I. Warming up

1. Work in pairs. Discuss why the people in the pictures are important.

(1) Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948)

* a resolute opponent of colonialism and British rule in India

* He also resisted racial prejudice, but his greatest claim to fame was his belief in non-violent action.

* His main weapon “passive resistance” is a refusal to obey the authorities. He also tried to keep the Muslims and Hindus of India from fighting.

(2) Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519)

* seen as the great example of the Renaissance man, not only a great painter (Mona Lisa, The Last Supper), but a sculptor, engineer and scientist

* His notebooks show the range of his ideas and knowledge, including ideas for flight and the helicopter

(3) Albert Einstein (1879–1955)

* a great mathematician and scientist who changed the way we see the universe

* also a strong advocate of the moral and peaceful use of science

* best known for his theories of special relativity and general relativity.

* the winner of the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics

* the father of modern physics

(4) Christopher Columbus (1451–1506)

* a navigator, and explorer whose voyages across the Atlantic Ocean led to general European awareness of the American continents in the Western Hemisphere

II. Background

Author:

The author of the passage Mo Mowlam (1949–2005) was a British Labour politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Redcar from 1987 to 2001, and served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Her personal charisma, reputation for plain speaking and fight against a brain tumour led her to be perceived by many as one of the most popular “New Labour” politicians in the UK. She died in 2005 because of a brain tumour.

Style:

 

III.Text analysis

Text Organization:

Discussion:

1. You ask what is our policy? … You ask what is our aim?

Who asks these questions? Who answers them? What effect does this have?

The members of Parliament ask these questions, and beyond them the British people are wondering what their new government would do. By answering the questions Churchill shows his leadership. The questions also give the speech form and rhythm.

2. If Britain – its eccentricity, its strength of character, its big-heartedness – had to be summed up in one person, it was him.

Does a nation have a character? What is the writer saying about Britain and about Churchill?
The writer thinks a country has certain values its people believe in and therefore try to show. These are the qualities that he thinks are treasured by the British, ones which Churchill had in full. It is possible that patriotism gives each country a rather exaggerated sense of its own virtues, but it is also true that different cultures do emphasize different aspects of life.

Paraphrase:

1. … Winston's father predicted his child would "degenerate into a shabby, unhappy and futile existence".

* Winston’s father predicted that Winston would get worse as he grew older and would have an uninteresting, unrespectable, sad and pointless life.

2. This was the onset of his first major bout of depression, a curse he called his “black dog”.

* Black dog here is a metaphor. Depression is seen as dark / black, and it follows one around as does one’s dog. It also causes pain. The black dog is also associated with the Devil.

3. She kept him together, but he got himself out of it, in true Churchillian fashion.

* Clementine helped her husband a lot at that bad time to function from day to day, but it was his typical personal mental strength that brought him back to normal.

4. But by 1930, Labour was in power and he was on the backbenches, a nobody and a has-been.

* Someone on the backbenches refers to a member of Parliament without a government position (ministers sit on the front row of seats / benches and their followers and supporters behind them). A nobody and a has-been refers to a person of no importance in politics, and someone with only a past, no present or future.

Summary:

Churchill believed that he was (1) ___________ to lead his country. He fought as a soldier in World War I and led the country to victory in World War II. It seems ironic that a leader of such (2) _______________ as Churchill could not count on the (3) __________________ of voters in 1945. However, in a (4) _________________ country, electors cannot be (5) _____________, and he had to (6) _____________ political defeat after military victory, and went once more to his country (7)___________, Chartwell.

Keys: 1. destined; 2. renowned; 3. loyalty; 4. democratic; 5. bullied; 6. tolerate; 7. retreat

IV.Reinforcement

Discussion

(1) How much influence can one person have on the history of their country?

• The forces of history are stronger than individuals. China would have been united by someone else if there had been no Emperor Qin. Britain had other potential leaders than Churchill. There must be some people who meet the demands of history.

• Things are not inevitable. Germany did not have to have a leader like Hitler. President Bush could have responded to the 9/11 attack differently. Individuals do have an effect.  

(2) Does a national leader need to have similar characters as those of people they lead, or should they be very different?

I think a bit of both. The leader must seem to be in tune with the people, or there will be no support or cooperation: A pacifist cannot lead an aggressive society. But if the leader is too much like the people, one wonders who is leading and who is following. A great leader needs to see more than the people and understand other values as well.