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Fun Easy English Classroom December 31
 

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Learn about
New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve

Today you are going to learn about New Year's Eve an important holiday celebrated worldwide.
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Reading Comprehension

This is a reading comprehension lesson to test your ability to understand information written in English. Read the information below and then answer the 5 test questions.
Holiday: New Year's Eve

In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve (also Old Year's Day or Saint Silvester's Day in many countries), the last day of the year, is on December 31. In many countries, New Year's Eve is celebrated at evening social gatherings, where many people dance, eat, drink alcoholic beverages, and watch or light fireworks to mark the new year. Some people attend a watch night service. The celebrations generally go on past midnight into January 1 (New Year's Day).

The island nations of Kiribati and Samoa are the first to welcome the New Year while Honolulu, Hawaii is among the last places to welcome the New Year.

In the United States, New Year's Eve is celebrated with formal parties, family-oriented activities, and other large public events.

One of the most prominent New Year's celebrations in the country is the "ball drop" held in New York City's Times Square. Inspired by the time balls that were formally used as a time signal, at 11:59 p.m. ET, a 11,875-pound (5,386 kg), 12-foot (3.7 m) diameter Waterford crystal ball located on the roof of One Times Square is lowered down a pole that is 141 feet high, reaching the roof of the building one minute later to signal the start of the New Year. The Ball Drop has been held since 1907, and in recent years has averaged around a million spectators yearly. The popularity of the spectacle also inspired similar "drop" events outside of New York City, which often use objects that represent a region's culture, geography, or history—such as Atlanta's "Peach Drop", representing Georgia's identity as the "Peach State".

The portrayal of festivities on radio and television has helped ingrain certain aspects of the celebration in American pop culture; beginning on the radio in 1928, and on CBS television from 1956 to 1976 (which also included coverage of the ball drop), Guy Lombardo and his band, The Royal Canadians, presented an annual New Year's Eve broadcast from the ballroom of New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The broadcasts were also well known for the Royal Canadians' signature performance of "Auld Lang Syne" at midnight, which helped popularize the song as a New Year's standard. After Lombaro's death in 1977, prominence shifted towards ABC's special Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve (which had recently moved from NBC), originally intended by its creator and host Dick Clark to be a modern and youthful alternative to Lombardo's big band music.

Including ABC's special coverage of the year 2000, Clark would host New Year's Eve coverage on ABC for thirty-three straight years. After suffering a stroke, Clark ceded hosting duties in 2005 to talk show host Regis Philbin. Although Clark returned the following year, a speech impediment caused by the stroke prevented him from being the main host until his death in April 2012, Clark made limited appearances on the show as a co-host, but was formally succeeded by Ryan Seacrest.

New Year's Eve is traditionally the busiest day of the year at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and Disneyland in Anaheim, California, where the parks stay open late and the usual nightly fireworks are supplemented by an additional New Year's Eve specific show at midnight.

Source: Wikipedia: New Year's Eve
Test: Reading Comprehension New Year's Eve

Read the information above. In the test questions below choose which is the best answer for each question. There are 5 questions. Good luck.
1.  In the Gregorian calendar, the last day of the year is which of the following?

a.  New Years Eve
b.  New Years Day
c.  Chinese New Year
d.  Lunar New Year
2.  Which island nations are the first to welcome the New Year?

a.  Japan and Singapore
b.  Kiribati and Samoa
c.  Tonga and Tuvalu
d.  Tanegashima and Yakushima
3.  Which of the following are among the last to welcome the New Year?

a.  New York, New york
b.  Los Angeles, California
c.  Honolulu, Hawaii
d.  Tokyo, Japan
4.  Where is New York City's famous "ball drop" held each year?

a.  New Years Park
b.  Grand Central Station
c.  Times Square
d.  Various Locations
5.  The Ball Drop has been held since which of the following?

a.  1907
b.  1917
c.  1927
d.  1937
From YOUR Teacher: New Year's Eve

Fun Easy English has taken many years for me to make. I love teaching English and learning other languages. I know as a teacher and as a language student it is often difficult to find good study materials. This is why I created Fun Easy English and especially the classroom. I wanted to make a place where English language students could go and study for free, anytime and anywhere. Hopefully these lessons were useful to you during the past year. I want to thank those of you who made such nice comments throughout the site. This was a lot of effort and knowing this site provided some benefit in this world is the best payment I can receive.

Anyway, I know you are all busy tonight but I simply wanted to say the following:

May the new year bring you happiness and hopefully peace in this often crazy world

Please learn to accept each other regardless of color, religion, language, culture, etc. We are all part of humanity and need to appreciate our differences. Yes English is very important but it is the diversity of language and culture that makes this world a wonderful and interesting place.

As always thank you very much for visiting and good luck with your English language studies.

Howie Hayman
YOUR English Teacher
 
Happy New Year
in your language
 
Afrikaans gelukkige nuwejaar / voorspoedige nuwejaar
Akposso ilufio ètussé
Albanian Gëzuar vitin e ri
Alsatian e glëckliches nëies / güets nëies johr
Arabic عام سعيد (aam saiid) / sana saiida
Armenian shnorhavor nor tari
Atikamekw amokitanone
Azeri yeni iliniz mübarək
Bambara aw ni san'kura / bonne année
Basaa mbuee
Basque urte berri on
Belarusian З новым годам (Z novym hodam)
Bengali subho nababarsho
Berber asgwas amegas
Beti mbembe mbu
Bhojpuri nauka sal mubarak hoe
Bobo bonne année
Bosnian sretna nova godina
Breton bloavezh mat / bloavez mad
Bulgarian честита нова година (chestita nova godina)
Burmese hnit thit ku mingalar pa
Cantonese sun lin fi lok / kung hé fat tsoi
Catalan bon any nou
Chinese (mandarin) 新年快乐 (xin nian kuai le) / 新年好 (xin nian hao)
Cornish bledhen nowedh da
Corsican pace è salute
Croatian sretna nova godina
Czech šťastný nový rok
Danish godt nytår
Dari sale naw tabrik
Duala mbu mwa bwam
Dutch gelukkig nieuwjaar
English happy new year
Esperanto feliĉan novan jaron
Estonian head uut aastat
Ewe eƒé bé dzogbenyui nami
Ewondo mbembe mbu
Fang bamba mbou
Faroese gott nýggjár
Finnish onnellista uutta vuotta
Flemish gelukkig nieuwjaar
Fon coudo we yoyo
French bonne année
Frisian lokkich neijier
Friulan bon an
Fula dioul mo wouri
Galician feliz ano novo
Georgian გილოცავთ ახალ წელს (gilocavt akhal tsels)
German Frohes neues Jahr / prosit Neujahr
Greek Καλή Χρονιά (kali chronia / kali xronia) / Ευτυχισμένος ο Καινούριος Χρόνος (eutichismenos o kainourgios chronos)
Gujarati sal mubarak / nootan varshabhinandan
Guaraní rogüerohory año nuévo-re
Haitian creole bònn ané
Haoussa barka da sabuwar shekara
Hawaiian hauoli makahiki hou
Hebrew שנה טובה (shana tova)
Herero ombura ombe ombua
Hindi nav varsh ki subhkamna
Hmong nyob zoo xyoo tshiab
Hungarian boldog új évet
Icelandic gleðilegt nýtt ár
Igbo obi anuri nke afor ohuru
Indonesian selamat tahun baru
Irish gaelic ath bhliain faoi mhaise
Italian felice anno nuovo / buon anno
Javanese sugeng warsa enggal
Japanese あけまして おめでとう ございます (akemashite omedetô gozaimasu)
Kabylian aseggas ameggaz
Kannada hosa varshada shubhaashayagalu
Kashmiri nav reh mubarakh
Kazakh zhana zhiliniz kutti bolsin
Khmer sur sdei chhnam thmei
Kiembu ngethi cya mwaka mweru
Kinyarwanda umwaka mwiza
Kirundi umwaka mwiza
Korean 새해 복 많이 받으세요 (seh heh bok mani bat uh seyo)
Kurde sala we ya nû pîroz be
Kwangali mvhura zompe zongwa
Lao sabai di pi mai
Latin felix sit annus novus
Latvian laimīgu Jauno gadu
Ligurian bón ànno nêuvo
Lingala bonana / mbúla ya sika elámu na tombelí yɔ̌
Lithuanian laimingų Naujųjų Metų
Low saxon gelükkig nyjaar
Luganda omwaka omulungi
Luxembourgeois e gudd neit Joër
Macedonian Среќна Нова Година (srekna nova godina)
Malagasy arahaba tratry ny taona
Malay selamat tahun baru
Malayalam nava varsha ashamshagal
Maltese is-sena t-tajba
Mangarevan kia porotu te ano ou
Maori kia hari te tau hou
Marathi navin varshaachya hardik shubbheccha
Marquisian kaoha nui tenei ehua hou
Mohawk ose:rase
Mongolian Шинэ жилийн баярын мэнд хvргэе (shine jiliin bayariin mend hurgeye)
Moré wênd na kô-d yuum-songo
Ndebele umyaka omucha omuhle
Ngombale ngeu' shwi pong mbeo paghe
Norman boune anna / jostouse anna
Norwegian godt nyttår
Occitan bon annada
Oriya subha nababarsa / naba barsara hardika abhinandan
Ourdou naya sar Mubarak
Palauan ungil beches er rak
Papiamentu bon anja / felis anja nobo
Pashto nawe kaalmo mobarak sha
Persian سال نو مبارک (sâle no mobârak)
Polish szczęśliwego nowego roku
Portuguese feliz ano novo
Punjabi ਨਵੇਂ ਸਾਲ ਦੀਆਂ ਵਧਾਈਆਂ (nave saal deeyan vadhaiyaan)
Romanche bun di bun onn
Romani baxtalo nevo bersh
Romanian un an nou fericit / la mulţi ani
Russian С Новым Годом (S novim godom)
Samoan ia manuia le tausaga fou
Sami buorre ådåjahke
Sango nzoni fini ngou
Sardinian bonu annu nou
Scottish gaelic bliadhna mhath ur
Serbian Срећна Нова година (Srećna Nova godina)
Shimaore mwaha mwema
Shona goredzva rakanaka
Sindhi nain saal joon wadhayoon
Sinhalese ශුභ අළුත් අවුරුද්දක් වේවා (shubha aluth awuruddak weiwa)
Slovak šťastný nový rok
Slovenian srečno novo leto
Sobota dobir leto
Somali sanad wanagsan
Spanish feliz año nuevo
Sranan wan bun nyun yari
Swahili mwaka mzuri / heri ya mwaka mpya
Swedish gott nytt år
Swiss-german es guets Nöis
Tagalog manigong bagong taon
Tahitian ia orana i te matahiti api
Tamazight assugas amegaz
Tamil இனிய புத்தாண்டு நல்வாழ்த்துக்கள் (iniya puthandu nal Vazhthukkal)
Tatar yaña yıl belän
Telugu నూతన సంవత్శర శుభాకాంక్షలు (nuthana samvathsara subhakankshalu)
Thai สวัสดีปีใหม่ (sawatdii pimaï)
Tibetan tashi delek / losar tashi delek
Tigre sanat farah wa khare
Tshiluba tshidimu tshilenga
Tswana itumelele ngwaga o mosha
Tulu posa varshada shubashaya
Turkish yeni yılınız kutlu olsun
Twents gluk in'n tuk
Udmurt Vyľ Aren
Ukrainian Щасливого Нового Року / З Новим роком (z novym rokom)
Urdu naya sal mubarak
Uzbek yangi yilingiz qutlug' bo'lsin
Vietnamese Chúc Mừng Nǎm Mới / Cung Chúc Tân Niên / Cung Chúc Tân Xuân
Waloon ene boune anéye, ene boune sintéye
Waloon ("betchfessîs" spelling) bone annéye / bone annéye èt bone santéye
Welsh blwyddyn newydd dda
West indian creole bon lanné
Wolof dewenati
Xhosa nyak'omtsha
Yiddish a gut yohr
Yoruba eku odun / eku odun tun tun / eku iyedun
Zerma barka'n da djiri tagio
Zulu unyaka omusha omuhle
 
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Avoid Ineffective Study Methods

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Improve Your Pronunciation by Training Your Ears

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Improve Your Long-Term Memory by Spacing Practice

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