108 UniT 08 | Rules – make or break? Read the article about strange laws. Which places are mentioned? Read the article again. Complete the sentences (1–7) using a maximum of four words. Write your answers in the spaces provided. The first one (0) has been done for you. READING 5a Strategies box Reading – Four-word sentence completion (4W) Carefully read the questions. Details like names or places can help you find the spot in the text where you have to look. Write your answer in four or fewer words. Longer answers are always considered wrong. Don’t worry too much about grammar and spelling in short-answer tasks. Your answer is OK as long as your teacher can understand it. Keep smiling – it’s the law! You may think your school rules of ‘no running’ or ‘remove your hat in class’ are a pain, but what do you think of some of these strange laws from around the world? An ancient law in Milan, Italy, says that citizens are obliged to smile at all times in the city. If they don’t, they may have to pay a fine. Apparently the law does not apply to hospital workers and people at funerals. No one really knows if this law is still carried out, but if you go to Milan, you’d better keep smiling – just to be on the safe side! Have you ever visited the Houses of Parliament in London? If so, hopefully you were wearing the right clothes as it is illegal to enter the building wearing a suit of armour1. This law was first created in 1313 but still exists, so remember to wear your jeans and a T-shirt next time you’re in England’s capital. In England it is also forbidden by law to do the following on the street: carry a plank of wood2, fly a kite or play noisy games. On top of that, it is against the law to slide on ice or snow. Some people have absolutely no sense of fun! Stranger still, in Arizona, USA, it is not permitted to have a sleeping donkey in your bathtub after 7 p.m. You may wonder who on earth would come up with a law like this, but there is a tale behind it. In the 1920s a farmer had a donkey whose preferred place to sleep was an old bathtub in the yard. One day there was a huge flood which washed away the bathtub, complete with donkey! The local people had to rescue the donkey, which was no easy task, so afterwards a law was made to prevent it happening again. If you’re a fan of Grimes or Drake, you may also be a fan of the law in Canada which states that one out of every three songs played on the radio must be by a Canadian. It’s known as the ‘Canadian Content Requirement’ or ‘CanCon’ for short. The idea is to encourage Canadians to express themselves and for the radio to reflect Canadians’ ideas, opinions and values. Finally, if you keep getting into trouble for chewing gum, you should probably avoid going to Singapore. It might end up with you getting arrested! Since 2004 it has been illegal to chew gum there, mainly because vandals were sticking their used gum on the train doors and causing problems with the transport system. If you are caught chewing gum in Singapore, you may have to pay a large fine. 1 suit of armour: (Ritter-)Rüstung 2 plank of wood: Holzbrett b Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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