Listen&Learn: Kamala Harris
16th December 2020 by Jaksyn PeacockPre-listening vocabulary
- attorney: a person who practices law
- position: a job or occupation
- elect: to vote someone into public office
- campaign: an effort to gain political support
- rival: a person who competes with another person to reach the same goal
- candidate: a person who is nominated to run for public office
Listening activity
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:13 — 1.1MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | More
Gapfill exercise
Comprehension questions
[wp_quiz id=”19992″]Discussion/essay questions
- Kamala Harris has received much more media attention than most vice presidents have in the past. Why is her election so significant?
Transcript
Kamala Harris is an American politician, attorney, and the vice president-elect of the United States. She was born in 1964 in Oakland, California. In university, Harris studied political science and economics, before moving on to law school. Throughout her career in law, Harris worked her way up to becoming the attorney general of California. She held this position from 2010 until 2016, when she was elected to the U.S. Senate. In 2020, Harris started a campaign for the presidency, but she dropped out of the race early on because she didn’t have enough support. However, when her former rival Joe Biden became an official presidential candidate, he decided to pick Harris to be his running mate. Biden and Harris were elected in November 2020. This made Harris both the first woman and the first person of colour ever elected vice president in the U.S.