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Read them aloud to improve your pronunciation.

TIPS ON HOW TO USE THESE ARTICLES:

o Read the articles out loud with your own voice and answer the questions at the end of each article.
o Read the article along with your teacher during your next lesson.
o Create your own sentences using the vocabulary words you learned from the article.
o Look for the grammar that you have learned in the recent lesson to understand how the author used it in
those sentences.

WORDS TO LEARN WORDS TO LEARN

HEBREW ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION HEBREW ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION
1. ‫מחיאות כפיים‬ applause ‫ַּאפֹלוז‬ 16. ‫עורך דין‬ lawyer ‫ֹלויֶר‬
2. ‫קהל‬ crowd ‫קרּאוד‬ ַ 17. ‫לוויות‬ funerals ‫פּיונ ֶַרלז‬
3. ‫חסר מנוח‬ restless ‫ֶרסטלֶ ס‬ 18. ‫נדחה‬ denied ‫דינַיד‬
4. ‫כישורי‬ skills ‫סקילז‬ 19. ‫להגן‬ protect ‫ּפרֹוטֶ קט‬
5. ‫מבטאים‬ expressing ‫קּספרסינג‬ ֶ ֶ‫א‬ 20. ‫תרופות‬ medicines ‫ֶמדיסֶ נז‬
6. ‫תיאור‬ description ֶ ‫ֶדסקרּיפשן‬ 21. ‫הורשו‬ allowed ‫אֶ לַ ּאוד‬
7. ‫כלא‬ prison ‫ּפריזֶן‬ 22. ‫פערים‬ gaps ‫גֶפס‬
8. ‫פורסמו‬ published ‫ּפַ בלישד‬ 23. ‫קדוש מעונה‬ martyr ‫ַמרטיר‬
9. ‫נעצר‬ arrested ‫ַארסטֶ ד‬ ֶ 24. ‫נציב‬ commissioner ‫ומיש נֶר‬
ֶ ֹ‫ק‬
10. ‫סמכויות‬ authorities ‫אֹ ות‘ֹוריטיז‬ 25. ‫התעללות‬ abuse ‫ּאֶ בּיוס‬
11. ‫ממשלה‬ government ‫רמנט‬ ֶ ֶ‫גֹ וב‬ 26. ‫פחדנות‬ cowardice ‫רדיס‬ ַ ֶ‫ַקּאוא‬
12. ‫מסורתי‬ traditional ‫דיש נַל‬
ֶ ‫טר‬ ַ 27. ‫עלה של זית‬ olive branch ‫ברנץ‬ ֶ ּ ‫‘אֹ וליב‬
13. ‫עליונות‬ supremacy ‫ּסּופר ַמסי‬
ֶ 28. ‫הגדיר‬ defining ‫דיפַ ינינג‬
14. ‫הזהיר‬ warned ‫ּאו ֹאורנד‬ 29. ‫מורשת‬ legacy ‫לֶ גַסי‬
15. ‫שלילת רישיונו‬ disbarring ‫דיּסבַ רינג‬ 30. ‫יריב‬ opponent ‫אֹ ּופֹ ּוונֶנט‬

speak. He had a monotonous voice

ADVANCED LEVEL that could turn a beautiful speech into
a reading from the telephone book.
He would always get more applause at
the start than at the end. His place in
Always the Optimist loud applause when he took the stage. history was somewhere between
By Bob Drogin, Los Angeles Times He was taller and larger than most Gandhi and Lincoln – but his speaking
(Pages 10-11) Africans, with a 1,000-watt smile, and skills were bad.
always wore one of the colorful
Hundreds of Nelson Mandela’s “madiba” shirts designed especially for That’s why I was so happy to read The
prison letters bring to light his him. Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela –
feelings. finally expressing what all of
However, the crowd would become Mandela’s speeches could not. The
Nelson Mandela would always get
restless after Mandela began to letters are an amazing description of

Lite Paper 474 – Advanced

 his wife and children. In 1969, after
ADVANCED LEVEL (CONTINUED) Winnie was also arrested and
imprisoned, he warned his two
youngest daughters, Zenani and
Zindzi, about the hardships ahead.
his 27 years in prison. Many of the and then his eldest son (denied both “It may be many months or even years
255 letters in this book had never times); tried to protect his wife; and did before you see her again,” he wrote,
been published. The letters share his the best he could to help other “for long you may live without your
thinking and feelings in real time, and prisoners. own home and parents, without the
give a new perspective with which we natural love and protection Mummy
can look at his personal and political “For 13 years I have slept naked on a
used to give you. Now you will get no
growth. floor that becomes wet and cold in the
birthday or Christmas parties, no
winter,” Mandela wrote in a 1976 letter
presents or new dresses, no shoes or
A Broken-Hearted Optimist asking for the pajamas given to white
toys.” It goes on like that for a few
prisoners. Until the 1980s, black
Almost from the day he was arrested heartbreaking pages.
prisoners were also denied hot water,
in 1962, Mandela started writing newspapers, radios, normal food, Perhaps the most amazing letter is
heartbreaking letters to his wife and simple medicines and other basic one Mandela wrote in 1976 to the
five children (and later, many things. Commissioner of Prisons. More than
grandchildren); angry letters to prison
20 pages long, it angrily describes the
authorities and government workers; For the first 10 years, Mandela and
physical abuse that black prisoners
words of sympathy to the families of other black prisoners were allowed
faced on Robben Island. “It is a mean
fallen freedom fighters; descriptions of only one family visitor every six
type of cowardice to do this to men
African and colonial history; and even months (children were not allowed to
a letter about amasi, a traditional milk who cannot hit back,” he wrote.
visit until they were 16). They were
that he missed badly. also allowed only one letter of 500 Yet, Mandela felt like he had to hold
words every six months. After 1973, out an olive branch, one that ended up
At the base of all his letters were his he was allowed to write more often – defining his legacy. “Even when the
undying optimism, and his strong and from that point on, he wrote conflict between you and me has
belief in his cause – the end of white without stopping. His incoming mail taken the most extreme shape, I
supremacy and getting emancipation also helped him stay optimistic. He should like us to fight over ideas and
for the black South Africans. told one of his friends that the without personal hatred, so that at the
incoming letters “brought into prison
“I believe in our cause. It is a fight for end, I can shake hands with you. I
the beauty and warmth of springtime.” want to feel that I have fought an
human rights and for an honorable
life,” he wrote to his wife, Winnie. Filling In The Gaps honorable opponent,” he wrote.
Mandela warned the apartheid
government over and over again Mandela did not like to speak of
through the years that it should be the himself. His letters, often filled with
one backing down – not him. Finally, sadness, fill in some of those gaps.
it did.
“I have no will to be a martyr,” he
Never once in his letters did he feel wrote, “but I am ready to do so if
sorry for himself. Instead, he put his needed.” He added that almost every
energy into his fight to block the letter he had written over the past
government from disbarring him as a seven months had not been sent.
lawyer (he won); asked to go out of
prison for the funerals of his mother The most painful letters are those to

Lite Paper 474 – Advanced

 QUESTIONS (ADVANCED LEVEL):
1. What does the author say about Mandela’s speaking skills?
__________________________________________________________
2. Why was the author so happy to read The Prison Letters of Nelson
Mandela?
__________________________________________________________
3. What two things were at the base of all Mandela’s letters?
__________________________________________________________
4. What helped Mandela stay optimistic?
__________________________________________________________
5. What does the author think is the most amazing letter?
__________________________________________________________

ANSWERS (ADVANCED LEVEL):

1. He says that they were bad.
2. Because he was hoping that the letters would express what Mandela’s
speeches could not.
3. At the base of his letters were:
a. His undying optimism, and
b. His strong belief in his cause.
4. His incoming mail helped him stay optimistic.
5. It is one he wrote in 1976 to the Commissioner of Prisons that was over
twenty pages long.

Lite Paper 474 – Advanced