Abraham Lincoln
методическая разработка по английскому языку (9 класс) на тему

Abraham Lincoln

Vocabulary:

1. to enter politics -начать политическую карьеру;
2. a burning question – наболевший вопрос;
3. to abolish – отменить;
4. prosperity- процветание;
5. cotton growing – хлопководство;
6. to cease fight – прекратить борьбу;
7. Confederacy – конфедерация;
8. the break-up of the Union – развал союза;
9. to surrender- сдаться;
10. to preserve the nation – сохранить нацию;

Fill in the gaps with these sentences.

1. He soon became a force in the political life.
2. During the performance Lincoln was shot by an actor who supported     Confederacy.
3. In 1862 the American Civil War between the North and the South began.
4. When Abraham was quite young, the family moved to the wild forest land of Indiana.
5. But Lincoln did not lose courage.
6. The reason was that the prosperity of the South was based on cotton growing, and only Negroes worked there.

       Abraham Lincoln is the most famous example of the “American dream”. Many

Americans think that in their country a man may rise from the lowest to the highest position. That was exactly what Lincoln         did.

      He was born in 1809 in a small farm in Kentucky. (1)… He hardly had any education. He only learned to read and write and do simple arithmetic. In 1830     Abraham left his father’s farm and went to Springfield, Illinois. There he became a clerk in a store and worked hard to improve his education. In 1836 he became a lawyer.

      He entered politics, too, and in 1834 became a candidate to the Parliament of Illinois. (2)… In 1847 he went as a Congressman to the National Assembly (National Parliament).

      Slavery was then becoming a burning question in American politics. Many people in the Northern states wanted to abolish it. The Southern states opposed the abolition. The Southerners said  that it would mean economic ruin for them. (3)… The        Southerners threatened (грозили) that if the North did not cease its fight against the slavery the Southern states would leave the Union. They wanted to form an independent “Confederacy”.

       In 1860 Lincoln was elected the President of the USA. In 1861 seven states left the Union and elected their own President, Jefferson Davis. The Confederacy was formed.

        Lincoln was strongly against the slavery and even more strongly against the break-up of the Union. (4)…

      At first the war went badly for the North. The Southerners headed by General Robert Lee and Colonel Jackson won some brilliant victories. (5)… On April 9, General Lee surrendered.  The Civil War was over.  Lincoln tried to convince former enemies   that they should live in peace. On April 14, the President and his wife visited a theatre in Washington. (6)… Abraham Lincoln died next morning.

      People admire Lincoln for political moderation. They admire Lincoln because he tried to preserve the nation. He is a symbol of American democracy.