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CELPIP Practice Reading: Reading for Information ID: #60124 Medium The 1972 Summit Series: eight games that Canadians still remember

Read the following passage.

A. The Summit Series was a set of eight hockey games played in September 1972 between Canada and the Soviet Union. It was the first time that players from the National Hockey League faced the Soviet national team. For years, the International Ice Hockey Federation had banned professional players from international competition, and Canada had withdrawn from such events in 1970. In 1971 Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau met Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin in Moscow, and the two agreed that hockey could help improve relations between their countries. The series became an unusual piece of Cold War diplomacy and a major source of pride for Canadians.

B. Because the Soviets were amateurs, most Canadians expected an easy win. Hockey Canada, founded in 1969, put together a team of NHL stars coached by Harry Sinden, although Bobby Orr could not play because of an injury. In the first game, in Montreal on September 2, Canada scored twice early but lost 7-3 to the fitter Soviet side. Canada then won 4-1 in Toronto and tied 4-4 in Winnipeg. After a 5-3 loss in Vancouver, where the crowd booed the team, Phil Esposito made an emotional appeal to fans on television.

C. The last four games were played in Moscow. Canada lost the fifth game 5-4 but won the next two 3-2 and 4-3, with Paul Henderson scoring the deciding goal each time. In the sixth game, Bobby Clarke slashed the Soviet star Valeri Kharlamov on a tender ankle, the most controversial incident of the series. Before the final game on September 28, the Soviets had scored more goals, so a tie would have given them the series. Canada trailed 5-3 after two periods, but Phil Esposito and Yvan Cournoyer scored to tie the game. With 34 seconds left, Henderson scored, and Canada won 6-5.

D. Few sporting moments are remembered in Canada the way this series is. More than 15 million Canadians, roughly three quarters of the population, followed the final game on television or radio, and many who were alive then can still say where they were when Henderson scored. In 2010 a businessman bought Henderson's sweater from that game for more than $1 million at auction. In 2012 the Government of Canada designated the series a national historic event. For the 50th anniversary, a four-part documentary was shown on CBC, and a special coin was issued that Canadians can find in their change.

E. Not given in any of the above paragraphs.

Decide which paragraph, A to D, has the information given in each statement below. Select E if the information is not given in any of the paragraphs.

- 1.
After one defeat, the spectators jeered the team.

- 2.
The contest grew out of a meeting between the heads of the two governments.

- 3.
Around three thousand supporters from Canada made the trip to watch the games in Moscow.

- 4.
Before this contest, rules had kept paid players out of world hockey events.

- 5.
Even a draw in the last game would have handed the series to the Soviets.

- 6.
Canada started the opening game well but ended up losing it heavily.

- 7.
Years later, a buyer paid a very large sum for the jersey Henderson wore in the last game.

- 8.
Canada was two goals behind in the final game before coming back to win.

- 9.
The final game drew a bigger television audience than any earlier Canadian broadcast.

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