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Shadowing practice: Why was FDR allowed to serve four terms?

Listen to the line, then say it out loud
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Full transcript

  1. It's well known that a US president can only serve two terms.0:00
  2. But as most of you watching will know, there is one very notable exception to this.0:03
  3. Franklin Delano Roosevelt who served four terms between 1933 and 1945, which was when he took the important constitutional decision to die.0:07
  4. But given that every president before and after him had only served a maximum of two terms, how did the American people react to him doing this and did anybody0:16
  5. try to stop him?0:23
  6. Now, the two term limit presidents abided by originated with George Washington, who, towards the end of his second term, realized that he hated his job and so opted not0:24
  7. to run again.0:32
  8. He did this not because he believed that there should be a two term limit, but the leaders should be willing to hand over power without fuss.0:33
  9. And later, when it became clear that John Adams wasn't going to win a second term, some of Washington's supporters asked for him to run for a third.0:39
  10. He said no because he was too busy being happily retired and many saw this as Washington condemning third terms.0:45
  11. But this was just convention, not law.0:51
  12. So did any other presidents try to run for a third term?0:53
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  1. Well, yes, quite a few of them.0:55
  2. The first president to openly flirt with breaking the convention was Ulysses S.0:57
  3. Grant.1:01
  4. However, his party refused to nominate him.1:01
  5. After this, Grover Cleveland was offered a third run in 1896 by his party.1:03
  6. But he was well aware that everybody hated him at this point and so he declined.1:07
  7. So the first president with any genuine hope of being re -elected to a third term was none other than Theodore Roosevelt.1:11
  8. He was offered a third term by his party but he refused, wanting to respect Washington's precedent.1:16
  9. However, when he realized his success had sucked, he tried to win the Republican nomination again but they stayed with William Taft.1:21
  10. As such, new party, the Bull Moose Party.1:26
  11. He ran against Taft, split the vote and managed a respectable second place to Woodrow Wilson.1:29
  12. Wilson had hoped for a third term but his party refused to nominate him, meaning that up until FDR the convention stayed intact.1:33
  13. So what exactly changed with Roosevelt?1:40
  14. Well, with World War II raging in Europe, FDR believed that his opponent and professional stupid name have a Wendell Wilkie would leave Britain to its fate, and also undo1:42
  15. his new deal policies.1:49
  16. What made this time different was that his party agreed.1:51
  17. Now, as you can guess, a third run was quite contentious.1:53
  18. The Republican party accused Roosevelt of being a dictator and waiting in that a third term was un -American.1:56
  19. Broadly though, most Americans were much more concerned with navigating through the tumultuous times, and ultimately Roosevelt was seen as more trustworthy in economic and foreign policy matters than Wilkie,2:01
  20. which is why he won the 1940 election handily.2:09
  21. He ran for and won a fourth term which shocked precisely zero people but he died shortly afterwards, and by 1947 there were many politicians in both parties who were2:12
  22. concerned that long running presidents could lead to national stagnancy.2:20
  23. This political concern is why the 22nd Amendment was put forward.2:22
  24. This banned presidents from serving for more than two terms.2:26
  25. The 22nd Amendment had one exception, Harry Truman.2:29
  26. This was because he was already president and so he was allowed to run again if he wanted.2:32
  27. He tried, but his unpopularity soon made it clear that his party would have preferred to elect literally anybody else and so he stood down, thereby ending the last attempt2:36
  28. at there ever being a three -term president.2:43
  29. I hope you enjoyed this episode with a special thanks to my patrons, James Bisannette, Kelly Moneymaker, Korsho Wolf, Skychapel, Katoitska, Jerry Lamden, Alex Schwinn, Adam Stolter, Jordan Longley, Rod2:46
  30. D Martin, Ryan Hockey, Marcus Arsena, Captain Sidehog, Marvin Casow, Spencer Lightfoot, Winston Kawood, Boogie Lee Wiggly, Daniel Tobien, Kamu Nyun, Miss Isette, Gustav Swan, Aaron the White, Anthony Beckett2:56
  31. to the McWhopper, Maggie Patskowski, Copper Tone, Spinning Three Plates, Shuenin, Words About Books Podcast and Charles I.3:07

British English Pronunciation Practice With History Matters' FDR Explainer

This clip is a British narrated explainer from History Matters, walking through why Franklin Delano Roosevelt served four terms when every other president kept to two. For british english pronunciation practice, a single steady narrator with no cross talk to untangle is a good place to build consistency before you take on a scene with several speakers.

The recording runs at 228 words per minute, faster than 83 percent of the catalogue, and it is rated B2. That combination makes it solid english listening practice before you try to speak any of it back, and the narrator's rhythm on formal, explanatory speech is a fair model if you want to improve your english accent on this kind of material.

The Language in This Clip: Shadowing English Speaking Practice for a B2 History Lesson

The opening lines set up the whole argument in plain, quotable sentences, which makes them a solid target for english speaking practice before the vocabulary around Grant, Cleveland and Wilson gets denser.

  • "It's well known that a US president can only serve two terms." Run the contraction "It's" straight into "well known" without a break, then land clearly on "two terms", the phrase the whole clip argues around.
  • "there is one very notable exception to this": say it with "notable" stressed hard, since it is one of the clip's rare words and the sentence only makes sense if that stress lands.
  • "the two term limit presidents abided by originated with George Washington": a long noun phrase before the verb finally arrives. Say it in one breath the way the narrator does rather than chopping it after "limit".
  • "But this was just convention, not law.": a short, flat sentence, useful for matching the narrator's falling pitch on "law".

How to Practise English Speaking Through This History Matters Clip

To practise english speaking with this clip, work in short passes rather than playing the whole 43 lines straight through.

  • Start with line 1, "It's well known that a US president can only serve two terms." Repeat it three times before moving on, since it sets the pace for the whole recording.
  • Shadow line 6 on its own, "the two term limit presidents abided by originated with George Washington", since it is the longest unbroken run in the opening and the one most likely to trip at this pace.
  • Once lines 1 through 11 feel solid, including the flat "But this was just convention, not law.", move on to the Grant, Cleveland and Roosevelt section.
  • There, shadow "split the vote and managed a respectable second place to Woodrow Wilson" for its unbroken rhythm across a long clause.
  • Loop back to line 2, "there is one very notable exception to this", and check your stress on "notable" against the rare word list before continuing past line 26 into the rest of the clip.
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