English and the World · Spain · 35 · Huelva · A1–C2 · A1–A2 free
A monastery on a hill above the river, two friars who listened, two brothers who found the sailors, and three small ships that left at dawn. Choose your level.
La Rábida
La Rábida is a small, white monastery near the town of Palos, in the province of Huelva. In the 1480s a foreign sailor arrived there with his little son. His name was Christopher Columbus. He had a big idea: he wanted to sail west across the ocean to reach Asia.
The friars of La Rábida listened to him. One of them, Juan Pérez, knew Queen Isabella, and he wrote to her. In April 1492, after the fall of Granada, the queen and King Ferdinand said yes to Columbus’s plan.
Palos de la Frontera, 1492
The ships and sailors came from Palos and the towns near it. Two brothers from Palos, Martín Alonso and Vicente Yáñez Pinzón, helped Columbus find the men. There were three ships: the Santa María, the Pinta and the Niña.
The ships left Palos on 3 August 1492, early in the morning. At 2 o’clock at night on 12 October, a sailor on the Pinta saw land. In March 1493, two of the ships came back to Palos.
🦉 Want more? Sophia explains prepositions of time and place in The Space Between Things (Philo & Sophia, Lesson 12).
Language: in, on, at for time
| Preposition | Use | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| in | months, years, centuries, seasons, parts of the day | in March, in 1492, in the 1480s, in summer, in the morning |
| on | days and dates | on Friday, on 3 August, on 12 October |
| at | clock times, and a few fixed phrases | at 2 o’clock, at night, at sunrise, at the weekend |
⚠️ in the morning but on Friday morning (a particular day), and at night, not ✗ in the night for night in general. No preposition with today, tomorrow, yesterday, last, next: They left last week.
Read the texts first. Press “Check my answers” at the end.
Choose the best answer.
1. What is La Rábida?
2. How did Juan Pérez help Columbus?
3. Who were the Pinzón brothers?
4. When did a sailor see land?
Write in, on or at.
5. The ships left Palos 3 August 1492.
6. They left early the morning.
7. A sailor saw land 2 o’clock.
8. Columbus arrived at La Rábida the 1480s.
Write in, on, at, or – if no word is needed.
9. It was dark: they saw land night.
10. Two ships came back March 1493.
11. We visited the monastery Sunday morning.
12. We are going to Palos next week. (Write – if no word is needed.)
Go there!
Visit: the monastery of La Rábida and its garden. Then go down to the Wharf of the Caravels, where you can climb on full-size copies of the three ships. In Palos, see the church of San Jorge and the old well where the sailors took water.
Your task: write six sentences about important days in your life, with in, on and at: I was born on…
It tells how a foreigner with a child knocked at a monastery door, how two friars and two brothers from Palos made the voyage possible, what happened on 3 August 1492 and in March 1493, and why the Pinzóns have been half-forgotten, with grammar, practice, etymology and a visit plan.
The A1–A2 version above is free for everyone.
It tells how a foreigner with a child knocked at a monastery door, how two friars and two brothers from Palos made the voyage possible, what happened on 3 August 1492 and in March 1493, and why the Pinzóns have been half-forgotten, with grammar, practice, etymology and a visit plan.
The A1–A2 version above is free for everyone.