-
Name
Date
Consider the following excerpts from three speeches that Winston Churchill gave in
Britain's House of Commons.
"l
have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat
/et us go forward together with
our
united strength."
- come then,
-May
13, 1940, three days after becoming prime Minister of Britain
"we shall defend our island whatever the cost may be; we shall fight on beaches, landing grounds, in fields, in streets, and on the hitts never surrender."
- we shall
-June
4, 1940
"Hitler knows that he will have the war. to break us
in
the island [Britain] or lase lf we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the tife of the world may move forward. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the united States, including fon
all
that we have known and cared will sink into the abyss of a New Dark Age. Let us therefore brace ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, [people] will still say, "This was their finest hour."
-June
18. 1940
1. Summarize the messages in Churchill's three speeches.
Copyright
@ 2001 Gage Educational publishing 2A3
Name
2. Which lines and phrases are the most powerful in your opinion?
what
evidence do these speeches provide that explain why so many people think that Churchill was a genius as a war leader?
4. lf you had heard churchill's speeches in 1940, how mightyou have responded?
5.
Do you think Churchill was a propagandist? Explain.
on
a separate piece
of
paper, prepare a brief speech on a subject that you feel strongly about. with cue cards, practise it and present it to the class. Try to appeal to the emotions of class members. How effective was your attempt to persuade your classmates?
2A4
Copyright O 2001 Gage Educational publishing
