Use of English PRO

Ask someone (0) TO draw a Viking, the 'fearsome' Scandinavian warrior and (1) ............ will probably begin with a horned helmet and an axe. The Vikings were raiders, it is true, but they were (2) ............ explorers, settlers, traders and mercenaries. The earliest Viking raids occurred in the 9th century, possibly as a response (3) ............ the aggressive growth of Christian Europe to the south. Coastal communities were (4) ............ prey and at the time there were few vessels able to combat a Viking longship. Initially, the raiders would return home after every raid, but they gradually began to fortify and (5) ............ on new lands, establishing territories in England, France, Iceland and Greenland. The Normans of northern France were a Viking community before successfully invading England in the 11th century. There is ample evidence that Vikings reached as (6) ............ as Baghdad to the East and Newfoundland to the West. Three hundred years of exploration and trade (7) ............ about big changes in the culture of Scandinavia, and by the end of the 'Viking Age' the newly formed kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden and Norway were ready to take their (8) ............ amongst the established nations of Europe.