Listening: Old World Maps and Their Mistakes

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B2 | Listening from video | 11 min

Watch the video (0:07 - 4:38). You can watch more than once, then answer the questions.

What does the speaker say about the words "Here be dragons" on old maps?

____ Most medieval maps carried this exact message.____ The words were rare, but the idea was common.____ Only Asian mapmakers ever wrote the phrase.

What were many of the new world maps NOT necessarily made for?

____ Showing the world's geography____ Pleasing rulers and powerful people____ Helping sailors to navigate

ONE WORD from the video.

On a mappa mundi, the world's land was surrounded by a ____ of ocean.

How did Al-Idrisi make his world map?

____ He used his own travels and talked to other travelers.____ He copied older maps from European libraries.____ He sailed around the world with the King of Sicily.

ONE WORD from the video.

The Chinese map from 1389 was drawn on a piece of ____ big enough to fill a room.

The Chinese mapmakers had visited Africa themselves.

____ True____ False____ Not Given

Why did Spanish maps show California as an island?

____ A storm hid the coast from the sailors.____ Mercator had drawn it that way first.____ The explorers' impressions of the land were wrong.

Mercator also made a map of the South Pole.

____ True____ False____ Not Given

ONE WORD from the video.

Mercator thought the North Pole had a giant magnetic rock surrounded by a ____ .

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