(A)
Christopher Columbus (before 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) 1.
______ (be) an Italian explorer,
navigator, and colonist who 2.______________
(complete) four
voyages across the Atlantic Ocean under the auspices of
the Catholic Monarchs of
Castile and Aragon. He 3.__________ (lead) the first European expeditions to
the Caribbean, Central
America, and South America,
initiating the permanent European
colonization of the Americas. Columbus 4.______________ (discover) a
viable sailing route to the Americas, a continent that was then unknown to
the Old World. While what he 5._________
(think) he had discovered was a route to
the Far East, he is credited with the opening of the Americas for conquest and
settlement by Europeans.
(B) Columbus's early life is
somewhat obscure, but scholars generally agree that he was born in the Republic of Genoa and 6.______________
(speak) a dialect of Ligurian as
his first language. He 7. ___________ (go) to sea at a young age and 8.___________
(travel) widely, as far north as the British Isles (and possibly Iceland) and
as far south as what is now Ghana. He 9.____________
(marry) a Portuguese noblewoman Filipa Moniz Perestrelo and they 10._________ (be) based in Lisbon for several years, but later took
a Castilian mistress; he 11.____________ (have) one son with each woman. Though
largely self-educated, Columbus 12.___________ (read) a lot of geography,
astronomy, and history. He 13.____________ (formulate) a plan to seek a western
sea passage to the East
Indies, hoping to profit from the lucrative spice trade.
(C) After Columbus lobbied them for years, the Catholic Monarchs
of Castile and Aragon agreed to
sponsor a journey west, in the name of the Crown of Castile. Columbus 14.____________
(leave) Castile in August 1492 with three ships, la Pinta, la Niña and la Santa
María, and after a stopover in the Canary
Islands, he 15.__________ (make) landfall in the Americas on 12
October (now celebrated as Columbus
Day). His landing place 16._____ (be) an island in the Bahamas: its native
inhabitants 17._________ (know) it as Guanahani; its exact location is uncertain.
Columbus also 18._______________ (visit) Cuba and Hispaniola, and 19._______________
(establish) a colony in what is now Haiti.
He 20.____________ (arrive) back in Castile in early 1493, and he 21._____________
(bring) a number of vegetables with him: cocoa, potatoes, tomates, etc. Word of his discoveries soon
22._____________ (spread) throughout Europe.
(D) Columbus 23.___________ (make) three further voyages to the New World, exploring the Lesser Antilles in 1493, Trinidad and the northern coast of South America in 1498, and the eastern coast of Central America in 1502. Many of the names he 24.__________ (give) to geographical features—particularly islands—are still in use. He 25.____________ (continue) to seek a passage to the East Indies, and the extent to which he was aware that the Americas 26.____________ (be) a wholly separate landmass is uncertain; he 27.__________ (give) the name indios ("Indians") to the indigenous peoples he 28.______________ (encounter).
(E) Columbus's expeditions 29._____________ (inaugurate) a
period of exploration, conquest, and colonization that 30._____________ (last)
for centuries, and he 31.____________ (help) create the modern Western
world. The transfers between the Old World and New World that
32.______________ (follow) his first voyage are known as the Columbian exchange, and historians 33.___________
(name) the period of human habitation in the Americas prior to his arrival... the Pre-Columbian era.
Adapted from Wikipedia
a) How many
voyages ______ Columbus complete? _____
b) How many children ____ he have? ____
c) How many ships ____ he take on his first voyage? _____
d) When ____ he first
depart? _____
e) What period ___ he inaugurate? Medieval/modern/contemporary age
EXTRA: DO YOU KNOW...Which city did he depart
from in Spain?
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