Volunteers begin packing away Tower of London’s ceramic poppies

Yesterday hundreds of volunteers began the long and repetitive task of removing and packing the 888,246 ceramic poppies that have gripped the British public’s imagination at the Tower of London.

The first poppies were taken off their metal stems on Wednesday, the day after Armistice Day. Each was carefully placed in cardboard boxes ready to be taken to a factory. They will then be delivered to the 600,000 people who paid £25, with six charities each expected to benefit by £1.2m. Private investors who lent money to fund the project are also expected to benefit.

About 1,000 people a day, many of whom were among the 19,000 who put the flowers in the moat between July and Armistice Day, are due to work in three three-hour shifts a day over the next two weeks packing the flowers away.

One of the volunteers was Agnes Atkinson, who moved to London from the Philippines 22 years ago. “I think I am so lucky to be here for the first morning. To be part of it is such an amazing experience.” She added that pulling them up was hard work: “Some of them are really quite stubborn, so you really have to dig your hands down and pull it.”

More than 5 million people are estimated to have visited the art installation by artist Paul Cummins, over the last five months.

Among the crowds yesterday was Irma Ansell, a garden designer, from Buckinghamshire anxious to see the poppies before it was too late. “I had no idea how enormous this was,” she said. “It’s breathtaking. I haven’t got any family who were killed in the First or Second World Wars but I do have family who were in the war and it had a great effect on them and their friends. Their whole lives were changed. So I’m here really to respect what they gave up.”

Two parts of the installation – the Weeping Willow, a cascade of poppies which spills from a window of the castle, and the Wave, which swirls out of the moat to form an arch over the entrance to the Tower – will remain in place until the end of the month. They will then go on tour around the country until 2018, when they will be gifted to the Imperial War Museums in London and Manchester.

Adapted from The Guardian, 12 November 2014

Glossary

Poppy - amapola

Question 1 (2 points) Indicate whether the following statements are true or false and write down which part of the text justifies your answer.

a.      There were more than one thousand poppies at the Tower of London.

b.      It will take three hours to remove the poppies from the Tower of London.

c.      About 1,000 people placed the flowers.

d.      The Weeping Willow and the Wave are not going to be removed right now.

Question 2 (2 points) Answer the following questions in your own words.

a. What are they going to do with the poppies?

b. What’s going to happen in 2018?

Question 3 (1.5 points) Find words or phrases in the text that correspond in meaning to the words and definitions given.

a. to enthrall (par. 1)                  b. to support (par. 2)                  c. peace agreement (par. 3)

d. spectacular (par. 6)                e. to honor (par. 6)

Question 4 (1.5 points) Complete the following sentences without changing the meaning.

a.       The first poppies were taken off their metal stems on Wednesday

They ……. 

b.       “I think I am so lucky to be here for the first morning. To be part of it is such an amazing experience.”, Agnes Atkinson said

She said …….

c.       Some of them are really quite stubborn, so you really have to dig your hands down and pull it.

As …………………………………………………

Question 5 (3 points) Write a short essay (120-150 words) on the following topic:

Do you celebrate any historical dates?