1. What percentage of students in the United States between the ages of 18 and 24 cannot locate Iraq on the world map? Afghanistan? Japan? The United States? 

ANSWER: 

             IRAQ = 87%, AFGHANISTAN = 83%, JAPAN = 58%, UNITED STATES = 11%

2. ________ of people in the United States agree that students should have a study abroad experience sometime during college, but only ______ of students from the United States currently study abroad each year.

 ANSWER: ____79%____ of people in the United States agree that students should have a study abroad experience sometime during college, but only ___1%___ of students from the United States currently study abroad each year.

3. Studying abroad exposes students from the United States to valuable _____________ and cultural understanding and forms an integral part of their education.

ANSWER: a. shopping sprees    b. global knowledge    c. memories    d. all of the above

 4. Some of the core values and skills of __________ education are enhanced by participation in study abroad programs

ANSWER:    a. higher                      b. lower                           c. no                d. the same

 5. Institutions of higher education in the United States are struggling to graduate enough students with the ____________ skills and cultural competence necessary to meet the current demands of business, government, and educational institutions.

ANSWER:    a. reading                    b. writing                         c. language    d. science

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*Statistics provided by U.S. Senate.

2. What happened at the age of 16?
A. Got married B. Ran away C. Was kidnapped
C. At the age of sixteen he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken captive to Ireland as a slave. It is believed he was held somewhere on the west coast of Ireland, possibly Mayo, but the exact location is unknown. According to his Confession, he was told by God in a dream to flee from captivity to the coast, where he would board a ship and return to Britain.

3. What did he study?
A. Religion B. Medicine C. Plants
A. Upon returning, he quickly joined the Church in Gaul and studied to be a priest.

4. Where did he go to convert the royalty and aristocrats?
A. Ireland B. Britain C. France
A. In 432, he again says that he was called back to Ireland to save the Irish. He focused on converting royalty and aristocracy, as well as the poor.

5. Why did he use the Shamrock?
A. For luck B. Protect him from lice C. Teach the Trinity
C. Irish folklore tells that one of his teaching methods included using the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity (the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit) to the Irish people.

6. What happened on March 17th, 461 AD?
A. He died B. He became a Bishop C. He started a church in Ireland
A. After nearly thirty years of teaching and spreading God’s word, he died on March 17, 461 AD. Although there were other more successful missions to Ireland from Rome, Patrick endured as the principal champion of Irish Christianity, and, as such, he is held in esteem in the Irish Church.

7. What was the original color associated with St. Patrick’s Day?
A. Red B. Orange C. Blue
C. Originally the color associated with St. Patrick was blue, not green. However, over the years the color green and its association with St. Patrick’s day grew. Green ribbons and shamrocks were worn in celebration of St Patrick’s Day as early as the 17th century.

8. Where was the first St. Patrick’s Day Parade?
A. Dublin B. Boston C. New York

 B. Irish Society of Boston organized what was not only the first Saint Patrick’s Day Parade in the colonies, but the first recorded Saint Patrick’s Day Parade in the world on March 17, 1737. The first parade in Ireland was not until the 1931 parade in Dublin. The parade in Boston involved Irish immigrant workers marching to make a political statement about how they were not happy with their low social status and their inability to obtain jobs in America.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! – From YLC

1. This country embraces a mix of Caribbean and Latin cultures, infused with a colonial history brought to its shores by British settlers. English-speaking, Creole-dominated and with a thoroughly coup-free history, this tiny country has an atmosphere that couldn’t be more laid back. Mayan ruins, diving the Blue hole and Marie Sharp’s famous hot sauce are some trademarks.

2. Take boat rides through villages built entirely on stilts, see hippos eyeballing you from murky rivers, stop off at deserted beaches where slave ships once sailed and see stunning indigenous architecture. On Voodoo day (January 10) people meet on Ouidah’s beaches to pray for good health. Elephants and hippos, smiling faces, poachers and multiple coups are some trademarks.

3. Laze in the sun on the dazzling pink-sand beaches and splash about in the turquoise waters of the bay. They are well known for cricket matches and afternoon teas. Colorful shorts, tidy pastel cottages and Gosling’s Black Seal Rum are some trademarks.

4. This country teeters between contemporary and medieval as monks transcribe ancient Buddhist texts into laptop computers and traditionally dressed archers use alloy-steel bows and arrows. They have the only capital in the world without traffic lights and just opened their doors to visitors in 1974. The last Himalayan Buddhist kingdom, colorful textiles, a place for inspiration and solitude, and prayer flags are some of the trademarks.

5. This country is known as the Tibet of the Americas. Stroll cobblestone streets, visit spectacular ice caves and turquoise lakes, see spurting geysers and eerie lagoons or take a jungle trip to the rainforest. Bowler hats, colorful hand-woven shawls, llamas and chewing coca are some trademarks. (Legendary Outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid supposedly met their demise in this country.)

6. As the host of the 1984 Winter Olympics, this country offers a vast variety of activities for its small size. Visit medieval castles, take a tram ride, raft the rapids, drink Turkish coffee, or buy homemade wines. Old cobbled streets, medieval forts and castles, mountain villages, and excellent Turkish food are some trademarks.

1. Belize – rice and beans or beans and rice (Belikin Beer)
2. Benin – Paté de maiz (mashed maize) with either meat, cheese or gombo (okra) sauce (Béninoise Beer)
3. Bermuda – fish chowder and the traditional Sunday codfish breakfast (Ginger Beer)
4. Bhutan – Tibetan style momos (filled steamed dumplings), yak meat or ema datse (chillies and cheese)
5. Bolivia – salteña (a pastie filled with meat and vegetables) and surubí (catfish)
6. Bosnia & Hercegovina – sirnica (cheese pie) or tufahije (apple cake topped with cream and walnuts)

Can you read these right the first time?
1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce.
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish antique furniture.
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present .
A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row the rig into a row of corn.
13) They were too close to the door to close it.
14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow..
17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let’s face it – English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren’t invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

PS. – Why doesn’t ‘Buick’ rhyme with ‘quick’?

You lovers of the English language might enjoy this.
There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is ‘UP.’
It’s easy to understand UP , meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?

We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car . At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.

And this UP is confusing. A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don’t give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP .

When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.

When it doesn’t rain for awhile, things dry UP .
One could go on and on, but I’ll wrap it UP , for now my time is UP, so……… Time to shut UP !

Below are some clues for 6 of these countries. Answer’s follow the clues.

1. Eat frittered or grilled conch and drink Kalik beer while listening to a rake ‘n’ scrape band in a bar on a backwater cay. Casinos, luxury yachts and rum are some trademarks.

2. Snorkel among the coral reefs, wander through Royal Tombs and drink cardamom-infused Arabic style coffee. Amazing archaeological excavations, dates, carpet weaving, and dhows (fishing boats) are some trademarks.

3. This is the world’s most crowded country where you can cruise along countless rivers, explore the longest beach on the planet and drink yogurt sharbat, a chilled spicy yogurt drink flavored with chili, mint, coriander and cumin. Rickshaws, terracotta sculpture and Royal Bengal tigers are some trademarks.

4. This country boasts more international cricket players on a per capita basis than any other nation and women are the head of the household in many families. You might want to try the cou-cou (creamy cornmeal and okra mash, often served with saltfish) or souse (pickled pig’s head and belly, spices and a few vegetables, commonly served with a pig-blood sausage called ‘pudding’.) Calypso music, rum and nightlife are trademarks.

5. Mushrooming is a traditional expedition in this country. After eating a variety of foods with mushrooms and drinking a pint in the shadow of the KGB building, you might need to drink kvas, an elixir made of malt, flour, sugar, mint and fruit. Mountain villages, furry hats, hearty peasant food and sweet, strong liqueurs are some trademarks.

6. Some essential experiences here are sampling the country’s 800+ beers and world renowned chocolates, creeping through corridors and dungeons at the Chateau de Bouillon, and watching pigeon races. Lace, rubens, waffles, and kisses on the cheek are some trademarks.

Stay tuned for information about the next 12 countries that begin with the letter B.

1. Bahamas – English
2. Bahrain – Arabic
3. Bangladesh – Bengali
4. Barbados – English
5. Belarus – Belarusian
6. Belgium – Dutch, French, German

1. In Spain, the Philippines, and certain parts of Latin America, El Día de los Reyes (The Day of the Kings) is celebrated with children leaving shoes out overnight to collect gifts from the Kings. Sweets, drinks, and hay are left out as gifts for the Kings and their camels.

2. In the Netherlands and Belgium, the day is known as Drie koningen (Three King’s Day). Three children dress in costume to represent the three kings and visit houses singing songs, receiving sweets or coins from each door.

3. In Germany, children go from house to house on Epiphany eve, singing carols and chalking the year and initials KMB (those of the kings, Kaspar, Melchior and Balthasar), near the entrance of each home to bless the family for the New Year.

4. In Mexico, families go to the Alameda, in Mexico City, a beautiful park that dates back to the Colonial era. There hundreds of stands are placed with food, toys and sets, where the children can have their picture taken with the Three Kings of the Orient. Hundreds of multicolored balloons, filled with helium, are sold during the season, so the little ones can attach their letters to them, and have them fly, up to the sky, carrying all their wishes to the Kings with them. If they forgot their letters at home, there is no need to worry, there are also salesmen that offer writing paper and envelopes specially designed for the occasion and addressed to the Reyes Magos.

5. Several countries – most notably Italy and Russia – also share the long-held tradition of La Befana, (in Russia, Baboushka) the kindly old witch who makes her annual visit bringing presents by climbing down the chimney on the night of January 5.

Many countries celebrate with a special cake, with a small doll of Jesus baked inside. The finder of the doll always has a task. What is this task?
This special cake has many names depending where you live. Where are these cakes from?
1. Dreikonigskuchen
2. Ciasto Trzech Kroli
3. Rosca de Reyes

A special cake known as Rosca de Reyes is made with a small doll of Jesus baked inside—depending on the country, the finder of the doll must pay for the cake, host a party later in the year, or simply serves as king for the day.

Dreikonigskuchen – Germany
Ciasto Trzech Kroli -Poland
Rosca de Reyes – Mexico and some parts of Spain

Stromboli is one of the most active volcanoes on Earth and has been erupting almost continuously since 1932. Because it has been active for much of the last 2,000 years and its eruptions are visible for long distances at night, it is known as the “Lighthouse of the Mediterranean”. It is among the world’s most visited volcanoes.

Stromboli is widely known for its spectacular eruptions which jet fountains of molten rock from its lava-filled central crater. Because these eruptions are so distinctive and well known, geologists use the word “Strombolian” to clearly describe similar eruptive activity at other volcanoes.

Mount Mayon is an active stratovolcano renowned as the “Perfect Cone” because of its almost perfectly conical shape. A level 2 alert is in force for Mayon because of increased activity in June-July 2009.
Mayon has had forty-nine eruptions in recorded history. The first recorded eruption was in 1616, the last major eruption ceased on 1 October 2006. The most destructive eruption occurred on February 1, 1814. Lava flowed, but the destruction was from the ash that buried the town of Cagsawa—only the bell tower of the town’s church remained above the new surface. Proximate areas were also devastated by the eruption with ash accumulating to 9 m (30 ft) in depth. 2,200 locals perished in what is considered to be the most lethal eruption in Mayon’s history.

Highly active Pacaya Volcano is the most frequently climbed volcano in this country. It is easily accessible and commonly puts on a good show for volcano enthusiasts.

Pacaya’s current active phase began in 1965, and the volcano has been almost constantly in eruption since then. Eruptive activity ranges from minor gaseous emissions and quiet steam eruptions, to explosions powerful enough to hurl bombs up to 12 kilometers and necessitate the evacuation of numerous villages on the flanks of the volcano. Eruptions also include strombolian activity, vulcanian explosions, minor flows from the crater, and larger flows emitted as flank eruptions.

____________________________________________________________________________

Stromboli is in Sicily, Italy
Mount Mayon is in the Philippines
Pacaya is in Guatemala