Sulinet Digitális Nyelvi Tananyagbank (www.sulinet.hu/nyelvek)
Here are six of the best April Fool’s Day Hoaxes ever… Hope they will make you smile :)
Your task is to match the first part of each story (1-6) with an appropriate ending (A-F),
then find the best title for the hoax. If you’re done, have a look at the crossword to get
the new vocab active! And, above all, have loads of fun!!
THE BEGINNINGS…
1. In 1957 the respected BBC news programme Panorama showed a short film
announcing that thanks to a very mild winter and the disappearance of the
dangerous spaghetti-eating insect, Swiss farmers were enjoying a larger spaghetti
crop. In the film, Swiss peasants pulled strands of spaghetti down from trees. A
lot of viewers were fooled, and many called up wanting to know how they could
grow their own spaghetti trees.
2. In 1962 there was only one TV channel in Sweden, and it broadcast in black and
white. The station's technical expert, Kjell Stensson, appeared on the news to
announce that thanks to a newly developed technology, all viewers could now
quickly and easily change the TV sets which they have so that they could see
programmes in colour.
3. In 1998 Burger King published a full page advertisement in USA Today announcing
the introduction of a new item to their menu: a "Left-Handed Whopper" which
was specially designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans. According to the
advertisement, the new whopper included the same ingredients as the original
Whopper (lettuce, tomato, hamburger patty, etc.), but all the spices were
rotated 180 degrees for the benefit of their left-handed customers.
4. On March 31, 1989 a bright flying saucer landed in a field on the outskirts of
London where local residents immediately called the police to warn them of an
alien invasion. Soon the police arrived, and one brave officer approached the
aircraft with his truncheon extended before him. When a door in the aircraft
opened, and a small figure in a silver-suit came out of it, the policeman ran in the
opposite direction.
5. In 1980 the BBC announced that Big Ben, in order to keep up with the times,
would get a digital readout. It received a huge response from listeners who
protested against the change.
6. In 1999 the Today program on BBC Radio 4 announced that the British National
Anthem ("God Save the Queen") was to be replaced by a Euro Anthem sung in
German. The new anthem, which Today played for their listeners, used parts from
Beethoven's music and was sung by pupils of a German school in London.
AND THE ENDINGS…
A) The following day Burger King issued published a report saying that although the LeftHanded Whopper was a hoax, thousands of customers had gone into restaurants to
ask for the new sandwich. At the same time, according to the report, "many others
asked for their own 'right handed' version."
B) Reportedly, Prince Charles's office telephoned Radio 4 to ask them for a copy of the
new anthem. St. James Palace later said that it had been playing along with the hoax
Tananyag ID: student0073 nyelv@sulinet.hu
1
Sulinet Digitális Nyelvi Tananyagbank (www.sulinet.hu/nyelvek)
and had never been fooled by it. Well, we will never know…
C) To this question, the BBC diplomatically replied that they should "place a little
spaghetti in some tomato sauce and hope for the best." (Check out the original film
on the BBC's website. You need the RealVideo player installed to see it, and it usually
loads very slowly, but it is really interesting!!).
D) The BBC Japanese service also announced that the clock hands would be sold to the
first four listeners to contact them, and one Japanese seaman in the mid-Atlantic
immediately radioed in a bid.
E) The saucer turned out to be a hot-air balloon that had been specially built to look
like a UFO by Richard Branson, the 36-year-old chairman of Virgin Records. His plan
was to land the aircraft in London's Hyde Park on April 1. Unfortunately, the wind
blew him off his course, and he had to land a day earlier in the wrong location.
F) All they had to do was pull a nylon stocking over their TV screen. Stensson
demonstrated the process in his show. Hundreds of thousands of people, out of the
population of seven million, were fooled. Real colour TV broadcasting only started in
Sweden on April 1, 1970.
And finally, the titles…
 Instant Colour TV
 The Euro Anthem
 UFO lands in London
 Big Ben Goes Digital
 The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest
 The Left-Handed Whopper
(source: http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/)
Tananyag ID: student0073 nyelv@sulinet.hu
2
Sulinet Digitális Nyelvi Tananyagbank (www.sulinet.hu/nyelvek)
KEY:
1 – C – The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest
2 – F – Instant Colour TV
3 – A – The Left-Handed Whopper
4 – E – UFO lands in London
5 – D – Big Ben Goes Digital
6 – B – The Euro Anthem
Tananyag ID: student0073 nyelv@sulinet.hu
3