You’re going to hear the final section of the speech he made when he was elected President. Before you listen, you may like to check some of the key words.

II. Key words

Match the words and phrases on the left with the definitions on the right.

1. cast her ballot 2. generation 3. slavery 4. struggle 5. pressed on 6. despair 7. tyranny 8. hoses 9. reclaim 10. cynicism

a. try very hard to solve a problem or change a situation b. continued to try c. cruel and unfair use of power over other people d. no trust in other people e. voted f. about 30 years; long enough for a family of children to grow up g. long rubber pipes to direct water onto plants, fires (or people) h. a system where people are forced to work for their ‘owners’ without pay i. great sadness, no hope j. get back something you have lost or left behind

 

Now listen to the extract, and confirm the meaning from the context.

III. Listening

As you listen, number these ideas in the order you hear them.

a. the first moon landing

b. a very old black woman’s life experience

c. surviving the war

d. the birth of the Internet

e. uniting the American people

f. electronic voting

g. creating employment

Listen again to check, and note down clues in the speech that helped you to decide.

IV. Reading comprehension and vocabulary

Scan the text to find phrases that mean the following.

1. voted (two phrases in para 1)

2. only about 20 years after the slaves were freed (para 2)

3. continued to try (para 3)

4. statement of belief (para 3)

5. go and vote (para 4)

6. great sadness in the dry areas (of America in the 1930s) (para 5)

7. everyone was in danger from enemy powers (para 6)

8. long rubber pipes used to direct water onto plants (or people) (para 7)

9. give our children a good education (para 10)

10. make people wealthy again (para 10)

 

V. Literary style

Obama’s speech uses a lot of literary devices to have an impact on the listener. Which of the following devices does he use? Which do you think he uses most often?

a. alliteration (using several words together that begin with the same sound)

b. repetition for effect

c. rhythm

d. rhyme

e. parallel structures (e.g. He went to work, she stayed at home.)

f. direct appeal to the listener: using you and imperatives

g. including the listener, using we and our

What is the key phrase that Obama repeats at intervals through the speech?

 

3. Parallel structures naturally create a sense of rhythm. Obama uses a lot of these in the extract. One from paragraph two has been given as an example. S ee how many more you can find. ( I f there is more than one space for one paragraph, there is more than one example.)

Examples no cars on the road or planes in the sky

 

VI. Internet research

Obama makes a lot of historical references. What do you know about the topics in the table below? Look them up on the I nternet, and see what you can find out. J ust make very short notes.

the dust bowl

the New Deal

the buses in Montgomery

the hoses in Birmingham

a bridge in Selma

a preacher from Atlanta

Why do you think Obama refers to all these events?

 

VII. Interpretation and discussion

1. What words would you use to describe this speech? Depressing, hopeful, inspiring, exhausting, artful, convincing, energizing, …?

2. Do you think Obama will be less or more patriotic than Bush?

3. Do you think he will take American forces out of Iraq and Afghanistan? What makes you think this?

4. Do you think he will increase or decrease public spending on the poor? What makes you think this?

5. Do you think he will be a good president? Why / why not?

 

READING 2

A President's Mission

George Bush's Nomination Acceptance Speech (excerpt)

Itseems to me the presidency provides an incomparable opportunity for "gentle persuasion."

I hope to stand for a new harmony, a greater tolerance. We've come far, but I think we need a new harmony among the races in our country. We're on a journey to a new century, and we've got to leave the tired old baggage of bigotry behind.

Some people who are enjoying our prosperity have forgotten what it's for. But they diminish our triumph when they act as if wealth is an end in itself.

There are those who have dropped their stand­ards along the way., as if ethics were too heavy and slowed their rise to the top. There's graft in city hall, the greed on Wall Street; there's influence peddling in Washington, and the small corruptions of everyday ambition.

But you see, I believe public service is honorable. And every time I hear that someone has breached the public trust it breaks my heart.

I wonder sometimes if we have forgotten who we are. But we're the people who sundered a nation rather than allow a sin called slavery — we're the people who rose from the ghettoes and the deserts.

We weren't saints — but we lived by standards. We celebrated the individual — but we weren't self-centered. We were practical - but we didn't live only for material things. We believed in getting ahead - but blind ambition wasn't our way.

The fact is, prosperity has a purpose. It is to allow us to pursue "the better angels" to give us time to think and grow. Prosperity with a purpose means taking your idealism and making it concrete by certain acts of goodness. It means helping a child from an unhappy home learn how to read — and I thank my wife Barbara for all her work in literacy. It means teaching troubled children through your presence that there's such a thing as reliable love. Some would say it's soft and insuffi­ciently tough to care about these things. But where is it written that we must act as if we do not care, as if we are not moved?

Well I am moved. I want a kinder, gentler nation.

Two men this year ask for your support. And you must know us.

As for me, I have held high office and done the work of democracy day by day. My parents were prosperous; their children were lucky. But there were lessons we had to learn about life. John Kennedy discovered poverty when he campaigned in West Virginia; there were children there who had no milk. Young Teddy Roosevelt met the new America when he roamed the immigrant streets of New York. And I learned a few things about life in a place called Texas.

We moved to west Texas 40 years ago. The war was over, and we wanted to get out and make it on our own. Those were exciting days, lived in a little shotgun house, one room for the three of us. Worked in the oil business, started my own.

In time we had six children. Moved from the shotgun to a duplex apartment to a house. Lived the dream - high school football on Friday night, Little League, neighborhood barbecue.

People don't see their experience as symbolic of an era — but of course we were. So was everyone else who was taking a chance and pushing into unknown territory with kids and a dog and a car. But the big thing I learned is the satisfaction of creating jobs, which meant creating opportunity, which meant happy families, who in turn could do more to help others and enhance their own lives. I learned that the good done by a single good job can be felt in ways you can't imagine.

I may not be the most eloquent, but I learned early that eloquence won't draw oil from the ground. I may sometimes be a little awkward, but there's nothing self-conscious in my love of country. I am a quiet man — but I hear the quiet people others don't. The ones who raise the family, pay the taxes, meet the mortgage. I hear them and I am moved, and their concerns are mine.

A president must be many things.

He must be a shrewd protector of America's interests; and he must be an idealist who leads those who move for a freer and more democratic planet.

He must see to it that government intrudes as little as possible in the lives of the people; and yet remember that it is right and proper that a nation's leader takes an interest in the nation's character.

And he must be able to define — and' lead — a mission.

New Orleans, August 18, 1988

 

Analysis of a Speech

A President's Mission

I. In this excerpt from the nomination acceptance speech, delivered at the Republican National Convention, George Bush defines a president's mission. Which aspects of his mission does he mention?

II. This speech must be seen in the context of the 1988 election campaign. During this campaign the Democrats accused the Republicans and the Reagan administration of showing little regard for ethnic minorities, of caring only for the rich and neglecting the poor and of letting officials violate people's trust in public service. How does George Bush deal with these accusations?

III. During the campaign George Bush was frequently reproached for his prosperous social background and for his lack of eloquence. How does he react to these attacks in this speech?

 

LISTENING

A long time coming

The Voting Rights Act

Sacred, or outdated

Jun 25th 2009 | WASHINGTON, DC

From The Economist print edition