ENGLISH LEARNING

 A CHRISTMAS CAROL - CHARLES DICKENS  Introduction  Charles Dickens was the most popular British novelist of his day. At the age of 24 he was famous both in Britan and America. When he died at the age of 58, he was known and loved everywhere in the world. "A Christmas Carol" is one of Dickens' best known novels. This extract has been dramatized by Walter Hackett as a radio play.  Characters  EBENEZER SCROOGE TWO BOYS NARRATOR FRED Scrooge's nephew BOB CRATCHIT, Scrooge's clerk  GENTLEMAN GHOST OF JACOB MARLEY  FIRST GHOST  FAN BELLE SECOND GHOST TIM CRATCHIT  MRS. CRATCHIT MARTHA CRATCHIT THREE OTHER CRATCHIT CHILDREN THIRS GHOST  TWO MEN  SOUND: Church Clock strikes three times. A group of young people sing "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen."  At its climax a door opens . SCROOGE : (barking) Stop it! Stop it, I say! (Singing stops) Get away from here. We'll have no singing around here. Understand me! No singing! Boy : A Merry Christmas, sir. SCROOGE :

THE NIGHT AT THE HOTEL - SIEGFRIED LENZ The night receptionist regretfully shrugged his shoulders. 'It's all we have available ,' he said. 'And at this late hour you won't find a single anywhere. It's up to you , of course, if you want to try other hotels. Let me tell you, though, even this free bed in a double room will no doubt be gone should you decide to come back for it later.' 'Very well,' Schwamm said, 'I'll take it. Only. I'm sure you'll understand, I should like to know with whom I am sharing the room. Not that I'm afraid, I have no reason to be. Is my partner - as I suppose one might almost call a person with whom one is to spend a night-already in the room?' 'Yes. He's probably asleep.'    Schwamm  filled out the registration forms and handed them back to the receptionist: then he mounted the stars. As he came within sight of the room number,   Schwamm instinctively slowed down, held his breath in the ho

 THE ROAD NOT TAKEN Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,  And sorry I could not travel both  And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down on as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence; Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one less travelled by,  And that has made all the difference. - Robert Frost  For Solved exercises of this poem, click on the link below: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJTgYmbQGweWg7n1IMh3PCA/join

ANDROCLES AND THE LION  Long ago there lived a Roman slave named Androcles. Androcles had worked all his life for his master, with never a kind word to cheer him. But Androcles dreamed of the day he would be free and one day his chance came.  He and four other men were working in a field, watched by their master, who sat with his whip, cracking it from time to time because he enjoyed seeing the slaves jump with fear. It was a hot day, and the master had eaten a good meal. Insects buzzed in the grass, and the master’s eyelids drooped . . . . . . . opened . . . . . . . . . . drooped again . . . . . . . . . . . and finally closed. Soon he lay snoring there in the shade. Androcles dropped his hoe. He stared at the sleeping master, then at the forest at the end of the field. He moved quietly over to the other men and whispered, ‘He is sleeping. We could easily escape.’ The others were horrified. ‘You know we can’t get away, Androcles,’ cried one. ‘Runaway slaves are always caught. The

The Eagle and the Beetle A beetle loved a certain hare And wandered with him everywhere; They went to fairs and feasts together,  Took walks in any kind of weather,  Talked of the future and the past  On sunny days or overcast,  But, since their friendship was so pleasant,  Lived for the most part in the present.  One day, alas, an eagle flew Above them, and before they knew What cloud had shadowed them, the hare Hung from her talons in mid-air.  'Please spare my friend,' the beetle cried.  But the great eagle was sneered with pride: 'You puny, servile, cloddish bug - Go off and hide your ugly mug.  How do you dare assume the right To meddle with my appetite?  This hare's my snack. Have you not heard I am the great god Zeus's bird?  Nothing can harm me, least of all A slow, pathetic, droning ball.  Here, keep your friend's head' And she tore The hare's head off, and swiftly bore His bleeding torso to her nest,  Ripped off his tail, and ate the rest. 

THE FUN THEY HAD EXPLANATION : BEFORE YOU READ  The story we shall read is set in the future, when books and schools as we now know them will perhaps not exist. How will children study then? The diagram below may give you some ideas. Explanation : The story of this lesson is set in the future. It compares the schools, textbooks of today's world with that of the future. In other words, the story of this lesson compares the educational system of today's world with that of the future. Now let us look at the diagram below to have some idea regarding schools of the future. Now  let us read the story and try to understand what it is all about! Passage : MARGIE even wrote about it that night in her diary. On the page headed 17 May 2157, she wrote, "Today Tommy found a real book!"                 It was a very old book. Margie's grandfather once said that when he was a little boy his grandfather told him that there was a time when all stories were printed on paper.