Tuesday

The history of English in ten minutes

From the Open University.

A Christmas Carol quiz.

Hi there,

After reading A Christmas Carol, do the following quiz online.
Click here

Watch the video and answer the questions below.

Charles Dickens. The Victorian Period 1832-1900.

Click here to read Charles Dickens'biography.
With the novels of Charles Dickens, a social concern with the problems of the society of the time enters the novel.
There were many social problems; the population grew from two million to six and a half million and the cities grew older.
Britain bacame the richest manufacturing country in the world; the colonies were a huge market for Britain's products.
Queen Victoria reigned from 1837-1901. When Queen Victoria became Queen, the monarchy was not very popular. There were many protests against the monarchy.
As the problems of Victorian society increased, she became more and more a symbol of Britain. The working classes were poor, lived and worked in terrible circumstances. The middle classes grew rich and comfortable.
Many writers used their works to show the social problems of the time.

Friday

Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare.


Click on the picture to read the interactive book Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare.

Monday

William Shakespeare. Biography.




Click here to read about the chronological events of Shakespeare's life:
A Shakespeare Timeline. (Biography)

Then click here to take a quiz and test your knowledge of the dates and significant events of Shakespeare's life.

Tuesday

The Reinaissance.

The Reinaissance was worldwide. It was from about 1500 to 1600. England became the most powerful nation in Europe and the English controlled the seas of the world. Queen Elizabeth became the symbol of the Golden Age, the period from 1558 to 1603 ( a period of stability).

This was the age of William Shakespeare and the Golden Age of English Drama. Shakespeare's plays were written to be performed. He was an actor himself, a playwright and the director of his company, the King's Men. His plays are still performed all over the world. The themes are still relevant.
Hamlet has become the best known of all Shakesperare's plays and the line
To be, or not to be, that is the question
is probably the most famous line in all English literature.

King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

The hero of earlier times became the man of romance in Middle English literature (1150-1485). The name of King Arthur became a symbol of English history for many centuries. The sstory of
King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table is the greatest national myth in English. There was probably a real King Arthur around the year 500; about 200 years later the story begins to appear in the spoken tradition with characters such as the magician Merlin, Guinevere and Lancelot. The sword in the stone (Excalibur) and the Holy Grail also became part of the Arthurian legend.
A children's story The Sword in the Stone was filmed by Walt Disney.


A successful film about King Arthur was filmed in the 1980s: Excalibur (Excalibur is the sword in the stone which only the hero can pull out)