Shakespeare’s 400th anniversary
Level 1 l Elementary / Pre-intermediate 1 Warmer What do you know about William Shakespeare? Can you name any of his plays?
2 Key words playwright
claim
re-emphasize
anniversary
fortune
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If you _______________________ something, you say that it is yours. (para 1)
2.
A _______________________ is a very large amount of money. (para 2)
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If you _______________________ something, you say again how important it is. (para 2)
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An _______________________ is a date when people celebrate something important that happened in the past. (para 3)
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A _______________________ is a person who writes plays. (para 3)
3 Find the information Find the following information in the text as quickly as possible. 1. 2.
In what year did William Shakespeare die? How many of his plays will be shown at a pop-up cinema in London?
Shakespeare’s 400th anniversary: ‘man of Stratford’ to be celebrated in 2016 Maev Kennedy, 1 January, 2016 1 The world shares him and London claims him but Stratfordupon-Avon is going to spend 2016 celebrating William Shakespeare as their man. He was born in Stratford-uponAvon 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
3.
When was the First Folio published?
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 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. © Guardian News and Media 2016 First published in The Guardian, 01/01/16
4 Chunks Rearrange the words to make phrases from the text. playwright the most world famous in the
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hundreds of be there lectures will also
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2016 NEWS LESSONS / Shakespeare’s 400th anniversary / Pre-intermediate
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lifetime his in own
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CA HO N T O FR BE C O DO O M W P W N IA EB LO B SI A L TE DE E D •
This extract has been taken from Monthly news lesson: Shakespeare’s 400th anniversary. To view the original lesson in full, visit: www.onestopenglish.com/15-years.
Fill the gaps in the sentences with these key words from the text. The paragraph numbers will help you.
05/04/2016 16:49