THE GREAT SNOWCOUNTRY HISTORY TEST:
EDUCATIONAL SUPPLEMENT TO
SNOWDREAMS
Snowdreams tells part of the history of Snowcountry, a country that has been called various names through the years. . . "Tuponia" (The United Provinces of North America), "La Nouvelle France" (obviously too French a name),"Aca Nada" (Land of Nothing's Here), "Can A Day" (suggested by a pioneer beer company), "Kanata" (a group of huts), and "Canada" (who knows what on earth "Canada" means!).
To help you understand more about Snowcountry and the Snowcountrians, here is an open book test. Use any of the resources listed at the end of the test to help you find the answers to Snowcountry's eternally plaguing questions.
A score of 90-l00% makes you eligible for citizenship in Snowcountry. 80-90% earns you landed immigrant status. 70-80% gets you a temporary work permit. 60-70%, a student visa. If you score less than 60%, study the Snowcountry Handbook and try again.
Good luck on the test!
THE GREAT SNOWCOUNTRY HISTORY TEST
PART I: WELL-KNOWN FACTS ABOUT SNOWCOUNTRY
l. a) What is Snowcountry's national anthem?
b) In what year did Snowcountry officially adopt its national anthem? How old was Snowcountry at the time?
c) Do you know the words in English? Compare your words with your neighbour's. With the official version.
d) Do you know the words in French?
2. In what year did Snowcountry get its flag?
3. In what year did Snowcountry first get its own passports and citizenship?
4. In what year did Snowcountry get its constitution home?
5. In what year did Snowcountry include multiculturalism as part of its official policy?
6. a) Is Snowcountry an old country or a young country?
b)Which is older: - Snowcountry or Germany?
- Snowcountry or Italy?
- Snowcountry or the U.S.S.R.?
- Snowcountry or the People's Republic of China?
7.What is the official language of Snowcountry
a) Franglais
b) Frenglish
c) Canerican
d ) Inuktitut
8. a) Who makes the rules in Snowcountry?
b) Who really makes the rules?
c) Who owns Snowcountry?
d) Who really owns Snowcountry?
e ) Who owns more than 90 % of Snowcountry's oil and gas deposits?
f) What is a Petrosnow card?
9. What is Snowcountry's national sport? Who won the last Snowcountry Cup?
10. a) What does Snowcountry look like?
b ) How does this affect the people?
( Use at least one diagram on blank white paper to illustrate.)
11. What is a racial stereotype? List all the nationalities that make up Snowcountry. Identify the stereotype that Snowcountrians seem to believe about each of them.
PART II: HISTORY OF SNOWCOUNTRY
1. Who discovered Snowcountry first? (Pick no more than three.)
a) The Phoenicians
b) Christopher Columbus
c ) The Indians
d ) The Welsh
e) The Carthaginians
f ) Irish priests
g )The Inuit
h) Men f rom outer space
i) Pierre Elliott Trudeau
j) The Vikings
k) Anne Murray
l) Irish priests from outer space
m) all of the above
n) none of the above
o) _______________________
2. Why didn't the Vikings stay longer?
3. a) Why did the Acadians leave Snowcountry?
b) Why did they come back?
c) Where are they now?
4. a) In what year was the War of 1812?
b) In what other year?
c) What other year?
d) Who won the War of 1812?
e) Who else?
f) Who lost? (Be specific. "Everybody" is not acceptable.)
5. a) In Snowcountry's history, what did the red man do to the
white man?
b) What did the white man do to the red man?
c ) Who did it first?
d) Where do we go from here?
6. Name three times you wouldn't want to be from Asia during the history of Snowcountry.
7. a) Give ten reasons why people came to Snowcountry.
b) Give ten reasons why they left.
8. a)What is the "brain drain'"? (Hint: it has nothing to do with Snowcountry's Department of Sewers.)
b) Name two times in Snowcountry's history that the "brain drain" ran backwards, sending many valuable immigrants from Amerika.
9. a) Where did the man who wrote "O Snowcountry" move to?
b) What did he advise his friends to do?
10. a) Where did Canadians of Japanese ancestry spend World War II?
b) Why?
c) Really?
11. Answer only six of the following:
a) What is a draft dodger?
b) Who is Evangeline?
c) Why and when did the Czechoslovakians come to Snowcountry?
d) What is a "boat people"?
e) Who were "les filles du roi"?
f) Who will come to Snowcountry next?
12. Essay question. Research immigration policy in Snowcountry, from the earliest times to today. List all the rules that have decided who could enter the country. Beside each rule, write the reason why the government of Snowcountry chose that rule at that particular time. .
13. Essay question. There is a country south of Snowcountry called Amerika. Write an essay, stating the following:
a ) What is the Amerikan Dream?
b) What is the Snowcountrian Dream?
c ) Contrast Amerika' s treatment of native peoples with Snowcountry's.
d ) Contrast Amerika and Snowcountry with respect to law and order, violence, civil liberties.
e) If there had been guns allowed in the opening of Snowcountry's West, would Snowcountrians be watching Power Rangers now instead of Due South?
PART III: THE SNOWCOUNTRIANS, WHO ARE THEY?
l. The people of Snowcountry spend a lot of time looking for their identity. Have you seen it anywhere? If so, send it to the Royal Commission on Identity.
2. a) Look around you. (I know it's a test, but look anyway.) How many different people do you see? All of these people came to Snowcountry at one time or another.
b) Do you know somebody who came last year?
c) Do you know somebody who came forty thousand years ago?
d) When did you come?
e ) Where did you come from? ( Hint: ask your mother.)
3. Who are Snowcountry's heroes? Name twenty-five.
4. Who are Snowcountry ' s explorers? Name two hundred and fifty.
5. Who are Snowcountry' s hockey players? Name twenty-five hundred.
6. Who are the Snowcountrians? Name twenty-five million.
7. a) Who were the Fathers of Snowfederation?
b)The Mothers ?
8. a) The largest ethnic group in Snowcountry is ___________________.
b) Second largest?
c) Third?
d) Fourth ?
e) Fifth?
9. What do all the people in Snowcountry have in common?
a) Nothing.
b) Something.
c) Snow.
10. Choose one of the following essay topics and answer in twenty-five words or less :
a) Who are the Snowcountrians? Where did they come from? Whatare they going to do next?
b) Who do the Snowcountrians think they are? Who are they really? Who would they like to be?
c) Why doesn't Snowcountry just join Amerika and be done with it?
11. Tell in one sentence how all racial friction can be cleared up in Snowcountry.
12. Circle the words that describe you
humble tolerant thrifty puritanical dull hard-working law-abiding non-violent outdoorsy overly humble
(If you circled more than seven words, welcome to Snowcountry.)
PART IV: SOME RESOURCES ABOUT SNOWCOUNTRY
GENERAL WORKS
l. For snippets from books, articles, speeches, and newspapers, see The Canadian Style: Today and Yesterday in Love, Work, Play and Politics, edited by Raymond Reid, Fitzhenry and Whiteside, Ltd., Toronto, 1973.
2. For exciting history, see the pictures and read the stories in Heritage of Canada, editor Hugh Durnford, The Reader's Digest Association (Canada) Ltd., 1978.
3. For meatier history, The Canadians by George Woodcock, Fitzhenry and Whiteside, Don Mills, 1979.
4. What have the movies told us about Snowcountry and the Snowcountrians? Do we believe it? Hollywood's Canada: The Americanization of Our National Image by Pierre Berton, McClelland and Stewart, Toronto, 1975.
5. For history in the words of Apagkaq, Madeleine de Vercheres, an old coureur de bois. . . Colombo's Book of Canada by John Robert Colombo, Hurtig, Edmonton, 1978.
6. For some of the facts you didn't learn in history class, read Portrait of Canada by June Callwood, Doubleday & Company, Inc. , 1981.
7. For three thousand learning materials, print and non-print, see After Survival: A Teacher's Guide to Canadian Resources by Paul Robinson, PMA Books, Toronto, 1977.
IMMIGRATION AND SNOWCOUNTRY
l. In the words of the immigrants themselves. . . The Immigrants by Gloria Montero, James Lorimer & Co. , Toronto, 1977.
2. Pictures and text that show what it was like in the cities of Snowcountry. . . Immigrants: A Portrait of the Urban Experience 1890-1930 by Robert Harney and Harold Troper, Van Nostrand Reinhold Ltd. , Toronto, 1975.
MULTICULTURALISM IN SNOWCOUNTRY
l. For the most concise overview of Snowcountry's rich multicultural heritage, and a date-line of arrivals to these shores, see Canada's Multicultural Heritage: A brief history of Immigration by Victoria Dickenson, National Museums of Man, National Museums of Canada, 1975.
2. For a whole list of books, see the Multiculturalism Bibliography, Canadian Book Information Centre, 70 The Esplanade, 3rd Floor, Toronto, Ontario, M5E lA6.
3. For multi-media multicultural materials, see Resource List for a Multicultural Society, compiled by Janet Max Ministry of Education and Ministry of Culture, Government of Ontario, 1976.
