Curso First Certificate Exam

LOS CURSOS DE INGLES GRATIS PREFERIDOS POR LOS HISPANOHABLANTES

 

LECCION 30 - PAGINA 4   índice del curso   página anterior   página siguiente

 

History yesterday

 

ACTIVITY 209: Below there are five news photographs which describe five historic moments. Choose from the menus the correct verbal form for each comment. Then check the correct answers.

JUL 21, 1969

NOV 22, 1963

FEB 11, 1990

AUTUMN 1991

JAN 1, 1993

 

A

The first man    on to the moon in the 'Sea of Tranquility'.

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B

President Kennedy is    in Dallas, Texas, United States.

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C

Nelson Mandela is    from prison after 26 years in captivity.

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D

The Berlin Wall is    to reunificate West and East Germany.

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E

Frontiers    between 12 members of the European Union.

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History today (I)

You will listen to Monica Ranger, an American woman, talking about her time as a university student in the 1960s.

She uses a wide range of words to describe university life, getting involved in politics, etc, so pay attention to them. Click the speaker and listen carefully to her talk while you check the audio transcription.

 

MONICA

When I was a student at university I got to live through a very important bit of American history. I was a student at the University of California at Berkeley during the 1960s.

 

At that point America was engaged in the Vietnam war, which had already become very unpopular. Military recruiters, people from the army, and the navy and the airforce, were allowed to set up tables on the university campus in order to recruit students to fight in the war. Needless to say, many of the students did not want to go to war.

 

Other students also wanted to set up tables on the campus to recruit students to other causes, like fighting against the war in Vietnam, or against racism. However, the university would not permit them to do that.

 

Finally, one student decided to take matters into his own hands. He set up a table to recruit students for what was called Campus CORE - Congress On Racial Equality. The police came and arrested him, and threw him into a police car. However, before they could pull the car away, so many students surrounded the car that they were not able to pull it out without hurting someone. They sat in the car for something like 19 hours before they were finally able to disperse all the students and take this gentleman away and arrest him.

 

Afterwards, when he became famous and went on lots of speaking tours, he said that very few people asked him questions about what his motivations were for setting up the table, or what his thoughts were, or what his political goals were. All they were interested in was how he managed to go to the bathroom during those 19 hours that he was locked up in the police car.

 

Up to that point university students had really felt that they were powerless to have an impact on the opinion of the government. However, after that incident, the universities and the governments were forced to take notice of the opinions of the students.

 

I don't know whether American students at university today understand how much they owe to their parents who fought these battles for them in the 60s, or whether they still think of them as old fogies.

 

History today (II)

ACTIVITY 210: Now, listen to Monica Ranger again and decide which of statements 1-to-10 are TRUE and which are FALSE, according to the speaker. Then check your answers.

 

 

 

TRUE

FALSE

 

1.

Monica was at university during a significant historical period.

 

2.

People from the armed forces tried to persuade students to fight in the war.

 

3.

Most students were keen to fight.

 

4.

Anti-war students were allowed to set up tables on campus.

 

5.

The police arrested one student for protesting against the war.

 

6.

Other students tried to prevent the police from taking the student away.

 

7.

After this event. the student became very well known.

 

8.

Most people were interested to know why he had broken the university rule.

 

9.

From that time, the government stopped listening to student opinion.

 

10.

Monica is unsure if students today appreciate what their parents achieved at university.

 

Monica me hizo añorar mi época universitaria !!! 
En la próxima página Mr. Grammar explicará la tercera parte de CONDITIONAL SENTENCES ...

 

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