Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Pictorial history of the women's suffrage movement



The song is entitled "Bread and Roses". It was written about 1912 by James Oppenheim in response to a women's textile worker strike. Here are the lyrics:

As we go marching, marching, in the beauty of the day,

A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray,

Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,

For the people hear us singing: Bread and Roses! Bread and Roses!

As we go marching, marching, we battle too for men,

For they are women's children, and we mother them again.

Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;

Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses.

As we go marching, marching, unnumbered women dead

Go crying through our singing their ancient call for bread.

Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew.

Yes, it is bread we fight for, but we fight for roses too.

As we go marching, marching, we bring the greater days,

The rising of the women means the rising of the race.

No more the drudge and idler, ten that toil where one reposes,

But a sharing of life's glories: Bread and roses, bread and roses.

Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;

hearts starve as well as bodies; bread and roses, bread and roses.

Monday, August 25, 2008

BACK TO SCHOOL NEXT WEEK.... SUMMER HOLIDAYS ARE OVER
Improve your English with this speech by a U.S. senator!
1) Open the video in a different window by right clicking on the link here:
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=6bVHNdwypiE&eurl
2) Watch it and listen to it carefully
3) Read the parts of its script below.
4) Fill in the blanks in the parts of the script below.



Senator Bernie S.............
From the state of V.................

" And we ................... talk about this terribly much. I guess it's something we're not supposed to be mentioning but the reality is that according to the latest analysis,
in 2005, the top 1% of earners made more money than the bottom 50% of Americans.
..................... % earned more income than the bottom .........................% which translates into the top ................... earners making more money than the bottom ............................million (earners)
.............................making more money than the bottom ........................... million.
While the top earning, 1/100 of 1%, received an average income increase of more than
.................................. million in 2005, the bottom 90% saw their average income decline by about $172.
So what we're looking at is, tens of millions of Americans working hard, they're seeing their healthcare costs go up, they're seeing their housing costs go up, they're seeing education costs go up, they're seeing the price they're paying for a gallon of gas to put into their car to get them to work going up, or heating oil going up, basics of life going up, and at the end of the year, they have less money than they did the previous year. But the people on top are making out like bandits.
[•••]
The top ........ wealthiest individuals saw on average a ....................................million dollar increase per person
[•••]
The United States has an ...........%, the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country on Earth. ..............% of our kids are living in poverty.
[•••]
Almost one in five children in this country lives in poverty
[•••]