TOEFL-type Reading Comprehension Test - Thanksgiving in theUSA and Canada
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Course
TOEFL
Institution
TOEFL
TOEFL-type Reading Comprehension Test - Thanksgiving in theUSA and CanadaRead the following extract about the history of Thanksgiving in the USA andCanada. Then click on the "Start Quiz" button to answer 6 questions about thetext.Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday celebrated in Canada and the U...
TOEFL-type Reading Comprehension Test – Thanksgiving in the
USA and Canada
Read the following extract about the history of Thanksgiving in the USA and
Canada. Then click on the “Start Quiz” button to answer 6 questions about the
text.
Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday celebrated in Canada and the United
States as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the
preceding year. It is celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canada and
on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. Several other places
around the world observe similar celebrations. Thanksgiving has its historical
roots in religious and cultural traditions and has long been celebrated in a secular
manner as well.
Prayers of thanks and special thanksgiving ceremonies are common among
almost all religions after harvests and at other times.The Thanksgiving holiday’s
history in North America is rooted in English traditions dating from the Protestant
Reformation. It also has aspects of a harvest festival, even though the harvest in
New England occurs well before the late-November date on which the modern
Thanksgiving holiday is celebrated.
In the English tradition, days of thanksgiving and special thanksgiving religious
services became important during the English Reformation in the reign of Henry
VIII and in reaction to the large number of religious holidays on the Catholic
calendar. Before 1536 there were 95 Church holidays, plus 52 Sundays, when
people were required to attend church and forego work and sometimes pay for
expensive celebrations. The 1536 reforms reduced the number of Church
holidays to 27, but some Puritans wished to completely eliminate all Church
holidays, including Christmas and Easter. The holidays were to be replaced by
specially called Days of Fasting or Days of Thanksgiving, in response to events
that the Puritans viewed as acts of special providence. Unexpected disasters or
threats of judgement called for Days of Fasting. Special blessings, viewed as
coming from God, called for Days of Thanksgiving. For example, Days of Fasting
were called on account of the drought in 1611, floods in 1613, and plagues in
1604 and 1622. Days of Thanksgiving were called following the victory over the
Spanish Armada in 1588 and following the deliverance of Queen Anne in 1705.
An unusual annual Day of Thanksgiving began in 1606 following the failure of the
Gunpowder Plot in 1605 and developed into Guy Fawkes Day.
While some researchers state that “there is no compelling narrative of the origins
of the Canadian Thanksgiving day”, the first Canadian Thanksgiving is often
traced back to 1578 and the explorer Martin Frobisher. Frobisher, who had been
trying to find a northern passage to the Pacific Ocean, held his Thanksgiving
celebration not for harvest but in thanks for surviving the long journey from
England through the perils of storms and icebergs.
In the United States, the modern Thanksgiving holiday tradition is commonly, but
not universally, traced to a sparsely documented 1621 celebration at Plymouth in
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