Complete this text with appropriate forms of can or could plus these verbs.

avoid     be     not imagine     pick     save     not send

These days, when we up a phone and call anywhere in the world, we really don't realize, and often , how difficult long-distance communication for people in the past. In the early 19th century the Treaty of Ghent brought an end to the War of 1812 between Britain and the United States. But the news across the Atlantic fast enough to stop General Andrew Jackson attacking and defeating the British forces in New Orleans a full three weeks after the treaty was signed. With better communication, the battle and the lives of more than two thousand people .