Robert Frost

Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

1) Choose any two well-known musicians from the USA and arrange a dialog between them.

One should be a representative of the 50s-80s of the XX century, the other should belong to the generation of the XXI century.

2) Choose a song that would touch upon some social / political issues, bring it to the class and be ready to analyse its lyrics.

3) Make your own Top 10 American musicians list and be ready to explain and defend your choice. Bring the list in your class. Discuss it with your classmates and prepare 1 list of Top 10 American musicians for all. Mind, that everybody should agree on it.

4) Here is a table of top 10 American writers and their short descriptions.

First, match them together.

Second, write a 100-words review on any book by any of the writers mentioned below.

	Name:	Description:
1.	Ernest Hemingway	a. This was the pen name chosen by the great Samuel Langhorne Clemens. He penned great stories such as Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He also wrote many other works including short stories, travel works and even plays.
2.	William Faulkner	b. The son of a clergyman, he was one of the greatest American writers who penned important works of fiction such as The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove, and The Portrait of a Lady. He also wrote short stories, novellas and works of criticism. He is remembered for the famous ‘loose bags of literature’ in reference to Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”.
3.	Mark Twain	c. Even though he died at a relatively young age, he left an indelible mark on American Literature with significant poetry collections and numerous short stories often characterised by depicting dark sides of human nature. He also contributed to literary criticism, philosophy and even politics.
4.	John Steinbeck	d. He was a great American poet and playwright who bagged the 1948 Nobel Prize for literature. He is best known for The Hollow Men and Ash Wednesday as well as the play, Murder in the Cathedral.
5.	Nathaniel Hawthorne	e. He is best known for bagging the 1949 Nobel Prize for literature and also creating the fictional Yoknapatawpha County where he based all his major works. Apart from well known novels such as Absalom, Absalom and The Hamlet, Faulkner also wrote poetry and numerous short stories.
6.	Scott Fitzgerald	f. America like the rest of the world is male dominated but she is up there among the greatest American authors of all time. She is best known for the Pulitzer Prize winning novel Beloved. She also penned Song of Solomon, Tar Baby and Paradise and bagged the Nobel Prize for literature in 1993.
7.	Edgar Allan Poe	g. Like many writers of his time, he started his career as a journalist and went on to pen important works such as The Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables and The Blithedale Romanc e. He also wrote numerous short story collections.
8.	T.S. Eliot	h. He is remembered for great novels such as This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, Tender Is the Night and the best of them all titled The Great Gatsby. Despite the prominence of The Great Gatsby, he was better known for his short story collections and work in Hollywood.
9.	Toni Morrison	i. Love him or hate him, he is the greatest American writer living or dead. A Farewell to Arms and The Old Man and the Sea epitomized the career of one of the most flamboyant American men of letters. He bagged the 1954 Nobel Prize for literature and rightfully so. He was a journalist as well as a short story writer of no mean repute. He committed suicide on July 2nd 1961 by shooting himself with a shotgun.
10.	Henry James	j. He is best known for the novella, Of Mice and Men but also wrote some significant works like East of Eden, The Grapes of Wrath, The Forgotten Village and Bombs Away: The Story of a Bomber team. He was inducted in 2007 into the California Hall of Fame.

5) Organize a debate.

Suggested statements are:

1. There is no art in America.
2. American writers are just a parody on great European ones.
3. American music is only famous for its pop stars.
4. America has no culture of its own.

Half of the students should take a “pro”-position, supporting this statement, the other half should stick to “contra”-position, supporting the opposite viewpoint. Then, with pre-prepared arguments the sides should debate. There may be two judges to see who was more convincing and accurate in argumentations and announce the winner.

6) Write a composition named: “Things I like and things I don’t like about the US”

Key: 1-i; 2-e; 3-a; 4-j; 5-g; 6-h; 7-c; 8-d; 9-f;10-b.