Name: __________________________

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Date:

English Comprehension
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. It has a population of 35 million
people. It is the second largest country in the world by total area and has the
longest common border in the world the border between Canada and the
United States, which is nearly 9,000 kilometres long.
It has three territories, Northwest, Yukon and Nunavut. It also has ten
provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba, British
Columbia, Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Newfoundland.
Canada has a cold climate. Its capital, Ottawa, gets an average of 236
centimetres of snow every year. In winter, the temperature in many cities
remains well below freezing for example, in Winnipeg, the average
maximum temperature in December, January and February is 15.3 degrees
Celcius. Unsurprisingly, Canadians are very good skiers. In 2010, Canada
came first in the medal tally at the Winter Olympics in the Canadian city of
Vancouver, with a total of 14 gold medals.
Canada's government is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional
monarchy. Queen
Elizabeth II is the head of state. Both French and English are official
languages and Canada has one of the highest standards of living in the
world.
Canada is famous for its special police force, the Royal Canadian Mounted
Police. Members of the police force are known as Mounties, because in the
past, they used to ride horses while on duty. Now, they only use horses on
special occasions. The Mounties are also famous for their red uniforms. There
are about 20,000 Mounties in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Toronto is the capital of the Canadian province of Ontario and is the
largest city in Canada.
With 2.5 million residents, it is the fifth most populated city in North America!
Toronto is part of the region known as 'The Golden Horseshoe', which is
home to over 8 million residents or approximately 25 percent of Canada's
population. It was first founded in 1834 by John Graves Simcoe. The Great
Toronto Fire of 1904 destroyed much of the downtown, but the city was
rebuilt quickly.
Toronto is now one of Canada's most multicultural cities with almost half of
its residents born outside of Canada. The city is also the economic capital of
Canada and home to the Toronto Stock Exchange. Toronto's CN Tower

was the world's tallest free-standing structure for 34 years and is a

popular tourist attraction. The city is home to the Blue Jays baseball team,
the Raptors basketball team, the Argonauts football team, the Toronto
FC soccer team and The Maple Leafs hockey team!

Exercise 1: How much/How many.

Complete the following questions with much or many. Then, answer
the questions in complete sentences.
1. How _______________ people live in Canada?
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2. How _______________ snow does Ottawa get each year?
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3. How _______________ provinces are there in Canada?
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4. How ________________ Mounties are there in the Canadian Mounted Police?
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5. How ____________ medals did Canada win at the Vancouver Olympics?
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6. How ____________ of Canadas population lives in the Golden Horseshoe?
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Exercise 2. Read the sentences and decide: true (T) or false (F)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Toronto is a city in Canada.

Its the smallest city in this country.
It was founded in the 18th century.
After the fire the city was not rebuilt.
There are no other nations living in Toronto.
Its a financial centre.
Its not famous for any sports team.

(
(
(
(
(
(
(

)
)
)
)
)
)
)

Exercise 3. Match the word with its definition.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

province
resident
approximately
population
multicultural

.
.
.
.
.

a.
b.
c.
d.
e.

the number of people living in a particular area, country

closely to the exact number
the part of a country outside of the capital or the largest cities.
someone who lives or stays in a particular place
including people or ideas from many different countries, races

Exercise 4. Make sentence with the words given in Exercise 3.

1.
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2.
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3.
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4.
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5.
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