Zadanie 0. Wydrukuj plik PDF, który znajdziesz pod tym linkiem, lub kontynuuj on-line.

Pobierz plik z darmową lekcją w PDF: Bruce Dickinson – Tears Of The Dragon (1994)

Zadanie 1. Wysłuchaj piosenki z youtube jednocześnie czytając tekst. O czym mówią słowa?

For too long now, there were ______________ in my mind

For too long now, there were _______________  I should have said

In the ____________…I was ______________ for the door

To find a _______________ – to find the time, the place, the hour

Waiting for the ______________ sun, and the cold ______________ of day

The misty ghosts of _________________  fears

The ______________ is building, and I can’t stay away

CHORUS: I _____________  myself into the sea

                Release the _______________, let it_______________ over me

                To face the _______________ I once believed

                The tears of the __________________, for you and for me

Where I was, I had ______________ that couldn’t fly

Where I was, I had tears I couldn’t ___________________

My emotions _________________  in an icy lake

I couldn’t feel them until the ____________ began to break

I have no _____________ over this, you know I’m ______________

The __________________ I built are crumbling

The ________________ is moving, I’m slipping away…

Zadanie 2. Uzupełnij luki w piosence słowami poniżej.

ice, pressure, power, reason, fear, water, secrets, dragon, winter, frozen, darkness, wings, childhood, stumbling, throw, wave, cry, walls, things, light, wash, afraid

Zadanie 3. Przeczytaj komentarze. Czy zgadzasz się z nimi?

• Bruce himself about this song: “This is a song that I wrote when I left Iron Maiden, and it’s about fear, it’s about doubt, and it’s about trying to conquer the bullshit that’s in your life.
• It’s about “smashing through” a sad or difficult situation in order to be able to move on with your life. The thing about the dragon tears refers to the intensity of the negative situation that is to be overcome; in the sense that if it can make a dragon cry, it must be pretty bad.
• This is a song about uh, about being shit scared of change, the unknown, all that stuff
• I seem to recall that this is about a guy who’s trying to get over the past so he can go on with the future. I get butterflies in my stomach whenever I listen to this song.
• It was very close after leaving Maiden for the meanings not to be looked for. I guess he felt he had to get a lot off his chest which was clearly a success now that he’s back in the best metal band ever where he belongs
• I am a member of A. , a 12 step program. When this song was released I was going through my 4th step (which is about making a list of all things that were bad and good in my life). This song means to me giving up my addictions, facing my fears and embracing a new way to live, (being cleansed by the tears of the dragon as they wash over me). Thank You Bruce for creating something that expresses what I went through at a pivotal time in my life!!
• Unbelievable mumbo jumbo.. yeah right, sure it’s a song about how he felt when he left maiden, blah, and hell yeah these are tears of man (LOL), he mentions dragon as for a symbol not for a nonsense replacement for a man…

Zadanie 4. Uzupełnij definicje słowami, które są wyróżnione (na grubo). Słowa mogą być w tekście piosenki, lub w komentarzach.

1. ________________________ nonsense, gibberish, rubbish
2. _______________________________ stupid or untrue talk or writing; nonsense.
3._________________ the front surface of a person’s body between the neck and the stomach.
4.____________________ Cocaine Anonymous World Services A Guide to the 12 Steps
5. __________________ of crucial importance in relation to the development or success 6.____________________ a person or thing that takes the place of another.
7.__________________ take control of (a place or people) by military force.
8. ________________________ succeed in dealing with (a problem or difficulty)
9. ______________ ____________to break [one’s way] through some sort of barrier.
10.__________________ strength, power, powerfulness, potency, vigour, force
11. ____________ ___________ extremely frightened, (with) your heart in your mouth
12. ________________ an idiomatic expression that means you are anxious and have a nervous feeling in your _________. Here’s an example: I used to get __________ before school tests.
13. _______________ bring (a fact, event, or situation) back into one’s mind; remember.
14. ______________________________ allow or enable to escape from confinement; set free.
15. ______________________________ hazy, foggy, cloudy
16.___________________________ depart without saying goodbye; leave quietly; slowly disappear; die peacefully (used euphemistically).
17. ________________ breaking or falling apart into small fragments, as part of a deterioration
18. _________________ tripping or losing balance while walking; moving with difficulty.
19. _________________ exceptional, unique, singular, rare, unprecedented
20. ______________ _________________ beneficial qualities; the capacity for recovery.

Zadanie 5. Posłuchaj piosenki jeszcze raz zastanawiając się: o czym ona jest? Możesz teraz zauważyć, na ile twoje pierwsze wrażenie po odsłuchaniu piosenki były słuszne.

Zadanie 6. Chcesz wiedzieć więcej?

Tigers usually symbolize strength and power. In mythology, dragon/tiger tears have unparallelled healing powers, so it refers to being healed of the hurt suffered.

DISCUSSION: Do you agree with this statement: Society generally discourages people from crying, but sadness, which is different from weakness, is ok to feel.

Bruce Dickinson: Why I Left Iron Maiden in 1993

• “When I left Maiden, I was pretty hard on I said, ‘This whole setup is a limitation. It’s a lovely golden cage that’s comfortable and earns loads of money and I could go on recycling our identity, but I don’t want to do that. The only way I’m gonna find out what’s beyond and grow as a singer is to do something different. And the only way I’m gonna get taken seriously, is to leave.’
• “I realized when you’re in Iron Maiden, everyone blows smoke up your ass. In the ’80s, when you’re in a big band, you have publicists and all kinds of people to protect you.
• “As soon as you leave the bubble, everybody goes, ‘You know, I always just wanted to kick that guy in the nuts!’ It’s open season! That’s what happened to me. It was a shock.
• “But, at the same time, I was like, ‘Well, this is why you did it.’ You step outside the box to find out what’s outside the box. You just have to take it on the chin and go, ‘Move on. This is evolution. This is Darwinism. It is survival of the fittest and if you can’t evolve into something that has a useful function, slink away and die.'”
• The singer added: “You basically throw yourself to the universe and say, ‘Okay, should I really exist as a singer? Is there anything useful I’m bringing to the world by being in a heavy metal band other than nostalgia?’
• “Because if that’s all it is, maybe I should just take that person and quietly strangle him and go do something more useful instead.
• “If you want to be an artist, you can’t be resting on your laurels. You’ve got to be out there doing something different.
• “I didn’t know what to do, which is why I left. I think people assumed when I left that I had a plan. Nope. No plan. Which I think the guys in the band found really hard to understand.
• Explaining how he feared at the time that Maiden would fall into irrelevance, Bruce added: “Plowing the same furrow would maybe be the term. The audience would probably be happy with that, although it would slowly diminish.
• “The band would become less relevant and gradually turn into a blob with the rest of the metal community. That’s not what I wanted.
• “I learned so much when I was out of the band. I was a way better singer when I came back to Maiden [in 1999] than when I left.
• “Consequently, the album we did when I came back, [2000’s] ‘Brave New World,’ I think is one of our classic records of all time. That was because all the energy was back. Everything in the band changed at that point.
• “Before I’d left, there’d always been these little power struggles. When I came back, it was much more honest. People always say, ‘Maiden is like a family,’ like a family is a good thing.
• “But families aren’t necessarily good things. A happy family is a great thing, but families are just random events that happen. That organisms pop out of the same hole, that’s no reason why they should like each other, in truth.
• “All this ‘Blood is thicker than water’ … sorry guys, if your brother is an asshole, he’s an asshole!”
• Bruce concluded: “We’re probably more friends now than we ever have been. We’re a band of brothers born out of the same mother, which is Iron Maiden. The mother ship gave birth to our relationship. We all accept that now.
• “My loyalty is not to Steve, Adrian, or Janick. It’s to Iron Maiden and on that basis we have a great relationship. It means that we forgive each other, all of our little trespasses, if you want to use the Lord’s Prayer.
• “I think it’s the same for everybody in the band, like, ‘Nu uh, it’s about Maiden, stupid.'”

1. __________________ harsh punishment (or remedy) for acting foolishly or malevolently
2._______________________ to be satisfied with your achievements and not to make an effort to do anything else
3________________________ the action or process of converting waste into reusable material.
4._________________________ a place where someone appears to live in luxury but where he or she has very little freedom.
5._____________________ decrease, decline, reduce, lessen, shrink, contract
6.__________________ the way in which something, especially an organization or equipment, is organized, planned, or arranged.
7.__________________ as a result.
8.___________________ one person is complimenting another, insincerely most of the time, in order to inflate the ego of the individual being flattered.
9.________________ to live in an isolated environment, usually of your own choice but then to decide to leave it
10.____________________ accept misfortune courageously or stoically.
11.________________ squeeze or constrict the neck of (a person or animal), especially so as to cause death.
12._______________ to do the same thing someone else does (eg. your parent)
13. __________________ an indeterminate roundish mass or shape; an object, especially a large one, having no distinct shape or definition; a dull, slow-witted, and uninteresting person.
14. ______________ a situation in which two or more people or groups compete for control in a particular sphere.
15._______________ a large spacecraft or ship from which smaller craft are launched or maintained.
16.____________________ enter someone’s land or property without permission; commit an offence against (a person or a set of rules).
17.____________________ made, done, or happening without method or conscious decision.
18._______________________ PROVERB: family relationships and loyalties are the strongest and most important ones.
19. __________________ a limiting rule or circumstance; a restriction.
20.___________________ the prayer taught by Christ to his disciples, beginning ‘Our Father’.
21. _______________ Not true. Not at all; it’s not happening.
22. _______________ Depart furtively (=in a way that attempts to avoid notice or attention; secretively.); behave so as to escape attention