Activities Before Reading

1. This text below is about St. Valentine’s Day. Which of these

things do you think you are going to read about? Circle four
words.
Love Money

Flowers Buildings

Horses Cards

Festivals Storms

2. How much do you know about St. Valentine’s Day. Are these sentences true (T) or false (F)?

a) St. Valentine’s Day started in the nineteenth century.

b) On Valentine’s Day people send cards to the people they love.

c) St. Valentine’s Day is 15 February.

d) Chocolates are a kind of food.

e) People often go out to dinner in restaurants in the evening.

f) St. Valentine’s Day is named after a famous Roman emperor.

Activities While Reading

Read the text below. While reading, answer the following questions.

1. Match the beginnings and endings of the sentences

1. Valentine’s Day started more than…

c) two thousand years ago.

2. Saint Valentine was a Christian who…

d) lived in Rome.

3. Valentine was sent to prison because…

a) he helped a soldier to marry.

4. When Valentine was in prison, he…

e) fell in love.

5. People started sending Valentine’s cards…

b) in the early nineteenth century.

2. Choose the best question word for these questions, and then answer them.

What / When / Who / How / Why

1. _Who_ was Saint Valentine?

 He was a Christian
2. _When_ is St. Valentine’s Day?
 February 14th
3. _What_ do people send to the people they love?
 A valentine’s card
4. _How_ long have people celebrated Valentine’s Day?
 2000 years ago
5. _Why_ do people write ‘Be my Valentine’ at the end of the cards?
 Because valentine’s day Is named after him
6. _Who_ was the Emperor of Rome when Valentine was alive?
 Claudius

February 14th is St. valentine’s day. this started more than two thousand
years ago, as a winter festival, on February 15 th. on that day, people asked
their gods to give them good fruit and vegetables, and strong animals.
When the Christians came to Britain, they came with a story about a man
called saint valentine. the story is that valentine was a Christian who lived in
Rome in the third century. the roman emperor at the time, Claudius the
second, was not a Christian. Claudius thought that married soldiers did not
make good soldiers, so he told his soldiers that they must not marry.
valentine worked for the church, and one day he helped a soldier who wanted
to marry. the emperor said that valentine had to die because of this, and he
sent valentine to prison. but valentine fell in love with the daughter of a man
who worked there. just before he died, he sent a note to this woman, and at
the end of the note, he wrote: ‘your valentine.’ he died on 14 February, so the
date of the festival changed from 15 to 14 february and the name changed to
saint valentine’s day.
in the early nineteenth century people started to give valentine’s cards to the
person they loved on 14 february.