Definitions and Hypotheses

23.09.2009

Hey,

today we wrote definitions for the following terms in your lesson copybooks. You need to know them by heart! Here is what we said:

- Ellis Island:

It's a symbol of liberty / freedom but also of stress. It was founded in the 1890's .

Immigrants had to go through Ellis Island in order to enter the Us. They had to take two tests: a medical test and a literacy test. Either they passed the tests or they were sent back.

Point sur les structures engagées ici:

had to = l'obligation au passé.
in order to = exprime le but, la visée.
Either ... or ... = exprime l'alternative entre deux possibilité = soit ... soit ...

- E Pluribus Unum:

It is the motto of the US. It means "out of many one". It is a symbol for the melting-pot. You can find it on the seal of America (on coins and dollars bills) and on official documents.
It was created in 1776 to highlight the fact that the United States used to be a land of immigration.

Point sur les structures engagées ici:

used to = on l'utilise pour parler d'un fait du passé révolu et qui a changé (ce qui est sous-entendu ici, c'est: "les USA ne sont plus une terre d'accueil").

- Pogrom:

It is a Russian word meaning "assault","attack". It designates the persecution of the Jewish community at the beginning of the 20th century in Russia. Jewish villages were destroyed and many Jews were looted and killed.

Point de grammaire de la leçon:

- la forme passive est souvent employée ici soit parce qu'on ne sait pas qui fait l'action (qui a créé Ellis Island ????), soit parce que c'est évident, soit parce qu'on veut insister sur la victimisation du peuple dont on parle (les immigrants ne choisissaient pas de retourner dans leur pays... ils y étaient forcés...).
- On remarquera que la traduction d'un énoncé à la voix passive se traduira souvent en français par "On". Ex: "Either they passed the tests or they were sent back".
= Soit les immigrants réussissaient les examens, soit ils étaient renvoyés chez eux / soit on les renvoyait chez eux.

At the end of the lesson, I asked you to make hypotheses about what Jacob was thinking before he shot the Russian soldier dead. Here is what you said:

He hesitated. Maybe the soldier had family.
He wondered if he should shoot the soldier.
He thought about the consequences.
He recalled his father.
He remembered what the soldiers did to his village.

HW: for next time, you need to transform theses sentences using the modal auxiliary may or might.
Remember, we're talking in the past, so the structure must be "may have + p. passé".

If you want to have an insight into how it was like to immigrate to the US at the beginning of the 20th century, just watch this documentary about Ellis Island:

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