Unit 8.6        Essay Completion

Look again at the examination question about change management (from exercise 8.1). This time you've been given the first letters of the missing words - which you've also studied in the other exercises in unit 1. To check the answers, click in the circle after each word and to check the meaning and see other examples of the word, click on the gap.   

Briefly summarise the origins and effects of the plague known as the ‘Black Death’ in 14^th Century  Europe.

It is generally agreed that the Black Death was caused by Bubonic Plague – a disease passed to humans from rats by fleas. However, the medical evidence is amb                   and some writers believe that the Black Death was a  com                          phe                         which con                         of more than one disease. Recent ana                     of teeth from 14^th century skeletons have failed to produce clear medical evidence.

The disease is likely to have originated in central Asia and to have been spread through Europe and Asia by war and trade activities. The poor weather and lack of food during the early part of the 14^th Century was also a sig                        fac                    in the Black Death, as it must have left the population weakened.

The effects of the Black Death enc                         every aspect of Mediaeval society. No acc                      records of population exist for this period, but it is est                  to have fallen by app                         40 % during the first major outbreak between 1348 and 1350. An even higher pro                      of the inhabitants of cities was probably affected due to the insanitary conditions there. The economic effects in England and France were compounded by war and the ineffectiveness of the Church and States to form a coh                         response to the crisis.

In the long run, the Black Death probably con                  to greater social mobility and reduced the authority of the church and state, sowing the seeds of later social and religious upheaval.

Vocabulary notes: If research is inconclusive, it means that the researchers didn’t have clear enough results to form any clear conclusion. To originate (in) means to come from. An outbreak of a disease is when a disease suddenly affects a lot of people in one place. Insanitary conditions are dirty and unhealthy. If a problem is compounded, it’s made worse. A farmer sows seeds in springtime and these slowly grow into plants. If something ‘sows the seeds’ of a later problem, it means it is the original cause of a problem which happens later.

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