Level 2 l Intermediate

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Frederick Manning
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1 1 Warmer What do you know about William Shakespeare? Name as many of his plays as you can. 2 Key words Fill the gaps in the sentences with these key words from the text. The paragraph numbers are given to help you. showcase anniversary fortune underestimate audacious demolish scribble foundations will bard 1. A is a poet. (para 1) 2. A is a very large amount of money. (para 2) 3. An is a date when people celebrate something important that happened in the past. (para 3) 4. If you something, you show it in a way that attracts attention and emphasizes its good qualities. (para 3) 5. If you something, you write it quickly and carelessly. (para 5) 6. A is a legal document that explains what you want to happen to your money and your possessions after you die. (para 7) 7. An action is one that is done with extreme confidence, despite difficulties, risks or the negative attitude of other people. (para 7) 8. If you something, you think that it is less important than it really is. (para 9) 9. If you a building, you destroy it completely. (para 11) 10. The are the part of a building that is below the ground and which supports the rest of it. (para 12) 3 Find the information Find the following information in the text as quickly as possible. 1. In what year did William Shakespeare die? 2. How many of his plays will be shown at a pop-up cinema in London. 3. What was the name of the house Shakespeare bought in 1597? 4. When was the house demolished? 5. How many of Shakespeare s signatures will be displayed at the London exhibition? 6. What is the First Folio?

2 Shakespeare s 400th anniversary: man of Stratford to be celebrated in 2016 Maev Kennedy 1 January, The world shares him and London claims him but Stratford-upon-Avon intends to spend 2016 celebrating William Shakespeare as their man: the bard of Avon, born in the Warwickshire market town in 1564, who died there 400 years ago. 2 Stratford remained hugely important during Shakespeare s life, says Paul Edmondson, the head of learning and research at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. People often see Shakespeare as someone who turned his back on Stratford and his family, went to London to earn his fortune and only came back to die, he said. But Stratford is where he bought land and property, where he kept his library, where he lived and read and thought. We are going to spend the year re-emphasizing the importance of Shakespeare, the man of Stratford. 3 The anniversary of the death of the man from Stratford, the most famous and the most performed playwright in the world, will be celebrated across Britain and the globe. Macbeth will open in Singapore, Romeo and Juliet in Brussels. Shakespeare s Globe is completing the first world tour in the history of theatre. It has taken Hamlet to every country except North Korea. In London, they are also creating a 37-screen pop-up cinema, one screen to showcase each of Shakespeare s plays. 4 The National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and nearly every other theatre production company in the country will celebrate the anniversary. Interpretations of the plays will range from the highly traditional to the experimental. There will also be hundreds of lectures, recitals, international academic conferences, films, concerts, operas and major exhibitions. 5 For a man famous in his own lifetime, there is little documentary evidence for Shakespeare s life and times. The plays would probably not have survived if his friends and fellow actors had not gathered together every bit of every play they could find drafts, prompt scripts, scribbled actors parts and 17 plays not known in any other version into the precious First Folio published in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare s death. 6 The actor Mark Rylance has called it his favourite book in the world and most of the surviving First Folios will be on display including those belonging to the British and Bodleian libraries, and a tattered copy recently discovered in France. Some of the most precious surviving documents will be collected together in an exhibition at Somerset House in London, including four of his six known signatures, which are all slightly different. 7 The exhibition, By Me, William Shakespeare, will include his will, the court papers relating to the audacious move when Shakespeare and his fellow actors dismantled a theatre on the north side of the Thames and rebuilt it as the Globe on the South Bank, and accounts showing payments from the royal treasury for Boxing Day performances for James I and Queen Anne. 8 The director of the Globe, Dominic Dromgoole, recently jokily claimed Shakespeare was a true Londoner. Stratford, however, will be insisting that the town made and educated Shakespeare. They are restoring his old school room. It will open as a permanent visitor attraction. 9 Shakespeare bought the splendid New Place, the second best house in the town, where he died, according to literary legend, on St George s Day, 23 April, the same day as his birth. You don t buy a house like New Place and not live there, Paul Edmondson said. The general public and many academics have consistently underestimated the importance of Stratford to Shakespeare. 10 Edmondson believes that, after Shakespeare bought the house in 1597, all his thinking time was spent there and that the late plays, including The Tempest, were at least planned in his library and probably written there. The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust describes New Place as the jewel in the crown of the 400th anniversary celebrations. 11 However, Shakespeare s house was demolished 300 years ago and the house that replaced it was demolished in 1759 by a bad-tempered priest, Francis Gastrell, in an argument over taxes. He had already cut down Shakespeare s mulberry tree, under which the writer is said to have sat and worked, because he was irritated by all the tourists peering into his garden. 12 The gap where the house was has never been filled. But the news that Shakespeare s kitchen had been found in the partly surviving cellars went round the world. The whole site is being displayed for the anniversary, with the

3 foundations marked and the garden restored. Without Stratford, Edmondson said, there would have been no Shakespeare. Guardian News and Media 2016 First published in The Guardian, 01/01/16 4 Comprehension check Are these statements true (T) or false (F) according to the text? 1. Shakespeare was born in London. 2. Hamlet has been performed in North Korea. 3. By Me, William Shakespeare is the title of a book about Shakespeare. 4. New Place was the best house in Stratford-upon-Avon. 5. The mulberry tree was cut down because the priest didn t like tourists peering into his garden. 6. Shakespeare s kitchen has recently been found. 5 Find the word Find the following words and phrases in the text. 1. a verb meaning give particular importance to something again (para 2) 2. a noun meaning a person who writes plays (para 3) 3. a noun meaning a performance of music or poetry (para 4) 4. a two-word verb phrase meaning collect (para 5) 5. an adjective meaning in a very bad condition because parts have been torn (para 6) 6. a verb meaning take something apart completely so that it is in small pieces (para 7) 7. an adverb meaning as a joke (para 8) 8. a verb meaning look very carefully, especially because something is difficult to see (para 11) 6 Two-word expressions Match the words in the left-hand column with those in the right-hand column to make expressions from the text. 1. documentary 2. world 3. on 4. visitor 5. market 6. court a. display b. evidence c. town d. papers e. attraction f. tour

4 7 Word-building Complete the table using words from the text. noun adjective 1. tradition 2. experiment 3. document verb 4. interpret 5. attract 6. recite noun 8 Discussion Would you like to visit Stratford-upon-Avon? Why? Why not? Do you go to the theatre? Why? Why not? Who is the most important literary figure in your country? Why is he or she important?

5 KEY 1 Warmer Comedies The Tempest Two Gentlemen of Verona The Merry Wives of Windsor Measure for Measure The Comedy of Errors Much Ado About Nothing Love s Labour s Lost A Midsummer Night s Dream The Merchant of Venice As You Like It The Taming of the Shrew All s Well That Ends Well Twelfth Night The Winter s Tale Pericles, Prince of Tyre Histories King John Richard II Henry IV, Part 1 Henry IV, Part 2 Henry V Henry VI, Part 1 Henry VI, Part 2 Henry VI, Part 3 Richard III Henry VIII Tragedies Troilus and Cressida Coriolanus Titus Andronicus Romeo and Juliet Timon of Athens Julius Caesar Macbeth Hamlet King Lear Othello Antony and Cleopatra Cymbeline 2 Key words 1. bard 2. fortune 3. anniversary 4. showcase 5. scribble 6. will 7. audacious 8. underestimate 9. demolish 10. foundations 3 Find the information (all of them) 3. New Place years ago 5. four 6. a collection of Shakespeare s plays published in Comprehension check 1. F 2. F 3. F 4. F 5. T 6. T 5 Find the word 1. re-emphasize 2. playwright 3. recital 4. gather together 5. tattered 6. dismantle 7. jokily 8. peer

6 KEY 6 Two-word expressions 1. b 2. f 3. a 4. e 5. c 6. d 7 Word-building 1. traditional 2. experimental 3. documentary 4. interpretation 5. attraction 6. recital

Chronology of Shakespeare-related dates c.1530-1709

Chronology of Shakespeare-related dates c.1530-1709 BEFORE: c1530 c1555 c1557 John Shakespeare born in the village of Snitterfield, near Stratford-upon-Avon Anne Hathaway, William s future wife, is born