Mansa Musa Listening

Due to its record of literacy, what nickname was given to the region of Africa featured in the audio story?

• Songhai Empire
• Writer’s Highway
• Medieval Migration
• Ink Road

What is the best meaning of the word arduous in this excerpt from the story? Use context to help you choose your answer. ”What's needed at this point is support because it's an arduous task. ..And what's needed, what's required, is the kind of funding that will support the conservation, preservation of these documents, the digitation of these documents, as well as the translation of the documents into various languages, which would make the documents accessible."

• confusing
• difficult
• inexpensive
• boring

Which of the following best describes the main idea of this audio story?

• The Timbuktu manuscripts reveal that the Mali Empire was largely isolated from the rest of the world.
• Thousands of manuscripts from Timbuktu reveal medieval West Africa’s advanced culture and society.
• Scholars examining ancient manuscripts can draw interesting conclusions about empires of the past.
• Issues such as political conflict and climate change threaten the survival of the Timbuktu manuscripts.

What can you infer from these sentences from the story? “In the 13th through 15th centuries, Mali was home to two empires - first, the Mali Empire, and then the Songhai Empire - and Timbuktu was a major trading city. These manuscripts date from as early as the 13th century and could prove that Africa had a written history well before the European Renaissance.”

• Timbuktu was the seat of government of the Mali Empire.
• The Mali Empire and Songhai Empire traded with each other.
• Most of the manuscripts were written in the 14th century.
• Timbuktu had a lot of educated people living in it during the 1300s.

  
  

What is one reason why many of the manuscripts from Timbuktu have survived despite various challenges?

• They were written on animal skin
• They were stored in caves
• They were written on paper
• They were preserved in museums

Mansa Musa visited Timbuktu

• True

• False

Mansa Musa was wealthy due to salt and gold

• True

• False

Many People want to save manuscripts from Timbuktu.

• True

• False

Timbuktu was a poor city in the 1300s

• True

• False

Mr. Prandini is awesome

• True

• False