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QuizMultiple Choice

Part 2: Summarizing Central Ideas about Elizabethan England — Quiz

Question 3 • British Literature and Composition

Read the excerpt from The Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England . But what if it comes to the worst? What if you have painful black buboes in your groin and armpits, and experience the rapid pulse, the headaches, the terrific thirst, and delirium that are the tokens of the plague? There is little you can do. Physicians will prescribe the traditional medicines of dragon water, mithridatium, and theriac if they hear you are suffering but you will suspect that these are cynical attempts to relieve a dying person of his money. The physicians themselves will not normally come near you. Simon Forman, who does attend plague sufferers, is a rare exception: this is because he has himself survived the disease and believes he cannot catch it again. What is the central idea of this paragraph?

Answer
A
Symptoms were treated with dragon water or theriac.
B
Symptoms of the plague included headaches and delirium.
C
Physicians were afraid to come near patients with symptoms.
D
Physicians could not do much for victims of the plague.

Explanation

The paragraph describes the plague’s severe symptoms, ineffective traditional medicines, and the fact that physicians usually avoided patients. Together, these details show that little could be done to help plague victims. Choice D, “Physicians could not do much for victims of the plague,” captures that central idea; the other choices focus on only one supporting detail.

AI-written and checked against the verified answer.

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