folk songs                     

    

a new 'book'

The publishing firm Mackay and Hertz have decided to commission a new “book” for schools on European history.  The “book” is of course not going to be actually printed – it is going to be published on the web.  They are looking for authors; young authors.  
The book’s concept is to combine accounts of events with short background articles.

 

 

you want to write it

Your group has decided to apply for the job – and as part of your application you are going to enclose a sample of your work – a background article on the first world war and an account of one aspect of the war - for example the battle of the Somme.

 

 

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It had been raining for three weeks, drizzling, then surging into a steady downpour, then lifting for an hour or so until the clouds came in again over the low horizon of Flanders in its winter light. The men's coats were saturated, each fibre of wool gorged on water, and their weight added twenty pounds to what they carried. They had marched up from their billets into the rear area and already the skin on their backs was rubbed raw by the movement of the webbing beneath the load. Repetitive marching songs and chants had brought them to the support lines, but then as darkness fell they saw it was another three miles to the front. Slowly the songs and conversations died as each one concentrated on lifting his feet from the mud that began to suck at them. Their worlds narrowed to the soaked back of the man in front.

surge: stige
downpour: tung regn
saturated: gennemvædet
gorged: mættet
billets: indkvartering
raw: (her) hudløs
webbing: remtøj (af gjord)
Repetitive: fuld af gentagelser
support lines: støttelinier (linier = skyttegrave)
narrowed: skrumpede ind
soaked: gennemvåd

 

 

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