Эмфатические конструкции надо найти в данном тексте : of course, there is a maple leaf on our flag, but for a lot of canadians, our flag is not the only thing they associate a maple leaf with. many think of our maple syrup for it is in canada that 85 % of the world's maple syrup is produced.
another important association with the maple leaf is canadian hockey which is second to none in the world.
i come from toronto, the home of the toronto maple leafs, our famous hockey club. the toronto maple leafs is one of the original six professional teams of the national hockey league, and their old arena was called maple leaf gardens. it was this hockey temple that brought our leafs eleven stanley cups. unfortunately, the last game was played there in 1999 and then it was closed. my father was there, but he doesn't like to talk about it as the leafs lost that game. i still see tears in his eyes when he remembers the emotional closing ceremony when our national song "the maple leaf forever" was performed.
this brings us to another association with the maple leaf. "the maple leaf forever" is a song, which, i think should be our national anthem. it was in 1867, the year of canada's confederation, that the song was ^ written by a school teacher from toronto. his name 4 was alexander muir. a song was needed to unite the nation, so a patriotic poetry contest was held. although "the maple leaf forever" got only the second place, it became very popular with english canada and for many years, it was used as an unofficial national anthem. alexander muir became famous as well. he always said that it was a big maple tree next to his house that gave him the idea. it was not until 1980 that another song, "o canada", was proclaimed the national anthem of the country.
