"the black death, 1348" in paragraph 6, what does moderate mean? a. massive; outrageous b. a person who holds moderate views, as in politics c. to preside over d. to take on a serious mode e. become less extreme some thought that moderate living and the avoidance of all superfluity would preserve them from the epidemic. they formed small communities, living entirely separate from everybody else. they shut themselves up in houses where there were no sick, eating the finest food and drinking the best wine very temperately, avoiding all excess, allowing no news or discussion of death and sickness, and passing the time in music and suchlike pleasures. others thought just the opposite. they thought the sure cure for the plague was to drink and be merry, to go about singing and amusing themselves, satisfying every appetite they could, laughing and jesting at what happened. they put their words into practice, spent day and night going from tavern to tavern, drinking immoderately, or went into other people's houses, doing only those things which them. this they could easily do because everyone felt doomed and had abandoned his property, so that most houses became common property and any stranger who went in made use of them as if he had owned them. and with all this bestial behaviour, they avoided the sick as much as possible.