X-MEN

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

• evolution
• triggered

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

Plot: Someday in the future, mutants are becoming a common part of the world population. A U.S. Senator wants to make sure that normal humans are safe from mutant powers. Magneto, a mutant, is angry at the Senator and he wants to make sure that all mutants are safe from humans. Magneto is planning to attack all the human leaders in the world. Dr. Charles Xavier, a mutant, wants to protect humans from Magneto. He creates a group of mutants called the X-MEN, who use their special powers to do good.
Clip: In this scene, Jean Grey, who is one of the X-MEN, is talking to the United States Senate. She is trying to explain what it’s like for mutants to live in the U.S.. Senator Kelly is telling her, and the rest of the Senate, why he thinks mutants are dangerous.  

Dialog

1. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Jean Grey: Ladies and gentlemen. We are now seeing the beginnings of a new stage of human evolution. These mutations manifest at puberty and are often triggered by periods of heightened emotional stress.
Senator Kelly: Thank you Miss Grey. It was quite educational. However, it fails to address the issue that is the focus of this hearing. Three words: are mutants dangerous?
Jean Grey: I’m afraid that’s an unfair question Senator Kelly. After all, the normal person behind the wheel of a car can be dangerous.
Senator Kelly: Well we do license people to drive.
Jean Grey: Yes, but not to live. Senator, it is a fact, that mutants who’ve come forward and revealed themselves publicly have been met with fear, hostility, even violence. It is because of that ever present hostility that I am urging the senate to vote against mutant registration. To force mutants to expose themselves will only further…
Senator Kelly: Expose themselves? What is it the mutant community has to hide I wonder that makes them so afraid to identify themselves?
Jean Grey: I didn’t say they were hiding.
Senator Kelly: Well let me show you what is being hidden. I have here, a list of names of identified mutants living right here in the United States.
Jean Grey: Senator Kelly…
Senator Kelly: I dare say a girl in Illinois who can walk through walls. Now what’s to stop her from walking into a bank vault, or into the White House? Or into their houses?
Jean Grey: Senator Kelly…
Senator Kelly: And there are even rumors, Miss Grey, of mutants so powerful that they can enter our minds and control our thoughts – taking away our God given free will. I think the American people deserve the right to decide whether they want their children to be in school with mutants. And taught by mutants. Ladies and gentlemen the truth is that mutants are very real and they are among us. We must know who they are, and above all, we must know what they can do!

 

Lesson MP3

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