THE LIFE OF CHARLES DICKENS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unKuZ2wlNdw 

1. Watch the video and fill in the blanks with the words below.
Prison / newspaper / busy / live / fiction / stroke / siblings / crowds / injured / performed / spent / sail
/ finances / crashed / ambitious / rumours / journalistic / trip / fervent / achievement / carriage /
relationship
Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on 7th of February 1812 to John and Elizabeth Dickens.
Charles was the second child of eight 1_____________in all, six of whom survived to adulthood.
John, a naval clerk, always 2____________beyond his means. One day he pointed out a house to
Charles, remarking that he could 3__________in such a house, if he worked hard. The family moved
to London in 1822. At 12, as the family 4_________worsened, Charles had to start working in a
blacking factory, labelling bottles for eleven hours a day. John Dickens was eventually sent to a
debtors' 5__________ Charles visited him there every Sunday. His youth left him with a
6
___________drive. In 1827 he began work as a solicitor's clerk. From the surroundings of his
unremarkable office he began to collect names and characteristics of the people he saw.  
Charles began a 7________________career in 1831. Writing became his passion, working for the
paper by day and on his own work by night. He was beginning to taste success. His first piece of
8
____________ was published in 1835. That same year Charles met Catherine Hogarth, they fell in
love and were married. The next few years of 9_____________activity resulted in much writing and
many children. As his writing became more popular and his fame more widespread,
10
__________began to abound of his drunkenness and admission to an asylum. Stories were easy to
concoct about the writer who kept a pet raven and whose writing dwelt in the extremes of the
sentimental and the grotesque.

In 1842 Charles and Catherine set 11__________ for America. On landing in Boston they were
mobbed by 12____________. Dickens's interest lay in visiting the unusual, which inspired his
writing. He took his whole family on his next big 13__________ to Italy, in the summer of 1844.
Upon his return, Dickens began to look for new diversions. He helped to start and edit a radical
14
________, founded a refuge for homeless women and 15______________his works at public
readings.

Aged 44, Charles bought Gads Hill, the house his father had pointed out to him all those years
before. It symbolised the pinnacle of 16________________ whilst Dickens was organising a
theatrical project, The Frozen Deep, he met and was spellbound by a young actress Ellen Ternan.
There is much speculation about this 17______________that caused the end of his marriage to
Catherine. One fateful night in 1865, whilst Charles and Ellen were returning from Paris their train
18
_____________ outside Staplehurst. Dickens administered brandy and water to
the ___________and dying. Only at the last minute did he remember to retrieve the final part of Our
Mutual Friend from the wrecked 19______________ .The incident left Charles very shaken. For a
while he maintained his 20__________itinerary, and then his health began to fail. At home on
Wednesday 9th June 1870, at the age of 58 Charles suffered a 21___________and died. He's buried in
Westminster Abbey.
 
 2. Match the synonyms.

1 Siblings A Success 1 Fervent A A brain attack

2 To worsen B Journey 2 To point out B To give
3 To perform C To destroy 3 Finances C To plot
4 Raven D Shelter 4 The pinnacle D To be shocked
5 Refuge E Get worse 5 To concoct E Charmed
6 Clerk F To act 6 To mob F Money
7 Trip G Brother and Sister 7 A stroke G The top
8 To wrecked H To get black 8 To administer H To harass
9 To retrieve I Office worker 9 To be Shaken I To show
1 Achievement J Crow 1 Spellbound J Busy
0 0

 
 
 ANSWER KEY:

1. Siblings
2. spent
3. live
4. finances
5. prison
6. ambitious
7. journalistic
8. fiction
9. fervent
10. sail
11. crowds
12. trip
13. newspaper
14. performed
15. achievement
16. relationship
17. crashed
18. injured
19. carriage
20. busy
21. stroke

MATCH THE SYNONYMS.

 Siblings – brother and sister  To retrieve – to get back

 To worsen – get worse  To concoct – to plot
 To perform – to act  Finances – money
 Spellbound – charmed  A trip – a journey
 To be shaken – to be shocked  A refuge – a shelter
 A Clerk – an office worker  Wrecked – destroy
 Fervent – busy  To mob - harass
 The pinnacle – the top
 To administer – to give
 A stroke – a brain attack
 To point out – to show
 A raven – a crow
 A journalist (noun) someone whose job is writing for newspapers, magazines, television, or radio
 A journal (noun) a magazine containing articles about a particular subject
 Journalism (noun) the work of writing for newspapers, magazines, television, or radio