KING ARTHUR AND HIS KNIGHTS

KING ARTHUR AND HIS KNIGHTS. This is the first book of a series of Cheap Graded Readers for Students. Due to the difficult times we are living in we cannot spend too much money in school books, so this is our economic proposal.

This books has also activities carried out by INTERMEDIATE students ( A2, B1, Bachillerato 1, 2) or by those who want to update their "English" reading comprehension .This book can be use in the English classroom in an easy and effective way, since the students can dowload the book at home and print it for the cheapest price. They don't have to wait to get the book for two weeks , they will get it in five minutes!

If you want to read the book press the cover.

 

 

Nota para España:

Este libro pertenece a una nueva colección de lecturas graduadas para el estudiante de Inglés. La Leyenda del Rey Arturo, está destinado a estudiantes de nivel intermedio (A2, B1) y alumnado de Bachillerato 1º y 2º o Escuela Oficial de Idiomas.

 

Esta nueva colección pretende ofrecer versines muy económicas para que el alumnado pueda descargar desde casa una copia del libro y poder leeerlo sin tener que desemb



THE MOONSTONE (2nd Bachillerato)

SUMMARY PLOT


The is set in the 19th century, and it is considered the first detective story of British literature. The story has got many characters, although the most important ones are Rachel, Blake and Ablewhite and the love triangle formed among them.
The moonstone , a huge yellow diamond, is the other protagonist in the story; since it provokes all the problems and subplots in the story. As in most of Collins' stories we don't know who is the thief until the end of the story. Appearances don't seem to be what they are, and although the reader can think that the thief is Blake, we'll discover that another man with a better reputation is the guilty person.
Meanwhile, we discover step by step clues to find out the truth. Sergeant Cuff and Mr Betteredge are the best detectives to discover the mistery.
There are also grief moments in the book such as when Rosanna kills herself because she discovers that Blake doesn't love her. She also thinks that he is the person who stole the diamond , because she found some paint on his nightgown .
Ablewhite asks Rachel to marry him, she accepts but she discovers that he was only interested in her money later; so the engagement is broken.
Rachel is angry with Blake because she saw him taking the diamond the night of her birthday, but she discovers that he sleepwalked and fogives him. Someone took advantage of his state that night.
At the end Love, another basic subplot in the story, wins and Rachel finds in Blake the man she fell in love in the past. The thief was foud suffocated with his pillow by the indians. He was a gambler and had a double life.
The epilogue shows us the traveller Murthwaite and his finding the diamond in India where it should always had been.


R.Alcolea

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING / MUCHO RUIDO Y POCAS NUECES

Plot Overview, (RESUMEN DE LA OBRA):

Leonato, a kindly, respectable nobleman, lives in the idyllic Italian town of Messina. Leonato shares his house with his lovely young daughter, Hero, his playful, clever niece, Beatrice, and his elderly brother, Antonio. As the play begins, Leonato prepares to welcome some friends home from a war. The friends include Don Pedro, a prince who is a close friend of Leonato, and two fellow soldiers: Claudio, a well-respected young nobleman, and Benedick, a clever man who constantly makes witty jokes, often at the expense of his friends. Don John, Don Pedro’s illegitimate brother, is part of the crowd as well. Don John is sullen and bitter, and makes trouble for the others.

When the soldiers arrive at Leonato’s home, Claudio quickly falls in love with Hero. Meanwhile, Benedick and Beatrice resume the war of witty insults that they have carried on with each other in the past. Claudio and Hero pledge their love to one another and decide to be married. To pass the time in the week before the wedding, the lovers and their friends decide to play a game. They want to get Beatrice and Benedick, who are clearly meant for each other, to stop arguing and fall in love. Their tricks prove successful, and Beatrice and Benedick soon fall secretly in love with each other.

But Don John has decided to disrupt everyone’s happiness. He has his companion Borachio make love to Margaret, Hero’s serving woman, at Hero’s window in the darkness of the night, and he brings Don Pedro and Claudio to watch. Believing that he has seen Hero being unfaithful to him, the enraged Claudio humiliates Hero by suddenly accusing her of lechery on the day of their wedding and abandoning her at the altar. Hero’s stricken family members decide to pretend that she died suddenly of shock and grief and to hide her away while they wait for the truth about her innocence to come to light. In the aftermath of the rejection, Benedick and Beatrice finally confess their love to one another. Fortunately, the night watchmen overhear Borachio bragging about his crime. Dogberry and Verges, the heads of the local police, ultimately arrest both Borachio and Conrad, another of Don John’s followers. Everyone learns that Hero is really innocent, and Claudio, who believes she is dead, grieves for her.

Leonato tells Claudio that, as punishment, he wants Claudio to tell everybody in the city how innocent Hero was. He also wants Claudio to marry Leonato’s “niece”—a girl who, he says, looks much like the dead Hero. Claudio goes to church with the others, preparing to marry the mysterious, masked woman he thinks is Hero’s cousin. When Hero reveals herself as the masked woman, Claudio is overwhelmed with joy. Benedick then asks Beatrice if she will marry him, and after some arguing they agree. The joyful lovers all have a merry dance before they celebrate their double wedding.

QUIZ / CHECK YOUR COMPREHENSION OF THE STORY:
1. Who refuses to marry in the beginning of the play?

(A) Hero
(B) Don Pedro and Don John
(C) Benedick and Beatrice
(D) Hero and Claudio

2. Where and when does the play take place?

(A) England, fourteenth century
(B) Florence, fifteenth century
(C) Sicily, sixteenth century
(D) Paris, seventeenth century

3. How does Claudio woo Hero?

(A) He doesn’t; Don Pedro does
(B) He writes her a sonnet
(C) He serenades her window at night
(D) He asks her father to tell her that he loves her

4. At the beginning of the play, what is Beatrice’s relationship to Benedick?

(A) Lover
(B) Enemy
(C) Wife
(D) Sister-in-law

5. Who is Leonato?

(A) Beatrice’s father
(B) Don Pedro and Don John’s father
(C) Claudio’s father
(D) Hero’s father

6. What does Don John want?

(A) To marry Hero
(B) To make Beatrice and Benedick fall in love
(C) To ruin Claudio
(D) To kill Dogberry and Verges

7. Who carries out Don John’s plan?

(A) Balthasar and Antonio
(B) Dogberry and Verges
(C) Claudio and Don Pedro
(D) Borachio and Margaret

8. What reason does Don John give for his sullenness?

(A) Too many people have wronged him
(B) It’s in his nature
(C) It’s an act to gain sympathy
(D) He thinks that noblewomen are attracted to brooding types

9. Who is said to be “an ass”?

(A) Dogberry
(B) Borachio
(C) Verges
(D) Conrad

10. Why does Claudio reject Hero at the altar?

(A) She smells like a rotten orange
(B) He thinks she lied to him about her wealth
(C) He thinks she cheated on him and lost her virginity
(D) He decides he just isn’t ready to get married

11. Who discovers Don John’s evil plot?

(A) Benedick
(B) Margaret
(C) Leonato’s household
(D) The Watch

12. What does Leonato’s household do to punish Claudio for shaming Hero?

(A) He pretends Hero is dead and challenges Claudio to a duel
(B) He drives Claudio out of town
(C) He violently beats Claudio
(D) Absolutely nothing at all

13. Which two characters write love sonnets?

(A) Claudio and Don Pedro
(B) Claudio and Hero
(C) Beatrice and Benedick
(D) Don Pedro and Beatrice

14. To whom does Don Pedro propose marriage?

(A) Hero
(B) Ursula
(C) Beatrice
(D) Margaret

15. Why is Margaret mistaken for Hero?

(A) She is wearing a mask
(B) She is wearing Hero’s makeup
(C) She is wearing a red sash
(D) She is wearing Hero’s clothes

16. Which character is sad at the end of the play?

(A) Don Pedro
(B) Don John
(C) Benedick
(D) Hero

17. What makes Claudio realize that he wrongly accused Hero?

(A) A note that she left him
(B) His utter remorse at having publicly shamed her
(C) Leonato’s harsh reprimands
(D) Borachio’s confession of Don John’s plot

18. When was this play probably first performed?

(A) 1850s
(B) 1580s
(C) 1623
(D) 1599

19. How do Don Pedro and Claudio make Benedick fall in love with Beatrice?

(A) They convince him of her virtues
(B) They have him overhear their conversation in which they assert that she is in love with him
(C) They force him to spend one evening locked in a room alone with her
(D) They insult, humiliate, and belittle him until he agrees to love her

20. Have Beatrice and Benedick courted before?

(A) Yes, but Benedick left her
(B) No, because they’re enemies
(C) Yes, but Beatrice left him
(D) They had a blind date when they were younger, but neither of them was interested

21. Why is it necessary for Hero to seem to die?

(A) Because she is very tired and worn out
(B) Because she is pregnant
(C) Because her reputation has been publicly tarnished
(D) Because she cheated on Claudio

22. What term best describes Dogberry’s verbal comedy?

(A) Slapstick
(B) Malapropism
(C) Witty banter
(D) Hyperbole

23. What is Balthasar’s song in Act II, scene iii about?

(A) The infidelity of men
(B) The infidelity of women
(C) The beauty of love
(D) The wind and the rain

24. What does the “savage bull” symbolize (I.i.213; V.iv.43)?

(A) Happiness in marriage
(B) A world without law
(C) A soldier’s honor
(D) The man unwilling to marry

25. Who is the most socially powerful person in the play?

(A) Leonato
(B) Beatrice
(C) Don Pedro
(D) Dogberry

KEYS: 1C,2C,3A,4B,5D,6C,7D,8B,9A,10C,11D,12A,13C,14C,15D,16A,17D,18D,19B,20A,21C,22B,23A,24D,25C

TWO SHAKESPEAREAN COMEDIES : TWELFTH NIGHT AND MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

TWELFTH NIGHT

Plot Overview / RESUMEN DEL LIBRO:

In the kingdom of Illyria, a nobleman named Orsino lies around listening to music, pining away for the love of Lady Olivia. He cannot have her because she is in mourning for her dead brother and refuses to entertain any proposals of marriage. Meanwhile, off the coast, a storm has caused a terrible shipwreck. A young, aristocratic-born woman named Viola is swept onto the Illyrian shore. Finding herself alone in a strange land, she assumes that her twin brother, Sebastian, has been drowned in the wreck, and tries to figure out what sort of work she can do. A friendly sea captain tells her about Orsino’s courtship of Olivia, and Viola says that she wishes she could go to work in Olivia’s home. But since Lady Olivia refuses to talk with any strangers, Viola decides that she cannot look for work with her. Instead, she decides to disguise herself as a man, taking on the name of Cesario, and goes to work in the household of Duke Orsino.
Viola (disguised as Cesario) quickly becomes a favorite of Orsino, who makes Cesario his page. Viola finds herself falling in love with Orsino—a difficult love to pursue, as Orsino believes her to be a man. But when Orsino sends Cesario to deliver Orsino’s love messages to the disdainful Olivia, Olivia herself falls for the beautiful young Cesario, believing her to be a man. The love triangle is complete: Viola loves Orsino, Orsino loves Olivia, and Olivia loves Cesario—and everyone is miserable.

Meanwhile, we meet the other members of Olivia’s household: her rowdy drunkard of an uncle, Sir Toby; his foolish friend, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, who is trying in his hopeless way to court Olivia; Olivia’s witty and pretty waiting-gentlewoman, Maria; Feste, the clever clown of the house; and Malvolio, the dour, prudish steward of Olivia’s household. When Sir Toby and the others take offense at Malvolio’s constant efforts to spoil their fun, Maria engineers a practical joke to make Malvolio think that Olivia is in love with him. She forges a letter, supposedly from Olivia, addressed to her beloved (whose name is signified by the letters M.O.A.I.), telling him that if he wants to earn her favor, he should dress in yellow stockings and crossed garters, act haughtily, smile constantly, and refuse to explain himself to anyone. Malvolio finds the letter, assumes that it is addressed to him, and, filled with dreams of marrying Olivia and becoming noble himself, happily follows its commands. He behaves so strangely that Olivia comes to think that he is mad.

Meanwhile, Sebastian, who is still alive after all but believes his sister Viola to be dead, arrives in Illyria along with his friend and protector, Antonio. Antonio has cared for Sebastian since the shipwreck and is passionately (and perhaps sexually) attached to the young man—so much so that he follows him to Orsino’s domain, in spite of the fact that he and Orsino are old enemies.

Sir Andrew, observing Olivia’s attraction to Cesario (still Viola in disguise), challenges Cesario to a duel. Sir Toby, who sees the prospective duel as entertaining fun, eggs Sir Andrew on. However, when Sebastian—who looks just like the disguised Viola—appears on the scene, Sir Andrew and Sir Toby end up coming to blows with Sebastian, thinking that he is Cesario. Olivia enters amid the confusion. Encountering Sebastian and thinking that he is Cesario, she asks him to marry her. He is baffled, since he has never seen her before. He sees, however, that she is wealthy and beautiful, and he is therefore more than willing to go along with her. Meanwhile, Antonio has been arrested by Orsino’s officers and now begs Cesario for help, mistaking him for Sebastian. Viola denies knowing Antonio, and Antonio is dragged off, crying out that Sebastian has betrayed him. Suddenly, Viola has newfound hope that her brother may be alive.

Malvolio’s supposed madness has allowed the gleeful Maria, Toby, and the rest to lock Malvolio into a small, dark room for his treatment, and they torment him at will. Feste dresses up as "Sir Topas," a priest, and pretends to examine Malvolio, declaring him definitely insane in spite of his protests. However, Sir Toby begins to think better of the joke, and they allow Malvolio to send a letter to Olivia, in which he asks to be released.

Eventually, Viola (still disguised as Cesario) and Orsino make their way to Olivia’s house, where Olivia welcomes Cesario as her new husband, thinking him to be Sebastian, whom she has just married. Orsino is furious, but then Sebastian himself appears on the scene, and all is revealed. The siblings are joyfully reunited, and Orsino realizes that he loves Viola, now that he knows she is a woman, and asks her to marry him. We discover that Sir Toby and Maria have also been married privately. Finally, someone remembers Malvolio and lets him out of the dark room. The trick is revealed in full, and the embittered Malvolio storms off, leaving the happy couples to their celebration.

Quiz / CHECK YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE PLAY / compureba si te has enterado!
Scroll through the page to review your answers. The correct answer is highlighted in green. Your incorrect answers (if any) are highlighted in red. If you'd like to take the test over again, click the reset button at the end of the test.


1. Who is Orsino in love with at the beginning of the play?

(A) Olivia
(B) Viola
(C) Maria
(D) Malvolio

2. Complete the quote: "If music be the food of _____, play on."

(A) Sleep
(B) Sorrow
(C) Love
(D) Joy

3. Where does Twelfth Night take place?

(A) England
(B) Illyria
(C) Ruritania
(D) Denmark

4. Why is Olivia unwilling to receive any visitors?

(A) She is hideously deformed
(B) She is terribly shy
(C) She cannot speak
(D) She is in mourning for her dead brother

5. How does Viola come to be at Orsino’s court?

(A) She is shipwrecked nearby
(B) She is captured and made a slave
(C) She is invited to be a guest of Orsino
(D) She is Orsino’s daughter

6. Why is Sir Andrew Aguecheek staying at Olivia’s home?

(A) He is her uncle
(B) He is trying to court Maria
(C) He is trying to court Olivia
(D) He is Malvolio’s brother

7. How does Viola disguise herself?

(A) She puts on makeup to make herself resemble an old woman
(B) She dresses like a man
(C) She shaves her head and wears a false beard
(D) She does not disguise herself

8. What is Malvolio’s position?

(A) He is Orsino’s fool
(B) He is Viola’s butler
(C) He is Sir Toby’s butler
(D) He is Olivia’s steward

9. What is Sir Toby’s great vice?

(A) He is a drunkard
(B) He is a glutton
(C) He enjoys pornography
(D) He has no vices

10. Who does Orsino send to carry his messages to Olivia?

(A) Malvolio
(B) Feste
(C) Viola, disguised as Cesario
(D) Sebastian

11. Who does Viola fall in love with?

(A) Malvolio
(B) Orsino
(C) Sir Toby
(D) Olivia

12. Who does Olivia fall in love with?

(A) Orsino
(B) Malvolio
(C) Antonio
(D) Viola, in her disguise as Cesario

13. Who is Sebastian?

(A) Viola’s brother
(B) Orsino’s cousin
(C) Olivia’s fool
(D) Malvolio’s son

14. Who forges the letter that Malvolio thinks is from Olivia?

(A) Feste
(B) Sir Toby
(C) Maria
(D) Viola

15. What does the forged letter make Malvolio believe?

(A) That Maria is in love with him
(B) That he is going to inherit a fortune
(C) That Viola is in love with him
(D) That Olivia is in love with him

16. Who takes care of Sebastian after he is shipwrecked?

(A) Viola
(B) Feste
(C) Malvolio
(D) Antonio

17. Who challenges Cesario to a duel?

(A) Orsino
(B) Sir Andrew
(C) Malvolio
(D) Antonio

18. What does Malvolio wear in the hope of pleasing Olivia?

(A) Green leggings
(B) Women’s clothing
(C) Yellow stockings and crossed garters
(D) A red wig and silver pantaloons

19. Why does Antonio travel to Illyria?

(A) To be close to Sebastian
(B) To get revenge on Orsino
(C) To woo Olivia
(D) He does not travel

20. Why does Sir Andrew try to fight with Sebastian?

(A) He thinks that Sebastian has killed Orsino
(B) He thinks that Sebastian wants to kill Sir Toby
(C) He thinks that Sebastian is in love with Maria
(D) He thinks that Sebastian is Cesario

21. What do Sir Toby and the others do to Malvolio?

(A) They kill him
(B) They lock him in a dark room and tell him he is mad
(C) They tar and feather him
(D) They get him drunk and convince him to sing with them

22. What disguise does Feste wear when he speaks with Malvolio?

(A) Cesario
(B) Olivia
(C) Sir Topas, the curate
(D) An angel

23. Who does Olivia marry?

(A) Sebastian
(B) Antonio
(C) Orsino
(D) Malvolio

24. When he realizes that Cesario is a woman, what does Orsino do?

(A) He orders her executed
(B) He banishes her
(C) He betroths her to Antonio
(D) He decides to marry her

25. Which character does not get married (or plan to) at the end of the play?

(A) Orsino
(B) Sir Toby
(C) Sebastian
(D) Malvolio

Note: Much ado about nothing has its own post.