Advanced ⅼ Speech 13 _LEVEL 10_
Speech 13 : Winston Churchill
Never Give In, Never, Never, Never
Never Give In, Never, Never, Never
By Winston Churchill at Harrow School, on October 29, 1941
Practice 1 | Warm up
Directions: Answer the following questions.
1. Do you know anything about Winston Churchill? What do you know about him?
2. What do you think his speech is about?
3. Are you good at motivating people in the time of difficulty?
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Advanced ⅼ Speech 13 _LEVEL 10_
Practice 2 | Listen and Fill in the blanks
Directions: Listen to the audio excerpt of the speech until the end and fill in the blanks.
Play the excerpt
On October 29, 1941, United Kingdom Prime Minister Winston Churchill visited Harrow School to hear the
traditional songs he had sung there as a youth, as well as to speak to the students.
But for everyone, surely, what we have gone through in this period - I am addressing
to the
School - surely in this period of ten months this is the lesson:
never give in, never give in, never, never, never -in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in
except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently
overwhelming might of the
.
We stood all alone a year ago, and to many countries it seemed that our account was closed, we were
finished. All this tradition of ours, our School history, our songs, this part of the
of this country,
all were gone and finished and liquidated.
Very different is the mood
. Britain, other nations thought, had drawn a sponge across her slate.
But instead our country stood in the gap. There was no flinching and no thought of giving in; and by what
seemed almost a miracle to those outside these Islands,
we ourselves never doubted it, we now
find ourselves in a position where I say that we can be sure that we have only to persevere to
.
You sang here a verse of a School Song: you sang that extra verse written in my honor, which I was very
greatly complimented by and which you have repeated today. But there is one word in it I want to alter - I
wanted to do so last year, but I did not
I have
to. It is the line: "Not less we praise in darker days."
the Head Master's permission to alter darker to sterner. "Not less we praise in sterner
days."
Do not let us speak of darker days: let us speak
of sterner days. These are not dark days; these
are great days - the greatest our country has ever lived; and we must all thank God that we have been
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Advanced ⅼ Speech 13 _LEVEL 10_
allowed, each of us according to our stations, to play a part in making these days
in the
history of our race.
Practice 3 | Questions
Directions: Answer the following questions.
1. What is the main message of Winston Churchill’s speech?
2. How was the situation in the country different at the moment of speech compared to one year
before?
3. Why did Winston Churchill want to alter “darker days” to “sterner days” in the song?
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Advanced ⅼ Speech 13 _LEVEL 10_
Practice 4 | Discussion
Directions: Discuss the following questions.
1. What do you think about this speech?
2. Do you agree that people should never give in? Why?
3. How important is it to stay optimistic during the difficult times?
4. Do you think you would be a good leader of your country?
5. What are some traits that a good leader of a country should have?
6. Are there any leaders that you admire? Why do you admire them?
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Advanced ⅼ Speech 13 _LEVEL 10_
Practice 5 | Figures of Speech
Directions: Read the example of a figure of speech from the excerpt above and give your own examples.
Figure of speech – an expression that means something different from the literal meaning of the words
1. Antithesis – is a figure of speech in which two opposite ideas are put together in a sentence to
achieve a contrasting effect
Example: “These are not dark days; these are great days”
Explanation: Here, the author uses antithesis in order to contrast the two points of view and emphasize
the optimism
Other examples of an antithesis:
- "Many are called, but few are chosen." – contrasting effect used to emphasize the success of being
chosen
- "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." – contrasting effect used to emphasize
the importance of the event
2. The figure of speech similar to the antithesis is the oximoron:
Oximoron - a figure of speech in which two opposite ideas are joined to create an effect
Examples:
- “I must be cruel, only to be kind”
-
deafening silence
Now you can try and make your own examples!
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