What's up everyone? Today we have a very exciting lesson for you,
where we'll be learning English with the first book from the Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins.
But before we get into it, and in case you're new here, I want to let you know that we help you to
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So just to let you know in case you haven't yet read the book or seen the movies, there are no
spoilers in this lesson. So don't worry, you can keep watching and if you do want to read along
with me I'm going to be reading from page 4. So you can read along with me with the passage
if you have the book as well. But before we start reading we're going to learn a little
bit more about the fictional world in which the Hunger Games is set. As well as some vocabulary
from the passage that I'm going to be reading as a little bit of prep work. Are you ready?
So first let's take a look at where and in what time the novel unfolds.
The Hunger Games is a novel that unfolds in Panem, an apocalyptic world sometime in the future.
Geographically Panem is located in North America but characters in the story mention
large areas of land across the world that have become uninhabitable due to rising sea levels.
So who is the main character? This story centers around a 16 year old girl called Katniss Everdeen,
and her struggle to survive in dystopia. Panem is an oppressed world that runs in
a way that resembles Ancient Rome. There are 12 numbered districts, so you'll often hear
references to District 2, District 3, and so on. Our main character Katniss is from District 12.
there's also a capital city called The Capitol, which is located in the Rocky Mountains.
So once a year the 12 districts are forced to offer a boy and
a girl between the age of 12 and 18 to participate in the Hunger Games.
Dystopia is not a word that's in the passage that I'm about to read but it describes the fictional
world of the Hunger Games. Dystopia means the opposite of utopia, a very bad or unfair
society in which there is a lot of suffering. Especially an imaginary society in the future
after something terrible has happened. Reaping literally means to cut and
collect your crops. We often say this when you get something good out of a result that you have done.
For example to reap the rewards of hard work. However here it means the collection or the
gathering of these young boys and girls from each district to participate in the games.
Chain link fence topped with barbed wire loops. Chain link fences as
you can see in the picture are what delimit the boundaries or borders of each district.
They're topped, meaning they have on top barbed wire loops, as you can also see in the picture.
So before we read the passage we're going to look at five
verbs and five definitions that you can try to match.
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What do you think she means by a stretch that's been loose for years?
Here she's talking about the fence. She's talking about a hole or a gap in the wired fence.
She says I flatten out my belly and slide under a two foot stretch that's been loose
for years. Now what she means by this is that she flattens out her belly as much as possible,
so she's not hunched over but she flattens it out and she slides under to get through.
Now peacekeepers are controlled by The Capitol and they are basically the military
and law enforcement in Panem. The peacekeepers ensure that the law of The Capitol are obeyed
and publicly punish anyone who breaks them. If you're a fan of the Hunger Games or even
Jennifer Lawrence and absolutely loved the movie, then I highly recommend you check out
this lesson we made by clicking up here or down in the description box below to watch it next.
Katniss says that poaching carries the severest of penalties. This means the worst possible penalty.
Penalty is an official punishment by law and in this world it could very well mean punished
by death. She also says publicly executed for inciting a rebellion. Now if you incite someone
it means that you motivate them to do something. It kind of has a negative connotation because you
incite people to do something negative, whereas you motivate people to do something positive.
As I mentioned at the beginning a rebellion is what District 13 decided to do and failed at.
The people from this District got together to fight the system, they basically rebelled. That's
what a rebellion is, when lots of people come together and rebel against a system.
If you turn a blind eye to something bad or illegal that is happening
you're basically not taking much notice of it on purpose, so that you don't have to deal with it.
Now let's check your comprehension of the text with a few questions.
Okay,
I hope you enjoyed reading this passage from The Hunger Games with me, and if you would
like another lesson on it maybe as the story develops let me know down in the comments below.
Or if you'd like a lesson with another book please do let me know again down in the comments because
I'd love to make one that is highly requested and popular. But now it's time to go beyond the
classroom and live your English Aww yeah!!