Читать книгу English for Life Reader Grade 9 Home Language - Elaine Ridge - Страница 12

Pre-reading
1.	Why do people build walls?
During reading
2.	The poem refers to physical walls but it also refers to another kind of wall that people construct. What do the two kinds of walls have in common?

Walls

Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali

Man is

a great wall builder

the Berlin Wall

the Wailing Wall of Jerusalem

but the wall

most impregnable

has a moat

flowing with fright

around his heart.

A wall

without windows

for the spirit

to breeze through

A wall

without a door

for love to walk in.

impregnable – cannot be broken through

moat – a wide, deep trench filled with water built around a castle’s walls so that even the walls cannot be reached by attackers.

Post-reading
3.	The speaker describes man as a “great” wall builder.
a)	Is this meant as a compliment or not?
b)	Give some reasons why men might need (or think that they need) to build walls that cannot be climbed over.
4.	The first wall mentioned in this poem is the high wall guarded by soldiers in towers that was built by the Soviet Russian-aligned East Berlin in 1961.Its purpose was to keep its citizens in and those of the western-aligned other half of the city, West Berlin, out. It then became almost impossible for people in the same city, even from the same family, to see each other. Look at the illustration. Why does the speaker use this as an example of man’s frightening ability to keep people apart?
5.	The Wailing Wall of Jerusalem is what is left of the foundations of the Temple after the Romans demolished it to demonstrate their power in the year 70. It is not strictly a wall. However, it is a very special site to religious Jews. And it is a site argued over fiercely between Palestine and Israel. How has it become a “wall”?
6. a)	What is the “wall most impregnable”?
b)	What are its three characteristics? Explain these in your own words and consider their advantages and disadvantages
c)	Why do human beings sometimes build walls with no doors round their hearts? Use your imaginations and your own experience in answering this question.