Uploaded September 2020 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
5) Fill in the blanks based on what you listen:
When Alfred Mehran arrived at the Charles de Gaulle airport on August 26th, 1988 he was a soft-spoken man in his early 40s, ____________ to catch a flight to the United Kingdom where he hoped to meet his biological mother for the first time.
As he boarded the flight, along with several suitcases filled with his essential possessions, Alfred didn't expect he'd be returning to the pre-departures lounge of Charles de Gaulle ___________ hours later. Or that it would be there he would watch the world transform around him, new technologies arriving and fading away, entire nations collapsing and reforming. Experiencing it all through newspaper articles and fleeting fragments of ________ conversations.
When he arrived at the Heathrow Airport, he failed to produce a passport or any other identifying information to the immigration representative. "They'd be stolen," he claimed.
Alfred was detained and then put back on a plane to Charles de Gaulle. He was initially arrested by airport authorities for attempted unlawful entry into the country. They ultimately determined his residence inside the airport violated no laws but they were unable to permit him to enter Paris without proof of who he was or where he was from. And his ________________ would remain until Alfred himself was able to provide the necessary documentation.
Alfred decided, at least momentarily, to settle into Terminal 1 a bustling part of the pre-departures lounge which resembled a shopping center.
There was a McDonald's, an electronics store, the entrance to a hotel and hundreds of people, all too preoccupied with their own travel plans to notice him.
Amidst it all, Alfred found a red cushioned bench near a window, which overlooked an outside fountain - a view that would become _________________ familiar.
As days turned into weeks and weeks into months, Alfred became a part of the Charles de Gaulle landscape.
The night, he curled up on his red bench, his blue jacket serving as a blanket.
He'd wake up early before the airport became ________________ with passengers to maintain basic hygiene in the terminal bathroom.
He made friends with a few airport employees, such as those at McDonald's, which provided nearly all of his meals.
Occasionally, people who knew of a situation would supply him with toiletries, clothes, meal tickets, and money. And he would deposit what he didn't immediately need into a savings account which he'd open with the airport post office.
He kept his mind from ________________ on the uncertainty of his situation by reading.
Deportation was not an option, as there was no birth country on record to which he could be deported.
But who was Sir Alfred? And how far back to the roots of his misfortune stretch? And was he a victim of bureaucratic circumstance or his own mind?
5) Fill in the blanks based on what you listen:
When Alfred Mehran arrived at the Charles de Gaulle airport on August 26th, 1988 he was a soft-spoken man in his early 40s, ____________ to catch a flight to the United Kingdom where he hoped to meet his biological mother for the first time.
As he boarded the flight, along with several suitcases filled with his essential possessions, Alfred didn't expect he'd be returning to the pre-departures lounge of Charles de Gaulle ___________ hours later. Or that it would be there he would watch the world transform around him, new technologies arriving and fading away, entire nations collapsing and reforming. Experiencing it all through newspaper articles and fleeting fragments of ________ conversations.
When he arrived at the Heathrow Airport, he failed to produce a passport or any other identifying information to the immigration representative. "They'd be stolen," he claimed.
Alfred was detained and then put back on a plane to Charles de Gaulle. He was initially arrested by airport authorities for attempted unlawful entry into the country. They ultimately determined his residence inside the airport violated no laws but they were unable to permit him to enter Paris without proof of who he was or where he was from. And his ________________ would remain until Alfred himself was able to provide the necessary documentation.
Alfred decided, at least momentarily, to settle into Terminal 1 a bustling part of the pre-departures lounge which resembled a shopping center.
There was a McDonald's, an electronics store, the entrance to a hotel and hundreds of people, all too preoccupied with their own travel plans to notice him.
Amidst it all, Alfred found a red cushioned bench near a window, which overlooked an outside fountain - a view that would become _________________ familiar.
As days turned into weeks and weeks into months, Alfred became a part of the Charles de Gaulle landscape.
The night, he curled up on his red bench, his blue jacket serving as a blanket.
He'd wake up early before the airport became ________________ with passengers to maintain basic hygiene in the terminal bathroom.
He made friends with a few airport employees, such as those at McDonald's, which provided nearly all of his meals.
Occasionally, people who knew of a situation would supply him with toiletries, clothes, meal tickets, and money. And he would deposit what he didn't immediately need into a savings account which he'd open with the airport post office.
He kept his mind from ________________ on the uncertainty of his situation by reading.
Deportation was not an option, as there was no birth country on record to which he could be deported.
But who was Sir Alfred? And how far back to the roots of his misfortune stretch? And was he a victim of bureaucratic circumstance or his own mind?
