Inside Out

National flags WORKSHEET A

Exercise 1

Can you match the descriptions of national flags with the countries they represent?

1. A large red circle, which represents a rising sun, on a

white background. FRANCE

2. This flag is divided horizontally into two halves. The top

half is white, the bottom half is red. NIGERIA

3. This flag is divided horizontally into three parts of equal

size. The top is red, the middle is white, and the bottom is CANADA
black. There are two green stars in the white section.

4. This flag has a large yellow diamond on a green

background. Inside the yellow diamond there is a blue
circle, and inside the blue circle there are small white stars FINLAND
with three words in Portuguese.
5. This flag is divided vertically into three parts of equal
size. From left to right, the first part is blue, the middle part
JAPAN
is white, and the third part is red.

6. This flag is also divided vertically into three parts of

equal size. The first and third parts are green, and the
middle is white. SYRIA

7. This flag is divided vertically into three parts. The first

and third parts, which are red, are slightly narrower than
the middle part, which is white. In the white section there CHINA
is a large red shape representing a leaf from a type of tree
that is common in this country.
8. A dark blue cross on a white background.
SPAIN

9. This flag is divided horizontally into three parts. The

middle, which is yellow, is bigger than the top and bottom POLAND
parts, which are red.
10. This flag is almost all red, but there are five yellow
stars in the top left-hand corner. One star is bigger than the BRAZIL
other four.

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National flags WORKSHEET B

Do you know what the English word ‘vexillology’ means? If not, don’t worry, you’re
certainly not (1) ____________. In fact, vexillology is the study of flags, and
someone who studies flags is a vexillologist.
A vexillologist can probably recognise a lot of the world’s national flags, but can you
say the same for (2) ____________? Apart from the flag of your own country and
those flags that have a very high (3) ____________ internationally, such as that of the
United States, roughly how many national flags do you think you can recognise?
Flags might only be rectangular pieces of (4) ____________, but they obviously have
a great deal of importance as national symbols. Then again, there are plenty of
countries in which some people aren’t very keen on their flag, either for political or
aesthetic (5) ____________.
There is a story behind every national flag, with the (6) ____________ and design
always having been chosen for specific reasons. Visual distinctiveness has often been
one of the most (7) ____________ criteria in choosing a national flag, and many
countries certainly have flags that stand out. Take Canada, for example, with its large
red maple leaf, or Japan with its red rising sun, or Brazil with its blue circle inside a
yellow diamond on a green background.
However there are some flags that are very (8) ____________ to each other: the flag
of Liberia, for example, was based on the flag of the United States, while Italy and
Mexico have a similar green, white and red tricolour. Colombia, Venezuela and
Ecuador (9) ____________ the colours red, yellow and blue, while the Arab countries
of Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Yemen all have red, white and black.
Some national flags can cause confusion, for example many (10) ____________ refer
to the distinctive blue, red and white flag of Britain as the flag of England. However
England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the four countries that make up
Britain, actually have their own separate flags. The flag of England is a red cross (the
cross of St George) on a white (11) ____________. Waving the British flag at some
sports matches used to contribute to this confusion (a good example was in the1966
football World Cup), but nowadays English sports fans seem to have (12)
____________ up the British flag in favour of the cross of St George.

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National flags WORKSHEET C

Exercise 2

Fill the twelve gaps in the text on Worksheet B with the correct words from the box
below. There are four words that you will not need to use.

share reasons waves profile

similar background alone them
wrong yourself times colours
important foreigners cloth given

Exercise 3

Decide if the following statements are true (T) or false (F), then bet a minimum of 10
points up to a maximum of 50 on your choice.
Points Points Points
T/F
bet lost won
1 The most common colour on the world’s national
flags is red.
2 As with the flag of Brazil, the main colours on the
flag of Argentina are green, yellow and blue.
3 The flag of Libya only has one colour: it is all
green.
4 There is no national flag that includes the
geographical shape of the country it represents.
5 The colour orange does not appear on any national
flags.
6 On the flag of the United States, the stars in the top
left-hand corner represent the different states that
the country consists of.
7 The most popular number of colours on the world’s
national flags is three.
8 The highest number of different colours on a
national flag is six, on the flag of South Africa.
9 The flag of France changed in 2007.
10 In Europe there are more than three countries whose
national flags have crosses on them.
Total points lost and won
Final total (subtract total points lost from total points won)

This page has been downloaded from www.insideout.net.

It is photocopiable, but all copies must be complete pages. Copyright © Macmillan Publishers Limited 2008.