A Pirate’s Story William Kidd IELTS Listening Test with Answers
Part 4
Questions 31-40
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.
A Pirate’s Story: William Kidd
William Kidd lived in the 31 __________ and gained widespread notoriety as a pirate because his exploits were documented in 32 _________
People still search to this day for his 33 __________
Timeline of William Kidd’s life
1680’s Early years at seaWas known as a legitimate 34 __________ and sea captain.
Battled against the French.
Owned property in 35 __________
1695 Hired to capture 36 __________
1697 Converted to 37 __________
Murdered his gunner, William Moore, after a mutiny attempt.
1698 Abandoned former ship to order greatest prize, the “Quedagh Merchant”
1701 After trying to prove his innocence, found guilty and 38 __________
Questions about Kidd’s life
Later questioning caused some to believe that there was not enough 39 __________ to declare Kidd guilty.
Some of his treasure were still found and given to 40 __________
A Pirate’s Story William Kidd IELTS Listening Answers
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31. 17th Century
32. English Literature
33. (buried) treasure
34. Privateer
35. New York
36. Pirates
37. Piracy
38. Hanged
39. Evidence
40. Charity
A Pirate Story, William Kidd IELTS Listening Transcript
Narrator: You are going to hear a lecture on William Kidd. First, you have some time to look at questions 31 to 40. Now listen to the tape and answer the questions.
A pirate story, William Kidd.
William Kidd, who is better known by the name Captain Kidd, was the 17th-century British privateer and semi-legendary pirate, who became celebrated in English literature as one of the most colorful outlaws of all time. Fortune seekers have hunted his buried treasure in vain through succeeding centuries.
Kidd’s early career is obscure. It is believed he went to sea as a youth. After 1689, he was sailing as a legitimate privateer for Great Britain against the French in the West Indies and off the coast of North America. In 1690 he was an established sea captain and shipowner in New York City, where he owned property. At various times he was dispatched by both New York and Massachusetts to rid the coast of enemy privateers. In London in 1695, he received a royal commission to apprehend pirates who molested the ships of the East India Company in the Red Sea and in the Indian Ocean.
Kidd sailed from Deptford on his ship, the Adventure Galley, on February 27, 1696, called at Plymouth, and arrived at New York City on July 4 to take on more men. Avoiding the normal pirate haunts, he arrived by February 1697 at the Comoros Islands of East Africa. It was apparently some time after his arrival there that Kidd, still without having taken a prize ship, decided to turn to piracy. In August 1697, he made an unsuccessful attack on ships sailing with Mocha coffee from Yemen but later took several small ships. His refusal two months later to attack a Dutch ship nearly brought his crew to mutiny, and in an angry exchange, Kidd mortally wounded his gunner, William Moore.
Kidd took his most valuable prize, the Armenian ship Quedagh Merchant, in January 1698 and scuttled his own unseaworthy Adventure Galley. When he reached Anguilla, in the West Indies (April 1699), he learned that he had been denounced as a pirate. He left the Quedagh Merchant at the island of Hispaniola – where the ship was possibly scuttled; in any case, it disappeared with its questionable booty – and sailed in a newly purchased ship, the Antonio to New York City, where he tried to persuade the Earl of Bellomont, then colonial governor of New York, of his innocence. Bellomont, however, sent him to England for trial, and he was found guilty – May 8 and 9, 1701- of the murder of Moore and on five indictments of piracy. Important evidence concerning two of the piracy cases was suppressed at the trial, and some observers later questioned whether the evidence was sufficient for a guilty verdict.
Kidd was hanged, and some of his treasure was recovered from Gardiners Island of Long Island. Proceeds from his effects and goods taken from the Antonio were donated to charity. In years that followed, the name of Captain Kidd has become inseparable from the romanticized concept of the swashbuckling pirate of Western fiction. Among other stories concerning caches of treasure he supposedly buried is Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Gold Bug.”
Narrator: This is the end of Section 4. You now have half a minute to check your answers.
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