Dear Isabelle,
If you look at a map of my country, you will find English names like London or Windsor, French names like Trois Rivières or Indian names likes Manitoba, Saskatchewan or Winnipeg. Strange, isn't it? Let me tell you more about my country. But you know its name, don't you? It's Canada, of course and I'm Canadian. The history of my country is longer than that of the United States: a Viking, Leif Erikson, discovered Canada in 986. That was a long time before Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492.
The first explorers Jacques Cartier and Champlain were French, that is why they called the country New France. But there were more English people than French people in Canada and it became English in 1763. After many wars Canada became independent in 1867. And you know, Canadian *soldiers came to help France and England against Germany in 1917 and 1944. Canada is larger than the United States, did you know that ? Its area is about ten million *square kilometres, that is eighteen times as big as France and forty times as big as the United Kingdom but only twenty-five million people live there. If you look at a map, you can see Canada is near Alaska. As you can imagine, it is very cold in winter but it is also very hot in summer. Only six million of us speak French. But the French say we have a funny accent and use funny words. But you know, we are *neither English nor French. We are Americans, North Americans but we are not far from the USA. We use dollars, Canadian dollars of course, and there are no frontiers between our country and the United States.
So, if you go to America one day, don't forget to visit Canada.

Love from your friend,
Rose

 

 

VOCABULARY
soldier = soldat
square kilometres = kilomètres carrés
neither… nor… = ni… ni…

 

A) Where does Rose live?
1) in India
2) in England
3) in Canada

B) Who discovered this country?
1) Leif Erikson
2) Christopher Columbus
3) Jacques Cartier

C) This country is…
1) as big as France
2) bigger than France
3) smaller than France

D) When did this country become independent?
1) 1492
2) 1867
3) 1944

 

 

 

 

 

ANSWERS
A3 | B1 | C2 | D2