopped neither the virulent spread of the illness
nor its high death toll. Another edict that was likely counterproductive was the mandate to kill dogs and cats,
which were believed to carry the illness. Since the plague is carried by fleas that are transported by rats, and
dogs and cats reduce the presence of rats, killing the wrong animals may have contributed to exacerbating
any rat problems.
5 Not all public health laws failed, however. The plague edicts that prohibited churches from meeting while
there were plague corpses on their grounds were one such example. Another successful edict marked the

UNIVERSITY SUCCESS Transition | Reading | Test 3

© 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. Permission granted to reproduce for classroom use.
NAME ________________________________________________________________________________ DATE _____________________________

individuals who transported corpses of the dead and forbade these carriers from casual contact with civilians.
Further laws were enacted in 1666 that may have helped to stop the continuing spread of the disease. Some
addressed the disposal of infected corpses by recommending the use of quicklime—a chemical solution used
for sanitary purposes—in burials. In addition, as burial sites began to become overcrowded, the government
stipulated that the bodies of plague victims be taken out of smaller churchyards in the center of the city and
brought to larger burial sites. The bodies were transported and buried at night when fewer people would
come into contact with the corpses.
6 Later the same year, urban planning efforts after the fire of 1665 led to the rebuilding of the city and an
improved cityscape that allowed for more open space. The designs not only created less of a risk for fire, they
also improved sanitation. The buildings of timber and pitch that were infested with plague-ridden fleas had all
gone up in flames, and in their place, citizens built brick and stone buildings. Streets were widened, and the
government mandated that garbage be carried away from the roads. In addition, open-air sewers were
banned, though a functioning sewer system would not be put in place in London until much later, during the
1800s.
7 The Great Plague of London marked the last major epidemic of plague in England. Since there were no
further widespread outbreaks in London, it is logical to assume that the laws and new urban design improved
public health and resulted in keeping London free from plague. The last major outbreak of the plague, known
as the Modern Plague, began in China and ended with the discovery of the cause of the illness. While the
plague is still present today, it is treatable and, thankfully, rare in most countries.

B Answer the questions. Use the reading and language skills you have learned.
1 Based on the passage, which sentence describes the outcome of the London fire?

A Paragraph 1, Sentence 2

B Paragraph 1, Sentence 6

C Paragraph 2, Sentence 3

D Paragraph 5, Sentence 2

2 Which sentences from the passage describe the reason for London’s unique vulnerability to the plague?

A Paragraph 1, Sentences 1 and 2

B Paragraph 2, Sentences 2 and 3

C Paragraph 5, Sentences 1 and 2

D Paragraph 5, Sentences 3 and 4

3 The author refers to bloodletting and noxious materials primarily to

A describe some temporarily helpful medical procedures.

B show that many attempts to stop the plague could never have worked.

C demonstrate the way that the plague was able to spread rapidly.

D explain how socio-cultural factors helped to slow the spread of the disease.

UNIVERSITY SUCCESS Transition | Reading | Test 3

© 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. Permission granted to reproduce for classroom use.
NAME ________________________________________________________________________________ DATE _____________________________

4 The author’s opposition to forced quarantines is best described as both

A opportunistic and exploitive.

B situational and specific.

C humanitarian and scientific.

D practical and thrifty.

5 In the context of the passage, the author’s use of the phrase “unparalleled squalor” expresses the idea that

A London’s sanitation services were comparatively excellent for the era.

B London was built in an isolated and relatively unknown area.

C London was a very unpleasant place to live in terms of sanitation.

D there were no cities directly to the east or west of London on the same latitude.

6 Which of the following best reflects the purpose of Paragraphs 3 and 4?

A To show how the effects of the plague were mitigated

B To demonstrate that poor decision making made a bad situation worse

C To quantify the number of plague deaths on a global scale

D To argue that the epidemic’s outcome was based mainly on economics

UNIVERSITY SUCCESS Transition | Reading | Test 3

© 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. Permission granted to reproduce for classroom use.
NAME ________________________________________________________________________________ DATE _____________________________

THINKING CRITICALLY

C From bloodletting and animal extermination to forced quarantine, many attempts to halt the spread of the
plague actually made things worse. Centuries later, during construction of the Panama Canal, malaria-stricken
workers opened windows and filled hospitals with plants to fight the disease. Since malaria is transmitted via
mosquitos, this only increased the rate of infection. Why is it that those most at risk for a disease often
pursue “treatments” that only make things worse? Discuss your thoughts in a paragraph, supporting your
view with evidence from the passage.

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

UNIVERSITY SUCCESS Transition | Reading | Test 3

© 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. Permission granted to reproduce for classroom use.
NAME ________________________________________________________________________________ DATE _____________________________

THINKING VISUALLY

D Figure 1 depicts the body disposal and burial carts that came into use during the great plague of London.
The epidemic seemed to slow down when corpses were disposed of more quickly. This is an early example of
biohazard disposal—a practice that would prove critically important to fighting disease effectively. Figure 2
shows a modern, sterile treatment room that is used to treat highly contagious diseases such as Ebola. What
similarities do you see between medieval practices and modern medicine? What are the most noteworthy
and important differences? Draw on the passage and your knowledge of modern medical practices to list at
least three similarities and three differences.

Figure 1 Figure 2

Similarities Differences

1 1

2 2

3 3

UNIVERSITY SUCCESS Transition | Reading | Test 3

© 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. Permission granted to reproduce for classroom use.
NAME ________________________________________________________________________________ DATE _____________________________

UNIVERSITY SUCCESS Transition| Reading

TEST 3-3 | The Great Plague of London

READ

A Read the passage. As you read, mark and annotate as necessary.

The Great Plague of London
1 London in 1665 was a city of unparalleled squalor, bursting with overcrowded tenements and hemmed in
by narrow city streets that flowed with refuse and human and animal excrement. It was, in essence, a
wasteland primed for disease outbreak. Multiple plagues had already beset London during the preceding
centuries, beginning in the 14th century with the Black Death, a sweeping, global pandemic that resulted in
the death of more than half the population of the entire European continent. In London in 1665, the plague
struck again, this time killing approximately a quarter of the city’s population. The city suffered a secondary
fatal blow in 1666 when the Great Fire of London burned a large portion of the city to the ground. Following
the decimation of the city, the government rebuilt London into less of an overcrowded, grotesquely filthy
urban space. Along with revamped city planning, new health edicts improved public sanitation; both of these
factors may have contributed to the end of epidemic plague outbreaks in London.
2 What Londoners did not know then (and would not discover for another 200 hundred years or so) is that
the pestilence they faced was a disease carried by rodents that harbored fleas infected with the Yersinia
pestis bacteria. The plague occurs in three main forms: bubonic, septicemic, and pneumonic. If bitten by a
flea carrying this bacteria, humans can become infected with the most common form of the illness, the
bubonic plague, and develop “buboes,” or swollen lymph nodes. Septicemic plague can result from flea bites
or from untreated bubonic plague. In this form, the disease causes fever, chills, shock, and blackening
(necrosis) of the fingers, toes, and other tissue—hence the term, “Black Death.” If the bacteria reaches the
lungs of a person, the disease is considered the pneumonic form of plague, and can be spread from person to
person through the air. Today, this disease is extremely rare and can be treated with antibiotics. In the Middle
Ages, however, the plague was a beast that progressed with shocking virulence and killed an astonishing
number of individuals—young and elderly alike. In fact, due to its rapid spread and ghastly mortality rate,
some scholars have even speculated that the illness that clutched London in its cruel grip was not the plague,
but something else entirely, possibly a hemorrhagic fever virus, a form of anthrax, or some unknown illness.
Whatever the etiology of the disease, entire families perished in its wake.
3 Many public health edicts at the time of the outbreak were either not implemented or simply ineffective
at stopping the spread of the disease. The immediate response to the plague by city officials and medical
practitioners did nearly nothing to curtail the spread of it, particularly since people did not understand germ
theory. They treated the disease with worthless remedies such as bloodletting or by burning noxious
materials. Those who could afford to leave the city did, while the poor, who lived in crowded dwellings that
were hotspots for contagious illnesses, were left to fend for themselves. Long-standing recommendations by
physicians to fix sanitation concerns they believed caused the plague, such as open-air sewers, stagnant pools
of water, trash, and churchyards that held the corpses of the dead, had not been implemented at the time of
the acute outbreak of 1665.
4 Many government-issued edicts intended to help stop the epidemic actually made it worse. One law
imposed a forced quarantine on infected patients. Examiners marked doors with a red cross and the message
“Lord Have Mercy Upon Us,” and guards monitored the houses of the sick, allowing no one to leave nor
anyone to come into the house except individuals specially marked as examiners. This inhumane, forcible
quarantine resulted in certain death for the healthy family members remaining in the house, who would
watch one person after another die off. The public policy stopped neither the virulent spread of the illness
nor its high death toll. Another edict that was likely counterproductive was the mandate to kill dogs and cats,
which were believed to carry the illness. Since the plague is carried by fleas that are transported by rats, and
dogs and cats reduce the presence of rats, killing the wrong animals may have contributed to exacerbating
any rat problems.
5 Not all public health laws failed, however. The plague edicts that prohibited churches from meeting while
there were plague corpses on their grounds were one such example. Another successful edict marked the

UNIVERSITY SUCCESS Transition | Reading | Test 3

© 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. Permission granted to reproduce for classroom use.
NAME ________________________________________________________________________________ DATE _____________________________

individuals who transported corpses of the dead and forbade these carriers from casual contact with civilians.
Further laws were enacted in 1666 that may have helped to stop the continuing spread of the disease. Some
addressed the disposal of infected corpses by recommending the use of quicklime—a chemical solution used
for sanitary purposes—in burials. In addition, as burial sites began to become overcrowded, the government
stipulated that the bodies of plague victims be taken out of smaller churchyards in the center of the city and
brought to larger burial sites. The bodies were transported and buried at night when fewer people would
come into contact with the corpses.
6 Later the same year, urban planning efforts after the fire of 1665 led to the rebuilding of the city and an
improved cityscape that allowed for more open space. The designs not only created less of a risk for fire, they
also improved sanitation. The buildings of timber and pitch that were infested with plague-ridden fleas had all
gone up in flames, and in their place, citizens built brick and stone buildings. Streets were widened, and the
government mandated that garbage be carried away from the roads. In addition, open-air sewers were
banned, though a functioning sewer system would not be put in place in London until much later, during the
1800s.
7 The Great Plague of London marked the last major epidemic of plague in England. Since there were no
further widespread outbreaks in London, it is logical to assume that the laws and new urban design improved
public health and resulted in keeping London free from plague. The last major outbreak of the plague, known
as the Modern Plague, began in China and ended with the discovery of the cause of the illness. While the
plague is still present today, it is treatable and, thankfully, rare in most countries.

B Answer the questions. Use the reading and language skills you have learned.
1 Which of the following best reflects the purpose of Paragraph 1?

A To provide an in-depth look at a natural phenomenon

B To succinctly sum up the main points of the passage

C To thoroughly examine the psychology of plague victims

D To make an argument regarding how an epidemic was stopped

2 The author includes the description of the plague’s symptoms in Paragraph 2 primarily to

A suggest further reading for those interested in medicine.

B emphasize the deadliness of the plague.

C foreshadow how the disease would later be cured.

D explain the scientific cause of a superstitious belief.

3 Which sentences from the passage describe the reason for London’s unique vulnerability to the plague?

A Paragraph 1, Sentences 1 and 2

B Paragraph 2, Sentences 2 and 3

C Paragraph 5, Sentences 1 and 2

D Paragraph 5, Sentences 3 and 4

UNIVERSITY SUCCESS Transition | Reading | Test 3

© 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. Permission granted to reproduce for classroom use.
NAME ________________________________________________________________________________ DATE _____________________________

4 Sentence 5 of Paragraph 5 is intended to

A provide one of many examples of excellent decision making.

B show another ineffective medical technique of the era.

C highlight a practice that was relatively advanced for the era.

D provide an historical context for our modern funerary rites.

5 In which paragraph does the author suggest that wealthy individuals had an easier time avoiding the plague?

A Paragraph 1

B Paragraph 2

C Paragraph 3

D Paragraph 5

6 What does the use of the word functioning in Paragraph 6 imply about the sewer system?

A The London sewer system was drastically changed in 1666 after a disastrous fire necessitated rebuilding.

B When London was rebuilt after the fire of 1666, the sewer system was not significantly changed.

C The newly rebuilt London sewer system was too advanced for the time and citizens had difficulty
maintaining it.

D The London sewer system worked exceptionally well but had a tendency to break down during epidemics.

UNIVERSITY SUCCESS Transition | Reading | Test 3

© 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. Permission granted to reproduce for classroom use.
NAME ________________________________________________________________________________ DATE _____________________________

THINKING CRITICALLY

C The author of the passage states that new laws and improved urban design prevented future incidents of
the plague. What other cause could reasonably explain the end of the plague in London? Write an argument
supporting your position below.

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

UNIVERSITY SUCCESS Transition | Reading | Test 3

© 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. Permission granted to reproduce for classroom use.
NAME ________________________________________________________________________________ DATE _____________________________

THINKING VISUALLY

D Figure 1 depicts the body disposal and burial carts that came into use during the great plague of London.
The epidemic seemed to slow down when corpses were disposed of more quickly. This is an early example of
biohazard disposal—a practice that would prove critically important to fighting disease effectively. Figure 2
shows a modern, sterile treatment room that is used to treat highly contagious diseases such as Ebola. What
similarities do you see between medieval practices and modern medicine? What are the most noteworthy
and important differences? Draw on the passage and your knowledge of modern medical practices to list at
least three similarities and three differences.

Figure 1 Figure 2

Similarities Differences

1 1

2 2

3 3

UNIVERSITY SUCCESS Transition | Reading | Test 3

© 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. Permission granted to reproduce for classroom use.
NAME ________________________________________________________________________________ DATE _____________________________

UNIVERSITY SUCCESS Transition| Reading

TEST 3-4 | The Great Plague of London

READ

A Read the passage. As you read, mark and annotate as necessary.

The Great Plague of London
1 London in 1665 was a city of unparalleled squalor, bursting with overcrowded tenements and hemmed in
by narrow city streets that flowed with refuse and human and animal excrement. It was, in essence, a
wasteland primed for disease outbreak. Multiple plagues had already beset London during the preceding
centuries, beginning in the 14th century with the Black Death, a sweeping, global pandemic that resulted in
the death of more than half the population of the entire European continent. In London in 1665, the plague
struck again, this time killing approximately a quarter of the city’s population. The city suffered a secondary
fatal blow in 1666 when the Great Fire of London burned a large portion of the city to the ground. Following
the decimation of the city, the government rebuilt London into less of an overcrowded, grotesquely filthy
urban space. Along with revamped city planning, new health edicts improved public sanitation; both of these
factors may have contributed to the end of epidemic plague outbreaks in London.
2 What Londoners did not know then (and would not discover for another 200 hundred years or so) is that
the pestilence they faced was a disease carried by rodents that harbored fleas infected with the Yersinia
pestis bacteria. The plague occurs in three main forms: bubonic, septicemic, and pneumonic. If bitten by a
flea carrying this bacteria, humans can become infected with the most common form of the illness, the
bubonic plague, and develop “buboes,” or swollen lymph nodes. Septicemic plague can result from flea bites
or from untreated bubonic plague. In this form, the disease causes fever, chills, shock, and blackening
(necrosis) of the fingers, toes, and other tissue—hence the term, “Black Death.” If the bacteria reaches the
lungs of a person, the disease is considered the pneumonic form of plague, and can be spread from person to
person through the air. Today, this disease is extremely rare and can be treated with antibiotics. In the Middle
Ages, however, the plague was a beast that progressed with shocking virulence and killed an astonishing
number of individuals—young and elderly alike. In fact, due to its rapid spread and ghastly mortality rate,
some scholars have even speculated that the illness that clutched London in its cruel grip was not the plague,
but something else entirely, possibly a hemorrhagic fever virus, a form of anthrax, or some unknown illness.
Whatever the etiology of the disease, entire families perished in its wake.
3 Many public health edicts at the time of the outbreak were either not implemented or simply ineffective
at stopping the spread of the disease. The immediate response to the plague by city officials and medical
practitioners did nearly nothing to curtail the spread of it, particularly since people did not understand germ
theory. They treated the disease with worthless remedies such as bloodletting or by burning noxious
materials. Those who could afford to leave the city did, while the poor, who lived in crowded dwellings that
were hotspots for contagious illnesses, were left to fend for themselves. Long-standing recommendations by
physicians to fix sanitation concerns they believed caused the plague, such as open-air sewers, stagnant pools
of water, trash, and churchyards that held the corpses of the dead, had not been implemented at the time of
the acute outbreak of 1665.
4 Many government-issued edicts intended to help stop the epidemic actually made it worse. One law
imposed a forced quarantine on infected patients. Examiners marked doors with a red cross and the message
“Lord Have Mercy Upon Us,” and guards monitored the houses of the sick, allowing no one to leave nor
anyone to come into the house except individuals specially marked as examiners. This inhumane, forcible
quarantine resulted in certain death for the healthy family members remaining in the house, who would
watch one person after another die off. The public policy stopped neither the virulent spread of the illness
nor its high death toll. Another edict that was likely counterproductive was the mandate to kill dogs and cats,
which were believed to carry the illness. Since the plague is carried by fleas that are transported by rats, and
dogs and cats reduce the presence of rats, killing the wrong animals may have contributed to exacerbating
any rat problems.
5 Not all public health laws failed, however. The plague edicts that prohibited churches from meeting while
there were plague corpses on their grounds were one such example. Another successful edict marked the

UNIVERSITY SUCCESS Transition | Reading | Test 3

© 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. Permission granted to reproduce for classroom use.
NAME ________________________________________________________________________________ DATE _____________________________

individuals who transported corpses of the dead and forbade these carriers from casual contact with civilians.
Further laws were enacted in 1666 that may have helped to stop the continuing spread of the disease. Some
addressed the disposal of infected corpses by recommending the use of quicklime—a chemical solution used
for sanitary purposes—in burials. In addition, as burial sites began to become overcrowded, the government
stipulated that the bodies of plague victims be taken out of smaller churchyards in the center of the city and
brought to larger burial sites. The bodies were transported and buried at night when fewer people would
come into contact with the corpses.
6 Later the same year, urban planning efforts after the fire of 1665 led to the rebuilding of the city and an
improved cityscape that allowed for more open space. The designs not only created less of a risk for fire, they
also improved sanitation. The buildings of timber and pitch that were infested with plague-ridden fleas had all
gone up in flames, and in their place, citizens built brick and stone buildings. Streets were widened, and the
government mandated that garbage be carried away from the roads. In addition, open-air sewers were
banned, though a functioning sewer system would not be put in place in London until much later, during the
1800s.
7 The Great Plague of London marked the last major epidemic of plague in England. Since there were no
further widespread outbreaks in London, it is logical to assume that the laws and new urban design improved
public health and resulted in keeping London free from plague. The last major outbreak of the plague, known
as the Modern Plague, began in China and ended with the discovery of the cause of the illness. While the
plague is still present today, it is treatable and, thankfully, rare in most countries.

B Answer the questions. Use the reading and language skills you have learned.
1 The main rhetorical effect achieved by listing the city’s problems (beginning in Paragraph 3, Sentence 4) is to

A point out how difficult it is to convince others to take action before a crisis situation.

B prove that it would have been impossible to prepare for the coming plague.

C put forth the idea that the city, to any casual observer, would have seemed well prepared.

D develop a sense that, in a way, all epidemics are impossible to plan for to this day.

2 Which of the following is implied in Paragraph 3?

A Doctors of the time knew exactly what caused the plague.

B Doctors of the time believed there was a correlation between poor sanitation and the spread of disease.

C The spread of the plague would have definitely been prevented if sanitation issues had been improved
earlier.

D Bloodletting was an effective treatment for other diseases, just not for the plague.

3 In which paragraph does the author suggest that wealthy individuals had an easier time avoiding the plague?

A Paragraph 1

B Paragraph 2

C Paragraph 3

D Paragraph 5

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4 Which sentences from the passage describe the reason for London’s unique vulnerability to the plague?

A Paragraph 1, Sentences 1 and 2

B Paragraph 2, Sentences 2 and 3

C Paragraph 5, Sentences 1 and 2

D Paragraph 5, Sentences 3 and 4

5 The purpose of Paragraphs 5 and 6 is to support the author’s conclusion that

A life was generally unpleasant in 17th century London.

B people must fund modern medical research to find new cures.

C city planning and health regulations prevented additional outbreaks in London.

D those who deal directly with dangerous viruses must be separated from vulnerable populations.

6 What does the use of the word functioning in Paragraph 6 imply about the sewer system?

A The London sewer system was drastically changed in 1666 after a disastrous fire necessitated rebuilding.

B When London was rebuilt after the fire of 1666, the sewer system was not significantly changed.

C The newly rebuilt London sewer system was too advanced for the time and citizens had difficulty
maintaining it.

D The London sewer system worked exceptionally well but had a tendency to break down during epidemics.

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THINKING CRITICALLY

C From bloodletting and animal extermination to forced quarantine, many attempts to halt the spread of the
plague actually made things worse. Centuries later, during construction of the Panama Canal, malaria-stricken
workers opened windows and filled hospitals with plants to fight the disease. Since malaria is transmitted via
mosquitos, this only increased the rate of infection. Why is it that those most at risk for a disease often
pursue “treatments” that only make things worse? Discuss your thoughts in a paragraph, supporting your
view with evidence from the passage.

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

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NAME ________________________________________________________________________________ DATE _____________________________

THINKING VISUALLY

D Figure 1 depicts the body disposal and burial carts that came into use during the great plague of London.
The epidemic seemed to slow down when corpses were disposed of more quickly. This is an early example of
biohazard disposal—a practice that would prove critically important to fighting disease effectively. Figure 2
shows a modern, sterile treatment room that is used to treat highly contagious diseases such as Ebola. What
similarities do you see between medieval practices and modern medicine? What are the most noteworthy
and important differences? Draw on the passage and your knowledge of modern medical practices to list at
least three similarities and three differences.

Figure 1 Figure 2

Similarities Differences

1 1

2 2

3 3

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NAME ________________________________________________________________________________ DATE _____________________________

UNIVERSITY SUCCESS Transition| Reading

TEST 3-5 | The Great Plague of London

READ

A Read the passage. As you read, mark and annotate as necessary.

The Great Plague of London
1 London in 1665 was a city of unparalleled squalor, bursting with overcrowded tenements and hemmed in
by narrow city streets that flowed with refuse and human and animal excrement. It was, in essence, a
wasteland primed for disease outbreak. Multiple plagues had already beset London during the preceding
centuries, beginning in the 14th century with the Black Death, a sweeping, global pandemic that resulted in
the death of more than half the population of the entire European continent. In London in 1665, the plague
struck again, this time killing approximately a quarter of the city’s population. The city suffered a secondary
fatal blow in 1666 when the Great Fire of London burned a large portion of the city to the ground. Following
the decimation of the city, the government rebuilt London into less of an overcrowded, grotesquely filthy
urban space. Along with revamped city planning, new health edicts improved public sanitation; both of these
factors may have contributed to the end of epidemic plague outbreaks in London.
2 What Londoners did not know then (and would not discover for another 200 hundred years or so) is that
the pestilence they faced was a disease carried by rodents that harbored fleas infected with the Yersinia
pestis bacteria. The plague occurs in three main forms: bubonic, septicemic, and pneumonic. If bitten by a
flea carrying this bacteria, humans can become infected with the most common form of the illness, the
bubonic plague, and develop “buboes,” or swollen lymph nodes. Septicemic plague can result from flea bites
or from untreated bubonic plague. In this form, the disease causes fever, chills, shock, and blackening
(necrosis) of the fingers, toes, and other tissue—hence the term, “Black Death.” If the bacteria reaches the
lungs of a person, the disease is considered the pneumonic form of plague, and can be spread from person to
person through the air. Today, this disease is extremely rare and can be treated with antibiotics. In the Middle
Ages, however, the plague was a beast that progressed with shocking virulence and killed an astonishing
number of individuals—young and elderly alike. In fact, due to its rapid spread and ghastly mortality rate,
some scholars have even speculated that the illness that clutched London in its cruel grip was not the plague,
but something else entirely, possibly a hemorrhagic fever virus, a form of anthrax, or some unknown illness.
Whatever the etiology of the disease, entire families perished in its wake.
3 Many public health edicts at the time of the outbreak were either not implemented or simply ineffective
at stopping the spread of the disease. The immediate response to the plague by city officials and medical
practitioners did nearly nothing to curtail the spread of it, particularly since people did not understand germ
theory. They treated the disease with worthless remedies such as bloodletting or by burning noxious
materials. Those who could afford to leave the city did, while the poor, who lived in crowded dwellings that
were hotspots for contagious illnesses, were left to fend for themselves. Long-standing recommendations by
physicians to fix sanitation concerns they believed caused the plague, such as open-air sewers, stagnant pools
of water, trash, and churchyards that held the corpses of the dead, had not been implemented at the time of
the acute outbreak of 1665.
4 Many government-issued edicts intended to help stop the epidemic actually made it worse. One law
imposed a forced quarantine on infected patients. Examiners marked doors with a red cross and the message
“Lord Have Mercy Upon Us,” and guards monitored the houses of the sick, allowing no one to leave nor
anyone to come into the house except individuals specially marked as examiners. This inhumane, forcible
quarantine resulted in certain death for the healthy family members remaining in the house, who would
watch one person after another die off. The public policy stopped neither the virulent spread of the illness
nor its high death toll. Another edict that was likely counterproductive was the mandate to kill dogs and cats,
which were believed to carry the illness. Since the plague is carried by fleas that are transported by rats, and
dogs and cats reduce the presence of rats, killing the wrong animals may have contributed to exacerbating
any rat problems.
5 Not all public health laws failed, however. The plague edicts that prohibited churches from meeting while
there were plague corpses on their grounds were one such example. Another successful edict marked the

UNIVERSITY SUCCESS Transition | Reading | Test 3

© 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. Permission granted to reproduce for classroom use.
NAME ________________________________________________________________________________ DATE _____________________________

individuals who transported corpses of the dead and forbade these carriers from casual contact with civilians.
Further laws were enacted in 1666 that may have helped to stop the continuing spread of the disease. Some
addressed the disposal of infected corpses by recommending the use of quicklime—a chemical solution used
for sanitary purposes—in burials. In addition, as burial sites began to become overcrowded, the government
stipulated that the bodies of plague victims be taken out of smaller churchyards in the center of the city and
brought to larger burial sites. The bodies were transported and buried at night when fewer people would
come into contact with the corpses.
6 Later the same year, urban planning efforts after the fire of 1665 led to the rebuilding of the city and an
improved cityscape that allowed for more open space. The designs not only created less of a risk for fire, they
also improved sanitation. The buildings of timber and pitch that were infested with plague-ridden fleas had all
gone up in flames, and in their place, citizens built brick and stone buildings. Streets were widened, and the
government mandated that garbage be carried away from the roads. In addition, open-air sewers were
banned, though a functioning sewer system would not be put in place in London until much later, during the
1800s.
7 The Great Plague of London marked the last major epidemic of plague in England. Since there were no
further widespread outbreaks in London, it is logical to assume that the laws and new urban design improved
public health and resulted in keeping London free from plague. The last major outbreak of the plague, known
as the Modern Plague, began in China and ended with the discovery of the cause of the illness. While the
plague is still present today, it is treatable and, thankfully, rare in most countries.

B Answer the questions. Use the reading and language skills you have learned.
1 The word etiology in Paragraph 2 most nearly means

A volatility.

B genealogy.

C pathology.

D psychology.
2 In which paragraph does the author suggest that many attempts to fight the plague caused more harm than
good?

A Paragraph 1

B Paragraph 2

C Paragraph 4

D Paragraph 5

3 Which statement summarizes the main idea of Paragraph 4?

A Martial law was the only way to effectively slow the spread of the plague.

B Both quarantine and extermination were utilized with some degree of success to slow the plague’s spread.

C Strategies used to stop the spread of the plague were based on ideas that had proven successful in
previous epidemics.

D Neither forced quarantine nor animal extermination helped to stop the spread of the disease.

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NAME ________________________________________________________________________________ DATE _____________________________

4 The author refers to bloodletting and noxious materials primarily to

A describe some temporarily helpful medical procedures.

B show that many attempts to stop the plague could never have worked.

C demonstrate the way that the plague was able to spread rapidly.

D explain how socio-cultural factors helped to slow the spread of the disease.

5 Which sentence from the passage first suggests that the plague is a multi-stage disease that can get
progressively worse?

A Paragraph 1, Sentence 1

B Paragraph 2, Sentence 4

C Paragraph 3, Sentence 4

D Paragraph 4, Sentence 3

6 Sentence 5 of Paragraph 5 is intended to

A provide one of many examples of excellent decision making.

B show another ineffective medical technique of the era.

C highlight a practice that was relatively advanced for the era.

D provide an historical context for our modern funerary rites.

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NAME ________________________________________________________________________________ DATE _____________________________

THINKING CRITICALLY

C The author of the passage states that new laws and improved urban design prevented future incidents of
the plague. What other cause could reasonably explain the end of the plague in London? Write an argument
supporting your position below.

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

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© 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. Permission granted to reproduce for classroom use.
NAME ________________________________________________________________________________ DATE _____________________________

THINKING VISUALLY

D Figure 1 depicts the body disposal and burial carts that came into use during the great plague of London.
The epidemic seemed to slow down when corpses were disposed of more quickly. This is an early example of
biohazard disposal—a practice that would prove critically important to fighting disease effectively. Figure 2
shows a modern, sterile treatment room that is used to treat highly contagious diseases such as Ebola. What
similarities do you see between medieval practices and modern medicine? What are the most noteworthy
and important differences? Draw on the passage and your knowledge of modern medical practices to list at
least three similarities and three differences.

Figure 1 Figure 2

Similarities Differences

1 1

2 2

3 3

UNIVERSITY SUCCESS Transition | Reading | Test 3

© 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. Permission granted to reproduce for classroom use.