At the Tower
1 READING
At the Tower
A Look at the pictures and read the text.
Two and a half million people visit the Tower of London every year. It is on the River Thames. The oldest buildings are nearly a thousand years old. Many years ago, the Tower of London was a prison. King Henry VIII sent two of his six wives to prison there. Anne Boleyn, Henry’s second wife, was executed on Tower Green in 1536 – only three years after their wedding. The king was angry because he wanted a son to become king after him – but Anne and Henry’s only child was a daughter, Elizabeth. In fact, Elizabeth became Queen Elizabeth I in 1558, and she was Queen of England and Ireland until her death in 1603. She was one of the most famous and most popular British monarchs.
Eleven days after Anne’s death, Henry married his new love, Jane Seymour. People say that Anne Boleyn’s ghost still haunts the Tower of London.
Find answers to these questions.
B Match the pictures with the descriptions.
2 PRESENTATION
Was he dreaming?
A Look at the pictures and listen to the conversation.
B Listen again and follow the text.
Lisa and Finn are visiting the Tower of London. They’re talking to one of the guards.
Lisa: Are there any ghosts here?
Guard: Oh yes! A couple of years ago, I saw the ghost of Anne Boleyn.
Lisa: Did you really? Tell us about it!
Guard: It was six o’clock and it was getting dark. Suddenly, I saw a strange light. There was a woman at the top of the steps.
Finn: It was probably a visitor.
Guard: No, it wasn’t a visitor. She was wearing a long, grey dress and her face was very pale. She was crying.
Lisa: Where were you?
Guard: I was standing at the bottom of the steps. I was locking the door of the White Tower, but I dropped my keys!
Finn: Perhaps you were dreaming.
Guard: No, I wasn’t dreaming. It was real, I’m sure of that.
Finn: But how can you be sure it was a ghost?
Guard: Because she came down the steps and then she walked through the wall and disappeared!
Are these sentences true or false? Correct the false sentences.
3 GRAMMAR
Past continuous
Complete the explanation.
4 PRACTICE
A Complete the story. Make sentences in the past continuous.
B What about you? Work with a partner. What was your partner doing at seven o’clock last night? Guess.
A: Were you playing a computer game?
B: No, I wasn’t.
A: Were you doing your homework?
B: No, I wasn’t.
A: Were you visiting a friend?
B: Yes, I was.
5 PRONUNCIATION
Intonation in questions
Listen and repeat the sentences. Do they go up or down?
Can you write the symbols for sentences 2–4?
1 What were they doing? [latex]\bullet[/latex][latex]\cdot[/latex][latex]\cdot[/latex][latex]\bullet[/latex][latex]\cdot[/latex][latex]\downarrow[/latex]
6 WRITING
A ghost story
Use what you know
Write a short ghost story.
Answer these questions.
What was the time?
Where were you?
What were you doing?
What did you see?
What was the ghost like?
Were you scared?
What was the ghost doing when you saw it?
Then what happened?