The reading and listening passages tell about origins and history of the bubonic plague. The author describes a case in which the plague is considered to originate from China, whereas the lecturer tells another hypothesis, according to which this disease was first observed in Northen Africa.
As the author points out, the first case of the plague happened in China in the 14th century. The author explains how the plague spread world wide. The carriers of this infection are fleas and rats. Fleas are the final transmitters of infections to people, whereas infected rats that dwelled in the often travelling ships where animals that bring infections to other territories. She provides an example of how rats traveling on trading ships brought the plague to Italy. After coming to the region, the infection penetrated through Europe.
On the contrary, the speaker gives absolutely new point of view on the topic arised. She claims that there are data from archeological research that first cases of infections occured in Ancient Egypt. Thanks to study of ancient insects, scientists found that these insects were transmitters of the plague. Then the speaker tells about hypothesis scientists advanced: due to flooding villages along the river Nile faced with rats invasions to human communities. As a result, peopl started suffering from the plague as well. Further, the speaker tells that by the same token as it was in the case described by the author the bubonic plague spread to the rest of the world.
The author states that the plague does not exist any more. In contrast, the speaker asserts that this disease still exists nowadays. She give an example in which aproximately 500 to 2000 cases of the disease were observed in Madagascar. What is more, according to a non-profit organization, there are 3000 new cases across the globe. She finishes stating that the plague has a distinct and strange pattern: it disapeared once, then it reappeared and disapeared again.
Hi, I think this essay is better than your other one. This example seems pretty odd though. Usually there are three main points in the reading, which the lecture contradicts point by point. This had the main point about the origin, plus the minor point about the plague’s prevalence today. So your essay structure is a bit odd, but it does match the reading and lecture. You seem to have gotten all of the main points from the lecture and you have much fewer errors in your writing. This is hard to score, because the reading and lecture are a bit unorthodox in my opinion, but I will rate it a 4 out of 5.