Transcript
A battle is about to start in this northern Italian city.
And this is the ammunition. During the festival, hundreds of revellers pour into Ivrea to take part in the historic ‘Battle of the Oranges’.
The tradition is said to date back to a 12th century uprising against a tyrant.
Some 500 tonnes of juicy fruit are shipped from Sicily for the occasion.
Vocabulary
ammunition
objects that are shot from a weapon
revellers
people taking part in a public party
uprising
rebellion against the people or group in power
tyrant
cruel and unfair leader
juicy
containing a lot of liquid; used for fruit
To do
Use one of the words or phrases below to complete each of these sentences from news reports. Note that you may have to change the form of a word to complete the sentence correctly.
ammunition / revellers / uprising / tyrant / juicy
1. Thousands of people have gathered across the UK to watch New Year’s Eve fireworks to herald the start of 2015.
Some 100,000 __________ lined the River Thames in London for the first ticketed New Year’s display.
2. Apple growers are expecting a “delicious and __________” early harvest after sustained fine weather.
3. In the 1976 anti-apartheid __________, black students were protesting against the use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in government schools.
4. Five rifles and four shotguns, along with __________ and thousands of pounds worth of jewellery, have been stolen from a property in Surrey.
5. In fact, the ancient Greek word “tyrannos” (from which our term comes) was originally a fairly neutral word for a sole ruler, good or bad.
Of course, there had been some very nasty monarchs and despots before Caligula. But, so far as we know, none of his predecessors had ever ticked all the boxes of a fully-fledged __________, in the modern sense.
Answers
1. Thousands of people have gathered across the UK to watch New Year’s Eve fireworks to herald the start of 2015.
Some 100,000 revellers lined the River Thames in London for the first ticketed New Year’s display.
2. Apple growers are expecting a “delicious and juicy” early harvest after sustained fine weather.
3. In the 1976 anti-apartheid uprising, black students were protesting against the use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in government schools.
4. Five rifles and four shotguns, along with ammunition and thousands of pounds worth of jewellery, have been stolen from a property in Surrey.
5. In fact, the ancient Greek word “tyrannos” (from which our term comes) was originally a fairly neutral word for a sole ruler, good or bad.
Of course, there had been some very nasty monarchs and despots before Caligula. But, so far as we know, none of his predecessors had ever ticked all the boxes of a fully-fledged tyrant, in the modern sense.