Part 3. Mystery Solved

1984. One hundred and forty years later.

Dr Owen Bitty was the 1 … at the University in Canada. He wanted to know why so many men 2 … in the Franklin Expedition.

Dr Bitty began to think about the first men who died on the expedition. They were all young and they died after only 3 … months at sea. Twenty more men died the 4 … year. There was something very 5 … about this. And there was only one way to 6 … what it was.

In 1984 Dr Bitty went to Baffin 7… with a team of scientists. There they opened the 8 … of the three Franklin sailors. Because of the 9 … cold and ice the bodies were in 10 … condition. Bitty took small samples of 11 … and skin and then put the bodies 12 … into the graves.

Back at the University Bitty 13 … an incredible discovery. From the hair and skin he 14 … that three men died from lead poisoning. They had nearly one hundred 15 … more lead in their bodies than normal. But where did the 16 … come from? Bitty looked closely at some of Franklin’s food tins and found the 17 …. In those days tins were closed with lead. Usually this was not a 18 … problem. But these tins were not made correctly. Lead was inside the tins. It was not that ice and cold that 19 … the men. It was eight thousand tins of 20 … that they were eating. Lead also 21 … the brain. It makes it 22 … to think clearly. Up in the Arctic, we can now 23 … why John Franklin made so many 24 … decisions.

1. – made
2. – graves
3. – answer
4. – Bay
5. – next
6. – affects
7. – hair
8. – strange
9. – died
10. – big
11. – extreme
12. – lead
13. – understand
14. – perfect
15. – scientist
16. – killed
17. – found
18. – six
19. – difficult
20. – back
21. – wrong
22. – times
23. – food

1. – discover

Exercise 11. Listen to the story “The Mystery of Franklin Expedition” once again and answer the following questions:

Questions: