Let's go digital !

Italy 1944 the German army is fighting its last battles, with no chances of victories.
A young soldier from New York, tired and hungry, enters a village. Alone.
There are no people in the streets. Most of the houses have been destroyed by bombs.
During a heavy artillery battle the young soldier had run and lost his company.
Three days earlier he had found a can of paint in another village. All these days he has been painting this message: KILLROY WAS HERE. The can is almost empty now. In every village he came no blind wall was left alone, and now his hands are black with paint. KILLROY WAS HERE, he writes again. This time on the wall of a little church. Now his fellow-Americans, who are probably looking for him will at least know he has been there. The story goes that now thousands of Italian walls still have these three words on them. And not only in Italy! You could say that people all over the world have accepted this sentence as a symbol for a new ‘sport’: writing or making drawings on doors, walls, buses and trains. Now it is known as graffiti. It is said that Stalin, the great Russian leader, once came running out of his toilet, with a red face, waving wildly with his arms, and shouting: ‘Who did this?!’ When somebody took a look he saw written on the wall with big black letters: KILLROY WAS HERE !
True or untrue. Well, it is clear that now graffiti is a normal thing in our cities. It is used as a way to protest, to support pop-groups, political groups and ideas, as a from of art, but mostly just to have some fun. Today you will hardly find any blind wall that hasn’t been used for some form of graffiti. But of course it is against the law and the police spend quite a lot of time trying to catch the ‘enemy’, who operate very quickly, mostly at night, and who are seldom older than twenty.

In New York there now is a special anti-graffiti department. Two men, Hickey and Ski, who know all about graffiti and who have been members of the anti-vandalism group for years, spend their time in the New York underground stations. There graffiti is at its worst. So far without much success. The brightly painted train from Broadway to Central Station proves this. ‘GREETINGS TO HICKEY AND SKI’ is written on it with big yellow letters.
In Rotterdam, however they had an idea to do something against graffiti on tram-cars. Every month they had a lot of trouble cleaning the cars. Sometimes they even had to repaint them. Now real artists are paid by the company to paint the cars in beautiful colours so that there in no place left for things such as ‘EDDY LOVES MARY’, ‘THE POLICE’ or ‘FEYENOORD THE BEST’. Now it’s nice to see the cars go though the grey streets of Rotterdam. And, what’s more, people who get caught while writing on tram-cars or walls must remove the paint themselves. This is often very difficult and takes a lot of time because the paint is very hard to remove. Many of the youngsters who were caught promised never to do it again.

However, we can’t expect that this writing and drawing will soon be over. A police officer in Amsterdam says: ‘It will probably go on until somebody comes up with an idea to fight graffiti successfully. Right now they’re doing experiments with special chemicals, which will make it impossible for people to use paint on stone walls. This of course will be a good thing because it costs millions to clean the buildings.
And perhaps the advertising-campaign against graffiti which the Dutch government started last year, will make the young people realize what they are really doing when they write something on a wall with a paint-sprayer.’
John Killroy, the American soldier, can’t have realised that writing his name was going to have this effect.

line 1 tells you:
1. where and when this story started
2. where and when this story was written
3. where and when World war 2 ended
4. where and when John Killroy was killed

graffiti is:
1. an Italian sport
2. making drawings and writings on walls
3. a symbol for a new sport
4. making drawing and writings on paper

The young soldier entered the village alone because:
1. all the other soldiers had been killed by the Americans.
2. his fellow soldiers were somewhere else in Italy.
3. his fellow soldiers were already at home.
4. all the other soldiers had been killed by the Germans.

The soldier had been painting the message:
1. to show the Germans where he had been.
2. to show the Italians where he had been.
3. because he liked to put graffiti on walls.
4. because he wanted to show where he had been.

The words ‘This time’ (This time on the wall of a little church.) tell you, that:
1. he had been there before.
2. he had written other things on the wall.
3. he had written the same words on other walls.
4. he liked the little church very much.

The word ‘sport’(line 12) is used:
1. because graffiti is a real sport now.
2. because it takes a lot of training to put graffiti on the walls.
3. to make clear that so many people put graffiti on walls.
4. to make clear that people have accepted graffiti.

Stalin was so excited, because:
1. He didn’t like Americans.
2. Somebody had put graffiti on his toilet-wall.
3. Killroy had put graffiti on his toilet-wall.
4. He was waving wildly and had a red face.

The words ‘It is said’(It is said that Stalin, the great Russian leader,) tell you, that:
1. The story about Stalin’s toilet may be true.
2. The story about John Killroy may be true.
3. The story about Stalin’s toilet is not true.
4. The story about John Killroy is not true.

Most people who put graffiti on walls do it:
1. Because they like pop-groups.
2. Because they are artists.
3. To amuse other people.
4. To amuse themselves.

From the paragraph about New York we can conclude, that:
1. Graffiti is a serious problem in New York.
2. Graffiti is at its worst in the New York undergrounds stations.
3. Hickey and Ski have not been very success so far.
4. There are many police-departments In New York.

The brightly painted train from Broadway to Central Station proves ‘this’. By ‘this’ is meant:
1. the fact that the enemy are still active.
2. the message ‘GREETINGS TO HICKEY AND SKI.’’
3. the graffiti on the walls in New York.
4. the fact that Hickey and Ski have been successful.

People who get caught while writing on tramcars:
1. are put in jail.
2. must try to take the paint away again.
3. must repaint the tram-cars.
4. have to pay money to the police.

A police officer in Amsterdam:
1. is sure that graffiti will soon be over.
2. is sure that graffiti will never end.
3. thinks that young people don’t realize what they are doing.
4. thinks that it’s impossible to do something against graffiti.

Stone walls will be treated with chemicals:
1. to remove the paint.
2. to clean the buildings.
3. so that will be easy to decorate them.
4. so that people can’t put graffiti on them.

GRAFFITI