UNIT 1 NEVER GIVE IN, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER
Section One Pre-reading Activities .................................................................................................... 2
I. Audiovisual supplement ......................................................................................................... 2 II. Cultural background .............................................................................................................. 2 Section Two Global Reading .............................................................................................................. 4
I. Structural analysis of the text................................................................................................. 4 II. Rhetorical features of the text .............................................................................................. 4 Section Three Detailed Reading ........................................................................................................ 5
I. Questions ............................................................................................................................... 6 II. Words and expressions ......................................................................................................... 7 III. Sentences ............................................................................................................................. 9 Section Four Consolidation Activities .............................................................................................. 11
I. Vocabulary ............................................................................................................................ 11 II. Grammar ............................................................................................................................. 13 III. Translation .......................................................................................................................... 16 IV. Exercises for integrated skills .............................................................................................. 18 V. Oral activities ....................................................................................................................... 19 VI. Writing ............................................................................................................................... 20 Section Five Further Enhancement ................................................................................................. 21
I Text II ..................................................................................................................................... 21 II MEMORABLE QUOTES .......................................................................................................... 24
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Section One Pre-reading Activities
I. Audiovisual supplement
From Into the Storm
Watch the movie clip and answer the following questions.
Script:
Churchill: Now that the French have surrendered, we must assume that their navy will soon be in
German hand. That must not happen. We must keep control of the Mediterranean. Without access to the Suez Canal, our oil supplies will be cut off, which would of course be disastrous. I’ve told the French they must continue to fight, sail their ships to a British port, or scuttle the entire fleet. If they accept none of these choices, I’ve ordered Admiral Somerville, to bombard the French fleet in the port of Oran. We have to show the world, and in particular the United States, that we mean to fight on.
Questions:
1. What consequence would it be if the German took over the French navy?
Answer: The German would control the Mediterranean, deprive Britain of its access to the Suez Canal, and cut off the British oil supplies, which would be disastrous.
2. What was Churchill’s plan if French did not accept his choices? Why would he do so?
Answer: He ordered Admiral Somerville to bombard the French fleet in the port of Oran. He wanted to show the world and in particular the United States that Britain meant to fight on.
II. Cultural background
1. World War II
World War II, or the Second World War, the most widespread war in history, lasted from 1939 to 1945 and involved most of the world’s nations which formed two opposing military alliances, the Allies and the Axis.
The war began on 1 September 1939, with the invasion of Poland by Germany and Slovakia, and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and most of the countries of the British Empire and Commonwealth.
From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or subdued much of continental Europe. Britain and the Commonwealth remained the only major force continuing the fight against the Axis in North Africa and in extensive naval warfare.
Churchill’s speech at Harrow as was adapted in the text was delivered in this historical context.
2. Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War (WWII) and led his country from the brink of defeat to victory. He served as Prime Minister twice (1940 – 1945 and 1951 – 1955) and is widely regarded as one of the great wartime leaders. He is a noted statesman and orator, historian, writer, and an artist. To date, he is the only
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British prime minister to have received the Nobel Prize in Literature, and the first person to have been recognized as an honorary citizen of the United States.
Winston Churchill was born to an aristocratic family, with renowned ancestors and a politician father. As a prolific writer, he wrote a novel, two biographies, three volumes of memoirs, and several histories in addition to his many newspaper articles. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 “for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values”.
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Section Two Global Reading
I. Structural analysis of the text
This text is an inspiring speech made by Winston Churchill, Great Britain’s then Prime Minister, when he visited Harrow School on 29 October, 1941. The whole speech can be divided into three parts.
Part I (Paragraph 1): Some opening remarks, in which Churchill summarized the events that had happened since his last visit to Harrow.
Part II (Paragraphs 2 – 5): The body of the speech, in which Churchill drew the lessons to be learned from the past year.
Part III (Paragraphs 6 – 8): The concluding part, in which, by changing a word in the additional verse of the school song, Churchill expressed his conviction that the entire nation was blessed with the chance to display its courage to the full in what was, as he elsewhere put it, its finest hour.
II. Rhetorical features of the text
As a representative piece of oration by the great orator Churchill, this speech was made eloquent and encouraging by employing many rhetorical devices. With generally short (in length) and simple (in structure) sentences, the message conveyed by the speech was highlighted by constant repetition, e.g. “Never, Never, Never” in the title, and strengthened by the use of antonyms, e.g. “ups/downs” and “short/long”.
Practice:
Find more examples of repetition and pairs of antonyms in the speech.
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Section Three Detailed Reading
NEVER GIVE IN, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER
Winston Churchill
Almost a year has passed since I came down here at your Head Master’s kind invitation in order to cheer myself and cheer the hearts of a few of my friends by singing some of our own songs. The ten months that have passed have seen very terrible catastrophic events in the world — ups and downs, misfortunes — but can anyone sitting here this afternoon, this October afternoon, not feel deeply thankful for what has happened in the time that has passed and for the very great improvement in the position of our country and of our home? Why, when I was here last time we were quite alone, desperately alone, and we had been so for five or six months. We were poorly armed. We are not so poorly armed today; but then we were very poorly armed. We had the unmeasured menace of the enemy and their air attack still beating upon us, and you yourselves had had experience of this attack; and I expect you are beginning to feel impatient that there has been this long lull with nothing particular turning up! But we must learn to be equally good at what is short and sharp and what is long and tough. It is generally said that the British are often better at the last. They do not expect to move from crisis to crisis; they do not always expect that each day will bring up some noble chance of war; but when they very slowly make up their minds that the thing has to be done and the job put through and finished, then, even if it takes months — if it takes years — they do it.
Another lesson I think we may take, just throwing our minds back to our meeting here ten months ago and now, is that appearances are often very deceptive, and as Kipling well says, we must “…meet with Triumph and Disaster. And treat those two impostors just the same.”
You cannot tell from appearances how things will go. Sometimes imagination makes things out far worse than they are; yet without imagination not much can be done. Those people who are imaginative see many more dangers than perhaps exist; certainly many more will happen; but then they must also pray to be given that extra courage to carry this far-reaching imagination. But for everyone, surely, what we have gone through in this period — I am addressing myself to the school — surely from this period of ten months this is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never — in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. We stood all alone a year ago, and to many countries it seemed that our account was closed, we were finished. All this tradition of ours, our songs, our school history, this part of the history of this country, were gone and finished and liquidated.
Very different is the mood today. Britain, other nations thought, had drawn a sponge across her slate. But instead our country stood in the gap. There was no flinching and no 5
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