Off-putting Mask Festival

They may not be the most aesthetically pleasing group of people you've ever met, but these revellers at the Lucerne Carnival in Switzerland hope their ugly masks will scare off the evil spirits of winter and pave the way for spring.
The festival also features lanterns, costumes and music, and is part of a tradition which can be traced back to the 15th Century.

Interesting words:
1. aesthetically pleasing - beautiful to look at
2. revellers - people who party in a noisy way
3. scare off - to make someone or something worried about something so they decided not to do it
4. pave the way for - make it possible for (something to happen)
5. traced back to - identified as having started in

Exercises: Use one of the words or phrases below to complete each of these sentences from news reports. Note that you may have to change the form of a word to complete the sentence correctly.

AESTHETICALLY PLEASING / REVELLERS / SCARE OFF / PAVE THE WAY / TRACED BACK TO
1.Fire purified things. The popularity of setting off fireworks at new year can be ________ that idea of fire purifying.

2.Creatures that achieve world fame for being under threat - the panda, the mountain gorilla, the tiger - tend to be conventionally _________, even cute.

3.As Rio de Janeiro's carnival gets under way, its oldest street parade has drawn an estimated 1.5m ________.

4.Puffing Billy was one of the first steam locomotives to transport coal from Wylam Colliery to Lemington Staithes on the River Tyne.

Developed by Newburn-born engineer William Hedley in 1813, it _______ for the development of the rail industry.