Tonight’s song comes from a famous book: Nineteen Eighty-Four, by George Orwell. In the book, the government watches everybody, all the time. Love is forbidden. Two people fall in love in secret.
Learn from Songs · Unit 8: Modals · B1–B2
Resistance
Muse’s dramatic love song inspired by George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four: could be, might, should have been, can’t and mustn’t for rules, and should for advice, with Philo, Sophia, Marcos and Demetria.
SOPHIA
DEMETRIA
What happens to them?
SOPHIA
Read the book one day and find out. The song asks the questions they asked: is our secret safe? Could this be wrong? Or should it have been right?
PHILO
A big question for a love song.
Before you listen: the song
Lake Como, 2009
Muse are a rock band from Teignmouth, in Devon, England, famous for their huge, dramatic sound and the high voice of their singer and guitarist Matthew Bellamy, who is also a fine classical pianist.
Their 2009 album The Resistance was recorded partly in a studio on Lake Como, in Italy. Several songs on it were inspired by George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), about a country where “Big Brother” watches everyone, history is rewritten, and even thoughts can be crimes. In the novel, Winston and Julia fall in love in secret, which is a crime.
In the song, two lovers must hide. They can’t be seen together. Their love could be wrong, they say, but it should have been right, and love is their resistance.
Some things are right even when they are forbidden.
Listen: the secret
PHILO
Listen once. What are the lovers afraid of? What do they decide?
SOPHIA
Listen to the piano at the start and the drums that follow. Then answer Section A.
📻 Listen to the song: “Resistance” (Matthew Bellamy, 2009), by Muse.Find the recording →
📜 Read the words while you listen: “Resistance”, Muse.Read the lyrics →
Could be, might be
MARCOS
It could be wrong. Someone might be watching. They may be listening.
SOPHIA
could / might / may + be for possibility now. might be + -ing for something possibly happening right now: They might be watching us.
Can’t and mustn’t: rules
DEMETRIA
You can’t meet in public. You mustn’t tell anyone. You aren’t allowed to write letters.
SOPHIA
For prohibitions: can’t (a rule), mustn’t (strong, often the speaker’s own rule), not allowed to (neutral). In the past: couldn’t / weren’t allowed to, never “mustn’t” in the past.
Should and should have been
PHILO
We should run away. It should have been right. They shouldn’t have made love a crime.
SOPHIA
should + infinitive = advice, the right thing. should have + past participle = the right thing didn’t happen: criticism or regret. You should have told me!
Sophia’s comparison: Antigone and the midwives
SOPHIA
Antigone’s uncle, King Creon, said that nobody must bury her brother. She buried him anyway, because the law of the gods was greater than the law of the king.
PHILO
And when Pharaoh ordered the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, to kill the baby boys, they feared God and didn’t do it. Their names are remembered; Pharaoh’s isn’t even written down.
Sophia’s summary
| Words and forms | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| could / might / may be | possibility now | It could be wrong. |
| might be + -ing | possibly happening now | They might be watching. |
| can’t / mustn’t / not allowed to | prohibition | You mustn’t tell anyone. |
| should + infinitive | advice | We should run. |
| should have + past participle | the right thing didn’t happen | It should have been right. |
Practice
Listen to the song for Section A, then do the rest. Press “Check my answers” at the end. You can try again as many times as you like.
A · Listen: the song
Listen to the song and choose the best answer.
1. Which book inspired the song?
2. What are the lovers afraid of?
3. What is their resistance?
4. In the novel, who watches everyone?
5. Where was the album partly recorded?
6. What else can Matthew Bellamy play very well?
B · Grammar and vocabulary
Write the missing word or words.
7. It could wrong. (possibility)
8. Shh! Someone might be . (listen)
9. You tell anyone. It’s forbidden!
10. It should have right. (be)
11. We run away. (advice)
12. In the past, people weren’t to read those books.
C · Right or wrong?
Is the sentence correct English?
13. “Yesterday we mustn’t talk in the library.”
14. “You should have told me.”
15. “They might watching us.”
16. “You mustn’t tell anyone.”
Talk and write
Discussion and writing
The rules of Big Brother. In groups, invent the rules of a country where everything is controlled. Use can’t, mustn’t, aren’t allowed to, have to. Then say what people should do to resist.
Discuss. 1. Is it ever right to break the law? 2. Why do governments sometimes ban books? 3. What would you do if love were forbidden?
Write (120–150 words). A forbidden letter. You live in Big Brother’s country. Write a secret letter to a friend. Use might be watching, could be, mustn’t, should and should have.
Now play the gamebook: forbidden scrolls, an inspector, and a secret.Play the gamebook →