Examen

Unit 12 ITP Inter 2

Instructions: Read the article then choose the correct answer.

Birthday Celebrations

Do you celebrate the day on which you were born? People haven't always celebrated birthdays. Long ago, ordinary people didn't pay much attention to calendars or dates. They understood the seasons of the year, of course, but marking the day when an individual was born just wasn't considered important.

Even today, not everyone in the world considers birthdays to be especially significant. In some Asian cultures, the beginning of a new year happens at the same time for everyone. No matter when a baby is born, he or she is one year older on New Year's Day. And for some Catholics, a person's Saint's Day or Name Day is what matters. Every day of the year is associated with a Catholic Saint, and if you share a name with one of them, you celebrate on their special day instead of the day you were born.

But what about people who do celebrate birthdays? For them, this annual event might be celebrated in any number of ways. But there are some birthday traditions that many people have in common.

Gifts and Cards

In many places, a person celebrating a birthday receives gifts from family members and friends. In Denmark, parents put the gifts around a child's bed. When the child wakes up in the morning, the gifts are the first things she sees on her birthday. And if you like to give and receive birthday cards, you can thank the English for that invention. People in England have been making birthday cards for over 100 years.

Special Foods

In many places, special foods are part of a birthday celebration. In Ghana, a breakfast food called oto is a favorite. It's made from sweet potato that is mashed, mixed with eggs, and fried. Special foods also play a role in birthday celebrations in Nigeria. When a child's turns one, five, ten, or fifteen, Nigerian families may invite numerous family members, friends, and neighbors to a huge feast to mark those special birthdays. An entire cow or goat might be cooked and served with jollof rice, a flavorful dish made with tomatoes and spices. And in China and Taiwan, birthday celebrants eat bowls of "string noodles" in chicken broth. These long thin noodles represent the hope for a long and healthy life.

Cake and Candles

The tradition of placing candles on a birthday cake probably originated in Germany, where a special wooden ring with small holes in it is brought out on a child's birthday. Small candles representing the number of years in the child's life are placed in the holes and lit. The candles usually stay lit for the whole day, but at birthday parties in other places, the candles are stuck into a cake, and they stay lit only until the child can blow them out and make a wish. And if birthday cake isn't on your menu, perhaps you would enjoy the sweet rice cakes eaten in Korea, or the candies shaped like fruits and vegetables eaten in Brazil.

Games and Singing

Finally, many birthday celebrations include games and singing, and the most popular birthday song worldwide? It's Happy Birthday to You, written by the American sisters Mildred and Patty Hill and first published in 1893. Popular birthday games include "Pin the Tail on the Donkey," in which blindfolded players try to put a paper tail in the correct place on a paper donkey. It's said that the blindfold represents the fact that the birthday celebrant doesn't know what the coming year will bring. Another game in which players wear a blindfold started in Mexico. There, blindfolded children take turns with a stick trying to hit a pinata---a colorful animal-shaped container made from cardboard and paper and filled with candies. When the pinata is broken, the children rush to collect the sweet treats.

____        1.        The first two paragraphs of the article are mainly about ____.

____        2.        Which of the following is probably true?

____        3.        What is special about the "string noodles" eaten in China and Taiwan?

____        4.        A person who is "blindfolded" can't ____.

____        5.        Which of the following is probably true about "Pin the Tail on the Donkey"?

C                    

____        14.        the song Happy Birthday to You

____        15.        the pinata

____        16.        birthday candles

____        17.        roll of rice

____        18.        birthday cards

Instructions: Match each vocabulary word or phrase to the correct conversation below.

____        19.        A: Would you rather ____ in a musical performance or just listen?

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