Shakespeare

1. Fill the gaps in the extracts by the words from the box, the extracts are from Romeo and Juliet, Mackbeth, King Lear.

murderer foolish escape characters king
youngest refuses falls in love war families


Romeo and Julia tells the story of two important families in Verona, in Italy. The (1) ........ hate each other. Romeo, the son of Lord Montague, (2) ........ with Juliet, the daughter of Lord Capulet. The story doesn´t end happily because Romeo and Juliet cannot(3) ....... from the (4) ........ between their families and live happily together.
Lord and Lady Mackbeth Mackbeth are greedy, and as a result a lot of people die. Lord Mackbeth is also weak, Lady Mackbeth says, that he is too kind, too gentle. There are things that he must do, but he is afraid to do them. Lord Mackbeth becomes a (5)......., because he killed the king.
In the third story, King Lear, the king is an a very old man. His age makes him weak and (6) ........ He doesn´t understand the (7) ......... of his three daughters. He thinks, that his (8) ........ daughter, Cordelia, does not love him, because she (9)........ to use such words. But the older sisters want power and do not care about their father.

2. About William Shakespeare. Find the answers in the article.

A)Who did he married?

B)Where was he born?

C)Did he write only plays?

D)What kind of plays did he write?


William Shakespeare was playwright and poet. Born in 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon, , England (historians believe Shakespeare was born on April 23, the same day he died in 1616). The son of John Shakespeare and Mary Arden. We don´t know too much about Shakespeare's early life. He was the oldest of three sons, and there were four daughters. He was educated at the local grammar school, and married Anne Hathaway, from a local farming family, in 1582. She bore him a daughter, Susanna, in 1583, and twins, Hamnet and Judith, in 1585.
In 1592 he went to London, where he began to write succesful plays. He became an important member of a theatre company, which performed at London Globe theatre. His plays were played for Queen Elizabeth 1 and King James 1. He came to Stratford, where he died in 1616.
We know more about Shakepeare´s plays than about him. He wrote: 3. Read the extract from Mackbeth. Decide, if the following statements are true or false.

After dinner, Mackbeth came out of the dining hall. "If I want to be king, I must kill King Duncan. I must kill him quickly. But he is a guest in my house, so I should guard him against murderers, not kill him. If he dies, everybody will be sad."
Just then, Lady Mackbeth came out of the dining hall. "Why did you leave the room?" she asked.
"I do not want to kill the king,"said Mackbeth. "He is good to me. People like and admire me, I will not throw away their good opinion."
Lady Mackbeth was very angry with her husband. "What are you saying? Are you afraid to kill him?
"I will do it. But what will happen if we fail?" "Then we fail!" said Lady Mackbeth.
People didn´t like Lord Mackbeth. T/F
Mackbeth was a guest in the King´s house. T/F
Mackbeth firstly didn´t want to kill the King. T/F
Lady Macbeth was angry with her husband. T/F


4. Match the vocabulary from A to B.
A B
person who visits somebody guest
a married man husband
not be able to do something to fail
person who kills somebody murderer
to like somebody to admire