VCR Lesson 3 Presentation
Meryl Llamas
Fill in the blank with the best word from lesson 3
The Black Plague was a ___________ disease that spread worldwide in the 1340s by rats carried on trade ships, resulting in the death of an estimated 25 million people.
Word
pandemic (pan-dem-ik) (adjective)
Definitions
1. Spread throughout a wide geographic area; worldwide
2. general; universal
*Pandemic can be used as a noun meaning a pandemic disease.
Origin and Roots
- Origin: Greek
- Pandemic comes from the Greek roots pan (all) and dēmos (people) creating the word pandēmos. The English suffix -ic was added in the mid 17th century creating the word pandemic.
Synonym- global
Antonym- rare
Often confused with the word Epidemic
An epidemic is a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time. A pandemic is an epidemic on a global scale.
Choose the letter of the sentence in which the bold faced word is used incorrectly.
a. There was a flu pandemic last year that affected one state, but not it's neighboring states.
b. The ongoing HIV/AIDS pandemic has caused 5 million people worldwide to have the disease.
c. There was a pandemic fear of atomic warfare after World War 1.
d. The pandemic disease spread quickly by mosquitoes through countries all over the world.
ANSWER: A- Pandemic refers to things worldwide. Because it is specified in the sentence that only one state was affected, a better word to use would be epidemic.