General comprehension

1) Where was the speech delivered?

- New York
- Houston
2)

When

was

the

Washington
Chicago

video

shot

and

on

what

3) What title best suits Obama's inaugural address? Justify your answer in a few words.
-Free
at
-Americans
are
-Let
us
pray
-Together,
-Let's
not
forget
our
-Let's
make
-The USA are the most powerful country in the world

Detailed comprehension
Part 1

1) Choose the best synonyms for the following words:

bestowed: understood / seen / given / decided

still: always / calm / rough / liquid
amidst: above / before / among / because of
carried on: continued / changed / grown / won
forbearers: workers / ancestors / soldiers / friends

2) RIGHT or WRONG? Justify your answer quoting from the video.

a) Obama reproaches his predecessor with not being very helpful when he left.
b) There were fourty-four American presidents before Obama.
3) According to Obama, who and what has made America as it is today?
Part 2

1) Match the following words together:

Words from the speech
Scripture
set aside
pass on
toil
endured
time and again

occasion?

last!
childish
together
forever
history
amends

plow
Synonyms
forget
Bible
work hard
transmit
cultivate
sometimes
suffer
2) Using your personal knowledge of American history and the second part of the speech, match
the following quotes with historical landmarks:

-They packed up their few worldly possessions and travelled across oceans
-They toiled in sweatshops
-Settled the West
-Endured the lash of the whip
-Concord
-Gettysburg
-Normandy
-Khe Sanh

Illegal immigrants
Vietnam
Slavery
Immigration
War of Independence
Civil War
Second World War

4) At the end of part 2, what makes America a united country according to Obama?
Part 3
1) Listen to the following extract and fill in the blanks:

For we know _____ our _____ heritage is _____ _____ , not a weakness. We _____ _____
nation of _____ and _____ , _____ and _____ and nonbelievers. We are _____ by every language
and culture, drawn from every end of this _____ ; and because we _____ _____ the bitter swill of
_____ _____ and _____ , and emerged from that dark _____ _____ and more _____ , we
cannot
help
_____
believe
that
the
old
hatreds
_____
_____
pass.

2)
RIGHT
or
WRONG?
Justify
your
answer
quoting
from
the
a) According to Barack Obama, it's hard to have unity in the USA because of all the different
b)
Obama
points
out
that
racism
still
exists
c)
Obama's
father
was
actually
d)
US
citizens
must
not
look
back
at
e)
US
citizens
must
be

video.
origins
today
white
history
strong

3) Let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. (l.37)
Who does the pronoun we refer to? What are the two possibilities, and how does the verb travel
changes
meaning
according
to
who
we
refer
to?
4) Who is the man Obama mentions at the end of part 3 and why does he mention him?

Going further
1) Find at least two examples of repetition. What effect does it convey?
2) What is the place given to religion in this speech? How can you account for that?
3) In his speech, Obama mentions a multi-ethnic heritage but he seems to forget an essential part
of the 'patchwork'. Which one is it and what does it reveal about the place given to that minority?

Phonetics -ED
1) Sort out the following preterites and past-participles in the chart below according to the
pronunciation of the suffix -ED : humbled, bestowed, carried, remained, passed, packed, traveled,
toiled, settled, endured, plowed, died, struggled, sacrificed, worked, shaped, tasted, emerged,
united,
served.

/t/

/d/

Listen to the corresponding extracts to check your answers.

/id/

2) After making sure you sorted out correctly all the verbal forms, observe the sounds preceding
the suffix -ED.
3) What pronunciation rule can you deduce from the observations you made?
- the suffix -ED is pronounced /t/ when ...
- the suffix -ED is pronounced /d/ when ...
Column 3
4) Try to pronounce the verbal forms from column 3 with the pronunciation of columns 1 and 2.
What is the result? What rule can you deduce?
- the suffix -ED is pronounced /id/ when ...
COMPREHENSION ECRITE
I attended the inauguration of Barack Obama with two million other people who created the
largest crowd in the history of Washington, D.C. Although I grew up in the nation's capital, I had
never before attended an inauguration. None had previously beckoned. But this time I felt
compelled to be present. (...)
At the inauguration, I luxuriated in the knowledge that, at long last, a Negro would join, and
thereby irrevocably change, that exclusive club of American Presidents which was initially
dominated by slaveholders. Nine of the first fifteen Presidents owned Negro slaves, including
George Washington who referred to them as a troublesome species of property. When Thomas
Jefferson was inaugurated in 1801, one of seven Americans was enslaved, nearly two hundred by
the principal author of the Declaration of Independence.
At the inauguration I enjoyed the thought that Barack Obama would occupy the same post as
Warren G. Harding, who, bowing to segregation, had insisted upon the fundamental, eternal, and
inescapable difference between whites and blacks; the same post Calvin Coolidge won after being
nominated at a political convention at which a chicken-wire screen separated white and black
delegates to the 1924 Republican convention; the same post as the legendary Franklin Delano
Roosevelt whose administration barred Negro reporters from his press conferences for most of his
tenure as the Chief Executive; the same post as that occupied by Richard Milhous Nixon who
casually and repeatedly referred to blacks as jigs and niggers. I derived pleasure from recalling
that while the eminent writer Toni Morrison had described Bill Clinton metaphorically as America's
first black president, now, in January 2009, metaphor was giving way to reality. (...)
Many observers spoke of Obama's inauguration as a monument marking a fundamental
discontinuity in American life: BO - Before Obama - the United States was mired in distraction
about all things racial, but AO - After Obama - a miraculous cleansing occurred. Race no longer
mattered. The election of a black man signalled the coming of a post-racial society. This
triumphalist reading of the election was posited by the conservative Wall Street Journal when it
claimed, the day after Obama's victory, that perhaps we can put to rest the myth of racism as a
barrier to achievement in this splendid country. (...)
***

Racial discrimination - disfavoring an individual or group because of perceived racial affiliation is a stigmatized behavior: it is generally viewed as morally wrong. That was not always so. Until
the 1960s, many Americans were altogether willing to say openly that they believed that whites are
morally and intellectually superior to blacks and that it was perfectly appropriate to discriminate
against blacks on a racial basis in competitions for employment, housing, education, and other
endeavors. One of the great achievements of the Civil Rights Revolution (helped to no small
degree by universal disgust with the racist outrages of Nazism) was the delegitimation of anti-black
prejudice. The struggles advanced by figures such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Fannie
Lou Hamer, Thurgood Marshall and Bayard Rustin placed a moral cloud over racial discrimination.
They made racial bigotry not only unfashionable but contemptible. They made it an object of scorn
and a target for ostracism. A result is that the prevalence of racial discrimination has been
diminished. It has by no means been eradicated; racial discrimination is still very much present in
American life. But when people consciously engage in racial discrimination, they typically deny that
they are and often take care to hide their real motivations. (...)
During the campaign for the presidency, Obama was harshly chastized by influential arbiters of
public opinion when he jokingly remarked that his rival's camp would try to dissuade voters from
supporting him because, among other things, he did not "look like" previous presidents. More
recently, right-wing journalists such as Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck have accused Obama of
"hating" whites and engaging in reverse discrimination. These accusations have no plausible
foundation. But they generate publicity that fuels racial anxiety and create opportunities for misstatements or over-reactions by Obama and his defenders which, in turn, create additional
publicity, further exacerbating racial tensions. Even though the enemies of Obama make no
persuasive argument to back up their assertions that he "hates" white people, the naked assertion
itself is injurious to the President. It forces the public to think anew about his race. It literally
"blackens" him.

General comprehension
1) According to you, what is the best title for this extract? Justify your choice.
racism
is
racial
discrimination
won't
a
new
page
in
slavery
is
black
the
end
of
white
- blacks and whites united

die

dead
out
history
history
power
supremacy

2) Put the following sentences in logical order, according to the order of the document:
a) As we can see with racist reporters who force people to think about the colour of Obama's skin.
b)
But
this
was
a
special
occasion.
c)
Randall
Kennedy
had
never
listened
to
an
inauguration
before
Obama's.
d) Randall Kennedy mentions that some people said Obama's presidency was marking the end of
racial
tensions.
e) Nevertheless, Randall Kennedy explains that racism and discrimination are still topical.
f)
About
how
blacks
were
discriminated
against.
g) While Obama was addressing the Washington crowd, Randall Kennedy thought about how racism
had been a part of the American institution.

Detailed comprehension

Part 1 (paragraphs 1 to 4)
1) Match the following words together:
Words from the text
attend
cleansing
inescapable
felt compelled to
beckon
achievement
occur
barred
Synonyms
be present at
attract
be obliged to
that cannot be avoided
forbid
purification
take place
success
2) RIGHT or WRONG. Justify your answer quoting from the text:
a) Randall Kennedy made a trip to Washington to go and listen to Obama's speech.
b)
The
first
American
presidents
owned
slaves.
c)
George
Washington
considered
Afro-Americans
as
objects.
d) Nearly 15% of Americans were slaves at the beginning of the 19th century.
e)
Bill
Clinton
was
the
first
black
president
in
the
USA.
f) A Southern newspaper claimed that Obama's victory marked the end of racial issues. (4)
Focus on paragraph 3
3) What did Warren G Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Richard Milhous
Nixon have in common?
4) What elements show that former President Nixon didn't mind being a racist?
5) "(...) metaphor was giving way to reality." What reality is referred to here?
Focus on paragraph 4
7) What did observers mean when they mentioned a post-racial society?
8) On a sociological, historical and biblical point of view, what does Randall Kennedy mean by a
miraculous cleansing?

Part 2 (paragraphs 5 and 6)

Focus on paragraph 5
1) Choose the best synonym for each of the following words:

(1)
(2)
(2)
(2)
(3)

bigotry:
prejudice
tolerance
contemptible:
acceptable
hidden
harshly:
gently
hardly
chastized:
praised
questioned
fuels: encourages - prevents - insists on - diminishes

segregation
shameful
severely
followed

religion
illegal
slightly
punished

2) To what extent did public opinion change regarding the way racial discimination was perceived in
the
1960s?
Who
made
this
change
possible?
3)

Fill

in

Elements showing that racial

discrimination used to be favorably
considered

the

chart

below:

Words and phrases showing that racial

discrimination is now badly considered
slaveholding US presidents

Focus on paragraph 6
4) Explain the notion of "reverse discrimination."
5) What kind of people do you think blamed Obama for hating Whites? Explain their reasons and
intentions.
6) What does THAT refer to in "That was not always so."

Grammar - WOULD
1) Focus on the first lines of paragraphs 2 and 3:
- "At the inauguration, I luxuriated in the knowledge that, at long last, a Negro would join, (...)
that
exclusive
club
of
American
Presidents
(...)"
- "At the inauguration I enjoyed the thought that Barack Obama would occupy the same post as
Warren G. Harding (...)"
a) Complete the following sentences:

During
the
inauguration,
Randall
Kennedy
thought:
"At
During the inauguration, Randall Kennedy thought: "Barack Obama ..."

long

last,

..."

b) What modal did you use? What does it express in those sentences: past, present or future?
2) What is WOULD used for in the text? It's used:
-to
talk
about
-to
talk
about
a
-to
talk
about
the
-to
express
the
-to express a polite request
3)

Explain

how

WOULD

is

formed:

the
habit
future

_____

in
in
conditional

_____

past
past
past
mood

the
the

WOULD

4) What rule can you deduce from these observations? Complete the following sentence:
-When ____ is used to talk about the ____ , ____ is used to express the ____________ .
Would - Consulter le prcis de grammaire