First voyage of James Cook

High school (ages 12+)
History & Culture

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/first-voyage-of-james-cook

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the voyage commissioned by?King George III of Great Britain
2. What is the related topics?The Enlightenment, Age of Discovery, British Empire expansion, history of cartography
3. What was James Cook's first adventure about?He sailed on HMS Endeavour from 1768 to 1771 to watch the transit of Venus and search for a southern continent.
4. Why did Cook go to Tahiti?He went to Tahiti to observe the transit of Venus across the Sun, which helped scientists measure the distance between Earth and Sun.

Transit of Venus: An astronomical event where Venus passes directly between Earth and the Sun, crucial for parallax measurements in the 18th century.