Charles Dickens 200 Years
HARD TIMES
Ex.1. Speaking
Discuss the following questions in pairs or groups of three.
1. Why do students like school?
2. Why do students not like school?
3. Can you write a definition of a horse?
4. Can you classify teachers into 3 categories
depending on their teaching?
5. Can you describe the best teacher you have
ever had?
6. Can you imagine a ‘nightmare’ teacher?
7. Can you imagine a ‘nightmare’ student?
8. The chapter from Hard Times you will read is
called Murdering the Innocents. What do you
expect it will be about?
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Ex.2. Vocabulary
Read the words and phrases below and see if you understand them. Then try to complete
the sentences below using the words.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Pair of scales
Multiplication table
Pitcher
Cannon
Acquaintance
Forefinger
To curtsey
To frown
To measure
10. To tremble
11. To break a horse
12. Farrier
13. Surgeon
14. Unable
15. Common
16. To object
17. Ray of sunlight
18. To blush
1. A ____________ is a small machine used to weigh things.
2. A ____________ is a jug that can be used for water.
3. Girls used to ___________ in the old times to show respect to their teachers.
4. You ____________ when you are embarrassed or you don’t know what to say.
5. When you ________________________, you teach it to listen to you.
6. _____________ means very popular and known to everyone.
7. If you are ____________ to do something, it means you cannot do it.
8. ________________ were used in wars in the past, e.g. to defend castles.
9. A _____________ takes care of horse’s hooves.
10. People ______________ when they don’t like the idea, or don’t want to do what
someone is asking them to.
11. Your _____________ is also called the index finger, or the second finger.
12. If your dog is ill and needs an operation you will go to see a veterinary
_____________.
13. Before you buy a new carpet you will want to ___________ the floor.
14. We have a few good friends and many _____________ .
15. If you want to know how much is 9 times 3 you will use ____________________ .
16. Your Mum or Dad will _______ and look serious if they are worried about you or if
you do something wrong.
17. When you ____________ your body shakes, maybe because you are called or
terrified.
18. ________________________ is the light coming from the the sun on a nice day.
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Ex.3. Reading Comprehension
Read the extract from Hard Times below and decide if the sentences below are true or false.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Thomas Gradgrind is a priest.
He is in charge of pupils’ education and wants to teach them to think for themselves.
Number 20 is a student who does not live up to Mr. Grandgrind’s expectations.
Sissy’s father works with horses.
Mr. Grandgrin asked Blitzer for the definition of a hours because Blitzer was the best
student in class.
6. Sissy was nervous and embarrassed.
7. Mr. Grandgrind thinks pupils are like pitchers that can be filled with information.
8. Mr. Grandgrind is very respectful towards the pupil’s parents.
Hard Times by Charles Dickens
Chapter II — Murdering The Innocents
THOMAS GRADGRIND, sir. A man of realities. A man of facts and calculations. A man who
proceeds upon the principle that two and two are four, and nothing over, and who is not to
be talked into allowing for anything over. With a pair of scales, and the multiplication
table always in his pocket, sir, ready to weigh and measure any parcel of human nature,
and tell you exactly what it comes to. It is a mere question of figures, a case of simple
arithmetic.
In such terms Mr Gradgrind always mentally introduced himself, whether to his private circle
of acquaintance, or to the public in general. In such terms, no doubt, substituting the
words ‘boys and girls,’ for ‘sir,’ Thomas Gradgrind now presented Thomas Gradgrind to the
little pitchers before him, who were to be filled so full of facts.
He seemed a kind of cannon loaded to the muzzle with facts, and prepared to blow them
clean out of the regions of childhood at one discharge.
‘Girl number twenty,’ said Mr Gradgrind, squarely pointing with his square forefinger, ‘I
don’t know that girl. Who is that girl?’
‘Sissy Jupe, sir,’ explained number twenty, blushing, standing up, and curtseying.
‘Sissy is not a name,’ said Mr Gradgrind. ‘Don’t call yourself Sissy. Call yourself Cecilia.’
‘It’s father as calls me Sissy, sir,’ returned the young girl in a trembling voice, and with
another curtsey.
‘Then he has no business to do it,’ said Mr Gradgrind. ‘Tell him he mustn’t. Cecilia Jupe. Let
me see. What is your father?’
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‘He belongs to the horse-riding, if you please, sir.’
Mr Gradgrind frowned, and waved off the objectionable calling with his hand.
‘We don’t want to know anything about that, here. You mustn’t tell us about that, here. Your
father breaks horses, don’t he?’
‘If you please, sir, when they can get any to break, they do break horses in the ring, sir.’
‘You mustn’t tell us about the ring, here. Very well, then. Describe your father as a
horsebreaker. He doctors sick horses, I dare say?’
‘Oh yes, sir.’
‘Very well, then. He is a veterinary surgeon, a farrier, and horsebreaker. Give me your
definition of a horse.’
(Sissy Jupe thrown into the greatest alarm by this demand.)
‘Girl number twenty unable to define a horse!’ said Mr Gradgrind. ‘Girl number twenty
possessed of no facts, in reference to one of the commonest of animals! Some boy’s
definition of a horse. Bitzer, yours.’
The square finger, moving here and there, lighted suddenly on Bitzer, perhaps because he
chanced to sit in the same ray of sunlight which irradiated Sissy.
‘Bitzer,’ said Thomas Gradgrind. ‘Your definition of a horse.’
‘Quadruped. Graminivorous. Forty teeth, namely twenty-four grinders, four eye-teeth, and
twelve incisive. Sheds coat in the spring; in marshy countries, sheds hoofs, too. Age known
by marks in mouth.’
‘Now girl number twenty,’ said Mr Gradgrind. ‘You know what a horse is.’
She curtseyed again, and would have blushed deeper, if she could have blushed deeper
than she had blushed all this time.
Ex.4. Drama
Act out the scene in groups of three. You’ll need one person to be Sissy, another Blitzer and
one more to act out Mr Gradgrind. Practise first in your group and then perform in front of
other students.
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Charles Dickens 200 Years
HARD TIMES
Ex.3. Answer Key
1. Thomas Gradgrind is a priest. FALSE
2. He is in charge of pupils’ education and wants to teach them to think for themselves.
TRUE
3. Number 20 is a student who does not live up to Mr. Grandgrind’s expectations. TRUE
4. Sissy’s father works with horses. TRUE
5. Mr. Grandgrin asked Blitzer for the definition of a hours because Blitzer was the best
student in class. FALSE
6. Sissy was nervous and embarrassed. TRUE
7.
Mr. Grandgrind thinks pupils are like pitchers that can be filled with information.
TRUE
8.
Mr. Grandgrind is very respectful towards the pupil’s parents. FALSE
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