Bob Marley

                                                  T E X T 

          Robert “Bob” Nesta Marley (February 6, 1945 – May 11, 1981) was a Jamaican singer, songwriter, guitarist and activist. He is the most widely known performer of reggae music. A faithful Rastafari, Marley is regarded by many as a prophet of the religion.

           Marley was born in the small village of Nine Mile in the Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica. His father, Norval Sinclair Marley born in 1895, was a white Jamaican of English descent, with parents from Sussex. Norval was a Marine officer and captain, as well as a plantation overseer, when he married Cedella Booker, then an eighteen-year-old Jamaican. Norval provided financial support for his wife and child, but seldom saw them, as he was often away on trips. Marley was ten years old when his father died of a heart attack in 1955 at age 60.

           Marley suffered racial prejudice as a youth, because of his mixed racial origins, and faced questions about his own racial identity throughout his life. He once reflected:

          “I don’t have prejudice against myself. My father was a white and my mother was black. Them call me half-caste or whatever. Me don’t dip on nobody’s side. Me don’t dip on the black man’s side nor the white man’s side. Me dip on God’s side, the one who create me and cause me to come from black and white.”

          Marley and his mother moved to Kingston Trenchtown slum after Norval’s death.

He was forced to learn self-defense, as he became the target of bullying because of his  racial makeup and small structure. He gained a reputation for his physical strength, which earned him the nickname “Tuff Gong”.

         Marley became friends with Neville “Bunny” Livingston (later known as Bunny Wailer), with whom he started to play music. He left school at the age of 14 and started as an apprentice at a local welder’s shop. In his free time, he and Livingston made music with Joe Higgs, a local singer and devout Rastafari who is regarded by many as Marley’s mentor. It was at a jam session with Higgs and Livingston that Marley met Peter McIntosh (later known as Peter Tosh), who had similar musical ambitions.

         In 1962, Marley recorded his first two singles, “Judge Not” and “One Cup of Coffee”, with local music producer Leslie Kong. These songs, released on Beverley’s label under the pseudonym of Bobby Martell, attracted little attention.

                                         T E X T      C O M P R E H E N S I O N

 01-Check the correct sentence according to the text:

a)Bob Marley was born in Kingston

b)Bob Marley’s dad was a faithful Rastafari

c)Bunny Waler left school at the age of 14

d)Bob Marley’s first two singles were successful

e)Cedella Booker was Bob Marley’s mother

02-Bob Marley died when he was thirty __________________years old.

a) two              b)four             c)six                d)eight                e)nine

 

03-Choose the correct alternative:

a)Bob Marley had racial prejudice against himself

b)Bob Marley lived in a slum

c)Norval Sinclair was an army officer

d)Tuff Gong was Marley’s nickname because of his structure

e)Norval Sinclair was born in Sussex

 

04-Bob Marley’s paternal grandparents were from _______________.

a)England       b)Jamaica          c)France         d)Germany              e)USA

 

05-When Bob Marley recorded his first singles he was _______________years old.

a)sixteen        b)seventeen       c)eighteen     d)nineteen              e)twenty