March 3-10: SHORT VACATION

I am writing this post to remind you during the first week in March, including March 10th we will not have classes: no English and no American Civilization.
During this break you are supposed to finish your individual projects in English (book report) and do all the translation exercises.  The summary of every chapter as well as exercises should be written in a separate copy-book, also there you can do your translation tasks.

  While you present your book report in class, you should stick to the following format:
1) Title and author of the book: how is the title connected to the content of the book? What do you know about the author and his style of writing?
2) Theme --> here I asked you to be creative: songs, poems, posters, quotes from the book!
3) Setting: when and where is the story set?
4) Quick summary
5) Major and Minor characters: choose one and briefly characterize him/her.
6) What is the conflict in the story?
7) Resolution: how does the story end?
8) Your grading, opinion, recommendations regarding the book.

Your speech in class should be 10-12 minutes - so select just the most relevant info, be brief and to the point!
                              

Good Luck!

P.S. Questions are welcome in comments!

The Nation is Divided

Task 1

Find the answers to the following questions:

1) Who were the abolitionists?

2) What was the underground railroad?

3) Who was Harriet Tubman? Why is her name remembered?

4) Who was the most famous slave revolt led by? When did it take place?

Task 2

Read/Listen attentively Lincoln's speech and answer the questions below:

Lincoln, “Gettysburg Address,” Speech Text

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, “GETTYSBURG ADDRESS” (19 NOVEMBER 1863)

 [1] Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

[2] Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

[3] But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate-we can not consecrate-we can not hallow-this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion-that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain-that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.   from: http://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/lincoln-gettysburg-address-speech-text/
1) What did president Lincoln say in his Gettysburg Address?
2) Why was the the battle of Gettysburg important? Who won it?