England Facts

Fill the gaps by choosing the correct word from the box below. There are fifteen
words but only twelve gaps.

tennis

name

food

best

above

foot

shoulder

biggest

below

half

snow

sea

day

under

kilograms

England is the (1) _________ of the four countries in the United Kingdom (or Britain,
as it is usually referred to). The other three, in order of size, are Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland. Britain is the 79th-largest country in the world, and England covers
just over (2) _________ of the total area of Britain.
England is separated from France, to the south, by an area of (3) _________ called
the English Channel (or La Manche in French). On clear days it is possible to see the
French coast from some parts of the English coast. The Channel Tunnel, a railway
tunnel built (4) _________ the English Channel, opened in 1994.
England gets its (5) _________ from the Angles, one of the Anglo-Saxon tribes that
settled in Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries. Many parts of the modern English
language come from the languages spoken by these Anglo-Saxon tribes.
The patron saint of England is St George, and the countrys national (6) _________,
St Georges Day, is April 23rd. The national flag of England, the flag of St George, is
a red cross on a white background: the well-known blue, white and red Union flag is
the flag of Britain, not England. And - as you all might know - the symbol of England
is the rose.
The most popular team sports in England, both for playing and watching, are football,
rugby and cricket. The rules for all three were invented in England, as were the rules
of (7) _________. The (8) _________ professional football teams in England play in
the Premier League, which is shown on TV in countries all over the world.
England has a mild climate, without extreme heat or cold. Most of the country gets at
least a few days of (9) _________ in winter, but temperatures usually stay above
freezing (zero degrees centigrade). In summer the temperature in the south of
England, the warmest part of Britain, rarely rises (10) _________ 30 degrees and is
usually below 25 degrees.
The largest wild animal in England is the red deer. A large male red deer can weigh
over 150 (11) _________. Adult red deer are over one metre high at the (12)
_________ (not counting the neck, head or, in the case of the males, the large
antlers).

Little Luxuries
Fill the gaps with the words below. There are 26 gaps but 30 words, so there
are 4 words you do not need to use.
Luxury goods are usually 1. that are rare, exotic and expensive. People
2. buying more and more luxury goods worldwide, but 3. luxury
in the past the same as now? And who will buy luxury goods 4. the future?
In ancient Greece the typical 5. was fruit and cereals. For most people
meat was a luxury and they 6. only eat it at religious celebrations,
7. it was a gift for the Gods. Fish was also a luxury and everyone knew
the price 8. different types, so people could show how rich they were by
the type of fish 9. bought. In 5th century Greece, eating a lot of fish or
expensive fish meant 10. a person couldnt control their desires.
Athenians believed 11. you were out of control in one way, you were out
of control in every way, so fish lover became an insult.
In 17th century Holland, tulips became the 12. important luxury. At that
time, most flowers were not 13. colourful, but tulips were. One particular
tulip, Semper Augustus, was extremely beautiful 14. colourful. One tuliplover in Amsterdam offered 3,000 guilders 15. one tulip bulb, which was
about the yearly income of a rich merchant and about 16. the money
Rembrandt received for one of his paintings. The price of a tulip bulb 17.
up and up and in 1633, someone sold a farmhouse for three 18. tulip
bulbs!
After World War Two in Europe, the middle classes wanted luxury goods, but they
19. afford large items, so smaller things 20. handbags,
scarves, wallets and purses became luxury items and this is 21. true. For
example, 90% of women in Japan 22. a designer handbag.
The luxury goods market is growing and is expected to be about 164 billion
23. the end of 2011. Now Chinese people buy 12% of luxury goods
worldwide and 24. economists say that in 2020 they will probably buy
44% of all luxury goods, which means they 25. buy more luxury products
then 26. the whole world buys now.
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USA Trivia Gap Filling

Fill the gaps by choosing the correct word. There are fifteen words but only
twelve gaps.
Of the fifty states in the United States, the largest is Alaska and the (1) ___________
is Rhode Island. California has the biggest population (37 million); Wyoming has the
smallest (550,000). The total US population is about 310 million.
(2) ___________ in the United States consume more (3) ___________ per head
than in any other country.
Barack Obama is, of course, the first black president of the United States. He is in
one of the two (4) ___________ political parties in the US, the Democratic Party. The
(5) ___________ he beat to become the partys candidate in 2008, Hillary Clinton, is
now the US Secretary of State (or foreign minister, as (6) ___________ would be
called in many countries).
Many of the most (7) ___________ singers and groups in the history of pop music
have been American. The biggest-selling (8) ___________ solo artist, for example, is
Elvis Presley (or Michael Jackson, according to some statistics) and the biggestselling female solo artist is Madonna.
There are around 1.5 million people in the US (9) ___________ (army, navy and air
force), and more than 350,000 of them are (10) ___________ the US. In fact, there
are US military personnel in about 150 countries (although in most of these countries
there are fewer than 1,000 of them).
The most popular spectator sports in the US are baseball, basketball and American
football. (11) ___________ Americans watch football (or soccer, as the Americans
call it) but a lot of them play it, and quite a high percentage of players are female. In
fact, the US womens soccer team is (12) ___________ one in the world ranking and
won the gold medal in both the last two Olympic Games.
military

soldiers

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chewing gum

woman

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fewer

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Big Survivals - One out of nine lives?

Fill the gaps with the words below!
There are also extra words you do not need to use.

Dr Chen, a doctor . in Beijing, decided one morning . her cat

away. Dr Chen thought it was . better for the animal to live in
the country. So she put Wei Wei in her car and drove more 100
kilometres out of the city to her brother's house and left the cat . him.
. month later she was shocked .. that Wei Wei was no longer
there! .. one night Dr Chen heard a noise her bedroom
window. Unable to sleep she got . bed and was surprised to see a thin cat
looking in. She chased the cat . and went back to bed. Then, just ..
she was about to fall .., something landed on her bed. "It me a
real fright and then I realised it was cat and the cat was Wei Wei!" Now
Dr Chen says she will never .. Wei Wei away again!
a

gave

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Trip on roof
Mr Ndobe left house one morning and there, as , was his cat,
Zulu, sitting his car. Mr Ndobe, a South African businessman, chased
Zulu away and then his car and drove to work. Heavy traffic
the morning meant that Mr Ndobe was unable to drive very so he was
surprised to see a police car behind with flashing lights. As Mr Ndobe
slowed down to pull over he shocked to see something large and grey
slide down the car's windscreen. It was Zulu and he was ! The policeman
his car and told the owner that he saw the cat and thought it was a toy
carried on the roof as a joke. Now Mr Ndobe always checks Zulu is not
near the car he drives to work!
be

him

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got out of

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A night frozen to the ground

Mrs Spears, an office cleaner from Chicago, arrived work one cold, winter
morning. The temperature was low and it was to snow.
to go inside and get warm she was to see something large
and still outside the office door. She looked and was shocked
it was a cat frozen to the ground. Mrs Spears realised the cat was alive but
to move so she wrapped up in her coat. When the office
workers came they too put coats around the cat. Eventually
he started to move and open his eyes. They carried him the office, put
him near a heater and gave him warm milk to drink. Now he lives in the
office and a new name: "Lucky"!
at

having

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begun

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Twilight Zone
It's that dangerous moment that drivers fear most: nodding off at the wheel. Falling
asleep at the wheel causes more than 20 per cent of accidents on dull, monotonous
roads such 0..as. motorways, according 1.. a recent medical report.
Typically, these involve running 2. the road or into the back of another
vehicle, and are more likely to cause serious injury 3 the sleepy driver's
failure to brake. Of course it is a fact that the body's biological clock has a major
influence, as these accidents peak at times 4 sleepiness is naturally
higher.
Men under 30 are the 5.. vulnerable, as they are the drivers most typically
out on the roads 6.. the early hours. Apparently, they take more risks in
driving when sleepy (it must 7. added, however, that alcohol is not a factor
here).
In contrast, older people suffer from an early afternoon sleepiness, when they are
8 at risk.
The time 9.. the day was found to be as important as the length of the drive,
yet practical advice to drivers often concentrates more 10. the length of
the drive 11. its timing.
Devices are now 12 marketed as in-car monitors of driver sleepiness to warn
drivers, but doubts 13. being raised about these devices.
What is the advantage of alerting drivers already aware that they are sleepy but
14. still persist in driving? What is more, these devices are of unproven
reliability and may simply encourage drivers to take further risks.
The best advice is either to find 15. reasons not to drive at night, or to get
the car off the road as soon as possible, if you're not feeling too bright and breezy!

are

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who