HOMEWORK TASK 1

CLECV PLUS 3

Homework Task 1B
Submission Date: See Activities calendar

NAME: Orlando Oscar Maldonado Salvatierra

Part 1 (Up to 70 points)

A
Read the online article on the next page and decide whether each sentence below is a
-
Fact (F) or an Opinion (O). Write an X under the correct column (40pts). Very good! 35pts.

F O
1- Hitler destroyed the most powerful country in Europe
X
2- It is maybe hard to think of much Stalin did that could not have been done
more effectively and more humanely in other ways X

3- Napoleon reformed the government; and transformed the very idea of

what politics could be and men could do. X

4- Napoleon died on St Helena island in 1821 X

5- Comte de las Cases was Napoleon’s confidant during his exile

X

6- Perhaps the best way to think of this book is as a view – essentially

positive – from inside the imperial entourage. X

7- Pieter Geyl wrote the book “Napoleon: For and Against”

X
8- The author, Andrew Robert has been considered as an accurate historical
storyteller X X

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Will publishers still be churning out dozens of books a year about Hitler or Stalin two centuries after
their deaths? Hitler took the most powerful country in Europe and wrecked it for a generation,
demonstrating in the process how not to run a continent. The one debt we owe Stalin is that he
ensured Hitler’s defeat; apart from that, it is hard to think of much he did that could not have been
done more effectively and more humanely in other ways. But Napoleon – another case entirely. He
took a country in the throes of acute fiscal crisis and social unrest and made it the dominant power in
Europe; he oversaw the shattering of the old ruling order across the continent; he reformed the
government; and he transformed the very idea of what politics could be and man could do. All of these
achievements proved to be irreversible.

One proof of this is his immortality. After Hitler’s death, there was mostly an embarrassing silence;
after Stalin’s, little but denunciation. But when Napoleon died on St Helena in 1821, much of Europe
and the Americas could not help thinking of itself as a post-Napoleonic generation.

The raw material for the future Napoleon myth was provided by one of his St Helena confidants; the
Comte de las Cases, whose account of conversations with the great man came out shortly after his
death and ran in repeated editions throughout the century. De las Cases somehow metamorphosed
the erstwhile dictator into a herald of liberty, the emperor into a slayer of dynasties rather than the
founder of his own. To the “great man” school of history Napoleon was grist to their mill, and his
meteoric rise redefined the meaning of heroism in the modern world. The Marxists, for all their dislike
of great men, grappled endlessly with the meaning of the 18th Brumaire; indeed one of France’s most
eminent Marxist historians such George Lefebvre, wrote what arguably remains the finest of all
biographies of him. It was on this already vast Napoleon literature, a rich terrain for the scholar of
ideas that the great Dutch historian Pieter Geyl was lecturing in 1940 when he was arrested and sent
to Buchenwald. There he composed what became one of the classics of historiography, a book
entitled Napoleon: For and Against, which charted how generations of intellectuals had happily served
up one Napoleon after another. Like those poor souls who crowded the lunatic asylums of mid-19th
century France convinced that they were Napoleon, generations of historians and novelists simply
could not get him out of their head.

Perhaps the best way to think of this book is as a view – essentially positive – from inside the imperial
entourage. Roberts has been indefatigable in tracking down memorabilia and visiting the sites of
battles, palaces and places of exile. I think this is all richly depicted and woven into a narrative that is
told with the aplomb of an accomplished historical storyteller. But underlying structures and more long-
term shifts do not seem to attract the author’s interest in the same way. Did Napoleon really usher in a
new bourgeois order that his nephew would then clamber to power to defend 25 years later? For such
question, it is probably better to read other works. But for a fast-paced and comprehensive narrative,
told with affection and sympathy, many readers will want to turn to Napoleon the Great. It is a book
that sets out for a new generation exactly why he mattered and will continue to matter so long as
people argue about faith, and property, and kings, and the future of Europe.

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http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/nov/13/napoleon-the-great-andrew-roberts-review

B)
Read the following sentences taken form the article. Look at the words in the
thesaurus excerpts taken from a well-known site. Choose a word/ words/ phrase
(synonyms or related words) that can replace the original bold words / phrase in each
sentence. Write the answers in the box provided at the end. (30pts) Three correct answers:
18 pts.

1- Will publishers still be churning out dozens of books a year about Hitler or Stalin two
centuries after their deaths?

2- He took a country in the throes of acute fiscal crisis and social unrest and made it the
dominant power in Europe.

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3- He oversaw the shattering of the old ruling order across the continent.

4- De las Cases somehow metamorphosed the erstwhile dictator into a herald of liberty

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5- Marxist historian, George Lefebvre, wrote what arguably remains the finest of all
biographies of him.

Taken from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/erstwhile

Question Answer

1 Will publishers still producing dozens of books a year

about Hitler or Stalin two centuries after their deaths?
2 He took a country suffering in the process of an acute
fiscal crisis and social unrest and made it the dominant
power in Europe.
3 He oversaw the smashing break of the old ruling order
across the continent
4 De las Cases somehow metamorphosed the old dictator
into a herald of liberty
5 Marxist historian, George Lefebvre, wrote what possibly
remains the finest of all biographies of him.

Part 2 (Up to 30 points)

Look at the words with the root mit- / mis- Match each word with its definition. Write the
correct letter in the box below. Add the part(s) of speech for each word. (verb= v, noun= n,
adj.= adjective, adverb= adv.) Very good! seven correct answers: 21 pts.

1. Mission A. coming and going irregularly

2. admission B. a duty one is sent to perform
3. dismissed C. entrance; the permission to enter
4. submit D. sent away; discharged

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5. intermittently E. give up; surrender

Question Answer Part of speech

1 B n
2 C n
3 E D adj.
4 D E v
5 A adj. adv.

Good effort, Orlando.

You made it to 74/100 in your first task.

Keep doing your best...!

Cristian

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