Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Once upon a time -- of all the good days in the year, on Christmas Eve -- old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-
house. It was cold, bleak, biting weather: foggy withal: and he could hear the people in the court outside, go
wheezing up and down, beating their hands upon their breasts, and stamping their feet upon the pavement stones
to warm them. The city clocks had only just gone three, but it was quite dark already -- it had not been light all day -
- and candles were flaring in the windows of the neighbouring offices, like ruddy smears upon the palpable brown
air. The fog came pouring in at every chink and keyhole, and was so dense without, that although the court was of
the narrowest, the houses opposite were mere phantoms. To see the dingy cloud come drooping down, obscuring
everything, one might have thought that Nature lived hard by, and was brewing on a large scale (p. 4).
TEXT MARKING:
VOCABULARY:
CIRCLE the provided vocabulary.
1. WITHAL: In addition; as a further factor or consideration.
2. RUDDY: Having a healthy red color. BOX the adjectives and verbs
3. PALPABLE: So intense as to be almost touched or felt. associated with the fog.
4. CHINK: A narrow opening or crack, typically one that admits light. UNDERLINE the effect of the
5. PHANTOM: A ghost. weather on villagers/architecture.
HIGHLIGHT descriptive language
(imagery) that appeals to your
sense of hearing.
1. List three adjectives that capture the main idea of the setting.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Charles Dickenss A Christmas Carol
3. What effect does the use of wheezing, beating and stamping have on the description of the people outside
Scrooges office?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
5. What is the mood of the excerpt? (Mood: A literary element that evokes certain feelings or vibes in a reader; the
atmosphere of a literary text, as it often creates an emotional situation that surrounds the reader).
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
6. Based on this excerpt from A Christmas Carol, would you want to live in this London town?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________