The most popular novelist was Charles Dickens. If he were alive, he would be 199 years old today, February 7th. This post just intends to be a small tribute to the greatest novelist in the history of English literature.
His books were funny and exciting, but with a serious message. He described the hard lives of poor people. The rich read his books and began to understand the terrible social problems which existed at that time.
In Oliver Twist we meet a little boy in an orphanage. He is hungry and asks for more food. He gets into serious trouble and that is when his adventures begin.
One of his most famous stories is A Christmas Carol. In it we see the mean employer, Scrooge. Even at Christmas he gives nothing extra to his poor employees. One of them, Bob Cratchitt, has a son who can´t walk, and they have a very hard life. But this is a happy story. In the novel Scrooge meets some ghosts who make him change his ideas. He becomes loving and generous, and gives wonderful Christmas presents to everyone. Today, his name is part of the English language: we often call a mean person a "scrooge".
Source: The World of English by Mark Farrell with Regina Ceriani and Franca Rossi. Longman 1995
Now, say whether the following sentences are TRUE or FALSE. Give evidence from the text:
1. Life was easy for most English people in the 19th century.
2. Scrooge had always been a generous man.
3. Everybody in England used to read Dickens´s novels.
4. Bob Cratchitt and his family used to have difficulties.
Find words in the text that mean:
1. Low in price
2. Chapters
3. Difficult
4. Starving
5. Spirits
6. Gifts
