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Kissing Around the World (cloze Form)

Why do people kiss? The answer to that question depends  where in the world you

are. To many people in the world, a kiss means “I love you.” Loving kisses range

romantic kisses between lovers to goodnight kisses between parents and children.

Kisses are also a popular way to say hello. In Europe and South America, people often

kiss relatives and friends on the cheek to greet them. Some men even kiss each

other on the cheek at business meetings. The proper way to greet someone with a kiss

is to do it twice, one kiss for each cheek. Start with the right cheek—if you start with

the left cheek, the person you are kissing might get confused!

The ancient Romans  a lot of kissing. They kissed friends and acquaintances on the

hand, the cheek, or the mouth, and they often put perfume in their mouths to make

their kisses smell good.

Roman students kissed the hands of their teachers to show their respect. Other ancient

peoples also showed respect  kissing religious statues and flags the feet

and footprints of kings and queens.

Kisses also used to seal promises. In the Middle Ages in Europe, knights and their lords

took part in special ceremonies in  the knight knelt down in front of the lord and

promised to fight for .

In return, the lord promised to reward the knight with land and other riches. Then, to

seal their agreement, the men kissed each other on the mouth.

The medieval knights also kissed paper contracts to show that they meant to stick to

the agreement they had made. Many of  couldn’t write, so they signed their names

with an X (symbolizing a cross). Then they kissed the paper to finalize the agreement.

These Xs still exist nowadays, though they have nothing to do with promises anymore.

Many people still like to sign their letters with a row of XXXs at the bottom, sending

kisses to the person they are writing to.

People even used to think kisses had magical powers. The English kissed hurt fingers to

make them well. When the French gambled, they kissed their cards for good luck. You

may have noticed that some people still kiss a pair of dice before they roll them.

 
A thousand years from now, people will probably still  kissing each other. But it’s

likely that the rules for when and why people kiss will be completely different by then.