on
with
good | felt
rumors
seat | starving
little
too | worse
few
which |
The year was 1879; the country, Ireland. It was a time of great poverty and unrest. Crops had been bad for several years; the people were hungry; indeed, many children were
51 to death. Britain ruled the land then, and London, the
52 of government, was a long way off. The lawmakers in Parliament heard
53 and complaints, but dismissed them impatiently. The Irish, they
54 , were unruly, troublesome, and complaining a lot. So Parliament did
55 to help, and a great deal to make matters
56 . For example, Parliament had passed Land Laws to protect the big landowners,
57 required the tenant farmers to pay rents promptly or be thrown off the land. This was cruelly hard
58 the Irish farmers. Most of them rented land. They were
59 poor to buy their own. If the crops were
60 ，the farmers could pay and have a little left over for themselves. If the crops were bad, they faced starvation. Now, under the Land Laws, they couldn't even hope for a better crop next year.__________
starving
