Listening exercise
National Public Radio: Weekend Edition
A Teen-Aged Marine Falls in Iraq
by Sarah Richards
Sunday, March 6, 2005
Listen: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4524476

Vocabulary:
lance corporal (Lance Cpl.): rank/grade
between private first class and corporal
in the US Marines
Chad Clifton
Delaware
generation
early on
to remain
Marines
Terry
Richard
Milford
rolling fields
farmland
to stretch into the distance
paintings
wildlife
to pressure s.o. into
to follow a particular path
to be born a G.I. Joe
G.I.: Government Issue; a common solider
 M.A.S.H. Mobile Army Surgical Hospital
to climb in
lap
ROTC
paintball
Splat Zone (in Milford)
to debate
Internet café
Aaron Moore
all times of the night
politics
religion
pretty much anything
to see how far
to be willing to take s.t.
Susan Frederick
Cape Henlopen High School
to be slightly built
neck
to be concerned about
to leave for

hellhole
to be stationed in
Ramadi
to hold up
to have no concept of ("for")
to go through
Vietnam
to see action
to have an effect on
to suffer a heart attack
to react to
to feel numbed from
mortar
to conclude
to walk the streets
to do one's time
since
to be buried
for one's heart to be in s.t.
Valentine's Day
Arlington National Cemetery


Listening comprehension questions:
1. What were some of the early signs that Clifton would end up enlisting in the military?
2. How does Clifton's friend Aaron Moore describe him?
3. How does Clifton's former high school teacher Susan Frederick describe Clifton?
4. What does the "19 inches" that Frederick mentions refer to, and why did she mention it?
5. Based on their tone of voice and what they say, how do Clifton's parents seem to have taken (reacted to) the death of their son?
6. How did Clifton react to news that his grandfather had suffered a heart attack?
7. How did Clifton die?
8. How did some people try to comfort Clifton's mother, and how did she respond?
9. In what cemetery in what state was Clifton buried, and where did he ask not to be buried?
10. What message do you think the reporter was trying to get across in this feature?

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