(10th Gr) Date: ________________________________

(10^th Gr) Date: _________________________________

Cross Cultural Understanding Project: Japan – Israel

A Work page – Siren

(p.57 – line 2, p.58)

A. Setting of the story

Place: _________________________________

Time: _________________________________

Main Characters: ____________________________ Age: _______________

B. Describe each main character in one sentence.

The narrator: _______________________________________________________

__________: _______________________________________________________

C. What do you know about Holocaust Remembrance Day? Write a short paragraph in which

you explain what is done in order to commemorate the Holocaust in Israel.

_______________________________________________________________________

D. Read p. 57 again and try to imagine you are reading it together with someone who has never

been to Israel. What do you think you'll have to explain to him / her? Why?

____________________________________________________________________________

E. Working on vocabulary

a) Find a similar word in the text

1. meeting, gathering - __________________ 5. main passage in a hall - _________

2. excellent - __________________ 6. מאולטר - _________

3. special army troup - ________________ 7. גדר תיל - _________

4. headmaster - ___________ 8. end of high school - ____________

(10^th Gr) Date: _________________________________

Cross Cultural Understanding Project: Japan – Israel

A Work page – Siren (2)

A. Find the words in the text with a similar meaning:

1. to say it quickly without thinking - _______ ____ 7. headmaster - ____________

2. he fixes things in school ____________ 8. to warn somebody - ______________

3. carefully chosen - _______________ 9. to throw away - _________________

4. very thin - ______________ 10. to inform on - 1)________2)________

5. ready-made food is sold there - _________ 11. sound a siren makes - __________

6. laugh in a silly way - _____________ 12. not possible to be seen - ___________

B. Fill in with the correct part of speech

opportunity: Shelley never misses an _____________________ to enjoy herself. She is quite an __________________ who lacks principles and does only what is convenient for herself. We see her tendency towards _____________________ already at the beginning of the story when she asks Eli to keep her a seat but the moment her boyfriend's friend arrives, she gets up and sits with him at the back.

criticism: Etgar Keret is very _______________ of Israeli society. He _____________ the fact that we honor the dead more than we honor the living. Do you agree with his ___________________?

paralysis: When Eli saw Mikey and Ron, he was ______________ with fear. Only the wail of the siren freed him from his state ________________.

C. Fill in with the missing words

The story "The Siren" takes place in Israel during 7 days. It begins with a school 1)_________________ on 2)_______________ Remembrance Day and ends with the 3)_______________ siren on 4)________________ Day for the Fallen 5)____________. Keret criticizes the way schools 6)________________ the Holocaust. The school ceremony is described as completely irrelevant. The only person touched by it is Sholem, the 7)___________, who was a Holocaust 8)_____________ himself.

The main 9)__________________ of the story are some teenagers shortly before their 10)_______________ from high school. The story deals with the 11)______________ between them but it also shows the emptiness of Israeli 12)______________ and its shallow 13)______________ and lack of values. The same boys who stand at 14)______________ when hearing the siren, stole the bike of Sholem just for the fun of it. These are also the same boys who are about to beat 15)________ Eli, who had decided not to let them get away with the theft. They show more 16)____________ for the dead 17)______ for the living. Maybe the siren at the end of the story tries to show us that the Israeli society is falling 17)__________ and that today the only bond keeping it together is the memory of its dead.

D. Answer the following question

What is the importance of the "falafel scene" in the story?

______________________________________________________________________________