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Intermediate Instant Lesson™

If I had time, I'd...
Tomatina Festival

Pre-Reading Activities

A: Discussion
Answer these questions in small groups.

1. Does the place where you live (your town, city etc) have any special parties when everyone celebrates? If you do, tell others in your group about what happens.
2. Do you have any special events in the summer where you live to attract tourists? If you do, tell others in your group about them.

B: Vocabulary
The words in bold type in the sentences below are from one of today's articles. Match each word with its meaning.

Words Meanings
1. The revelers enjoyed the party.

a. sent into
2. They pelted bananas at each other. b. to express strong disagreement about something
3. They converted the garden into a car park. c. beginnings
4. The clown was a quirky person. d. changed
5. Virtually all the people enjoyed the play. e. threw
6. There were three different versions of what happened when the car crashed. f. personal accounts of something
7. Babies revel in the attention they get from their parents. g. greatly enjoy
8. People join Greenpeace to protest about whales being killed for meat. h. people enjoying themselves in a noisy way
9. The origins of life began millions of years ago. i. unusual
10. TV programs are beamed into every house. j. almost

Reading Activities

A: Reading Cloze
Fill the gaps in this article about a festival in Germany using the words in the list.

carvers, festival (x2), sand, circus, Irish, 75


(Reuters) Travemuende near Luebeck, Germany is hosting its annual "Sand World" Sand Sculpture 1._____________.

About 9,000 tons of special 2. _____________ have been used to create an imaginative 3. _____________ world with artists, magicians, tamers with exotic animals and world-famous clowns of the circus history at the Baltic Sea beach of Travemuende.

The 2006 4. _____________ runs from July 7 until September 3. Over 5. _____________ international arvers are taking part in the sand festival including 6. _______________ sand sculptor Alan Magee with a lion sculpture and Belgian Hanneke Supply with a sculpture, "Balloon salesman".

In 2005 some 300,000 visitors visited the Sand World Festival.
Article © Reuters Limited. Lesson © 2006 www.english-to-go.com

B: Comprehension
Part One
Read through the second article as fast as you can and choose the correct answer for this sentence:
This article would be helpful to read if you were going to Spain...

  1. to find out how to grow tomatoes.
  2. to protest about Spain's cruelty to animals at the festivals.
  3. to learn to speak Spanish.
  4. on holiday to take part in a tomato throwing festival.
  5. to find out about what is on Spanish television.

How long did it take you to find the correct answer?

Tomato-Throwers Make a Splash in Festival

BUNOL, Spain, (Reuters) - An estimated 20,000 revelers pelted each other with 100 tons of ripe tomatoes in the normally quiet Spanish town of Bunol in one of the country's best known annual fiestas held on the last Wednesday in August every year.

Five trucks loaded with tomatoes slowly drove through the town with ammunition for the crowds who quickly converted the streets into rivers of squashed tomatoes.

The annual "Tomatina" festival in the Valencia region is one of Spain's many quirky regional celebrations including a donkey-bashing party, various mistreatments of bulls and the annual tossing of a goat off a church tower.

Around 20,000 people participate in the food fight, many of them foreign tourists. By the end of it, virtually all of them are covered in tomato juice, peel and seeds. Before the cleanup begins, some people linger to swim in nearly knee-deep tomato pulp.

 The Tomatina began in the 1940s. Some locals trace its origins to youths who tired of an annual balloon festival and hurled tomatoes at the balloons instead.

Other versions speak of a food fight between two local families that got out control, a tomato attack on musicians, or a spontaneous protest against an unpopular mayor.

Spain's other festivals draw protests from animal rights groups, but at the Tomatina the only victims are a few willing humans who suffer minor injuries.

Protests over the waste of food are virtually unheard-of as Spaniards revel in the publicity generated by television images of the festival being beamed around the world.
Article © Reuters Limited. Lesson © 2011 www.english-to-go.com

Part Two
Answer the following questions by selecting the correct answer.

1. How many people take part in the Tomatina Festival?

  1. less than twenty thousand people
  2. more than twenty hundred people
  3. more than two thousand people
  4. about twenty thousand people

2. The ammunition (weapons) in the trucks are tomatoes that are...

  1. almost ready to be eaten.
  2. ready to be eaten.
  3. not yet ready to be eaten.
  4. no good for eating as they had gone bad.

3. How deep is the tomato pulp in the streets?

  1. just above the ankle
  2. just above the knee
  3. just over the foot
  4. just under the knee


4. Which version of how the Tomatina Festival began is not mentioned in the article?

  1. Young people got tired of a balloon festival and threw tomatoes at the balloons.
  2. Two local families threw food at each other.
  3. Tomatoes were thrown at musicians.
  4. People decided to raise money for a new clock tower.
  5. People protested against an unpopular mayor.

5. The Tomatina festival causes...

  1. protests from animal rights groups.
  2. many injuries to those people that take part.
  3. protests from hungry people.
  4. good publicity for Spain.

http://www.flickr.com/people/35026367@N00 Graham McLellan

C: Test your Memory
Read the second article again and then cover it over. Then work with a partner and take turns to ask each other questions about the article. Ask and answer as many questions as you can.

D: Language
The third conditional is (if + had + past participle of verb, would + have + past participle of verb).

 

Rhys from Australia would have liked to go to Spain last year but he didn't have enough money.
In the sentences below he thinks about what could have happened if he had gone to Spain.

Use the words in the list to fill the gaps in the sentences. Make sure they are in the correct form. The first one is done for you as an example.

take, go (x2), throw (x2)
 

1. If I had won the Lottery last year, I would have bought an air ticket to Europe.
2. If I _________ to Europe, I would have visited Valencia in Spain.
3. If I had stayed in Valencia, I _________ to the Tomatina Festival at the end of August.
4. If I had gone to the Festival last year, I _________ tomatoes at everyone.
5. If other people _________ tomatoes at me, I think I would have got covered in juice.
6. If I had got covered in juice, I _________ a long shower afterwards.

 

Post-Reading Activities
You may do one or more of these.

A: Write An Email
Write an email inviting a friend to go with you to one of the festivals from today's lesson OR to a festival from your own country.

You can use the sentence prompts to help you if you wish.

    • I've just been reading about the X festival which is held in X (say where the festival is)....
    • Every year in (say when the festival is) people get together to...
    • I thought that maybe we could go...

B: Discussion
As a class discuss the following questions:

 

1. Have you ever been in a food fight? Describe what it was like if you have.
2. Is it good manners to throw food? Why / why not?
3. Sometimes food throwing is allowed in public when people are trying to raise money for charity. Can you think how this might be done?
4. Usually it is done by people paying money to throw food at a well-known person. What sort of food would be good to throw?
5. Make a list of people you would pay to throw food at!

C: Vocabulary
Decide which word from the list below best fits each description. (Be careful! There are some words that do not fit at all.)

  • the soft almost liquid part of the inside of a tomato
  • the outer covering of a tomato which is also called skin
  • the shape of a tomato
  • the liquid from a tomato
  • the feel of a tomato
  • an uncooked tomato
  • this is what happens to a tomato when you throw it on the ground
    • raw
    • mashed
    • squeezed
    • paste
    • around
    • peel (n)
    • sauce
    • round
    • pulp
    • drink
    • juice
    • rough
    • smooth
    • squashed
     

    TEACHERS' NOTES AND ANSWER KEY

    Please note: This lesson also has another reading comprehension exercise for your students to do online at www.instantworkbook.com. You can get a username and password for your students by clicking on the blue icon next to this lesson description at www.english-to-go.com.

    Pre-Reading Activities

    B: Vocabulary - Answers
    1. h, 2. e, 3. d,. 4. i, 5. j, 6. f, 7. g, 8. b, 9. c, 10. a.

    Reading Activities

    A: Reading Cloze - Answers
     1. festival, 2. sand, 3. circus, 4. festival, 5. 75, 6. Irish.

    B: Comprehension - Answers
    Part One 4.
    Part Two 1. d, 2. b, c. d, 4. d, 5. d

    D: Language - Answers
    2. had gone, 3. would have gone, 4. would have thrown, 5. had thrown, 6. would have taken.

    Post-Reading Activities

    C: Vocabulary - Answers
     1. pulp, 2. peel (n), 3. round, 4. juice, 5. smooth, 6. raw, 7. squashed

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