William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon”.
Instruções:
Essas aulas de inglês são para alunos intermediários e avançados de inglês como segunda língua. Eles incluem “Ler”, “Ouvir” e “Escrever”. Basta seguir a lição respondendo às perguntas à medida que as encontra.
Todas as vagas em negrito devem ser traduzidas para seu próprio idioma para ajudar na compreensão do novo vocabulário.
Please LIKE & SUBSCRIBE to my Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/SteveBradeley/videos
MY AMAZON BOOKSTORE PROFILE
CLICK HERE TO READ THE NEWSLETTER
Student FREE Bookstore Student Blog
~~~~~~~~~
~~~
The Plays Shakespeare One: A Midsummers Night Dream
William Shakespeare Bio:
William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon”.
New Vocabulary: playwright, poet, widely, regarded, pre-eminent, dramatist, bard, Avon.
Audio:
Introduction: ‘A Midsummers Nights Dream’
ABOUT: A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a comedy written by William Shakespeare c. 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict among four Athenian lovers.
PLOT: Four Athenians run away to the forest only to have Puck the fairy make both of the boys fall in love with the same girl. The four run through the forest pursuing each other while Puck helps his master play a trick on the fairy queen. In the end, Puck reverses the magic, and the two couples reconcile and marry
New Vocabulary: midsummer, dream, play, consists of, subplots, revolve around, marriage, conflict, forest, fairy, pursuing, master, play a trick on, couples, reconcile
Audio:
Section One:
Act I
As Duke Theseus prepares for his marriage to Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, he is interrupted by a courtier, Egeus. Egeus asks for the Duke to intervene in a dispute. His daughter, Hermia, will not agree to marry Demetrius (whom Egeus has chosen for her) because she loves a gentleman named Lysander. The Duke asks Hermia to be obedient to her father. He offers her one of two options: she must either die or accept a celibate life as a nun in Diana’s temple. If Hermia had agreed (past perfect) to marry Demetrius she wouldn’t be in this situation.
Naturally upset with the offer, Lysander and Hermia plan to elope and share their secret with Helena, Hermia’s friend. Helena is desperately in love with Demetrius, who seems to have abandoned her in favour of Hermia. At night, Lysander and Hermia escape from Athens; but they soon lose their way in the woods. After Helena tells him of their intention to defy the law, Demetrius decides to follow the lovers into the woods. In turn, Helena follows Demetrius in the hope that he will give up on Hermia and choose her instead.
New Vocabulary: interrupted by, courtier, intervene, dispute, a gentleman, to be obedient, a celibate life, naturally, upset, offer, desperately, abandoned, in favour of, in the woods, intention to, defy
Audio:
Grammar Section: PAST PERFECT
Grammar Exercises:
Section Two:
Act II
Nearby, Oberon – King of the Fairies—has recently quarrelled with his queen, Titania. She acquired a magical child from one of her waiting women, and now refuses to hand him over to Oberon to use as a page. Oberon begins to plot a way to get revenge on Titania for her disobedience. He sends his fairy servant, Puck, to fetch a purple flower with juice that makes people fall in love with the next creature they see.
Afterwards, Oberon overhears Helena and Demetrius arguing in the forest. Oberon hears Demetrius mistreat Helena and tells Puck to anoint ‘the Athenian’, so Demetrius will fall in love with the first person that he sees. Puck mistakes the Athenian and puts the flower juice on the eyes of the sleeping Lysander. When he is woken by Helena, he immediately falls in love with her and rejects Hermia. When Demetrius rests, Oberon puts magic juice on his eyes, which makes him fall in love with Helena as well.
New Vocabulary: quarrelled, acquired, magical, revenge, disobedience, servant, to fetch, juice, creature, overhears, arguing, mistreat to anoint, woken
Audio:
Section Three:
Act III
The workers‘ rehearsals in the wood are overheard by Puck, who plays a trick on them by giving Bottom an ass’s head. After frightening the others away, Bottom is lured towards the sleeping Titania whom Oberon has anointed with Puck’s magic flower juice. On waking, the fairy queen falls in love with the ass and entertains him with her fairies.
Meanwhile, Demetrius and Lysander, still under the spell of the flower juice, pursue Helena. Hermia is jealous and confused about the lack of attention paid to her. Oberon and Puck watch the chaos, and Oberon commands Puck to put it right again. The lovers’ arguments have tired them all out as they have chased one another through the woods. Puck eventually distracts the two men from their pursuit of Helena by impersonating their voices, and they get lost in the woods. The four lovers fall asleep, exhausted. Puck places restorative juice on Lysander’s eyes.
New Vocabulary: rehearsals, overheard, frightening, lured, towards, anointed, waking, entertains, spell, jealous, confused, lack of paid to her, chaos, commands, tired, chased, pursuit, exhausted
Audio:
Video Listening Section 1 :
Questions:
-
-
-
-
- When does the play take place?
- What does the verb ‘to elope’ mean?
- What are the first three characters called when they go into the woods?
- What flowers is the ‘love potion’ made from?
- What animal head does Bottom have?
- What is the difference between a ‘farce’ and a ‘tragedy’ ?
-
-
-
Section Four:
Act IV
After an afternoon of being pampered by Titania’s fairies, Bottom falls asleep beside her. Oberon restores Titania’s sight and wakes her (thank goodness). After expressing her dismay at the sight of Bottom, she reconciles with Oberon, and she ends up giving him the little Indian prince for his page. Bottom’s ass head is removed, and he returns to the city to rejoin his friends as they prepare to perform their play. The lovers are woken by Theseus and Hippolyta’s hunting party. Lysander sees Hermia and falls in love with her once again.
New Vocabulary: pampered, beside her, restores, expressing, dismay, reconciles, ends up, a page, to rejoin
Audio:
Section Five:
Act V
Happily reunited (Lysander with Hermia and Demetrius with Helena), they agree to share the Duke’s wedding day. The play of ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’ is presented before the wedding guests. As the three couples retire to bed, Puck and the fairies return to bless the palace and its people.
New Vocabulary: happily reunited, is presented, retire to bed, to bless
Audio:
Writing Section:
Write a summary in your own words explaining
Grammar Section:
Below you will find documents to help you with the grammar in your writing text. The link takes you to your FREE document and book download pages (OXFORD INSTITUTE BOOK CLUB) CLICK HERE
https://oxfordinstitutebook.club/free-downloads/
Student FREE Bookstore Student Blog Student DISCOUNT Shop Private Shop
MOVIE EXAMPLE ONE:
MOVIE EXAMPLE TWO: