Wednesday, November 21st 2018.

A French Hero

This document is a press article (taken) from The Daily News, dated / published on April 8^th 2010.

It summarizes the story of a role model, Julien Duret, who saved a drowning toddler from East River, Manhattan, New York.

He was walking with his girlfriend on a pier and he saw / spotted something falling in the water. The water was very chilly (cold) but he took off his clothes and jumped. He reached the girl and plucked her out of the water and gave her to her father. He didn’t wait for any official but just vanished / disappeared because he thought anyone would have done the same because he doesn’t really think he is a hero.

What to think about him?

-        The journalist obviously thinks he is a hero as he calls him so in the headline of the article

-        We think he had a lot of courage, he put first the little girl’s life and not his, he could have drowned with the little girl, he also swims very well,

ð He is an ordinary hero and he is humble, he doesn’t look for any recognition.

Listen again to the report about Rosa Parks and fill the blanks in your script:

Wednesday, October 17th 2018

EMMELINE PANKHURST

This audio document is a presentation of Emmeline Pankhurst and her achievements. It starts with a quick extract from one of her famous speeches: “We are here, not because we are law-breakers, we are here in our effort to become law-makers”. She plays with words to explain that she doesn’t want an opposition but she favours some renewal and a new law for women.

Emmeline Pankhurst was a political activist but she was also a wife and mother. She worked with the Suffragettes to obtain the right to vote for women, to get freedom and more generally to reach equality with men. She wanted to create a movement of women for women, in order to fight tyranny. Indeed, she led the campaign to change the place of women in society, and she succeeded.

She always tried to use peaceful means but sometimes she resorted to violence, she risked her life, her safety. But what we remember from her is her physical and moral courage.

Wednesday, October 10th 2018.

Winston Churchill, a war hero ?

This document is an extract from a war speech by Winston Churchill, the British politician and Prime Minister during WWII (World War two / the Second World War). Here he is speaking to the British population / to the British nation about his determination to win the war.

First, he warns the British population that it is not going to be easy: he mentions what awaits the British people, i.e (id est = that is to say) “blood, tears, toil and sweat”. But very quickly in his speech, he shows how powerful the UK is, as he states that can fight in the air, on land, or at sea.

He never mentions his worst enemy, Adolf Hitler, or Nazism, but he refers to it with metaphors: for him, Nazism is a monster (“monstrous tyranny”), he ranks it is a list (“catalogue”) of human crimes / crimes against human beings.

He insists on the fact that it won’t be easy nor quick, and on the contrary, there will be “many months of struggle”, on a “long road”.

The most important word in this speech is “VICTORY”, which he keeps repeating it five times in this short extract.

The last word of the extract is “survival”: this shows he wants to hit the minds of his people and convince them through this rhetoric that they can overcome war.