Evaluation · Level 1

A few hundred years ago in England, people believed in unusual cures that today we would think were very strange. For instance, if a man was going bald, he was advised to coat his head in honey and juice from vine leaves. Or, if a child had weak bones, his mother would take some snails from the garden and crush them. Then she would hang them in a canvas bag so that the juice dripped out into a bowl. Every morning and evening she would rub the juice onto the child’s joints.

Nowadays we would mostly use medicines that have been tested by scientists. However, not so long ago an article in a magazine said that a cure for baldness was to rub the head with onion and vinegar.

It is hard for people who cannot hear to communicate with others One way for them to do this is to use sign language. Some words are spelled out by using the alphabet. In sign language, people shape the letters with their fingers and hands. Whole words or short sentences are shown with hand movements. In this way, others can see what they are saying.

It hasn’t always been like that though. This way of ‘speaking’ started in France only about two hundred years ago. It was next used in Germany. Today, sign language is popular all around the world.

When there is no rain for a long time it is known as a drought. Long, hot, dry summers are when the worst droughts happen.

Plants need water to live. Without it they dry out, turn brown and die. On a farm where grass is needed for animals, a drought can be a disaster. Without grass and water the farmers’ animals die. Plants grown for food die. Rivers and wells dry up. People suffer as well as the animals.

Long droughts can also mean grass or forest fires. Once a fire starts, it spreads quickly across the countryside.