Look at the pictures and then answer the question below:

- Do you know who is the girl in the
picture? (Her name/ job/ .... her life?)

Dang Thuy Tram (martyr /ˈmɑrtər/)
(26/11/1942 – 22/6/1970)
Job:

Military doctor

Place of birth: Hue
Place of work: In the Military
Famous for: Dang Thuy Tram's Dỉay
(The Diary of Dang Thuy Tram)

At the age of twenty-four, Dang Thuy Tram volunteered to serve as a doctor in a National
Liberation Front (Viet Cong) battlefield hospital in the Quang Ngai Province. Two years later she
was killed by American forces not far from where she worked. Written between 1968 and 1970,
her diary speaks poignantly of her devotion to family and friends, the horrors of war, her yearning
for her high school sweetheart, and her struggle to prove her loyalty to her country. At times raw,
at times lyrical and youthfully sentimental, her voice transcends cultures to speak of her dignity
and compassion and of her challenges in the face of the war's ceaseless fury.
The American officer who discovered the diary soon after Dr. Tram's death was under
standing orders to destroy all documents without military value. As he was about to toss it into the
flames, his Vietnamese translator said to him, “Don't burn this one. . . . It has fire in it already.”
Against regulations, the officer preserved the diary and kept it for thirty-five years. In the spring
of 2005, a copy made its way to Dr. Tram's elderly mother in Hanoi. The diary was soon
published in Vietnam, causing a national sensation. Never before had there been such a vivid and
personal account of the long ordeal that had consumed the nation's previous generations.
Translated by Andrew X. Pham and with an introduction by Pulitzer Prize winner Frances
FitzGerald, Last Night I Dreamed of Peace is an extraordinary document that narrates one
woman's personal and political struggles. Above all, it is a story of hope in the most dire of
circumstances—told from the perspective of our historic enemy but universal in its power to
celebrate and mourn the fragility of human life.

UNIT 1: LIFE STORIES WE ADMIRE
Period 1: Getting started

The diary of dang Thuy Tram
LISTEN AND READ

Mark: Hi, Nam. Your book must be very interesting. What are you reading?
Nam : I'm reading a really good book in English called Last Night I Dreamed of Peace:
The Diary of Dang Thuy Tram.
Mark: Dang Thuy Tram? Who is she?
Nam : She was born in Hue in 1942. She studied medicine in Ha Noi, and volunteered to join the
army at the age of 24, working as a surgeon during the resistance war against the US.
Mark: That's when she started her diary, isn't it?
Nam: Yes. She wrote her diary while she was working in a field hospital in Quang Ngai Province.
The diary contains personal accounts of her experiences during the war and shows her love
for her family and country.
Mark: Wow! It sounds interesting. Is she still alive?
Nam: Unfortunately, she was killed by the enemy while she was doing her duty in the jungle in
Quang Ngai Province. She was only 27 then.
Mark: Oh, that's really sad. But how did people find her diary?
Nam: An American soldier found it and saved it from being burnt. Then more than 30 years after
Tram's death, a copy was returned to her mother. The diary was published in Viet Nam in
2005. It has also been translated into several other languages.
Mark: That's amazing!
Nam : Now she is considered a national hero for devoting her youth and whole life to saving other
people's lives in the war.
Mark: Can you lend me the book when you finish reading it? I'd like to read it myself.
Nam : Sure!

Exercise 1. Read the conversation again and circle the correct answer to
complete each of the sentences.
1. Dang Thuy Tram was born in Ha Noi/Hue.
2. Tram wrote about/operated on injured soldiers during the war.
3. She died when she was very young/old.
4. An American soldier kept her diary for 27 years/more than three decades
before returning a copy to her family.

Exercise 2. Find words and a phrase in 1 with the following meanings.
1. a______ : descriptions of things that have happened
2. d______ : the end of somebody's life
3. d____ to: giving time, attention, etc. to something
4. y______ : the period of time when a person is young
Exercise 3: Complete the sentences based on the conversation
Dang Thuy Tram was a young surgeon. She (1) _________ her diary
while she (2) _________ in a field hospital during the war. One day, she
(3) _________ while she (4) _________ in the jungle. She was only 27
then. An American soldier (5) _________ her diary for many years
before returning a copy to her family.