Задание

Choose the proper word in each sentence

Columbus discovered the "new world" of the Americans on the sponsored by the Spanish in 1492. The peoples that inhabited the Americas were made up of many nations and tribes. In 1522 Magellan led a successful sailing expedition around the world. His proved to Europeans that the world was not and there was still much to be discovered.

From the 16th to the 18th centures, the Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch, Scandinavian and English competed with each other to expand their empires. They fought over better trading routes and founded colonies to add to their wealth and power.

Some historians argue that Spanish, Portuguese and French ships may have reached Australia as early as the 16th century. Dutch and British certainly reached Australia in the 17th century.

Reports of Australia sent back by the navigators to their homelands usually described its land and its peoples as uninhabitable and uninteresting. In 1623, for example, a Dutch captain, Jan Carstensz, described the north of Australia as "the barren and arid region on earth" and its people as wretched and poor.

James Cook, whose voyage to Australia in the 1780s led to the colonisation of this country, took a different . He praised the fertility of the Botany Bay area and said of the indigenous people that in reality "they are far happier than we Europeans".