Name:

Class:

Important dates to remember:

• Week 5 (week of October 10th): presenting a (real) historical leader (to a small group)
• Week 7 (week of October 24th) mock written CLES exam
• Week 10 (week of November 21st): presenting a criticism of your society (to a small group) – cf.
Nationstates.com
• Weeks 12-13 (week of December 5th), the final group oral presentations will take place, presenting your
ideal society (to the class)

Theme 1: When the Clocks Stopped

1) How humans have reacted to pandemics through history (Lydia McMullan, Garry Blight, Pablo
Gutiérrez and Cath Levett, The Guardian, 29 April 2020)

From arguments about masks to riots outside hospitals, history shows some common threads in the human
response to pandemics.

5 Circa 541 to mid-8th century: The plague of Justinian

The Justinianic plague began in 541 and returned periodically until the middle of the eighth century. It is
estimated to have wiped out as many as tens of millions of people, although due to the limited evidence it is
difficult to know the true scale. The disease was caused by a bacterium called Yersinia pestis, which is passed
on by fleas (puces) and rodents (rongeurs). It is understood to have spread across central Asia, Europe and the
10 Mediterranean. Populations at the time are thought to have largely believed the plague was an act of God.
Prof JN Hays refers to an example of widespread breaking of pottery in Syria in the 7th century: “There was a
deliberate smashing of pots. This may be an illustration of a population experiencing traumatic shock. It might
have been done in panic but also might have been done to somehow disturb and clear the atmosphere.”

15 Mid-14th century: The Black Death

The Black Death spread across Europe, the Middle East and northern Africa in the mid-14th century, wiping
out almost half the population. The pandemic was caused by the same lethal bacterium that caused the
Justinianic plague, which was able to spread across trade routes, reaching Europe via the trading centre of
Italy in 1347.
20 Contemporary understandings of the Black Death drew on ideas of sin and apocalypse, acts of God and
alignments of the planets. Many people turned to prayer. Prof Adrian Bell says Catholic priests formed a
frontline in Europe. “In the 14th century there was a big demand for priests. Everyone who was dying had to
be given the last rites, which meant the death toll among priests was huge.”
There is also evidence that people tried to make sense of the devastation by scapegoating outsiders. In
25 England there were violent attacks on Flemish merchants, as people tried to deal with the unexplainable.

Early 19th century: The cholera pandemic

Originating in India, the cholera pandemic first reached Europe in 1831, via military and trade routes, killing
32,000 in Britain alone. It remains a widespread and deadly disease today in places where people do not have
30 access to sufficient sanitation and clean water.
Mortality from cholera was high and people died soon after being infected. Makeshift hospitals were set up in
most major cities but there was resistance to this state intervention: riots broke out and doctors were
attacked. People were suspicious of medics, who they had to pay for treatment, and afraid of their bodies
being dissected.
35 Corpse-related horror stories also added to a climate of fear, and people didn’t trust the doctors nor the
government. On top of this, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was a popular novel at the time, leading to a lot of
gothic imagery around bodies and corpses. A lack of knowledge about the disease may have exacerbated the
frantic atmosphere, hence the fear and the riots.

40 1918 – 1919: The Spanish flu

Between 20 million and 50 million people were recorded to have died during the Spanish flu, the most
devastating influenza pandemic of the past century. For Prof. Gainty, one of the most striking comparisons is
 the public health response: “During the Spanish flu pandemic, they quarantined. They erected emergency
hospitals. They had arguments about the usefulness of masks. Amid all of the remarkable progress we’ve seen
45 in other areas of health, our public health response is largely unchanged.”

1981 - present day: HIV/AIDS

The HIV/Aids pandemic began in the early 1980s and has so far resulted in the deaths of over 32 million
people.
50 Prof. Gainty suggests the ongoing HIV/Aids pandemic illustrates how political the designation of a pandemic
can be. “HIV/Aids is not really on our pandemic radar. Initially, this invisibility was the result of the well-known
prejudices that crept in very early on regarding who contracted – and how they contracted – HIV/Aids. Today
it results from the fact that HIV/Aids follows pre-existing lines of inequality. In addition to acknowledging its
victims as equal to those of any other pandemic, understanding HIV/Aids as a pandemic helps us confront our
55 own health biases, something that the current coronavirus may or may not accomplish.”

2020: Coronavirus
There have been 217,000 recorded deaths and more than 3 million confirmed cases of coronavirus since
January 20201. Prof. Gainty says that in comparison with historical pandemics, one of the most striking things
60 to emerge so far is how little states did to prepare for it, despite watching it develop in China for months: “In
the past there wasn't the same kind or speed of communication about the movement of disease. It is not
difficult to understand that in 1918 news about disease travelled more slowly and that responses were
consequently slower. It’s harder to forgive unpreparedness, though, today. It begs the critical question: if it
wasn’t more information that was needed to manage this crisis, what was it?”
65
Please find in the text the English expressions translating:
• une maladie : • une ligne de front : 75 • de fortune :
• une échelle (de grandeur) : • des émeutes : • effréné :
• éradiquer : • cibler comme bouc émissaire : • un manque de préparation :
70 • des routes marchandes : • répandu :

2) The first 72 hours

Fill in the following text about nuclear fallout with the appropriate vocabulary:
One of the ____________ myths about nuclear fallout is that it would _____________ destroy the earth and
everyone in it. However this myth can be _______________.
____________, to survive nuclear fallout, you _____________ flee. __________ this goes against our natural
instinct, the amount of lethal fallout in the air ____________ in the immediate _____________ of a nuclear
detonation.______________ , nuclear fallout declines rapidly (although lower amounts _________ for ages).
_______________ , if you seek shelter, you could avoid much of the lethal fallout and stay safe.
__________________ , shelter and time are the most ______________ protection to surviving a nuclear
attack. As a_______________ , fallout radiation degrades quickly. ____________ it will be around for years, it
won’t be so intense. The most ____________ threat is during the first 3 days. After two weeks, it will have
declined to ________________ 1% of its initial radiation level.
> approximately - ought not - indeed - acute - effectively – nevertheless – to peak – aftermath – to linger - by
contrast - while - underlying - efficient - in fact - debunked - rule of thumb - although

3) The 72-hour survival kit

Matches Sturdy shoes Emergency Pet food and extra Seeds and earth
heating water for your pet
Change of clothes First aid kit Perishable food Alcohol Paper cups, plates, paper
towels and plastic utensils
Radiation detector Prescription Mirror Cell phone Cash or traveler's checks
medications
Three-day supply of Fire Bottled water Infant formula, Jewelry
non-perishable food extinguisher bottles, diapers,
wipes and diaper
1
As of September 2022, there have been over 650 million confirmed cases and 6,5 million deaths due to Covid-19.
 rash cream
Knife Plastic Lock-pick kit Battery-powered or Non-prescription
sheeting and hand crank radio medications
duct tape
Sleeping bag or Whistle Shovel Coffee Family photos
warm blanket
Prescription Potassium Extra batteries Dust mask, Hazmat Entertainment (cards, pen
eyeglasses and iodide suit (surgical suit) and paper, board games,
contact lens solution and gloves books)
Battery-powered or Sealable bags Soap and scrub Prescription Wifi codes
hand crank flashlight eyeglasses and
contact lens solution
Important family Cigarettes Local maps Morphine Feminine supplies and
identification personal hygiene items
documents

Theme 3: Culture and Education

The Star-Spangled Banner

O say can you see, by the _______ early light,
What so _________ we hail’d [acclamer] at the twilight’s [crépuscule] last gleaming [lumière étincellante],
Whose ______ stripes and _______ stars through the perilous ______
O’er the ramparts we watch’d were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the _______ bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our ______ was still there,
O say does that star-spangled [orné d’étoiles] banner yet wave
O’er the land of the ______ and the _______ of the brave?

Theme 4: Science and technology

Tech-celeration
5 Peter Wallace, the Philippine Daily Inquirer, February 18, 2021

The year 2025 or even 2030 is here today. COVID-19 has accelerated into months what was expected to take
years — the movement toward digitizing government, businesses, and societies. The introduction and
acceptance of new technology have accelerated beyond expectations: The Economist calls it “Tech-celeration.”
10 […]

In a mere 14 years, smartphones have revolutionized the way we work, play, and live. We don’t talk to each
other anymore, we text. Recent data show that we have vaulted five years forward in consumer and business
digital adoption in only eight weeks. We are moving rapidly into a world that will be dominated by IT and
communications, one that COVID-19 has accelerated. It has brought with it vast opportunities. The world’s
15 largest companies are IT-related, yet they didn’t exist 20 years ago. It’s also brought with it considerable
problems, notably cyber security. Protecting what we do, and ourselves, from intrusion is becoming an ever-
increasing problem […].

Only two companies can produce the next generation of chips—Samsung and TSMC of Taiwan. Yet almost
20 everything we use today has a chip in it. The simple ON/OFF switch has been consigned to history. We are now
moving to where everything will be voice-activated. Stare at the fridge and command “open” and the fridge will
open, while a dulcet voice (female, of course) will tell you what foods are running short, and request permission
to order from the online supermarket. In the more advanced houses, you won’t even put that delivered milk in
the fridge; your maid robot will from the drone that delivered it. Yesterday’s science fiction is today’s fact.
25
Online shopping in America has seen 10 years’ growth in 3 months. The growth in online shopping has been
dramatic. […] Transactions have increased by more than 160%. The central bank expects these figures to
continue to grow rapidly over the next few years as people shop from the comfort of their homes and e-
commerce platforms further expand.
30
 Banks have seen their share of cashless transactions jump to levels they had expected to see in five years’ time.
The use of checks will soon disappear, and cash will follow. The physical handling of money will be no more.
Bank robbers will have to learn to hack, not drive fast cars.

Doctors are switching to remote video consultations […], and that will improve dramatically as gadgets that can
35 measure your vitals become ever more prevalent, comprehensive, and affordable for personal use.

Students are learning from a tablet. People are working from home (WFH)—successfully. Most of this is
permanent change, but there will be some softening once the pandemic is over. Schools will welcome children
back, as physical mixing and learning to interact with each other is an essential part of a young mind, and body,
integrating into society. But the online component will now remain part of the learning process. Workers will
40 go back to the office for the camaraderie they miss working from home, but it will be a flexible mixture of
office and WFH arrangements.

It will be a hybrid future that will mix remote and in-person working and living. There is no going back to the
past that existed before COVID-19. We are moving into a very different future. Tech-celeration, another new
word in our changing vocabulary, has been added to explain it all. The virtual revolution began in 2020.

Technological advances

Artificial Online E-cigarettes E-readers

3D printing GPS Hybrid cars
organs streaming
Robotic International Electric battery Compass
Nuclear atom Cloning Mobile phones
exoskeletons Space Station
Digital Augmented Steam engine
assistants Computers Electric bulb Clock Fridge reality
(Alexa, Siri...)
Instant Vaccines
Pasteurization Gene editing Internet Wheel Gun powder
messaging
Touchscreen Steel Fire
Birth control Photoshop Netflix Drones
glass

Theme 5: Economy and social structure

Taxes

– defense – childcare – science and research

– healthcare – security – public transport
– interest payments (of – contribution to a – national celebrations
the national debt) union of nations (ex. the – foreign aid
– income security EU) – climate-related
(retirement and disability – government catastrophes
benefits*, job training** administration – safety net (for hard
programs, unemployment – culture times, such as Coronavirus)
benefits, etc.) – criminal justice – others...
– social housing – war veteran benefits
– public maintenance – education *benefits: allocations
(parks, public lighting, – sustainable ** job training: formation
public buildings, streets, development programs professionnelle
etc.) – social security