Unit 3 Week 2 Skills Test

The Calle Ocho Festival

   What festival features Cuban food, the rhythmic beats of salsa music, and the sandy shores of sunny Florida? It is the Calle Ocho Festival, one of the largest Hispanic celebrations in the world.

 

   The Calle Ocho Festival takes place in Little Havana, a neighborhood in Miami, Florida. Little Havana lies at the heart of the city’s Cuban community. In the 1950s, thousands of people arrived from Cuba and set down roots in this section of Florida. They opened markets, cafes, and restaurants that reflected their Cuban culture.

 

Calle Ocho is the name of a street at the center of Little Havana. (“Calle Ocho” means “Eighth Street” in Spanish.) Every year, Miami shuts down the street to host this festival, which features Hispanic cultures coming together to celebrate their heritage. The festival originally began as a celebration of only Cuban culture. Over time, the festival has grown to include other Latin American cultures such as those in Puerto Rico and Mexico. Visitors can eat food, dance, and listen to live music. The festival also features street performers from a variety of Latin countries.

 

 The festival began in 1978. For the first year, festival planners expected only 10,000 people to attend. They were shocked when more than 100,000 people turned up! Today, more than a million people attend the Calle Ocho Festival every year.

 

 What can visitors expect when they go to the Calle Ocho Festival? Perhaps the biggest lure is the tempting food. Visitors can try a variety of Latin cuisines. For example, foodies can taste an arepa (a type of flatbread from Venezuela) from one vendor before ordering chorizos (spicy sausages from Spain) from another vendor. Visitors can then wash down the food with café con leche. The drink is coffee with sugar and milk. It is one of the most popular drinks in Miami.

 

 Forget hot dog–eating contests! The Calle Ocho Festival instead features El Croquetazo, a croqueta-eating contest. This event is one of the most popular attractions at the festival. Croquetas are small, bite-sized foods filled with meat or cheese and deep-fried. Participants try to eat as many croquetas as they can in eight minutes as the spectators cheer them on. Some winners have eaten over 150 croquetas at one time. That averages to stuffing nearly 20 croquetas into your mouth per minute! That’s quite a feat!

 

Do you like Latin music? Then you’re in luck. Dozens of stages line the festival route. Each stage features different performances of hip-swaying or pop music. It is not unusual to see couples dancing in the streets to classic Latin styles such as the salsa or merengue. Dancing is so popular that in 1988, more than 119,000 people took part in a conga line. The event set a world record!

 

 The Calle Ocho Festival is the largest Hispanic festival in the United States. It brings together people from all around the world to celebrate. This festival not only showcases Miami’s rich Cuban culture, but it also celebrates different Hispanic cultures from around the world.

• I read the passage

• I didn't read the passage

What is the author’s purpose for writing the passage?

• to inform readers about a popular festival that celebrates Hispanic cultures

• to inform readers about different Hispanic festivals celebrated in the United States

• to persuade readers to attend the Calle Ocho Festival if they are visiting or live in Florida

• to persuade readers that the Calle Ocho Festival is one of the most important festivals in the world

What is the author's purpose for including the following paragraph? Support your answer with evidence from the text.

Calle Ocho is the name of a street at the center of Little Havana. (“Calle Ocho” means “Eighth Street” in Spanish.) Every year, Miami shuts down the street to host this festival, which features Hispanic cultures coming together to celebrate their heritage. The festival originally began as a celebration of only Cuban culture. Over time, the festival has grown to include other Latin American cultures such as those in Puerto Rico and Mexico. Visitors can eat food, dance, and listen to live music. The festival also features street performers from a variety of Latin countries.

Read this sentence from the passage.

 

“Perhaps the biggest lure is the tempting food.” (paragraph 5)

 

What does lure mean as it is used in the sentence?

• attraction

• change

• material

• type

Which word in the sentence gives a clue to the meaning of lure?

“Perhaps the biggest lure is the tempting food.”

• perhaps

• biggest

• tempting

• food

Read this sentence from the passage.

 

“Participants try to eat as many croquetas as they can in eight minutes as the spectators cheer them on.” (paragraph 6)

 

What does spectators mean as it is used in the sentence?

• challengers

• customers

• performers

• viewers

Which phrase is a clue to the meaning of spectators?

 

“Participants try to eat as many croquetas as they can in eight minutes as the spectators cheer them on.” (paragraph 6)

 

• “try to eat”

• “as many croquetas”

• “in eight minutes”

• “cheer them on”