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Level 5: Advanced Daily Audio Lessons

DailyStep-5_history-Berlin-002_US-05

Tina: Did many people manage to escape to freedom over the Berlin

Wall?

Harry: Yes, but you had to be very brave or foolish to try. The East

German border guards were instructed to operate a shoot-to-kill policy

and show no mercy to the people who the East German Government

labeled as traitors. Between one hundred and two hundred were shot

dead while attempting to flee the oppressive regime. People tried all sorts

of ingenious methods to escape.

Tina: Well, they do say that necessity is the mother of invention.

Harry: It’s true! People dug tunnels, built micro light planes, made hot air

balloons, one man even disguised himself as a swan and swam across the

freezing cold river to freedom.

Tina: Wow! That is ingenious! So, how come the wall was finally

dismantled?

Harry: People Power, I guess you’d call it. Freedom was sweeping

through Eastern Europe. The Poles were rebelling against Communist rule

in Poland, Glasnost was taking place in the USSR and the East German

people rose up against their oppressors and literally started pulling the

wall down. By this time, it was 1989, only months after the last person,

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Level 5: Advanced Daily Audio Lessons

Peter Fechter, was shot trying to get across the border. It marked the end

of a dark period of European history.

.
Situation: Harry and Tina talk about the victims of the shoot-to-kill policy in Berlin
before the Berlin Wall was demolished, and how the wall was finally knocked down in
1989.

Style: general conversation

.

Functions:
1. Introducing a common saying: Well, they do say that necessity is the mother
of invention. (note: please copy the tone and emphasis carefully here.)
2. Confirming: It’s true!
3. Asking why something happened: So, how come the wall was finally
dismantled? (note: please copy the tone and emphasis carefully here.)
4. Giving something a name: People Power, I guess you’d call it. (note: please
copy the tone and emphasis carefully here.)
5. Talking about an important moment: It marked the end of a dark period of
European history. (note: please copy the tone and emphasis carefully here.)
.

Notes:
1. Did many people manage to escape...? = Were many people able to escape...?
2. freedom = liberty
3. border guards = people guarding the frontiers
4. to operate a shoot-to-kill policy = to have a policy of shooting with the intention
of killing, not with the intention of simply wounding
5. show no mercy to = show no pity for / be ruthless in dealing with (phrasal verb)
6. labelled as = called
7. traitors = enemies of the state
8. shot dead = killed by bullets
9. to flee = to run away (phrasal verb) from / to escape from
10. the oppressive regime = the undemocratic and controlling regime
11. ingenious methods = extremely creative and imaginative ways
12. necessity is the mother of invention (idiom) = people invent new things and come
up with (phrasal verb) creative ideas as a response to a difficult situations
13. dug tunnels = built tunnels by digging under the wall
14. micro light planes = small, light aircraft
15. hot air balloons = balloons that use burners to create hot air that propels them
upwards
16. disguised himself as = made himself look like
17. a swan = a large white bird that lives on water
18. freezing cold = icy
19. That is ingenious (note: there is special emphasis on ‘is’ to emphasize the whole
phrase.)= That is very clever

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Level 5: Advanced Daily Audio Lessons

20. how come the wall was finally dismantled? (note: when we start a question with
‘How come...?’, we do not invert the order of the subject and verb.) = So, why
was the wall finally demolished?
21. dismantled = taken apart (phrasal verb) / knocked down (phrasal verb)
22. People Power = Power of ordinary people standing against (phrasal verb) a
government
23. I guess you’d call it = I believe that is what you would call it (more formal)
24. sweeping through (phrasal verb) = moving at speed across
25. The Poles = The people from Poland
26. rebelling against = rising up (phrasal verb) against
27. Communist rule = the rule of the Communist government
28. Glasnost = process of liberalization that President Gorbachev of the Soviet Union
started in the 1980s)
29. was taking place = was happening
30. the USSR = The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Russia before the collapse of
Communism)
31. rose up (phrasal verb) against their oppressors = rebelled against their
oppressors
32. literally started pulling the wall down (phrasal verb) = actually started to
demolish the wall
33. It marked the end of (idiom) = This was the moment that signaled the end of
34. a dark period of European history = a shameful part of European history
.
Audio file name: DailyStep-5_history-Berlin-002_US-05
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