B2 – Upper Intermediate
One of the things that helped early humans escape imminent death during the plague is their genes. This is also the same thing that may have a direct impact on our immune systems today.
Listen to the audio and read the transcript about how the medieval plague may have affected human immunity today.
Discussion Questions:
- What is your reaction to what this study says?
- What are your thoughts on this, “The same version of a gene can protect people from a bad infection, but and also put modern people at risk for other illnesses.”?
- How important was the Black Death to the evolution of the human immune system?
- What do you know about the bubonic plague/the Black Death?
- How do you think the COVID-19 pandemic will affect human evolution?
- What do you think about this, “In the future, more deadly pandemics will continue to shape us at the most basic level.”?