April Fools' Day

From the book : All About Britain

"April Fools ! " Should you hear these words, it means two things : 1) it is April, 1st; 2) someone has just pulled a prank on you ! Why ? It's April Fools' Day. On this day, people pull pranks and spread rumours and hoaxes. The media also invent some fake -flabbergasting - news and some people usually fall for them or buy them ! Yeah ! This is similar to Spain's Innocents' Day (28th December). This day goes back to the year 1957, where the BBC broadcast people picking spaghetti from plants. The audience thought it all was true and phoned the station to buy these plants ! Here you can watch it in the video : 

1. Now I will propose you a little game. I will enumerate five 'news items' and you will have to decide which one of them is TRUE ! Four of them will be hoaxes. Ready ?

a)  UFO lands in London

From : http://hoaxes.org/af_database/permalink/ufo_lands_near_london

b) Queen Elizabeth sent her first email in 1976

From : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34185586

c) A new race of penguins that can fly have been discovered 

d) Big Ben will go digital in 2020

From : https://currentopinionsofnews.wordpress.com/2014/02/16/big-ben-to-go-digital/

e) Mummified fairy discovered ! 

From : https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lebanoncircle/the-derbyshire-mummified-fairy-ooak-kit-and-dvd-wo

Answers: Only one of the news is true. Which one ? Well, letter b, indeed, surprising though it may sound ! If you want to see some of the most famous hoaxes of all time, click on this link.

2. Now let's learn some vocabulary for this day, related to tricks :

- Tell jokes / crack jokes = 'contar chistes'

- Trick someone / deceive someone / fool someone = engañar a alguien

- Play tricks on someone / pull pranks on someone = gastarle bromas a alguien

- Fall into a trap = 'caer en la trampa'

- Take the bait = 'picar el anzuelo'

- I don't buy it / I haven't fallen for it = 'no me lo trago' / 'no me lo creo'.

- He is a prankster / joker / jester / quipster = 'Él es un bromista.'

- April Fools ! = '¡ Inocente !' 

- April Fool pranks = 'inocentadas.'

- Spread a hoax = 'extender un rumor.'

3. To finish with, if you are much of a prankster, here you have a compilation of some interesting pranks of April Fool's Day. 

4. This video will prompt you to pull pranks on others. I hope you never put these "inspiring" ideas into practice.

I hope you have learnt a lot about April Fools' Day. Which is your favourite prank ? Post it on a comment !