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Obama makes his first speech as President of The USA

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Barack Obama Barack Obama has been officially made the President of the USA. After he made a mistake while he was saying the presidential oath, he spoke to hundreds of thousands of people who came out in the cold weather to watch the ceremony, as well as to billions of people around the world on TV. Here are some of the best parts of his speech.

About American society he said: Our challenges may be new. The ways we respond to them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends - hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism - these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history.

About the economy he said: "Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be resolved easily or in a short time. But know this, America - they will be resolved."

About the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan he said "We will begin to leave Iraq to its people and make peace in Afghanistan," he said. "With old friends and former enemies, we will work hard to decrease the chance of nuclear war, and fight global warming. "We will not apologise for our way of life, and we will be strong in its defence and for those who want to use terror and kill innocent people, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; and we will defeat you.



Have you have finished reading the article? Now try and answer these questions:

1) What does Obama think about the financial problems America has?
(a)There aren't many of them (b)There are many of them but they can be resolved easily (c)There are many big problems and they will take a long time to resolve

2) What does Obama hope will happen to the possibility of a nuclear war?
(a)It will go up (b)It will go down (c)It will stay the same

Here are the answers:

1) c - There are many big problems and they will take a long time to resolve - "...the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be resolved easily or in a short time".

2) - b - It will go down - "we will work hard to decrease the chance of nuclear war"

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