 MouseMasterCanadian CornerGrammar CentralCrazy EnglishTerrible TeacherFlashed ESLAmerican Stories
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Instructions: 1. Either print this exercise with the questions and complete them in a traditional fashion, or 2. Press to run a self-marked version of this exercise.  Although it has never been officially declared, the national sport of Canada is popularly believed to be lacrosse, a game first played by North American Indians. But no official recognition could ever make lacrosse as popular in Canada as the game Canadians love most: ice hockey. In its simplest form, hockey is a game played on a huge rectangular ice surface. Two opposing teams of six skaters use long curved sticks to send a small disk called a "puck" into each other's goal. At its best, it is one of the most graceful and exciting sports in the world. Highly-skilled players combine balance and strength with superb skating and stick-handling ability, moving at speeds of nearly 45 kilometers an hour. At its worst, ice hockey is a physically punishing sport where players often come into violent contact with opponents' sticks and bodies. It is also the only sport that allows players to fight without necessarily being ejected from the game. No one knows exactly how the game of hockey originated. Faithful fans of the sport could argue that carvings on early Egyptian pottery, showing two players in the "face-off" position, are proof of the game's early origin. However, most historians will only accept such carvings as proof that ball and stick games existed around the world for thousands of years. Canada's love-affair with ice hockey dates back to before the country became a Dominion in 1867, but there is still great debate over where the game was actually developed. Reports from the early 1860s show hockey being played near Kingston, Ontario by members of Her Majesty's Royal Canadian Rifles. Other evidence suggests that ice hockey emerged in Montreal in the 1870s from a combination of games that included ice lacrosse and British field hockey, or near Windsor, N.S. Regardless of its origin, ice hockey rapidly became the most popular sport in Canada as teams and leagues began to organize across the country. Although it was initially an amateur sport, the turn of the century saw dozens of professional leagues start up, including the National Hockey League (NHL). The NHL began in November, 1917, and is now recognized as the premier hockey league in the world. Teams in the NHL compete for a trophy called"The Stanley Cup." The cup was originally called the "Dominion Challenge Trophy" and was donated in 1893 by Canada's Governor General, Lord Stanley of Preston. The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens were for years the only Canadian teams in the league. Between them, they have won the Stanley Cup nearly forty times. ln recent years, teams from Edmonton and Calgary have captured NHL championships. Winning the Stanley Cup has been the true test of greatness for many of Canada's hockey legends. In fact, the names of players like Gordie Howe, Maurice "The Rocket" Richard, Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky are more familiar to Canadians than the names of former Prime Ministers like Thompson, Bowell and Tupper. This shows how important the game of ice hockey is to the people of Canada! In 2002, The "Society for International Hockey" concluded the first match was played at the Victoria Skating Rank in downtown Montreal on March 3, 1875, and the International Ice Hockey Federation agreed. |
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