Fill the gaps in the sentences with these key words from the text. The paragraph numbers will help you.

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Paula Holland
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1 1 Warmer What do you know about William Shakespeare? Can you name any of his plays? 2 Key words Fill the gaps in the sentences with these key words from the text. The paragraph numbers will help you. playwright claim re-emphasize anniversary fortune 1. If you something, you say that it is yours. (para 1) 2. A is a very large amount of money. (para 2) 3. If you something, you say again how important it is. (para 2) 4. An is a date when people celebrate something important that happened in the past. (para 3) 5. A is a person who writes plays. (para 3) dismantle demolish underestimate foundations will 6. A is a legal document that explains what you want to happen to your money and your things after you die. (para 7) 7. If you something, you take it apart completely so that it is in small pieces. (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. When was the First Folio published? 4. What was the name of the house Shakespeare bought in 1597? 5. When was the house demolished? 6. When was the house that replaced New Place destroyed?

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 is going to spend 2016 celebrating William Shakespeare as their man. He was born in the Warwickshire market town in 1564 and died there 400 years ago. 2 Stratford was important to Shakespeare all his life, says Paul Edmondson, the head of learning and research at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. People often think Shakespeare left 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 houses, 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 world. There will be performances of Macbeth in Singapore and Romeo and Juliet in Brussels. Shakespeare s Globe is completing the first world tour in the history of theatre. During the tour, 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 show each of Shakespeare s plays. 4 The National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and almost every other theatre production company in the country will celebrate the anniversary. There will be traditional and experimental performances of the plays. There will also be hundreds of lectures, international conferences, films, concerts, operas and major exhibitions. 5 Shakespeare was famous in his own lifetime but there is little documentary evidence about Shakespeare s life and times. His plays survived because his friends and actors collected together every bit of every play they could find and made the First Folio, published in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare s death. 6 The actor Mark Rylance has called the First Folio his favourite book in the world and most of the surviving First Folios will be on display including those that belong to the British and Bodleian libraries, and a copy recently discovered in France. Some of the most precious documents will be shown in an exhibition in London. 7 The exhibition, By Me, William Shakespeare, will include his will, documents from the time when Shakespeare and other actors dismantled a theatre on the north side of the Thames and rebuilt it as the Globe on the South Bank, and details of payments for performances for James I and Queen Anne. 8 The director of the Globe Theatre recently said as a joke that Shakespeare was a true London man. But people in Stratford believe that the town made and educated Shakespeare. They are rebuilding his old school room and will open it as a visitor attraction. 9 Shakespeare bought New Place, the second best house in the town, where he died in 1616 on 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 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. He says the late plays were planned in his library and probably written there. 11 Shakespeare s house was demolished 300 years ago. Another house was built in the same place. That house was destroyed in 1759 by a badtempered priest, Francis Gastrell, in an argument about taxes. He also cut down Shakespeare s mulberry tree, under which the writer sat and worked, because he didn t like all the tourists looking into his garden. 12 The house has never been rebuilt but they have found Shakespeare s kitchen in the cellars. The area where the house was will be on display for the anniversary, with the 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

3 4 Comprehension check Match the beginnings and endings to make statements about the text. 1. Although Shakespeare lived and worked in London, 2. Shakespeare kept 3. A large number of theatre companies 4. Shakespeare and other actors dismantled a theatre on one side of the River Thames 5. The priest cut down Shakespeare s mulberry tree because 6. Shakespeare used to a. will celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare s death. b. sit and work under a mulberry tree. c. and rebuilt it on the other side. d. Stratford-upon-Avon was very important to him. e. his library in Stratford-upon-Avon. f. he didn t like all the tourists looking into his garden. 5 Chunks Rearrange the words to make phrases from the text. 1. playwright the most world famous in the 2. hundreds of be there lectures will also 3. house in second the town the best 4. Shakespeare the made and town educated 5. never rebuilt has the house been 6. lifetime his in own 6 Two-word expressions Match the words in the left-hand column with the words in the right-hand column to make expressions from the text. 1. general 2. pop-up 3. thinking 4. visitor 5. world 6. on a. display b. public c. tour d. cinema e. attraction f. time

4 7 Word-building Complete the table using words from the text. noun adjective 1. tradition 2. experiment 3. fame verb 4. perform 5. attract 6. exhibit noun 8 Discussion Who is the most important literary figure in your country? Why is he or she important? Do you go to the theatre? Why? Why not?

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. claim 2. fortune 3. re-emphasize 4. anniversary 5. playwright 6. will 7. dismantle 8. underestimate 9. demolish 10. foundations 3 Find the information New Place years ago Comprehension check 1. d 2. e 3. a 4. c 5. f 6. b 5 Chunks 1. the most famous playwright in the world 2. there will also be hundreds of lectures 3. the second best house in the town 4. the town made and educated Shakespeare 5. the house has never been rebuilt 6. in his own lifetime

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

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