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SEASONS OF 1795

History is the observation and recording of facts by an historian.

Review Questions

Vocabulary:
erratic, fatigue, searing, lament, inclemency, yield, bounteous, plague, voracious, mercenary, granary, insatiable, ransom, quash, embargo, famine, commissary, awestruck.

1. Why was Simcoe angry with the merchants?

2. What did he propose doing about the shortage of food? Why did Dorchester disagree?

3. Upper Canada was hard hit by nature's fury. Write an imaginary newspaper article on 'nature's nastiness' in 1795.

4. Simcoe disobeyed Dorchester's directions regarding use of government food. Was he right or wrong? Explain your answer.

5. Why do you think winter cured the settlement's sickness?

6. Unusual weather patterns occurred in Ontario two hundred years ago. In some respects the weather that year was not unlike weather we have been experiencing which is attributed to our pollution of the planet with carbon dioxide. Some scientists disagree and say it is part of nature's normal cycle. What do you think?

7. Explain: (a) parched fields; (b) plagued by voracious foreigners; (c) mercenary troops; (d) insatiably; (e) laid low with ague.

8. What does "held to ransom" mean?

9. Explain why prices would be higher when goods were scarce.

10. Briefly summarize the main theme and the important details of this narrative.

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