Vending Machines and Centenarians: teacher key

Japan, grade 9 edition, written for 9th grade. A look at Japan through its counts: how many people, how old they live to, what ends up in lost-and-found, and how a country measures an earthquake before it arrives.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. Why do Yoshino cherry trees bloom at the same time?
   • They grow in one park
   • They are clones, identical to the original tree (answer)
   • Forecasters switch them on
2. What does an Earthquake Early Warning tell people?
   • A quake will happen tomorrow
   • A quake is over
   • A quake has just begun, not that one will happen in advance (answer)
3. How many people aged 100 or older did Japan have on September 1, 2025?
   • 99,763 (answer)
   • 4,271,400
   • 56,054
4. What did the Treaty of Kanagawa do?
   • Moved the capital
   • Ended the Meiji period
   • Protected American sailors and opened two ports (answer)
5. What does the word clones mean here?
   • Very old trees
   • Exact copies of one original (answer)
   • Trees that grow fast

Words

• tatami: woven floor mat
• daimyo: regional lords
• clones: exact copies
• katakana: Japanese letters
• sento: public bathhouse