Are you a bookworm? Do the quiz on literary genres. Check answers in a dictionary.
QUIZ
1. A(n) _ story is an exciting story about a hero who goes on an unusual journey and does new and dangerous things.
A. comedy
B. adventure
C. suspense
2. A _ story is about events that take place in the future or in space and usually describes strange creatures and robots.
A. mystery
B. drama
C. science fiction
3. A _ is a serious and emotional play, written for the theatre, television or radio.
A. drama
B. comedy
C. novel
4. A _ is a story about a crime or a strange event that is difficult to explain.
A. mystery
B. legend
C. fairy tale
5. A(n) _ is a funny story with a happy ending.
A. adventure
B. myth
C. humorous story
6. A _ is the story of a person’s life written by another person.
A. novel
B. biography
C. history
a) Who are the authors/characters in the pictures? What do they have in common?
b) Think of two questions about these fictional characters: Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, Sherlock Holmes and Captain Nemo. Read, listen and see if you can answer them.
Excitement, adventure, and mystery all make up the world of fiction. And here are some of the greatest names in fiction.
Who was the ‘Queen of Crime’? Agatha Christie, of course, the world’s best known mystery writer. Agatha Christie was born in Devon, England in 1890, and she created many fictional detectives. The most famous are Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Hercule Poirot is a Belgian detective, famous for his neat appearance, his obsession with order and his use of psychology in his investigations of crimes. Miss Marple, on the other hand, is nothing like a typical detective. At first glance she is an ordinary old lady who loves knitting and gossip but she can solve the hardest of mysteries and puts many criminals behind bars!
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1859. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh. It was one of his professors that inspired him to create the most brilliant detective ever, Sherlock Holmes. Holmes’ extraordinary powers of observation help him solve the most mysterious cases with the help of his faithful companion, Dr Watson. Holmes is very logical and extremely intelligent. He wears a cape and hat, smokes a pipe and uses a magnifying glass.
Jules Verne lived in Nantes – on the west coast of France. He loved the sea, and when he was only 12, he tried to run away on a ship to the West Indies. Unfortunately for him, the sailors caught him and sent him home. Jules had a great imagination and wrote several adventure stories and created mysterious characters like Captain Nemo. In Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Captain Nemo travels under the sea in his submarine, the Nautilus. On his journeys he meets strange sea creatures and finds an underwater city.
Read again. Who …
1. solves crimes with a partner?
2. always wants to be neat and tidy?
3. doesn’t look like a detective?
4. wrote adventure novels?
5. travels in a submarine?
a) Explain the words in bold. Then match the underlined adjectives to their synonyms.
• well known
• unusual
• amazing
• clever
• ordinary
• loyal
b) Use the underlined adjectives to describe other fictional characters.
You are one of the authors/characters in the texts. Introduce yourself and talk to the class about your life.
a) Find the regular and irregular past forms in the text.
b) Complete the questions with the correct form of the verb. Mind the spelling rules. Then, answer them.
1. _ (Arthur Conan Doyle/write) poems?
2. _ (Agatha Christie/be) a famous writer?
3. What _ (Arthur Conan Doyle/study)?
4. What _ (Jules Verne/do) when he was 12?
5. Which characters _ (Jules Verne/create)?
6. Where _ (Agatha Christie/be born)?
c) Use verbs in the Past Simple to make sentences about your favourite writer and his/her fictional characters.
Leo Tolstoy wrote ‘War and Peace’.
Complete the gaps with the Past Simple form of the verb in brackets.
1. H. G. Wells’ War of the Worlds _ (cause) panic when people first _ (hear) it on the radio, in 1938.
2. Daniel Defoe _ (use) the real adventures of sailor A. Selkirk to write Robinson Crusoe.
3. William Shakespeare often _ (act) in his own plays.
4. The English poet, Byron _ (fight) in the Greek war of independence in 1821.
5. Herman Melville _ (travel) to many places and then he _ (write) Moby Dick.
6. Mary Shelley _ (speak) with Lord Byron and then she _ (create) the monster in Frankenstein.
Ask and answer questions about the authors in the text or your favourite authors and their works. What is your favourite genre? When and where do you prefer to read?
Portfolio: Collect information using the Internet, then write an article for your school newspaper about your favourite author. Write:
• where he/she was born
• what he/she did before writing
• what famous character(s) he/she wrote about
• what the famous character(s) are like