Book page 110 and 111
Book Page 110 and 111
Read the text and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap.
Write your answers in CAPITAL LETTERS.
Example
0. A wide spread opinion is that the Chinese may have been the first to use something like a piñata as part of their New Year’s celebration, which also marked the beginning of spring. They made figures of cows, oxen, and buffalo, covering them with coloured paper and filling them with five kinds of seeds. Coloured sticks were used to break the figures open.
A. long
B. much
C. large
D. wide
1. The decorative paper that covered the figures was burned and the ashes were gathered and kept for good luck _______________ the coming year.
2. It is _______________ that in the 13 th century, Venetian traveller Marco Polo took the “piñata”
3. _______________ with him from China to Italy.
4. There, it acquired its present name from the Italian word “pignatta,” or “fragile pot,” and came to be filled with trinkets, jewelry, or sweets _______________ of seeds. The tradition then spread to Spain. Breaking the piñata became a custom on the first Sunday of Lent. It seems that at the beginning of the 16 th century, Spanish missionaries brought the piñata to Mexico. However, the missionaries may have been surprised (as we were) to find that the native people of Mexico already had a similar tradition.
5. The Aztecs celebrated the birthday of Huitzilopochtli, their God of the Sun and War, by placing a clay pot on a pole in his temple at the _______________ of the year. The pot was adorned with colourful feathers and filled with tiny treasures.
6. It was then broken with a stick, and the treasures that spilt _______________ became an offering to the God’s image. The Maya also played a game in which blindfolded participants hit a clay pot suspended by a string.
7. As part of their strategy to evangelise the Indians, the Spanish missionaries ingeniously made use of the piñata to symbolise, _______________ other things,
8. the Christian’s struggle to _______________ the Devil and sin. The traditional piñata was a clay pot covered with coloured paper and given a star shape with seven tasselled points. The points were said to represent the seven deadly sins: greed, gluttony, sloth, pride, envy, wrath and lust. Striking the piñata while blindfolded represented blind faith and willpower overcoming temptation or evil. The treats inside the piñata were the reward.
