Задание

Прочитайте текст и заполните пропуски A–F частями предложений, обозначенными цифрами 1–7.

Одна из частей в списке 1–7лишняя.

and force all the crew members to jump into the sea

which became known as the Spanish Main

when the European military defeated the pirates in the Caribbean

without fearing punishment by the law

and take all their cargo, food and weapons

who was able to retire after having had great success

but were hired sailors

Many of us have read Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel 'Treasure Island' or have seen films such as 'Hook' and 'Pirates of the Caribbean'. In these stories, pirates are portrayed as dishonest men with wooden legs and eye-patches and their own wicked plans.

However, in reality, many pirates weren’t working for themselves (A) . After Columbus’ voyage to the New World in 1492, Spain became a powerful force in the Caribbean. During the 16th and 17th centuries, England, France and the Netherlands paid private pirate ships to interfere with Spanish trade in the area, (B) .

The most famous pirate of all time was the Englishman Edward Teach, also known as Blackbeard. Blackbeard would board merchant ships by force (C) . It is said that he captured about forty ships during his time at sea. Despite this, there is no evidence that he ever harmed anyone. If sailors didn’t hand over their possessions, Blackbeard would simply take them to a deserted island and leave them there.

Sir Henry Morgan was another legendary pirate. He was born in Wales but spent most of his life in Jamaica. Since he was also an admiral in the British Navy, his job there was to protect the English colony. However, Morgan used the conflict between England and its enemies to get rich (D) .

Morgan was one of the few pirates (E) . However, he didn’t have much time to enjoy his riches since he died a few years later due to poor health.

The ‘golden age’ of piracy ended soon after this, in the 1720s (F) . Basically, it became almost impossible for any pirate to continue invading merchant ships without being caught. Also, the penalties for piracy were so severe that they discouraged men from choosing to be pirates.

Today, there are still some pirates in the world, but like the pirates of the past, they don’t hunt for buried treasure with a parrot on their shoulder. Still, audiences continue to be both thrilled by and fearful of the many pirates that they see on the big screen.