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Oliver Twist is a poor orphan boy. He hasn’t got a mum or dad and he lives in a terrible place called the workhouse. One day, he makes the master of the workhouse very angry and his life changes forever...

What will happen next to Oliver? Where will he go? Will he fi nd a nice family to live with or will Fagin and his gang of thieves make Oliver stay with them? Read this exciting tale of life in 19th century England and fi nd out!

In this reader you will fi nd:- Focus on… - Comprehension activities- Glossary of diffi cult words - Test yourself

TagsFriendship and hate Social Issues

Charles DickensOliver Twist

Stage 1

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Classic

Elementary

Pre-Intermediate

Intermediate

600 headwords

800 headwords

1000 headwords

A1

A2

B1

Movers

Flyers/KET

PET

CH

ARLES D

ICK

ENS O

LIV

ER

TW

IST

Teen

EL

I Read

ers

Te e n R e a d e r s

Eli Readers is a beautifully illustrated series of timeless classics and specially-written stories for learners of English.

www.elireaders.com

with Audio CD

with Booklet

ELI s.r.l.

TEEN ELI READERS

Oliver Twist

ISBN 978-88-536-0513-9

Te e n R e a d e r s

Characters

Oliver

Mr Sowerberry

Mrs Sowerberry

Monks

Doctor Losberne

Mr Bumble

Fagin

Dodger

Nancy

Bill Sikes

Mrs BedwinMr Brownlow

Rose MaylieMrs Maylie

16

Charles Dickens

Oliver tells Mrs Sowerberry that Noah said horrible things about his mother but she doesn’t listen to him. She throws him in a cold, dark room. She closes the door but she forgets to lock it.

Oliver stays in the room for many hours. It is very late and the house is silent. Mr and Mrs Sowerberry are asleep. Oliver doesn’t know what to do. He didn’t like the workhouse and he doesn’t like Mr and Mrs Sowerberry and Noah. Then, he has an idea.

He decides to run away*. He slowly opens the door to the room and quietly walks to the kitchen. Then, he opens the kitchen window and jumps out into the street, but he doesn’t know where to go. He can see the church and the baker’s and the butcher’s in the town centre. Then, he sees a big road. He runs down the road, away from the town and Mr Sowerberry’s shop and the workhouse.

to run away to leave a place you don’t like

17

Oliver Twist

70

After-reading Activities

Grammar

1 Where does Oliver live? Number the boxes.

A ■ ■ Mr Brownlow’s townhouse

B ■ ■ Rose’s cottage

C ■ ■ Fagin’s house

D ■ ■ The workhouse

E ■ ■ Mr Brownlow’s cottage

F ■ ■ Rose’s townhouse

G ■ ■ Mr Sowerberry’s shop

2 Complete Oliver’s family tree. Use the words in the box.

Edwin is Oliver and Monks’ .................

1 Monks is Oliver’s ..................................

2 Agnes is Oliver’s ...................................

3 Rose is Agnes’ .............................. and Oliver’s ..............................

Reading

3 Read the sentences and tick only the ones that are true.

Bill goes back to London. ■ ■ 1 Charley helps Bill escape. ■■2 Bill dies. ■■3 Charley fi nds a job on a farm. ■■4 Fagin escapes from prison. ■■5 Monks doesn’t give Oliver his money. ■■6 Mr Brownlow adopts Oliver. ■■

1

father

✓

mother father half-brother aunt sister

71

Vocabulary

4 Find these words in the wordsearch.

document farmhouse painting prison

rock rope wedding woods alleys

P A I N T I N G D F

E L G E A N P R I A

O L Z S X G H O L R

W E D D I N G P V M

O Y U Q H S R E C H

O S P T W U A F A O

D F P R I S O N M U

S I L O A C N O N S

P D O C U M E N T E

A L N K P D O C U L

Writing

5 Complete Oliver’s diary entry. Use the words in the box.

Dear Diary,

I’m very happy today. I’m in my new home in the countryside

with my new family. Mr Brownlow is my new father and I

(1) ..................... with him and Mrs Bedwin in a beautiful cottage.

We have got an enormous garden and I (2) ..................... outside

every afternoon. My aunt Rose (3) ..................... nearby with her

husband Harry and Mrs Maylie. We all (4) ..................... to Rose

and Harry’s wedding last week. It (5) ..................... great! We often

(6) ..................... to visit them and we have lots of delicious cakes

for afternoon tea.

Love,Oliver

lives went play live go was

72

Focus on...

1 January 1850, Charles Dickens at his writing desk.

A Bad EventA lot of English children were too poor to go to school but Charles was very lucky and he started when he was nine years old. He liked school but when he was twelve years old, something bad happened. His father didn’t have any money to pay the bills and he went to prison. Charles’ mother and his brothers and sisters all went to prison too because they didn’t have a place to live and they had no money to buy food.

Charles DickensBiography

Charles Dickens was born on February 7th 1812 in Portsmouth, England. His mother was called Elizabeth and his father was called John. His father was in the Navy and worked in an offi ce and his mother stayed at home to look after the family. They lived in Portsmouth, near the sea, for a few years and then they moved to Kent in the south east of England and fi nally to London. Charles had fi ve brothers and two sisters.

Charles didn’t go to prison but he stopped going to school and went to work in a factory. He was sad and lonely without his family and he didn’t like working in the factory. It was a horrible place and he worked very hard for little money. He went to visit his family on Sunday afternoons

and he liked talking to them all and playing with his little brothers. He didn’t like it when he had to go back to the room where he was staying in Camden Town. The house belonged to his mother’s friend and she was a kind lady but Charles wanted to be with his family.

First Job

73

The fi rst edition of Oliver Twist.

He wrote Oliver Twist between 1837 and 1839 and many others such as David Copperfi eld (1849) and Great Expectations (1860-1861). He also got married in 1836 to a lady called Catherine Hogarth. They had ten children together but separated in 1858. Charles had a girlfriend, the actress Ellen Ternan, and they stayed together for many years.

Hobbies and InterestsHe loved travelling and visited many places including Italy and America and even wrote some travel books. He also loved going to the theatre and wrote some plays too. He performed at the theatre for Queen Victoria in 1851.Throughout his life, Charles Dickens worked on a lot of projects to help people who were in unfortunate situations, including young, unmarried mothers and sick children. He also spoke about the problem of slavery in America and how it was wrong.

His TombHe died in 1870 and is buried in Poets Corner in Westminster Abbey, London. Charles Dickens made a great contribution to English literature and his tomb is near those of other famous English writers such as Rudyard Kipling and Thomas Hardy.

Early worksHe started work in an offi ce and later became a journalist on a local newspaper. He also started writing stories. His fi rst story, A Dinner at Popular Walk, was published in 1833 and his fi rst book, Sketches by Boz, in 1836. Charles Dickens wrote a lot of very popular books and many of his stories were about poor people and all their problems. He never forgot about his terrible experience as a child and many of his characters are young boys in diffi culty.

Back to schoolHe was very happy when his father came out of prison a few months later. John Dickens inherited some money from a relative and used the money to pay his bills and the family went home. Charles went back to school for three years and he left when he was fi fteen.

Famous Stories

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