(Ath the following of what we did last time)

The second one is entitled “Commander in Chief”. This TV show features the first female American President: Mackenzie Allen. Being the first female president is not easy. Indeed, she is going through a lot of opposition from male colleagues who do not agree with the fact that a woman can be president. As a consequence, by being the first female Commander in Chief of the USA, she is breaking the glass ceiling. Moreover, in the TV show, we see how she balances her private life as she is a mother, and her responsibilities as the “leader of the Free World”.

The third TV series presented is entitled “Designated Survivor”. It is about a huge catastrophe that hit Washington DC where Congress exploded, many people died. A man named Tom Kirkman who was a secretary became the designated survivor to lead the country, rebuild the nation and make everyone feel safe again.

The forth TV series is entitled “The first family”. It deals with the second African-American president and his family. It is a sitcom, a light-hearted look at life in the White House. They look fun and humorous.

The last one is entitled “1600 Penn” (The White House is located at the 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC). It showcase the First family as being dysfunctional. It is a comedy with a lot of humorous moments.

To conclude, the fact that so many shows take place in the White House because it is a mythical place that symbolizes power and audiences are fascinated by what they cannot see.

Homework: Learn the lesson.

Unit 2: The Greater the Power…

How does the representation of politics in TV shows impact our understanding of power?

Axis: Art and Power

The Top Five White House TV Shows

Language in Progress

The Modal Expressions

1) Choose the option that best fits from the two choices.

a) I must stop speaking before I say something I'll regret. (a personal decision)

b) You ought to brush your teeth more than once a day! (a collective opinion)

c) She should read that book. (advice)

d) They don’t have to finish that piece of cake. (a lack of obligation)

2. Complete the following sentences using the appropriate modal verb.

a) You should / must wash your hands before dinner.

b) You mustn’t / must not experiment on people!

c) You don’t have to come if you're tired.

d) You should change your eating habits.

2) Complete the following sentences using the appropriate relative pronoun.

a) Do you know the lady whose daughter won the prize?

b) Look at the cute cat which is playing with string!

c) Roy is the name of the android whom I talked to you about.

d) This is the house where it happened.

e) Let me show you the place where the magic happens.

f) October 6th was the day when she had her first exhibition.

Vocabulary in Progress

Complete the following sentences with the appropriate idiom.

a) My grandmother is still active and healthy; she is truly in the prime of life.

b) He almost drowned, but luckily he cheated death.

c) That old car finally kicked the bucket after years of use.

d) She had a serious accident, but she managed to live to tell the tale.

e) After eating that super spicy chili, I got so sick, thought I might bite the dust.

Homework: Learn the lesson.

Complete exercice D. Music of English

Extended Life

The document under study is an extract from Time magazine, published in 2023. It deals with a man named Bryan Johnson who is obsessed with the idea to live as long as possible. To do so, he has spent more than $4 million dollars in a life extension system named Blueprint. The method consists in having his body studied and analyzed by doctors who tell him what to do, what to eat. Therefore, he has a strict diet and a precise sleep schedule. Furthermore, he takes daily 54 pills. The aim of all this process is to reduce his “biological age”. There are benefits to this process: he has a pale and glowing skin. Moreover, he is 46 years old, however, his body and organs are biologically younger. On top of that, through his experience, researchers are making breakthroughs while trying to make him stay younger.  Nevertheless, he is using a scientific method that has not been proved to work fully yet. Besides, experts say that death is not optional as it is written in our genes.

Homework: Learn the lesson.

Be ready for the reading Comprehension Evaluation: Friday October 2nd on the theme of the chapter.

 Science or Fantasy ?

Uploading the mind.

The document under study is an article extracted from Dazed magazine, published in 2023. It deals with digitally assisted eternal life. The method mentioned in this article to achieve eternal life is mind uploading. It consists in making someone’s mind digital make it immortal in a way. Therefore, all the memories, the personality and emotions of a person would be transformed into data uploaded to a computer. The benefits are that if something happens to your physical body, your memories would be saved. Moreover, it would be possible to choose another avatar as our mind may not be able to sustain without one. Nevertheless, we do not know if our mind is capable of adapting to a new shell. Besides, it is not necessary to create a perfect copy of our brain as just being able to make it function properly is enough. To conclude, it sounds like a fascinating project because it highlights the idea that someday we could transcend human physical limits.

Homework: Learn the lesson.

 (At the fllowing of what we did last time)

Jesse Karmazin tried to turn the ancient myth of the “fountain of youth” into a modern business  by selling expensive young blood to old people (the name “Ambrosia” came from the Greek and Roman mythology. It was the name of the drink drunk by the gods). Eventually, his project was a failure and banished by the US government because it was potentially dangerous and fraudulent.

Indeed, this project raised ethical questions, on one hand, for donors: were they forced to give their blood? Could it be considered as child abuse? Could poor young people be pressured to sell their blood to the rich? Would they be ready to put their health in danger for money? On the other hand, for society: Does it create inequalities between people (the rich and the poor)?  Is it legal?

To finish with the medicine sector: Should we really use a cure that is not scientifically proven? Are the benefits worth the risk of dying? Should medicine be a luxury or fundamental rights?

Homework: Learn the lesson.

Over to you!

Ambrosia in the news

You're a journalist who's been commissioned by The Guardian to report on Jesse Karmazin's company, Ambrosia. Write a short newspaper article, summarizing what he promised and what happened. Add a catchy headline to attract readers.

Young Blood, Old Dreams

The document under study an extract from a magazine called Popular Mechanics, published in 2024. It deals with how some scientists would use blood from young people to cure diseases or stay young.

For example, we have learned about a former Stanford Medical student called Jesse Karmazin who created a startup named Ambrosia. He promised that his blood plasma infusions could improve appearance, sleep, strength and even treat diseases such as Alzheimer. One infusion cost $8,000. It shows that this treatment was targeted at the elite, because these people want to look younger to maintain a good image. As a result, the FDA refused his experiment and put an end to his company because there was no scientific proof that it actually worked.

In history, people had already used young blood to cure or try to stay young. For instance, in ancient Rome, epileptics drank gladiators’ blood hoping to cure their disease. Moreover, Pope Innocent VIII drank the blood of three boys to survive his illness.

Alexander Bogdanov died because of his last transfusions at the early age of 54. It shows that the injection of young blood works only on a short term. However, they can destroy your health very quickly and could kill you.

To conclude, J. Karmazin refused to tell the source of the blood plasma he used because, on one hand the donors might have thought that it was for medical reasons and not for cosmetic ones. Moreover, it could create fights between parents and children because as minors, parents should decide for them and the children could be forced to do it, which is illegal, unethical and a form of abuse.

Homework: Learn the lesson.

Young Blood, Old Dreams

The document under study is an article extracted from Popular Mechanics magazine, published in 2024. It deals with different stories that are about scientists using young blood to try to stay young and healthy. For example, we have learned about Jesse Karmazin, a former Stanford Medical School student, who created a startup called Ambrosia. He was offering $8,000 infusions to improve his patients’ health: physical appearance, sleep and strength as well as treating diseases such as Alzheimer. This treatment was meant to target at wealthy people. Eventually, the FDA decided to put an end to his startup because there was no scientific proof that it could actually work.

In history, we can find several stories of people using young blood to try to stay young and healthy. For instance, Pope Innocent VIII drank the blood of 3 young boys try to survive his illness.

Moreover, in ancient Rome, people who were suffering from epilepsy tried to drink gladiators’ blood to cure their illness.

In the 1920s, A. Bogdanov gave himself several blood transfusions. Unfortunately, the twelfth one gave him malaria and tuberculosis which eventually caused his death.

To conclude, J. Karmazin refused to say the source of the blood plasma he used. Indeed, he might have taken the blood from suspicious or illegal sources. This highlights a lack of security measures and transparency. Moreover, the donors might have been exploited to make these experiments by a profit-driven company. This is unethical.

Homework: Learn the lesson.

The Science of Frankenstein

The document under study is a web article published on Curam-AI.com website, in June 2025. It deals with the famous novel written by Mary Shelley entitled “Frankenstein” published in 1818. It analyses how Shelly used the scientific idea of galvanism (from Luigi Galvani), namely using electricity to make the muscles of a body move and give life again. This vision of immortality is negative, because in the novel, the scientist had to use the bodies of dead people to create another person. Eventually, Frankenstein is disgusted and horrified by his own creation. In fact, the immortality he tried to create becomes a “monster” that suffers from loneliness and eventually destroys those Victor loves. Through her novel, Shelley is giving a warning to  the  scientists that “playing God” can have serious consequences.

To conclude, one can say that looking for/the quest for immortality will eventually lead to death in the worst consequences.

Homework: Learn the lesson.

Imagine the possibilities

The document under study is an animated video entitled “If you had the chance to be immortal would you take it?”. It was published in September 11^th, 2025 by Ted-Ed. It deals with the question of immortality. There are positive and negative aspects presented in the video. First of all, the positive part would be that we could live as dangerously as we wish without the fear of death. Moreover, you could get good at every skill you want. Besides, your body will be frozen at its current age therefore you will not grow old/age. Furthermore, you can explore the whole world by doing a world tour. In addition, you can practice dangerous activities. You can learn how to practice many instruments. To finish with, you could become immune to diseases. On the other hand, being immortal could mean that at some point life could be boring because you could find yourself in a boring loop. On top of that, this condition is irreversible, you cannot change your mind. You would forget your memories through the ages.

You cannot enjoy life properly because you would lose the worth of the moment. Besides, you may not have friends anymore as everyone would describe you as the “immortal one” and nothing else. These people may be jealous of you. In addition, you would not be able to understand people and people would not be able to understand you in return.

Homework: Learn the lesson.

Vocabulary Mind Map

Scientists have been trying to push back the limits of life.

Scientists need to respect moral values to create new human evolution.

Some people agree with the fact that living for eternity is great. However, it does not correspond to my values.

It is interesting to elaborate predictions about what humans are going to create.

We have achieved a new milestone, indeed, humanoids can now think by themselves.

Throughout scientific innovations it is very important never to forget our human values.

We have to be aware of the impact of new technologies in the future.

In the future, human knowledge, memories and emotions will be uploaded into machines so that humans can in a way outlive out from their mortal bodies.

I don’t think that immortality is very important because we may experiment a form of after-life after death.

Homework: Learn the lesson.

Humanoids are immortal robots. They live with our avatar and our consciousness and came interact with other humans or humanoids.

To make humanoids requires moral values because humanoids can feel emotions.

Scientists created enhanced technology and its progress is beginning to be hard to control.  

Some predictions were made and they said that AI could overcome mankind.

Vocabulary mind map

In one way becoming a clone means that you can have a timeless experience of life / that you would have an infinite life.

Humans have used their knowledge to try and achieve immortality.

Humans are composed of a huge amount of cells.

We think that bot avatars have a timeless existence; however, this is wrong because they can become obsolete or the personal data could also be lost.

To push back the limits of existence, scientists created humanoids.

Some people cannot endure the loss of someone they love.

The question of immortality requires moral.

Thanks to AI, I can predict that nobody will die anymore.

In the future, this type of progress can have unintended consequences. For example, humanoids can rebel against humans.

Creating humanoids can go against integrity for some people.

If we become robots we will lose our values that make us humans.

Scientists can create robots that have our feelings and memories but they will not have our empathy.

Immortality will outlive humans.

The main function of a humanoid is to record knowledge.

Humans can’t use AI and bots to understand what is a value because the latter is created by humans. Indeed, people do not share the same values.

Homework: Learn the lesson.

Unit 1: Immortality 2.0

How far should we chase after perfection and immortality?

Axis: Scientific Innovations and Responsibility.

1. This document is a piece of art. We can see floppy disks that were used to create this artwork. At the time, the floppy disks were used to record data such as music, photos, videos… These floppy disks are now obsolete; nevertheless/however/nonetheless, the data that can be find inside are still there and made them eternal or immortal in a way.

2. The document under study is trailer a documentary entitled “A.rtificial I.mmortality”, published in November 2021. This documentary deals with some advance technology to create a new human evolution. Indeed, scientists are creating bot avatars of people then, they  put inside their memories and feelings so that after their death, they continue to live in a way. Their memories continue to exist. The trailer questions whether one remains human once uploaded into a machine.

3. In my opinion, to live forever does not seem to be interesting to me because in reality, it is not the real version of what you used to be but only a copy of you in a robot.

As for me, it would be boring to be able to live forever, as you would see all your loved ones die one by one and eventually, you will end up alone. Moreover, technically, if you are a robot, you will need to be recharged from time to time, and if there is no more electricity, eventually, you may die as well. To finish with, because the evolution of technology, the robots used can become obsolete and your personal data can be lost at the mercy of anyone.

Dear Students, 

The summer vacation is definitely over, now is the time to go back to school, to come back to your studying habits and set yourselves new goals in order to succeed in everything you will undertake this new academic year! I will be happy to teach you new things and curious to see what you will bring me back through our collaboration! I am looking forward to meeting you and seeing you evolve and improve your language skills throughout the year!

I wish you all to enjoy your new classes, and here is a little quotation to inspire you as an encouragement to start the year! :-)

"Learn as much you can while you are young, since life becomes too busy later."                                                                                           

Dana Stewart Scott 

Sincerely,

Miss Wagnac