A Monthly Newsletter for Teachers of English March 2009

STARTING OFF
Discuss the questions below with a partner:

1. How many days in the year are there in your country when people do not have to go to work or school? Work with
a partner and make a list.

2. What do you do on each day? Do you usually spend it alone? With your family? With friends? Are there any
special tradition on each day in your country (e.g. eating carp on Christmas Eve, painting eggs at Easter)?

Compare what you do with other people in your class. Do they do similar things to you?

BEFORE YOU READ

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For Irish people March 17 – St. Patrick’s Day – is a special day. How much do you know about Irish culture?
Work with a partner and try to answer the questions below:

1. Which colour is traditionally the colour of Ireland? 3. Which country was St. Patrick from?

a. red b. yellow c. green a. Ireland b. England c. Scotland

2. Who or what is a leprechaun? 4. There are no snakes in Ireland.

a. a kind of dance True or False?

b. a kind of monster 5. St. Patrick’s Day is only celebrated in Ireland.

c. a small magical old man True or False?

© Pearson Longman 2009 PHOTOCOPIABLE

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 ACTIVITIES SHEET March 2009

FIRST READING
Read the text and see if your ideas were right. Read as quickly as you can and remember that you don’t need to read
everything, just to find what the numbers mean.

VOCABULARY 1
Find and underline the words below in the text.
Paragraph 1: ‘celebrations’ ➙ ………………………...
Paragraph 2: ‘symbols’ ➙ ………………………...
Paragraph 2: ‘disappear’ ➙ ………………………...
Paragraph 3: ‘top’ ➙ ………………………...
Paragraph 4: ‘more’ ➙ ………………………...
Paragraph 5: ‘around’ ➙ ………………………...
Now try to find another word in each paragraph with the same meaning as these words.

VOCABULARY 2
Find words in the text to match the definitions below.

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Paragraph One (‘March 17 - a festival of all things Irish’)

1. When you talk about two things together, and you mean not only one of them but two (all) of them

Paragraph Two (‘Symbols of Ireland’)

2. After rain, if the sun shines you can see one of these in the sky

3. Money is made of banknotes and...

Paragraph Three (‘Who was St. Patrick?’)

4. An action done by God, which is impossible according to the laws of nature (e.g. changing water into wine)

5. A person, event, or thing that makes something else happen

Paragraph Four (‘St. Patrick’s Day traditions in Ireland’)

6. The city where a country’s government is, usually the most important city (in England, London; in Russia,
Moscow)

7. A public celebration with music, bands and people moving through the streets

Paragraph Five (‘St. Patrick’s Day around the world’)

8. To use a substance to change the colour of something (your hair, your clothes, for example)

9. Something which you think is big, good, expensive, important etc.

© Pearson Longman 2009 PHOTOCOPIABLE

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 ACTIVITIES SHEET March 2009

VOCABULARY 3
Work in the same groups and complete the sentences below using items from Vocabulary 1 and 2.

1. The Rio de Janeiro carnival is famous for its wonderful ………………………….

2. I don’t know what colour to ………………………… my hair. What do you think - black or blonde this time?

3. The ………………………… of Mount Everest is almost 9000 metres above sea level.

4. I have a ten euro note and maybe sixty cents in ………………………….

5. One day he was at work as usual, the next day he simply …………………………. Nobody knew where he went.

6. I have a cat and a dog. I love them ………………………….

7. The eagle is the ………………………… of several European countries: Germany, Poland and Russia, for
example.

8. Quick, come to the window! There’s a beautiful ………………………… in the sky. Look at the colours!

SECOND READING
Five phrases have been taken out of the text, one from each paragraph. Read the text once again and try to decide
where they should go.

Paragraph 1: ‘the national colour of Ireland’

Paragraph 2: ‘who like to play tricks on us’

Paragraph 3: ‘top’

Paragraph 4: ‘both north and south of the border’

Paragraph 5: ‘and not only where there are Irish people!’

SPEAKING
Imagine you are going to organise a day celebrating your country and culture, just as St. Patrick’s Day celebrates Irish
culture. Work in a group and discuss the questions below.

1. What kind of celebration would be best - parades, concerts, speeches, private parties, organised displays or
something else?

2. Where would the most important parts of the celebrations be organised?

3. What colours would be used? Would people wear any special clothes?

4. What music would be played? Would you invite any particular group or singer to perform?

5. Who would lead the celebrations? Which people would you say best represent your country?

6. What would you call the day?

Present your ideas to the rest of the class and explain your thinking. Were your ideas similar?

© Pearson Longman 2009 PHOTOCOPIABLE

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 ACTIVITIES SHEET
March 17th - a festival Another symbol of
of all things Irish Ireland is the
Every year on March leprechaun (right) -
17th Irish men and magical little old men.
women everywhere According to legend, if
organise celebrations you see a leprechaun
for Lá Fhéile Pádraig - then it cannot disappear
St. Patrick’s Day. The as long as you look at it,
colour green is but when you look away
everywhere and the day it can vanish.
is a national holiday in Leprechauns are usually
both parts of Ireland. very rich, but their gold
is hidden, buried in the
Symbols of Ireland ground at the ends of
The colour of Ireland is rainbows.
green but there are A third symbol of
many other emblems of Ireland is the Irish
the country. The most harp (right),
famous, perhaps, is the which is found
shamrock or clover on Irish coins, Irish
(below). Finding a four- uniforms and, of course,
leafed clover is still on the black thick beer
thought to be very lucky. of Ireland, Guiness.
Who was St. Patrick?
St. Patrick is the patron
saint of Ireland.
Historically, he was
probably an
English missionary
who worked in Ireland
around 400 A.D - over
1,500 years ago.
According to
legend,
Patrick
converted the
Irish to Christianity
and performed many
miracles. Irish legend
says that it is because
of Patrick that there are
no
© Pearson Longman 2009 PHOTOCOPIABLE
March 2009
the St. Patrick’s Day
parade in Dublin in
2006, for example.
St. Patrick’s Day
around the world
St. Patrick’s Day is
celebrated all over the
world. In London there
is a parade in Trafalgar
Square and in 2008 the
An Irish Leprechaun water in the fountains
there was dyed green.
snakes in Ireland today. In the United States
According to this the biggest St. Patrick’s
legend, Patrick climbed Day parades are in
to the top of Croagh Chicago. The parades
Patrick - a hill or are an impressive sight,
mountain with a peak especially when they
about 850m high, cross the river: every
causing all the snakes year Chicago dyes the
to leave the island. water of the Chicago
River bright green for
St. Patrick’s Day the celebrations. Even
traditions in Ireland the river is green on
The largest St. Patrick’s St. Patrick’s Day!
Day celebrations in
Ireland take place in the
capital, Dublin, each
year, though there are
celebrations in many
more cities. In Dublin
the St. Patrick’s Festival
lasts five days and is a
celebration of Irish
culture, the Irish
language, Irish food and
drink and Irish traditions
in art and music. The
most important parts of
the celebrations are
parades with music and
dancing. Over half a The Chicago River
million people came to
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