Question

Choose the right word to complete each sentence in this excerpt from Bede's An Ecclesiastical History of the English People.

Answer 1

Answer: The correct answers are consecrate (question 1), pray (question 2), blessing (question 3) and recover (question 4).

Explanation: The word "consecrate" means declaring something sacred. It is generally used to refer to religious places. In this excerpt, what is officially considered holy is a church. Moreover, "pray" makes reference to the activity of imploring or making a request to a god. Unlike "bless", this word collocates with the preposition "for", which follows the answer to question 2 in the passage. For that reason, "pray" is the correct answer. The term "blessing" refers to a prayer made to request protection for a specific person. while the term "curse" implies to provoke harm on someone. In the case of this excerpt, the bishop wants to help a sick person; therefore, "blessing" is the correct answer. Furthermore, as the bishop that is presented in the excerpt wants the ill servant to get better, the correct answer to question 4 is "recover" and not "deteriorate", a word that means "to become worse".

Answer 2

Consecrate, pray, blessing, recover