A ten-year-old in Tehran watches her country change almost overnight. What was it like — and how do you talk about political history without a textbook?
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Ten items. Say your answer out loud before you reveal it.
Read the sentence, guess the meaning of the word in bold, then reveal.
Same method: guess from the sentence, then reveal.
Three words for what ordinary people experienced. Guess, then reveal.
Read each part. After it, answer the quick check from memory, then discuss one question.
For decades Iran had been ruled by a king, the Shah. By the late 1970s many Iranians were angry: about the secret police, about the gap between rich and poor and about the lack of political freedom. Protests grew through 1978. In January 1979 the Shah left the country, and within months the monarchy was replaced by an Islamic Republic.
It was a real upheaval. People from very different backgrounds — students, workers, religious leaders, left-wing families — had demanded change, and at first many celebrated. Marji's family, who held left-wing, educated views, were among those who hoped that the new Iran would be freer.
The book follows this moment through a child's eyes. Marji does not understand the politics, but she notices the changes: the new slogans, the adults' arguments and the sudden feeling that her country has become a different place.
1. Why were many Iranians angry in the late 1970s?
2. What happened in January 1979?
3. What did Marji's family hope for?
1. Because of the secret police, the gap between rich and poor and the lack of political freedom.
2. The Shah left the country, and the monarchy was soon replaced by an Islamic Republic.
3. That the new Iran would be freer.
The hopes of many people turned quickly to worry. The new regime introduced strict rules: girls had to wear the veil, schools separated boys from girls, and music, books and parties that had been ordinary became risky. Censorship and repression grew, and people learned to watch what they said.
In September 1980 Iraq attacked Iran, and a long, costly war began; it lasted until 1988. The government used slogans to encourage young men to fight and described those who died as martyrs. The book shows young boys being handed plastic keys said to open the gates of paradise.
For Marji, the war was an ordeal: sirens, shelters, shortages and the loss of people she loved. Her uncle Anoosh, a former political prisoner, is arrested again and does not survive. These are the pages where the book's humour stops, and the grief begins.
1. What changed in schools after the revolution?
2. When did the war begin and end?
3. What happens to Marji's uncle Anoosh?
1. Girls had to wear the veil and boys and girls were separated.
2. It began in September 1980 and ended in 1988.
3. He is arrested again and does not survive.
Marji is curious, stubborn and funny. She argues with her teachers, tests what she is told at school against what her parents say at home and sometimes holds imaginary conversations with God. Her questions — direct, sometimes comic, sometimes devastating — are the way the book makes sense of an enormous subject.
Her parents are defiant in quiet ways: they tell her the truth at home and take risks to keep her thinking for herself. Outside, the family learns to say little. The contrast between the public face and the private truth runs through the whole book.
Looking back, the adult author can see what the child could not. This hindsight never takes over the story, but it gives the scenes their edge: we often understand a little more than Marji does, and that gap is where much of the feeling lives.
1. How does Marji test the official story?
2. How are her parents defiant?
3. What does the adult author's hindsight add?
1. She compares what she is told at school with what her parents say at home.
2. They tell her the truth at home and take risks to keep her thinking independently.
3. A gap between what the child understands and what the reader understands, which gives the scenes feeling.
When people discuss history, many stop at the facts. A good conversation climbs three steps. The Question Ladder gives you the three levels — and a way to ask a question that moves a group up.
These are questions someone might ask in a book discussion. Which level of the ladder is each one?
1. What happened? — a question of fact with a checkable answer.
2. Why? — it asks for causes and reasons.
3. So what? — it asks about meaning for today.
4. What happened? — it asks for facts.
5. Why? — it asks the group to reason about motives.
6. So what? — it asks how we should use the book.
7. What happened? — it asks for a fact.
8. Why? — it asks for reasons behind behaviour.
Don't skip the base. A "So what?" with no facts under it is just opinion. Check that everyone shares the basic story first.
Don't stay on the base. A discussion that is only facts is a quiz. Move up when the facts are settled.
Some Why questions have no answer. That is fine — what matters is the reasoning people offer, not a single right reply.
A story about a revolution is about things that used to be one way and became another. English has precise tools for this: used to, would, be used to, no longer and a set of adverbs for how fast change happens.
Choose the form that fits the meaning.
1. She (used to / was used to) wear jeans; now she wears a veil.
2. After a few months she (used to / got used to) wearing it.
3. He (used to / is used to) the noise of sirens, having lived in the city all his life.
4. People (no longer / not longer) felt safe talking in public.
5. Things became (gradual / gradually) stricter.
1. used to (a past habit)
2. got used to (became familiar with)
3. is used to (familiar with)
4. no longer
5. gradually (an adverb, describing how it changed)
Each sentence has one mistake with a change expression. Rewrite it correctly.
1. She used to wearing jeans before the revolution.
2. People were used to say whatever they liked.
3. She didn't used to be afraid.
4. She is used to live in a strict country.
5. Things were getting increasing worse.
1. She used to wear jeans before the revolution.
2. People used to say whatever they liked. (or: People were used to saying…)
3. She didn't use to be afraid.
4. She is used to living in a strict country.
5. Things were getting increasingly worse.
Write one sentence for each pair, using the structure in brackets.
1. Before: parties at home were normal. Now: they are risky. (used to) →
2. Before: girls chose what to wear. Now: they must wear a veil. (no longer) →
3. Day one: the rules were new. A year later: nobody noticed them. (got used to) →
1. Parties at home used to be normal, but now they are risky.
2. Girls no longer chose what to wear / could no longer choose what to wear.
3. At first the rules were new, but within a year people had got used to them.
Now describe a change in your own town or workplace over the last ten years, using used to, no longer and get used to.
Now it's your turn. Choose a task, start the timer and talk. On your own it works as a talk; with a partner or a group, take turns and respond to each other.
Describe a time when your world changed quickly. What was the day like before, and what was it like after?
Pick a news story. Ask and answer one question at each level: what happened, why, and so what.
Tell a story about history that you heard from a relative. What did they tell you that a book would not?
Is a small private act of defiance — a hidden book, a song, a party — worth the risk? Argue for or against.