CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS

Christopher Columbus was born in 1451 in Genoa, Italy. His brother

was a chart maker in Lisbon, Portugal. Columbus studied chart making
with his brother.
Most people of Columbus’ time knew that earth was round. Not many
thought that you could get all the way around it by boat.
Columbus was very interested in exploring. He wanted to travel the seas
all the way around the world. At that time, people were looking for a
new way to get to Asia, because it was an important place for trading.
But it was hard to reach there by going east across the land. However,
Columbus thought that he could reach Asia by going west across the sea.
He asked many people to help him with his big trip. Finally, Queen
Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain gave him the amount of money he
needed for the trip.
In August1492, Columbus and ninety men set sail. They went on three
ships: Santa Maria, Niña and Pinta. It was a very hard trip! Many of
Columbus’ men became sick and all of them were tired. In October
1492, they finally saw a land. At first, Columbus and his men thought
that they were in the Indies (in Asia). Also they thought that the people
they saw were Indians. Later they learnt that they were not in Asia, but
they were very happy to have a new place to trade with. Columbus
named the area where they landed San Salvador.
Today in the United States, Columbus Day is on the second Monday in
October every year. Banks and government offices are closed to honour
this famous explorer.

A) Read the text above carefully and then answer the following
questions.
1- Where was Christopher Columbus born?
………………………………………………………………………
2- What did most people of Columbus’ time know about the earth?
……………………………………………………………………………
3- What was Columbus interested in?
……………………………………………………………………………
4- Who gave Columbus the amount of money he needed for the trip?
……………………………………………………………………………
5- What are the names of the three ships which Columbus and his men
went on?
Santa Maria, ……………… and …………………..
B) Decide if the following sentences are True (T) or False (F).
1- Christopher Columbus was born in 1541. ( )
2- Columbus did not ask people to help him in his big trip. ( )
3- Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand were from Spain. ( )
4- Nine hundred men set sail with Christopher Columbus. ( )
5- The underlined word (they) in the third paragraph refers to Columbus
and King Ferdinand. ( )
6- The underlined word (famous) in the last paragraph is an adjective.
( )
(C) Find the following from the text.
1- Two nouns: ………………….. ………………………..
2- Two adverbs : ………………… ………………………..
3- Tow prepositions : ……………… ………………………