JFK assassination - 50 years on

Remembering a President (listening with transcript) Source: Learning English VOA news

Ich bin ein Berliner speech Source: history.com

This Day in History (text) Source: history.com

US remembers Kennedy (text and videos) Source: BBC News



Here is a selection of JFK's quotes. Choose the correct word(s) to complete them. 
  1. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few / the little who are rich.
  2. Too / too much  often we... enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.
  3. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss / lose the future.
  4. My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can make / do for you, ask what you can make / do for your country.
  5. A nation that is afraid to let its people to judge / judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.
  6. When written / wrote in Chinese, the word 'crisis' is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.
  7. A man may die, nations may up and down / rise and fall, but an idea lives on.
  8. Tolerance implies no / any lack of commitment to one's own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.
  9. I look forward / look forward to a great future for America - a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose.
  10. There are many people in the world who really don't understand-or say / tell they don't-what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come to Berlin!

Comments

Montse said…
Hi, Graham.

We think we tend to make a legend around important people who dies early.

1. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
2. Too much often we... enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.
3. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.
4. My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.
5. A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.
6. When is written in Chinese, the word 'crisis' is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.
7. A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.
8. Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.
9. I look forward to a great future for America - a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose.
10. There are many people in the world who really don't understand-or say they don't-what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come to Berlin!
Montse said…
Graham, I meant that I think we tend to make up a legend around people who die too soon. There are several examples as Marilyn Monroe, Martin Luther King... what would they have been like if they had lived more time? Maybe we would have felt let down...
Graham said…
Montse,

You chose wisely for most of the quotes apart from:

2. Too often we... enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.
(too much/many + nouns)

6. When (it is) written in Chinese, the word 'crisis' is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.


I agree with your comment. It was a different era, when we didn't wash our dirty laundry in public. Scandals were swept under the carpet.

Nowadays we know the most intimate detail of people who are in the public eye.


Graham said…
Rodrigo,

With all the American series that you watch, you will be used to American accents.

listened to !!!!