april 2009 uppersecondary students

A Monthly Newsletter for Teachers of English

April 2009

- 1 -

TARTING OFF

Look at the quotations about heroes below.

“A champion is someone who gets up when he can't.”

Jack Dempsey, boxer, world champion.
“A man is a hero, not because he is braver than anyone else, but because he is brave for 10 minutes longer.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher.
“"The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else.”

Umberto Eco, writer.
“If everyone was satisfied with himself, there would be no heroes.”

Mark Twain, writer.

Work with a partner and answer the questions.

1. What are the speakers trying to say about heroism? For example:

In the first quote, Dempsey is saying that being a hero is about never giving up, even if something is impossible.

2. Do you agree with any of the quotations? What do you think it means to be a hero?

EFORE YOU READ

You are going to read a text about a remarkable man, Clarence Darrow. Below are some quotations from Darrow. Try to
match the beginnings and ends of the quotations.

When I was a boy I was told anyone could be president;

The first half of our lives is ruined by our parents

Just think of the tragedy

History repeats itself,

If you lose the power to laugh

of teaching children not to doubt

you lose the power to think

that’s one of the things wrong with it

now I’m beginning to believe it

and the second by our children

Do any of the quotes seem insightful to you? Clever? Unintelligent? What can you tell about Darrow from them?

A C T I V I T I E S S H E E T

April 2009

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IRST READING

Read the text about Darrow quickly. What is the purpose of the text?

Is it objective (factual and balanced) or subjective (emphasising certain points to make a case)?

Is it positive, neutral or negative in tone?

Is the author trying to inform the reader or to convince the reader?

ECOND READING

Read the text again more carefully. There are three pictures at the top (A, B and C). What do they illustrate? Find parts of

the text which relate to the pictures.

HIRD READING

Look at the text again and put these events from Darrow’s life in order.

DEFEND EUGENE DEBS

DEFEND JOHN SCOPES

MOVE TO CHICAGO

DEFEND OSSIAN SWEET

STUDY LAW AT UNIVERSITY

WORK AS A RAILROAD LAWYER

1957 Clarence Darrow was born

…

...

…

...

1938 Clarence Darrow dies

OCABULARY

A number of words in the text are highlighted. Match them to the definitions below.

1. A job or activity that is this lets you earn a lot of money

…………………………………..

2. To make someone feel strong emotions, especially sadness or sympathy

…………………………………..

3. To start something, especially something new, difficult, or exciting

…………………………………..

4. To finish university successfully and gain a degree

…………………………………..

5. To leave one side of a dispute and join the other

…………………………………..

6. A long hard fight to get freedom, political rights etc

…………………………………..

7. To think of someone or something in a particular way

…………………………………..

8. To be in a good position to achieve some kind of success

…………………………………..

9. Very untidy (clothes or hair)

…………………………………..

10.To give up something valuable to achieve your goal

…………………………………..

11.Something that makes your life difficult or unpleasant

…………………………………..

12.Very untidy and scruffy (clothes or a bed)

…………………………………..

A C T I V I T I E S S H E E T

April 2009

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OCABULARY

Use the words to complete the sentences below. You may need to change the form to suit the sentence. There are ten

sentences, so two of the words are not needed.

1. We were poor when I was young. It was a life of great …………………………..

2. He passed his exams with top marks and looked ………………………….. a great career.

3. I have always ………………………….. that to be his best novel.

4. I ………………………….. in medicine, but decided I didn’t want to be a doctor and went back to university to study law.

5. The music was wonderful, but so sad it ………………………….. me to tears.

6. His hair was ………………………….. and his clothes dirty, but the smile was broad and his eyes wee shining.

7. At the age of 16 Joseph Conrad ………………………….. his first voyage out to sea.

8. At first I didn’t recognise the senator, his clothes were so ………………………….. and his hair was such a mess.

9. The hotel business can be very ………………………….. if you are a talented manager.

10.It took hundreds of years of ………………………….. before black people in the United States gained full civil rights.

PEAKING

Discuss the questions below with your friends:

The author of the text thinks Darrow is ‘an admirable man’. Do you agree?

What makes a person admirable? What kind of qualities in people do you admire?

Which people, living or dead, would you describe as admirable? Why?

RITING

Work in groups of three or four. Choose a person from history who you admire and from whom you think we can learn

something and write a similar text to the one you read. Plan your text carefully before you start writing.

A C T I V I T I E S S H E E T

April 2009

- 4 -

The Eugene Debs Trial

The Sweet Trial

The Scopes Monkey Trial

Eugene Debs was the leader of the
railroad workers’ union and was
arrested for organising a strike in 1894
protesting against conditions of work.
The railroad company, Pullman, used
the army to break up the strike and
Debs was arrested. At the time,
Darrow was a lawyer for the railroad
corporation but gave up his job to
switch sides. In the end Darrow lost
the case and Debs was imprisoned for
six months. Debs later became a three
time presidential candidate.

Dr. Ossian Sweet, a black man,
bought a house in a white part of the
city in 1925. A white mob attacked the
house; one of the attackers was killed
and Sweet was accused of murder.

Darrow defended Sweet on the
grounds of self-defence and gave a
wonderful seven-hour speech during
the trial suggesting that if Sweet were
white and the attackers black then no
one would call it murder. In the end
Darrow won; Sweet was acquitted and
the charges were dropped.

At the start of the 20

century, the

teaching of evolution - specifically, that
man was descended from apes

– had

been controversially banned in many
US states. In 1925 a test case took
place in Dayton, Tennessee. A
teacher, John Scopes, was tried for
teaching evolution. He did not deny it
but it gave the 70-year-old Darrow the
chance to argue publicly about the
importance of science in schools.
Scopes was convicted

but Darrow’s

arguments made a great impression.

An Admirable Man

Clarence Darrow: lawyer
to the weak, defender of
civil rights, friend of the
friendless.

Clarence Darrow was born
in 1857 and studied law at
the University of Michigan.
After

graduating

he moved

to Chicago and became a
corporate lawyer for the
railroad

company.

All

seemed

set fair for

typical

and

highly

lucrative

–

career

defending the interests of
business against states,
unions and individuals. But
this was not Darr

ow’s

future.

1894

the

railroad

decided to cut workers’
wages

30%;

the

workers started a strike
and

Darrow,

the

railroad company’s lawyer,
was to take the case.
Darrow, however, decided
that the railroads were
wrong and so he

crossed

the barricades

, becoming

a union lawyer fighting the
railroad corporations. This
was a great

sacrifice

for

Darrow: he left a safe,
well-paid job which would
have taken him very high
indeed in business and
instead

embarked on

career of financial

hardship

and unpopular

struggle

Darrow always looked to
help those most in need:
the poor, minorities, the
hated or feared. He also
took an interest in science
and education and his
most famous trial reflected
this - the Scopes Monkey
Trial.

Crowds

watched

Darrow and his famous
opponent William Jennings
Bryan

three-time

presidential candidate -
debate whether evolution
should

taught

schools.

Although

Darrow

was

unimpressive

appearance - his hair often

dishevelled

, his clothes

rumpled

- he was a

tremendously

eloquent

speaker, able to

move

listeners, whether jurors or
judges, with the power of
his words. Darrow devoted
his life to fighting the death
penalty,

which

considered

immoral, and in

100 cases involving the
death penalty in his career
only once was his client
executed.

Many

Darrow’s speeches on
capital punishment are still
quoted

today

its

opponents.

Clarence

Darrow died in 1938 at the
age

82.

considered one of the
United States’ greatest
ever lawyers.