"Animal Farm" and Satire

T-Chart: Differences Between the Book and the Play

As you listen, please add notes in the two columns.

Language Identification

Listen closely and check off each phrase as you hear it.

• the vice president who's been described as brilliant but bland
• for the first time got a look at a pig named Napoleon
• a stage adaptation of George Orwell's classic Animal Farm
• rise up against their dictatorial farmer
• the pigs who lead it become dictators themselves
• a Western observer can't help drawing the historical parallels
• the play shouldn't be seen as a political statement
• The essence of the play is about all elements of human society
• Older people like me, I recognized a lot of that from my own life
• not the communist state that George Orwell wrote about
• their focus now on getting a good job and getting rich
• seeing no more than a rather bizarre herd of dancing pigs

Vocabulary Fill in the Blank

As you listen to the story, fill in the blank in each sentence below with the word or phrase that fits best.

• Of all the of a massive communist nation in transition, there can be few as delicious as yesterday's.
• Orwell's tale, written in 1945, follows a group of animals who rise up against their farmer and take over the farm where they live.
• As the animals swirl and dip in celebration of their victory over the wicked Farmer Jones, a Western observer can't help drawing the historical .
• The fact that it's relatively unknown could be one reason the director received a to put it on.
• This is not the state that George Orwell wrote about.