Page 48 - Complete First B2 (third edition) Workbook

11

Reading and Use of English Part 6
If you can’t decide on a sentence for a
You are going to read an article about the use of medicinal gap, don’t spend too much time thinking
herbs in the past. Six sentences have been removed from about it. Skip it and return to it at er you
the article. Choose from the sentences A–G the one which have completed the others. You will then

its each gap (1–6). There is one sentence which you do not have fewer sentences let to choose from.
need to use.

M e d i c i n e i n t h e D a r k A g e
Medicine in the Dark Agess

4 It was believed that if a
patient took different combinations of
herbs, this would balance the humours
and cure the patient.

For example, if someone had a fever,
they were diagnosed as having too
much blood or yellow bile, and therefore
required a cooling herb, such as sage.
This had been brought to Britain by
the Romans, who called it salvia.
5 Camomile flowers were

used in herbal teas as a relaxant and to
Most of Britain was occupied by the meant frequent deaths from lung help with digestive problems, and were
Romans for nearly 400 years, and infections; wounds and skin diseases rubbed on the skin to treat infections.

when the last of them left 1,600 years were common; and due to a limited The leaves and yellow flowers of PDF from sachtienganhhanoi.com
ago to defend Rome itself from hostile diet, digestive diseases caused by a lack the comfrey plant were used to help
tribes, the remaining inhabitants were of nutrients were typical. Contagious cure broken bones and stop internal
left to take care of themselves. The six diseases, such as leprosy, tuberculosis bleeding. Pennyroyal was used to
hundred years of unrest and invasion and possibly even a form of malaria, combat the effects of poison.
that followed were known as the Dark were also widespread. A multitude of different plants was
Ages. 1 The Roman way
All monasteries had a medicinal used to cure illnesses and diseases, and
of life, with its economic and social
plant garden attached to their farms. many of them are still recognised today

structures and its scientific knowledge, 3 The monks would mix as being effective. The Romans may
was quickly forgotten.
combinations of these into medicines to have left Britain, but the legacy of their
2 These were preserved and be consumed or rubbed into the body. In medical practices remains. 6
continued in religious communities many cases, mixtures of different herbs Even today when we have a camomile
such as monasteries, now the only were used to manage the ‘humours’, tea for a good night’s sleep, or use mint
source of medical care. Unsanitary according to the theory of the ancient to freshen our breath, we are following
living conditions throughout the land Greek physician, Hippocrates. practices left by the Romans.

A They were illed with a variety of herbs and plants used to E However, it seems that one of the few areas of knowledge

treat diferent illnesses. that survived the departure of the Romans was their

B Roman doctors stayed in Britain so that they could medicinal practices.
continue to help people. F They used it in medicine and also ate it with lots of
C The idea was that the body required the four bodily liquids onions and garlic.
– blood, mucus, yellow bile and black bile – in G Towns were abandoned and people returned to a
equal measure. completely rural existence.
D They were continued by the monasteries for nearly 1,000
years, right up to the beginnings of modern medicine.

46