Question

Instructions:Select the correct answer.
Based on this excerpt from John Snow's "On the Mode of Communication of Cholera," what is the meaning of the word morbid?

Besides the facts above mentioned, which prove that cholera is communicated from person to person, there are others which show, first, that being present in the same room with a patient, and attending on him, do not necessarily expose a person to the morbid poison; and, secondly, that it is not always requisite that a person should be very near a cholera patient in order to take the disease, as the morbid matter producing it may be transmitted to a distance.

benign
precarious
pestilent
transmittable
superfluous

Answer 1

The answer would definitely have to be pestilent, as it means "destructive to life; deadly" and death would be very morbid or sad.

Answer 2

Answer: C) Pestilent.

Explanation: the denotation of a word is its literal meaning, the definition that we can find in a dictionary, a word can have several denotations (or definitions). Based on the given excerpt from John Snow's "On the Mode of Communication of Cholera" the meaning of the word "morbid" is "pestilent" which definition is something destructive to life or deadly, so the correct answer is option C.