Spies and double agents

PROJECT
2
Spies and double agents
LOGPAGE
Note down your findings throughout Project 2 here.
Spy fiction: written accounts
Characters
(name, nationality)
Topic of conversation
“Don’t deny me the children”
(textbook p. 34)
Missing
(textbook p. 36)
My project
(textbook p. 39)
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Initial situation and characters’ wishes and feelings
Final situation and characters’ states of mind and feelings
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SPY ID CARDS
1. Note down your findings about the spies you came across here.
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2. Use the information about Aldrich Ames to write a short biography (Activity 5, textbook p. 33).
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LANGUAGE SKILLS
Textbook pp. 40-41
WORDS
A
Track
n° 7
Pronunciation of age Here are some words you have seen or perhaps used in your project.
hostage − marriage − image − manage − passage − courage − savage − message
BUT agent − espionage
a. Discuss with your classmates how you would pronounce them. Now listen and check.
b. Try and find other words you know which also end in age .
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c. Try and make a rule about words ending in age .
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d. What about the word “agent”? Explain why it is different.
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NB: “Espionage” like many other English words is of French origin. However “espionage” has
retained its French pronunciation like “massage”.
B
Describing someone’s personality
1. Read the following description of a spy.
Watching him, Miss Brimley wondered what impression Smiley made
on those who did not know him well. She used to think of him as the
most forgettable man she had ever met; short and plump, with heavy
spectacles and thinning hair, he was at first sight the very prototype of
an unsuccessful middle-aged bachelor in a sedentary occupation. His
natural diffidence in most practical matters was reflected in his clothes,
which were costly and unsuitable.
John Le Carré, A Murder of Quality (1962)
a. Highlight in one colour elements referring to Smiley’s physical appearance.
b. Use another colour to highlight what impression his physical appearance made on Miss
Brimley.
2. Read the text on the next page, then write a portrait of the character in your own words.
Imagine what she may have looked like, the clothes she usually wore, her social life, beliefs and
convictions, etc. (80 to 100 words).
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Mary’s Englishness […] was unmistakable. […] Mary’s life was a record of
fine deaths. Her grandfather had died at Passchendaele 1, her one brother,
Sam, more recently in Belfast, and for a month or more it had seemed to
Mary that the bomb that had blown Sam’s jeep to pieces had killed her soul
too, but it was her father, not Mary, who had died of a broken heart. All of
her men had been soldiers. Between them they had left her with a decent
inheritance and a fiercely patriotic soul […]. Mary was ambitious as well as
intelligent […]. But the rules of her life had been laid down for her […]: in
Mary’s family the men campaigned while the women lent succour, mourned
and carried on.
John le Carré, A Perfect Spy (1986)
1. one of the major battles of the First World War
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C
Speech tags
a. Read the following dialogues.
Dialogue 1
“Is that true?” he asked.
“Sorry, that’s the boss’s decision,” his
girlfriend answered.
“But why didn’t he tell me this morning?!
When did he tell you? Why did he tell you
first?” he replied.
Dialogue 3
“Is that true?” he replied angrily.
“Sorry, that’s the boss’s decision,” his girlfriend
explained in a pacifying tone.
“But why didn’t he tell me this morning?
When did he tell you? Why did he tell you
first?” he exclaimed, thumping his fist on
the table.
Dialogue 2
“Is that true?” he murmured.
“Sorry, that’s the boss’s decision,” his girlfriend confessed.
“But why didn’t he tell me this morning?
When did he tell you? Why did he tell you
first?” he moaned.
Dialogue 4
“Is that true?”
“Sorry, that’s the boss’s decision”
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“I am truly sorry…, I...”
“But why didn’t he tell me this morning? When
did he tell you? Why did he tell you first?”
b. Say what information is given in dialogues 1 and 2.
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2. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
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c. Compare dialogues 2 and 3 and say how their meanings differ.
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d. Say what the line of silence adds to your understanding of the situation and the characters
in dialogue 4.
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e. Read either dialogue 3 or 4 again and say what you can infer and understand about the situation
and the characters.
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f. Now write two new versions of the same dialogue using different speech tags to change the
states of the characters’ minds. Use the “Strategies” in your textbook (p. 38) to help.
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D
Word bank
This exercise on three of the key words of this chapter will help you to learn more about many other words that are
linked to them.
expose
deception
bold
disclosure and
uncovering
untruth and duplicity
personality trait: brave
and daring
verb
noun
adjective
Example(s) of sentences
with the word
Lexical field it is
related to
Part of speech
Definition
Don’t forget!
Pronunciation
Words with a similar
meaning (synonyms)
Words with an opposite
meaning (antonyms)
Words derived from it
(+ part of speech and
definition)
bowled: from “bowl”
= to throw a ball or bowl
Don't confuse!
(homophones,
homographs…)
Collocations
Proverbs, sayings,
idiomatic expressions
“War is based on
deception.” Sun Tzu
(Chinese general, born
500 BC)
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WRITING
7
Texbook p. 41
Present perfect and preterit
Use the following notes to write a short biography of John le Carré (around 100 words).
John le Carré is a British author of spy novels.
Professional life
1948-1949: German Studies at the University of Berne
1950:
Agent in British Army’s Intelligence Services in Austria
1952:
Agent for MI5 while student at Oxford University
1958:
Full-time MI5 official
1960:
Transferred to MI6, the foreign-intelligence service,
working under
the diplomatic cover of “Second Secretary”
1964:
Leaves MI6 to become full-time writer; moves to Cornwall,
England
Private life
1931:
Born in Poole, Dorset, England
1936 :
His mother left home
1952 :
Reacquainted with his mother
1954:
Married Alison Ann Veronica Sharp, three sons
1971:
Divorce
1972:
Married Valérie Jane Eustace, one son
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10 Focus on language: tags
1. You may have said the following sentences when studying the texts in this chapter:
1. Melita Norwood was a KGB agent.
2. Kim Philby is described as a perfect spy.
3. Fiona can’t go to England to see her children.
a. Now read the following sentences:
4. Melita Norwood was a KGB agent, wasn’t she?
5. Kim Philby is described as a perfect spy, isn’t he?
6. Fiona can’t go to England to see her children, can she?
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b. Say how sentences 1, 2 and 3 differ from sentences 4, 5 and 6. What has been added and how
does this change the sentences’ meaning?
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c. Underline the verbal forms. What similarities and differences can you observe?
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2. Remember the following sentence from “Missing” (Textbook, pp. 36-37).
“Well, well,” said Brotherhood at last. “That would make you feel better, would it?” (l. 56-57)
a. Recall in what circumstances this sentence is said and what its meaning is.
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b. Underline the verbal forms. Comment on them. Say how this sentence differs from sentences
1, 2 and 3.
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3. Imagine the situation when the following sentences could be said and explain their
meanings.
This double agent never wanted money, did he?
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You think working for MI6 is easy, do you?
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4. Summarise what you can now say about question tags.
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PRACTICALS
Textbook pp. 30-31; 34
Above all suspicion… Textbook pp. 30-31
a. Underline the main dates, figures and proper nouns in the text below and say what they refer
to. Use this information, and the information given in the timeline on the page opposite, to write
a chronology of Melita Norwood’s life.
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Birth of
M. Norwood
Recommended
to NKVD
Death of
M. Norwood
1912
1935
2005
b. Use different colours to highlight elements
referring to:
– Melita Norwood’s public image before her
unmasking;
Colour 1
– Melita Norwood’s secret life (what she did
and why…). Colour 2
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“Don’t deny me the children” Textbook p. 34
Highlight in two different colours:
– Fiona’s main wish and her arguments;
Colour 1
– Bernard’s position and his arguments.
Colour 2
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DEBRIEFING
1
Before working on Your Project, fill in chart 1 and compare what
you have learnt with what your classmates have learnt.
Fill in chart 2 after working on Your Project.
What I have done
In Steps 1 and 2…
Activities & documents
I have read information
on spies from different
sources.
I have watched a
documentary on a
double agent.
I have expressed
personal opinions and
reactions to what I
have seen and read.
I have acted out a
dialogue.
I have written
character portraits and
short biographies.
I have written
dialogues, using speech
tags and punctuation
appropriately.
2
Where I stand
When I worked on the final project,
I was able to:
With a lot of help
With a little help
With no help
f
ä
write a dialogue in spoken English.
make the context clear in a few introductory lines.
describe the characters’ thoughts, gestures and
feelings.
provide the cultural and historical background.
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3
What I need to work on
1. Listen to “That secret life”
Track
n° 10
– an interview with a former MI6 agent and a young woman
who applied to work for the SIS – and follow your teacher’s instructions.
2. Making the context clear in a few introductory lines
a. Read the following dialogues.
“But where is Robert Fenton? I must speak to him. It is very urgent.”
“Mr Robert Fenton is absent.”
“Please, sir, you must be very kind and help me,” she said as if there
were no choice.
“A Soviet friend of mine has written an important work of literature. Its
message is important for all mankind.”
“Lady,” said O’Keeffe kindly, “if we publish your friend’s novel, you can
be assured of total secrecy.”
“Then, Mr O’Keeffe, if you love peace, take this manuscript with you
back to England and give it immediately to Mr Robert Fenton. Only to
Mr Robert Fenton.”
“My father is German… My mother is English…,” she added after a long
pause.
“Married?”
“My husband died ten years ago. His name was Smith.”
“Where do you teach?”
“I was a supply teacher in London, but for the last few months I’ve been
virtually unemployed.”
“You know what was in the envelope you collected from the car
tonight?”
“I won’t waste your time with excuses. I know it contained secrets of
some description.”
b. For each dialogue, write a few introductory lines to make the context clear.
Dialogue 1:
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Dialogue 2:
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3. Creating a dialogue and using punctuation and speech tags appropriately
But wh
y now?
o
Leave n
Is that true?
hind…
one be
Yes, I have to make sure there are no leaks this time.
Sorry, that’s the boss’s decision.
Do you mean you want to get rid of me?
I’m just an innocent old man.
Yes.
Are you here on a mission?
Sorry.
I’ve been living here for such a long time.
o
What d
n?
a
you me
Use the elements above to write a dialogue with the following introductory lines. (Make sure
you add quotation marks and appropriate speech tags to indicate the characters’ feelings and
thoughts.)
The scene takes place in Moscow in the early 80s. An unidentified man is visiting a former MI6 agent
who has been living in exile in Russia since his unmasking as a Soviet mole in the late 60s.
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4. Writing a dialogue
a. Read this extract from Robert Littell’s The Company: A Novel of the CIA.
“So when did you start to betray your country, Leo?”
“I never betrayed my country, I fought for a better world, a better planet.
My allegiance to the Soviet Union goes all the way back to Yale. Yevgeny
wasn’t a KGB agent when he roomed with us but he told his father, who
was a KGB agent, about me: about how my family had been ruined by
the depression and my father had jumped to his death from the Brooklyn
Bridge; about how I had inherited from my father the […] belief that what
you own was stolen from those who don’t have enough.”
“Then what?”
“Yevgeny’s father alerted the New York rezident, who sent an American
communist named Stella Bledsoe to recruit me.”
“Your girlfriend Stella!”
Robert Littell, The Company: A Novel of the CIA (2002)
b. Imagine a continuation to this text based on what you have understood of it and what more
you would like to know (80-100 words).
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5. Acting out a dialogue
a. Read the following dialogue between two MI6 agents. Make sure you understand it.
– Is it true that a Minox camera was found on Jones’s desk?
– I am afraid it is, yes.
– What does he say about it?
– He says it is his wife’s camera; that she left it on his desk by
mistake...
– Does he really expect us to believe such a blatant lie?
– I suppose he does. Rumor has it the boss believes him.
– That can’t be true. « M » would never be fooled so easily…
b. Decide on the two agents’ feelings. Identify and explain them, then underline the words they
will stress in order to express those feelings.
Examples:
“Is it true that a Minox camera was found on Jones’s desk?”
disbelief/doubt: cannot believe Jones is a double agent
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“Is it true that a Minox camera was found on Jones’s desk?”
disbelief/surprise: does not understand what is happening
“Is it true that a Minox camera was found on Jones’s desk?”
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“I am afraid it is, yes.”
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“What does he say about it?”
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“He says it is his wife’s camera; that she left it on his desk by mistake...”
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“Does he really expect us to believe such a blatant lie?”
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“I suppose he does. Rumor has it the boss believes him.”
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“That can’t be true. « M » would never be fooled so easily…”
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c. Act out the dialogue.
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