English for Life Reader Grade 9 Home Language. Elaine Ridge
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Название: English for Life Reader Grade 9 Home Language

Автор: Elaine Ridge

Издательство: Ingram

Жанр: Языкознание

Серия: English for Life

isbn: 9781775891079

isbn:

СКАЧАТЬ the day of prisoners’ ennui

      Came dryly forward to the bars again

      To answer for themselves:

      Who said it mattered

      What monkeys did or didn’t understand?

      They might not understand a burning-glass.

      They might not understand the sun itself.

      It’s knowing what to do with things that counts.

      prisoners’ ennui – animals in cages, like humans in prison, become bored

      presuming on his intellect – overconfident about his knowledge

Post-reading
4.Monkeys are in some ways like young children. How they go about trying to understand new objects.
5.When the boy uses his magnifying glass to “create a pinpoint of the sun” on the nose of each of the monkeys, he is not trying to hurt them.
a)What is he trying to do?
b)How do the knuckles on the paw of one of the monkeys get burnt?
6.The speaker uses hyperbole (exaggeration) to describe how long it would take for a monkey to understand a scientific concept. Quote the phrase that he uses.
7.The poem is not mainly about monkeys. What is the main point of the poem? Reread the first four lines and the last four lines before you answer.
Pre-reading
1.Why do people build walls?
During reading
2.The poem refers to physical walls but it also refers to another kind of wall that people construct. What do the two kinds of walls have in common?

      Walls

      Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali

      Man is

      a great wall builder

      the Berlin Wall

      the Wailing Wall of Jerusalem

      but the wall

      most impregnable

      has a moat

      flowing with fright

      around his heart.

      A wall

      without windows

      for the spirit

      to breeze through

      A wall

      without a door

      for love to walk in.

Walls%209HL.tif

      impregnable – cannot be broken through

      moat – a wide, deep trench filled with water built around a castle’s walls so that even the walls cannot be reached by attackers.

Post-reading
3.The speaker describes man as a “great” wall builder.
a)Is this meant as a compliment or not?
b)Give some reasons why men might need (or think that they need) to build walls that cannot be climbed over.
4.The first wall mentioned in this poem is the high wall guarded by soldiers in towers that was built by the Soviet Russian-aligned East Berlin in 1961.Its purpose was to keep its citizens in and those of the western-aligned other half of the city, West Berlin, out. It then became almost impossible for people in the same city, even from the same family, to see each other. Look at the illustration. Why does the speaker use this as an example of man’s frightening ability to keep people apart?
5.The Wailing Wall of Jerusalem is what is left of the foundations of the Temple after the Romans demolished it to demonstrate their power in the year 70. It is not strictly a wall. However, it is a very special site to religious Jews. And it is a site argued over fiercely between Palestine and Israel. How has it become a “wall”?
6. a)What is the “wall most impregnable”?
b)What are its three characteristics? Explain these in your own words and consider their advantages and disadvantages
c)Why do human beings sometimes build walls with no doors round their hearts? Use your imaginations and your own experience in answering this question.
Pre-reading
1.What do you know about District Six? Read the plaque in the illustration. The poem was written by the famous jazz musician Abdullah Ibrahim who grew up in District Six.
During reading
2.The southeaster wind plays a strong role in Cape Town life. Notice the difference between the southeaster in the first stanza and in the second stanza.

      Blues for District Six

      Dollar Brand (Abdullah Ibrahim)

      early one new year’s morning

      when the emerald bay waved its clear waters against the noisy dockyard

      a restless southeaster skipped over slumbering lion’s head

      danced up hanover street

      tenored a bawdy banjo

      strung an ancient cello

      bridged a host of guitars

      tambourined through a dingy alley

      into a scented cobwebbed room

      and crackled the sixth sensed district

      into a blazing swamp fire of satin sound

      early one new year’s morning

      when the moaning bay mourned its murky waters against the deserted

      dockyard

      a bloodthirsty southeaster roared over hungry lion’s head

      and ghosted its way up hanover street

      empty

      forlorn

      and cobwebbed with gloom

      where loneliness’ still waters meet nostalgia

      and morning breaks the city sun and smoke

      and towering grey the buildings’ murmur

      grim subway rumbling in their roots

      i scan the vacant faces and sad smiles

      and long for home

      banjos, cellos, guitars and tambourines – all types of musical instruments

      tenored СКАЧАТЬ