Halloween Vocabulary and Reading - Oxford University Press

Secondary
Vocabulary
1 Match each word with its corresponding picture.
1 ghost
2 vampire
A
C
B
3 jack-o-lantern
4 sweets
5 werewolf
6 witch
E
D
7 wizard
8 devil
G
F
H
2 Complete the crossword.
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Across
1 Halloween is celebrated in this month.
2 We use this vegetable to make a jack-o-lantern.
3 People can choose a trick or a ………….
4 Children wear these on Halloween.
5 You put this inside a jack-o-lantern.
Down
6 This creature is half man, half wolf.
7 The word Halloween comes from this language.
8 Halloween probably originated in this country.
9 Dracula is the most famous one!
10 This is a male witch.
3 Read the text about Halloween quickly and answer the questions:
1 Where is Halloween most popular? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2 What were jack-o-lanterns originally made from? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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4 Read the text again and decide whether these statements are true or false.
1 . . . . . Lots of people go trick or treating in the USA.
2 . . . . . Halloween probably came from Scotland originally.
3 . . . . . All Hallows is the Day of the Dead.
4 . . . . . People wear scary costumes on Halloween.
5 . . . . . They started using pumpkins to make jack-o-lanterns in the USA because there are
no turnips there.
6 . . . . . Treats are things like sweets cakes.
Halloween
Halloween is celebrated in many countries around the world, from Japan to the USA.
It takes place on the 31 st October. People usually wear scary costumes and attend
Halloween parties. In the USA, “trick or treating” is also popular.
Halloween probably originated in Ireland, from the Celtic festival “Samhain”. It was
a festival which celebrated the end of summer – the “lighter” half of the year and
the beginning of the “darker” half. People believed that evil spirits would come
out on this day, and so to protect themselves they wore costumes and masks to
look like evil spirits themselves. The word “Halloween” comes from the Scottish
“All-Hallows-Even”, which means “the day before All-Hallows”. All Hallows is the “Day
of the Dead”, observed in many cultures around the world. These days Halloween
is more popular in the USA than anywhere else.
Costumes
Probably the most important tradition in the celebration of Halloween is dressing
up in costumes. Popular choices of costumes are ghosts, witches, wizards, vampires,
werewolves, demons and devils.
Jack-o-lanterns
A jack-o-lantern is a carved out pumpkin with a candle inside. A scary face is carved
on one side of the pumpkin. Originally, in Ireland and Britain, jack-o-lanterns were
made from turnips, but in the USA there were lots of pumpkins and much easier
to carve out because of their size.
Trick or treating
This involves going from door to door, dressed in a Halloween costume and asking
for “treats”, such as sweets, cakes or money. The question “trick or treat?” means
“give me a treat or I’ll play a trick on you!”
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Project
Teacher’s Instructions:
Before
Divide students into groups of 3 or 4.
Give each group one of the statements below.
Explain to students that they are going to find out whether these statements are true.
Ask students to write the questions they need to ask each of their classmates.
During
Students walk around asking every member of the class their questions. They should keep
a record of their answers.
After
Students work together to present their findings in the form of a graph or poster.
Less than half of the people in our class celebrate Halloween.
Everybody in our class has heard of Halloween.
More than three quarters of the class has seen a horror film.
More than half the class has worn a Halloween costume at least once.
Nobody in the class has played “Apple bobbing”.
Less than half the class has seen a real Jack-o-lantern.
Most people in our class are going to celebrate Halloween this year.
More than three quarters of the class knows what “Trick or treat?” means.
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ANSWERS
VOCABULARY
1
1-f, 2-g, 3-h, 4-a, 5-d, 6-c, 7-e, 8-b
2
READING
3
1 Halloween is most popular in the USA.
2 Jack-o-lanterns were originally made from turnips.
4
1-true, 2-false, 3-true, 4-true, 5-false, 6-true
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