It was December 31, 1993. After a late dinner, Jose Hernandez looked at the grandfather clock in his living room, which was fast approaching 10:00 p.m. “Rosa, honey,” he said to his wife. “Put on your winter coat now. Let’s head down to the town square to ring in the New Year with the townspeople.” No sooner __1__ their home, however, than the brightly lit town of Bérchules in southern Spain went silently dark. A power outage caused by bad weather meant the planned festivities would be canceled.
Perhaps most towns would have taken that freak event as a sign to stop future New Year’s celebrations . Not Bérchules. After their celebration was thwarted , they decided to go ahead and hold their New Year’s Eve celebrations on the first Saturday in August. That’s how they __2__ marking 1994 in the middle of the year. They continue to celebrate the New Year in August to this day.
Bérchules is a town of fewer than a thousand residents, but its __3__ swells when the first weekend in August rolls around , with thousands of tourists coming for the festivities. Various New Year’s and Christmas traditions are __4__ during the time. Special types of bread are prepared, a must for a Spanish holiday dinner. Turkey, veal, and a cold, tomatobased soup called salmorejo are on every dining table. Outside, people pop open bottles of champagne, dance, and sing. Three men dressed as the Biblical three kings parade throughout the town on real donkeys. They even use Styrofoam to create __5__ snow at midnight. And everyone gets to celebrate a summertime New Year’s Eve!
1. (A) they exited (B) they were exiting (C) had they exited (D) would they exit
2. (A) ended up (B) kicked off (C) put down (D) made out
3. (A) faculty (B) resource (C) population (D) committee
4. (A) tolerated (B) classified (C) enclosed (D) observed
5. (A) commercial (B) artificial (C) potential (D) influential
