1. Some professional researchers believe that giving credit to Christopher Columbus for discovering America in 1492 is a large ......... in reasoning.

2. It is extremely .......... that earlier civilizations would not have had the ability to reach this land.

3. In 200 A. D., some Roman galleys were equal in size to that of 18th-century battleships. They would have had the capability of traveling 5500 .......... miles across the sea to America.

4. Ancient maps have indicated exploration routes that .......... more than a thousand years before Columbus's journey.

5. A Norse coin, circa 1067 1092, found at Penobscot Bay provided additional evidence that the Nordic explorers had made contact with .......... people on the land.

6. Still another .......... theory is that a Chinese fleet of 317 ships was sent by the emperor Zhu Di to travel to "the ends of the earth." Wood from ancient junks, carbon dated to 1410, has been found in the Sacramento River in California

7. Linguistic experts, Stephen Powers, submitted a report to the government in 1874, stating that traces of the Chinese language had been found in Native American tribes. Officials .......... with his explanation of Chinese sailors marrying into the tribes.

8. Ancient archives relate the adventures of a monk who left China, returning 40 years later with .......... stories of a land he called "Fusang." Historians concluded from his written description that this land was probably America

9. Modern daynautical experts agree that .......... currents could have easily taken the monk around the Asian coast to Alaska, then down the coast of America. As a learned scholar, Hoei-Shin would have wanted to explore this new land.

10. Archaeological finds continue to give historians new clues as to who was really the first to discover America. Speculation will always exist, but recognition should be given to all the .......... explorers.