Arbeitsblatt: GK-Klausur British Monarchy

Klausur Englisch Grundkurs (12) Thema: The British Monarchy – past and present Text: There are no short cuts for the monarchy (Peter Preston, The Guardian, 9th January 2011) Tasks: 1. Briefly summarize what the author remembers about the past and what he says about the future of the monarchy. 2. Examine the author attitude towards the monarchy, taking into account his style, tone and choice of words. 3. Comment on the author view of the monarchy. Introduction: The present text is comment on the film The King Speech (2010), published in the British newspaper The Guardian. Peter Preston, The Guardian, 9th January 2011: There are no short cuts for the monarchy new film on George VI underlines the point about monarchy that ruling is relentless plod am just old enough to remember the old king Christmas broadcasts, their conventional messages delivered in parched, precise tones. [.] When his stupid, heedless brother fouled the royal nest, somebody had to take his place. Duty summoned Bertie. Were only year away from celebrating his daughter Elizabeth 60 years as queen: long, long, long to reign 5 over us. And, as the decades have gone by, an odd sense of permanency has taken hold. She has always been there while everything else has changed; perhaps she will always be there. But if she isnt, if immortality isnt on the menu, then please can we skip generation and go on to William and Kate? [.] Goodbye Maam, take an early bath; goodbye Charles and Camilla. Let bound on to something little more glamorous, to Diana elder son [.]. 10 It isnt scenario that George VI could ever have come to terms with. He didnt want the crown [.] But [.] the point about hereditary monarchy is that there are no short cuts: if youre the next in line, then argument fades away. This queen will go on and on, to the end. King Charlie and Queen Camilla wont stand aside. Ruling is relentless plod. And there, for those who would like to see this costly show slew off the road, is the key to how it will happen. 15 Bertie wasnt just private person; he depended on privacy for survival. [.] The Queen gave her privacy away when she first allowed BBC cameras to see her playing happy families, and it has been downhill against disclosure ever since. Here door that swings both ways, to be sure. Just as Edward VIII couldnt marry divorced woman, so King Charles will take divorcee to Westminster Abbey. But the spirit of the times that made George VI 20 possible [.] has disappeared. [.] remember pretty vividly the pall that descended in 1952 when Bertie died in his sleep. was revising for exams and suddenly all there was as background noise was chamber music. The world, in any sense of normality, had ended. Something momentous had happened. Except that it hadnt. Except that life went on as usual. [.] Except that half century or so later, you could 25 guess the way this kind of world ended: not with bang, but stutter. Annotations: headlines: l. 1 l. 2 l. 3 l. 4 l. 7 l. 9 l. 10 l. 12 l. 16 l. 17 l. 19 short cut: Abkürzung relentless: unaufhörlich, gnadenlos plod: (schwieriger) Marsch/Weg Christmas broadcast: Weihnachtsansprache (im Radio) parched: trocken brother: Edward VIII, elder brother of George VI Bertie: nickname of George VI (to) take hold: sich einstellen/einnisten menu: Speisekarte; (to) be on the menu zur Debatte stehen (to) bound: springen (to) come to terms with s.th.: mit etwas zurechtkommen (to) slew: schleudern, ins Schleudern geraten private: (hier:) zurückhaltend, introvertiert disclosure: Enthüllung, Offenlegung it has been downhill against disclosure: the royal family fight against disclosure (by the media) is lost cause, the royals have lost battle after battle l. 20 Here door that swings both ways: One person way out (exit) is another person way in (entrance) referring to Edward VIII and Prince Charles l. 23 pall: (dunkle) Wolke, Schatten l. 24 (to) revise: üben, (Stoff) wiederholen chamber music: Kammermusik (leise, ruhige, Musik) l. 25 momentous: bedeutsam, weltbewegend