Cover of the textbook Outcomes Advanced - Student's Book

The key answer of exercise 2

The key to exercise solutions in chapter 12 - History mysteries for the textbook Outcomes Advanced - Student's Book with authors Carol Nuttall and Amanda French from National Geographic Learning

Question

Read this short article about an event similar to the one that inspired the picture. Find out.

Answer

  1. There was an outbreak of dancing mania in Strasbourg in the summer of 1518.
  2. The medical experts said the outbreak was because of ‘hot blood’.
  3. Usually hot blood would have been treated by the withdrawal of blood to restore the ‘correct balance’. This time, though, it was decided that those afflicted needed to keep dancing until they recovered. They were sent to special places to dance until it was out of their system.
  4. It was brought to an end after all the dancers started being taken to a special healing shrine.
  5. (1) It is the best documented instance of dancing mania. (2) It was the last major outbreak of its kind. (Students could also argue that it is historically significant because there is still a debate about what caused the outbreak.)