Reading Comprehension - Check Your Understanding

A. Choose the correct answers.

1. Why is the manuscript mysterious?
A) No one knows if Wilfrid Voynich is real.
B) No one understands the manuscript.
C) No one can find the manuscript now.

2. What is in the manuscript?
A) pictures of plants
B) pictures about religion
C) pictures of famous scientists

3. When was the manuscript’s paper probably made?
A) 1348
B) 1404
C) 1912

4. Why do we call it the Voynich Manuscript?
A) Wilfrid Voynich wrote it.
B) The author uses the word Voynich a lot.
C) It was found by Wilfrid Voynich.

B. Are these statements about the Voynich Manuscript true or false? Choose true (T) or false (F).

Critical Thinking

1. Are mysteries like the Voynich Manuscript interesting to you? Why or why not?
   Answer

   Answers will vary.

2. Why might someone create a book in a language no one understands?
   Answer

   possible answers include: the writer may have wanted to keep the information in the manuscript a secret among only those who know the code, or it may have been a test for people to figure out the code, or perhaps it means nothing and was written in code just for fun.

The World's Most Mysterious Manuscript¹

In 1912, book dealer Wilfrid Voynich bought a number of books in Italy. He bought so many that he didn't look very closely at the books he was purchasing. When he got home, he discovered he had bought a very strange handwritten manuscript. It was written in a language he had never seen before. It was also full of pictures of plants.

Since then,the book-now known as the Voynich Manuscript-has become known as the world's most mysterious manuscript. It has been studied by many people, including professors, codebreakers, and language experts. However, no one has ever discovered its meaning or author

There are many ideas about who wrote it and why. Some people say that a famous scientist like Francis Bacon wrote it. Other people think it could be a religious text.² Some other people think the manuscript is a great hoax and doesn't mean anything at all.

Scientists have learned that the manuscript was made between 1404 and 1438. However, this only tells us how old the paper is, not when the book was written. But there's still hope that the manuscript is real and that there's meaning to its words.

The Voynich Manuscript remains a mystery today, but the pages are on the Internet if you would like to try to crack the code.