1 You are going to read part of a novel by a famous English writer. Read the text about his life and complete the fact sheet.
Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was born in
Portsmouth but spent a lot of his life in London His
family had money problems and Chades had to go to
work in a factory at the age of 12 Later he became a
journalist. He wrote his first story in 1833 and his first
book appeared in 1836. In the same year he mamed
Catherine Hogarth and the first of his ten children
was born in 1837. Dickens went on to write 15 classic
novels, including Oliver Twist. David Copperfield and
Creat Expectations. When he died he was the most
popular writer in the English-speaking world
Charles Dickens
Born in!...in Portsmouth
Lived in
Early jobs: factory worker
Wiote his first book in
Reading A novel
1 In this text from Great Expectations a boy called Pip is telling the story. Read the
first part of the text and answer the questions.
1 How many characters are mentioned?
2 Where are they is it an attractive place?
lady took me into the house. The first thing I noticed was that the hat
was very dark and she had left a candle burning there. She picked it up, and we
walted along more passages and up the stars, and only the candle lighted us.
At last we came to the door of a room and she sakd, "There, boy. Go in. And then
she walked away - and took the candie v
te with her.
This was very uncomfortable, and I was afraid. However, the only thing I could do
was to knock at the door and a voice from inside told me to enter. I found myself
in a fairly large room. Ighted with candies, No daylight was alowed to get in. A lot
of the furniture had shapes and uses that I did not recognise. But there was a table
with a gold-coloured mirror and I could see that it was a fine lady's dressing-table.
In an armchair, with an elbow on the table and her head leaning on her hand, sat
the strangest lady I have ever seen or will ever see.
