This land [of South America] is very pleasing, full of an infinite number of very tall trees which never lose their leaves and t
hroughout the year are fragrant with the sweetest aromas and yield an endless supply of fruits, many of which are good to taste and conducive to bodily health. The fields produce many herbs and flowers and most delicious and wholesome roots that I fancied myself near the Terrestrial Paradise. What shall we say of the multitude of birds and their plumes and colours and singing and their numbers and their beauty? I am unwilling to enlarge upon this description, because I doubt if I would be believed. . . . We saw so many . . . animals that I believe so many species could not have entered Noah’s ark. We saw many wild hogs, wild goats, stags and does, hares, and rabbits, but of domestic animals, not one.” —Amerigo Vespucci,
as quoted in Eyewitness to History
What did Vespucci find was missing among the plants and animals of South America?
a.
tall trees
c.
wild goats
b.
wholesome roots
d.
domestic animals
b. The plants and animals of South America are numerous and unusual.
Explanation:
Full of an infinite number of very tall trees which never lose their leaves and throughout the year are fragrant with the sweetest aromas and yield an endless supply of fruits, many of which are good to taste and conducive to bodily health. The fields produce many herbs and flowers and most delicious and wholesome roots that I fancied myself near the Terrestrial Paradise.
We saw so many animals that I believe so many species could not have entered Noah’s ark.
