Passage 3: Christopher Columbus and the New World
on August 3, 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain to find a new route to India, China and Japan. At this time, most people thought you would fall off the edge of the world if you sailed too far. Yet sailors such as Columbus had seen how a ship appeared to get lower and lower on the horizon as it sailed away. For Columbus, this (16)............ that the world was round. He (17) to his men about the distance traveled each day. He did not want them to think that he did not (18)...... exactly where they were going. (19)..........., on October 12, 1492, Columbus and his men landed on a small island he named San Salvador. Columbus believed he was in Asia, (20) ............. he was actually in the Caribbean.