Martin Luther King

     I. Read and translate the following text

     Martin Luther King was born on the 15^th of January, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, in the deep South. He lived with his parents, grandmother, brother and sister. He was an intelligent boy. When he was young, Martin often went to church because his family was very religious.

    Martin's first experience of racism was when a white woman told him not to play with her little boys. But Martin didn't think he was inferior, because his parents always told him that black and white people were equal. 

     At the age of fifteen, he made an excellent speech at school and won a prize. On the way home from school, the bus was full and the driver told Martin and his teacher (who was also black) to give their seats to two white passengers. Martin didn't want to and the driver insulted him. In the end Martin stood up, but he never forgot the experience.

    When he was at college he read a lot and the person who influenced him most was the Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi. Martin liked his ideas about peaceful protest.

     In 1965 Martin started to organize a boycott of buses. Black people stopped using the buses because they had to give up their seats to whites. White extremists attacked black people and bombed Martin's house. In the end blacks and whites were able to sit together in buses. In was Martin Luther King's first victory. In the 1960s there was terrible racial violence between blacks and whites in the USA. Martin organized marches and peaceful demonstrations. He went to prison seventeen times.

     In 1963 he organized a match to Washington and a quarter of million of people came to the meeting. This is where he made his famous speech. "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character… all God's children, black men and white men, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of that old Negro spiritual "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

     In 1964 Martin Luther King received the Nobel Peace prize. But there were more problems and more marches. In 1968 a white extremist killed him.

II. Point out if the statement is true (T) or false (F).

1.     Martin Luther King was from the South of the United States

2.     Martin's first experience of racism was with a bus driver.

3.     He started making speeches when he was at school.

4.     Gandhi influences his ideas about peaceful protest.

5.     In 1964 he organized a successful boycott of buses.

6.     He went to prison sixteen times for organizing protests.

7.     He organized a march to Washington in 1963.

8.     He made a famous speech there beginning with the words: "I have a dream that…"

9.     He received a Nobel Peace Prize in 1965.

10.  A white extremist killed him in 1968.   

III. Answer the questions:

1.     Was Martin Luther King born in the North or in the South of the USA?

2.     What kind of boy was he?

3.     When was Martin's first experience of racism?

4.     What did Martin win his first prize for?

5.     What had happened in the bus?

6.     What did Martin like in Gandhi's program?

7.     Why did black people stop using buses?

8.     Why was Martin taken to prison?

9.     What was his famous speech about? Where was it?

10.  How did Martin die?