Across Wales

The Welsh call their country Cymru. About two-thirds of the total population live in the South Wales Coastal area, where the three biggest towns are (0) ..A..: Cardiff, Swansea and Newport.

Welsh nationalism is mainly cultural and linguistic. The national flag, with its fine dragon, is regularly displayed, the Welsh national (1) … played and sung. The Welsh language, (2) … is Celtic, has survived in parts of the north and west, more spontaneously than the rather similar Gaelic language of Scotland. Anyone can claim a right to (3) … Welsh in court or to use it in academic examinations. Many official jobs are reserved for people who have (4) … some ability to speak Welsh. Road signposts show place names either in Welsh only (5) … in both Welsh and English spelling.

The Snowdon massif is (6) … part of Wales and is situated in the north-west of the country. Snowdon is the highest mountain (1,085 m). There are many lakes in the Snowdon country. To the north-west of this area is the isle of Anglesey which is a remnant of a very ancient (7) … . The first station here is known for (8) … the longest name in the world: Llanfairpwllgwyngyll-gogerychwyrndrobwll-llantysilio-gogogoch (officially shortened to Lanfair P.G.).

In many parts of the country industry (9) … intruded only slightly upon Wale’s natural beauty, which (10) … a unique population of plants and animals. Welsh cliffs and islands are famous for their seabird colonies.

The most famous festival in Wales is Eisteddfodd. It is the festival of Welsh music and poetry dating (11) … the 12^th century. It is held in the first week of August. Welsh is the official language of the festival. Prizes are awarded for music, prose, (12) … , art and drama. An outstanding event of the festival is choral singing.

0	A located	Bfounded	Cborn	Dsituate
1	A song	Bprose	Canthem	Dmusic
2	A bottom	Btop	Cheight	Dcrown
3	A talk	Bspeak	Csay	Dchat
4	A finally	B at least	C less	D at last
5	A and	Beither	C neither	Dor
6	A the highest	Bhigh	C higher	Dthe most high
7	A city	Bground	Cearth	Dland mass
8	A have	B having	Chas	Dhad
9	A did	B has	Cwere	Dhave
10	A supports	Bcarries	Cmakes	Dbelongs
11	A back	Bin	C from	Dof
12	A pottery	Bpower	Csports	Dpoetry

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is the smallest component of (0) ..D.. United Kingdom. It is also known as Ulster, because it (1) … six of the nine counties that constituted the former province of Ulster. The total area of Northern Ireland is 14,000 sq km.

The capital and largest city of Northern Ireland is Belfast, which is (2) … by heavy industries including shipbuilding and textiles. The Belfast Philharmonic Society is one of Britain's leading (3) … societies. The Ulster Symphony Orchestra is (4) … the leading orchestras of Britain. The other major city in Northern Ireland is Londonderry.

If one asks an Irishman away from home what he (5) … most of all about Ireland, he will probably say “the greenness”. Irish poets put it in a different way when they call Ireland “the (6) … ”. Is the grass really greener in Ireland? The fact is that the winds usually blow in from the Atlantic Ocean and make the air and soil warm and (7) … . Grass grows well in such a climate and it makes the island look so beautiful.

The country consists mainly of a low, flat plain in the center of which is Lough Neagh, the largest lake in the British Isles. The rivers of Ireland are short, but (8) … . The largest of them is the Shannon. Three major areas of considerable height are the Sperrin Mountains, the Antrim Plateau, and the Mourne Mountains.

A striking feature of the northern coast is the Giant's Causeway, a rock (9) … consisting of thousands of closely placed, polygonal pillars of black basalt. The tops of the columns form stepping stones leading from the cliff foot and disappearing (10) … the sea. Over the whole Causeway there are 40,000 of these stone columns. The tallest are about 13 m high.

Years ago all Irish people spoke Gaelic, and this language is still spoken in some parts of Ireland, although today all Irish people speak (11) … too. Evidence of Gaelic is still found in place names (eg. “bally” – town, “glen” – valley), in the names of people (Sean – the same as John, Liam – the same as William). Many Irish (12) … begin as O’… meaning from the family of (eg. O’Brien).

0	A a	B-	Can	Dthe
1	A consists	Bcomprises	Chave	Dswitches
2	A surrounded	Bcircled	Crounded	Dfenced
3	A sport	Bscientific	Cart	Dchoral
4	A along	B of	C between	D among
5	A misses	Bdesires	C hates	Dclaims
6	A Green Island	BLettuce Green	C Emerald Isle	DNatural Jewel
7	A dry	Bdamp	Cwet	Dwatery
8	A hollow	B narrow	Cdeep	Dshallow
9	A formation	B construction	Cbuilding	Dconstitution
10	A over	Bunder	Cabove	Dbehind
11	A Celtic	BFrench	C German	DEnglish
12	A surnames	Bplace names	Cthird names	Dfirst names