Independence Day in the United States is celebrated every year on the Fourth of July. For most communities throughout the nation, the traditional celebration includes parades down the main streets, picnics with hot dogs and lemonade, and, of course, a fireworks display at night. In some towns across the country, however, special events are planned in honour of the occasion. In Bristol, Rhode Island, fire engine teams from communities throughout New England compete in a contest to squirt water from their fire hoses. Flafstaff, Arizona holds a huge three-day powwow, including a rodeo for twenty Native American tribes. The annual Eskimo games with traditional kayak races are held in Kotzebue, Alaska. Two auto races are always scheduled for the Fourth, including a four-hundred-mile stock car event at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona, Florida, and an annual auto race up the fourteen-thousand-foot precipice at Pike's Peak in Colorado. Several small towns celebrate in other unique ways. Hannibal, Missouri, the hometown of Mark Twain, invited the children to participate in a fence-painting contest, performing a scene from Mark Twain's novel Tom Sawyer. In Lititz, Pennsylvania people gather in the Limits Springs Park to light thousands of candles and arrange them in various shapes and images. Notes: Powwow: a meeting of Native Americans Rodeo: a public competition to show skills of riding wild horses Kayak: a kind of light boat Stock car event: a car race in which cars are allowed to hit each other 1. With which of the following topics is the passage primarily concerned? __________ A. Holidays in the United States. B. Traditional celebrations for the Fourth of July. C. The origin of the Independence Day. D. Small towns in America. 2. The author mentions all of the following as ways the Fourth of July is celebrated except _____. __________ A. parades B. races C. dances D. fireworks 3. The word huge in paragraph 2 could be best replaced by _____. __________ A. exciting B. amusing C. complicated D. large 4. The word them in paragraph 3 refers to _____. __________ A. shapes B. candles C. children D. images 5. It can be inferred from the passage that _____. __________ A. the Fourth of July is celebrated in Canada as well as in the US. B. towns in the US celebrate July Fourth in different ways because of their regional customs. C. although fireworks are not legal, they are displayed on the Fourth of July. D. The Fourth of July is not celebrated in large cities in the US.