A Christmas Carol takes place in London in the 1820s.
Great Britain in the 1820s:
Great Britain is a very rich country. London is the largest city in Europe. Many rich people live in London. They have expensive houses, and they have the very best food and drink. They travel in fine carriages pulled by horses. They wear beautiful and fashionable clothes.
Charles Dickens lives in London. He sees how the rich people live, but he also sees that thousands of poor people live in London. They live in small dirty houses. They do not have enough to eat. Many poor people can’t get work.
Men, women and children often become criminals. They steal for food and clothes. Sometimes they steal for money. If a family can’t pay their bills, they have to go to prison. The prisons in Britain in the 19th Century are the worst in Europe.
England is divided into counties, and each county is divided into parishes. In 19th century England, the officials of a parish look after the poor people. Every parish has a workhouse.
Workhouses are places where poor people have to live. They, usually, are terrible places. The poor people who live in workhouses are given food and a bed, but they have to work very hard, and the food is very bad. Many people die in the workhouses.
(adapted from "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens, published by Macmillan Readers)
PRESENT TENSE - REGULAR VERBS
The Infinitive form of English verbs come with the particle “to”.
Do not confuse this particle with the preposition “to” (“para” in PT).
“to”, in the infinitive form of English verbs, is just that: a particle, a marker that indicates the verb is in the infinitive form. It is good practice to get used to always present the infinitive form in full:
“to live”, “to have”, “to travel”, “to pull”, “to wear”, “to see”, “to can”, “to become”, “to steal”, “to go”, “to divide”, “to look”, “to give”, “to work”, “to die”
The conjugation of English regular verbs in the present tense is quite easy.
Everything stays the same as in the infinitive form but without the “to” particle.
The exception to that is the third person singular: he (masculine), she (feminine), it (neutral – for objects)
to live | to have | to pull | to travel |
I live | I have | I pull | I travel |
you live | you have | you pull | you travel |
he, she, it lives | he, she, it has | he, she, it pulls | he, she, it travels |
we live | we have | we pull | we travel |
you live | you have | you pull | you travel |
they live | they have | they pull | they travel |
Irregular verbs: to be
“To be, or not to be - that is the question.”
William Shakespeare
to be
I am
you are
he, she, it is
we are
you are
they are
Past Participles: pulled, divided, given
Phrasal Verbs: to look after
A Christmas Carol
It is 3:00 o'clock in the afternoon on the day before Christmas, Christmas Eve.
In the City of London, it is very cold and almost dark. But it has been almost dark all day. There is no light because it is winter, and it is very foggy.
It is possible to hear people and horses and carriages, but it is not possible to see them because the fog is so thick.
Two names are painted on the door of an old building in the centre of the city, “Scrooge and Marley”.
Jacob Marley died seven years ago, but Ebenezer Scrooge left Marley’s name on the door of the building.
Scrooge answers if people call him Scrooge, and he answers if people call him Marley.
Scrooge does not care what people call him. Scrooge does not care about people.
Scrooge cares about one thing – money! He works very hard all the time, and he earns lots of money. But he does not like spending money.
Ebenezer Scrooge is an old man. His face is thin, and his nose is long and thin. His hair, eyebrows and whiskers are all whites.
Scrooge never smiles.
He has no friends. Nobody visits his house. Nobody says hello to him as he walks along the street.
No beggar stops him in the street and ask him for money. No dog goes near him.
But Scrooge wants his life to be this way. He does not like people. He likes writing down amounts of money in his account books.
(adapted from "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens, published by Macmillan Readers)
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