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KILLER CHOLERA

History is post-mortem.

Review Questions

Vocabulary: quarantine, fumigation, contagious, contaminate, arbitrary, pestilential, ominously, verily, toxin, peremptorily, rehydrate,

1. Create a diary entry for a day at sea on an emigrant ship.

2. "It came like a despot king." Identify and explain this figure of speech.

3. (a) Why would the authorities wait to take action until cholera began to occur among 'the better sort'? (b) What does this tell you about society at the time? (c) What is this called? (d) Cite another example of it.

4. Explain: (a) the press killed more on this continent than cholera; (b) the disease was rampant throughout Europe; (c) the false assumption that cholera was contagious; (d) the better sort; (e) the lower classes; (f) taken the law into their own hands.

5. What is meant by 'military bases were oases of safety'?

6. Define 'metaphor', find an example of a metaphor in this narrative and explain it.

7. "The lowest orders of Niagara had taken the law into their own hands." (a) Who were these people, what did they do and why was their action tolerated by the authorities?

8. Explain the phrase 'post mortem'. Why is history post mortem?

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