Prime Time 8. Coursebook plus Semester Self-checks, Schulbuch

1 Home seen from abroad “Westering home” by Bernard O’Donoghue a) Listen to the recording of “Westering home”. Though you’d be pressed to say exactly where It first sets in, driving west through Wales Things start to feel like Ireland. It can’t be The chapels with their clear grey windows, Or the buzzards menacing the scooped valleys. In April, have the blurred blackthorn hedges Something to do with it? Or possibly The motorway, which seems to lose its nerve Mile by mile. The houses, up to a point, With their masoned gables, each upper window A raised eyebrow. More, though, than all of this, It’s the architecture of the spirit; The old thin ache you thought that you’d forgotten – More smoke, admittedly, than flame; Less tears than rain. And the whole business Neither here nor there, and therefore home. b) Who is the lyrical I and what are their thoughts about Ireland? c) Typical characteristics of the Irish accent are the post-vocal /r/, soft vowels and hardened/emphasised consonants. Listen to the recording again and identify these elements. The Pogues: “Thousands are sailing” a) Read the song lyrics written by the Irish band The Pogues and underline words and phrases that refer to the USA. b) Summarise the lyrics of the song and speculate about reasons for emigrating to the US. Do you know people who have left Austria and live abroad now? Tell your classmates about their new lives and experiences as foreigners in a different country. 1 1 1.1 5 10 15 2 The island it is silent now But the ghosts still haunt the waves And the torch lights up a famished man Who fortune could not save Did you work upon the railroad Did you rid the streets of crime Were your dollars from the white house Were they from the five and dime Did the old songs taunt or cheer you And did they still make you cry Did you count the months and years Or did your teardrops quickly dry Ah, no, says he ’twas not to be On a coffin ship I came here And I never even got so far That they could change my name Thousands are sailing Across the Western Ocean To a land of opportunity That some of them will never see Fortune prevailing Across the Western Ocean Their bellies full And their spirits free They’ll break the chains of poverty And they’ll dance In Manhattan’s desert twilight In the death of afternoon We stepped hand in hand on Broadway Like the first man on the moon And “The Blackbird” broke the silence As you whistled it so sweet And in Brendan Behan’s footsteps I danced up and down the street […] (© Text: Philip Chevron) 5 10 15 20 25 30 10 Ireland Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv