Literature 1

1 Work in pairs. Discuss the questions. Huckleberry Finn is a boy from a poor family.
In order to escape his violent father, he makes
● Why do children run away from home?
people think he is dead. He then takes a canoe
● How difficult do you think it is to survive alone to a deserted river island to begin a new life.
on a deserted island?
● Do you know how to catch a fish and cook it?

ADVENTURES OF
HUCKLEBERRY FINN (1884)
Mark Twain
I knew I was all right now. Nobody else would come
looking for me. I got my traps out of the canoe and
made me a nice camp in the woods. I made a kind of
a tent out of my blankets to put my things under so the
5 rain couldn’t get at them. I caught a fish and towards
sundown I started my campfire and had supper.
Then I set out a line to catch some fish for breakfast.
When it was dark, I sat by my campfire feeling pretty
well satisfied; but by and by it got sort of lonely, and so
10 I went and sat on the bank and listened to the water,
and counted the stars and rafts that come down,
and then went to bed; there’s no better way to spend
time when you are lonely; you can’t stay so, you
soon get over it. And so for three days and nights. No About this time I almost stepped on a good-sized
15 difference — just the same thing. But the next day I snake, and it went sliding off through the grass and
went exploring around down through the island. I was flowers, and I after it, trying to get a shot at it, and all
boss of it; it all belonged to me, so to say, and I wanted 30 of a sudden I found the ashes of a campfire that was
to know all about it; but mainly I wanted to pass the still smoking. My heart jumped up amongst my lungs. I
time. I found strawberries, ripe and prime; and green didn’t waited for to look further, I went sneaking back on
20 summer grapes, and green razberries; and the green my tiptoes as fast as ever I could. Every now and then I
blackberries was just beginning to show. They would all stopped a second amongst the thick leaves and listened,
come handy by and by, I judged. 35 but my breath come so hard I couldn’t hear nothing else.
Well, I went fooling along in the deep woods till I walked further, then listened again; and so on, and so
I judged I wasn’t far from the foot of the island. I had on. If I saw a small tree, I thought it was a man …
25 my gun along, but I hadn’t shot anything; it was for
protection …

Glossary
traps things for catching animals judged estimated, calculated
rafts flat structures for traveling across water, sliding moving easily, without interruption, across
often made of wood a surface
get over recover ashes the material left after something burns
ripe ready to eat sneaking walking very quietly
handy useful tiptoes walking on your toes so you don’t make a noise

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 Literature 1

2 1.01  Read
and listen to the extract from
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
3 Read the text again. Circle the correct options.
1 Huckleberry made a tent to keep his things
hidden / dry.
2 One problem Huckleberry has is that he feels
lonely / hungry.
3 He thinks the berries he finds will be tasty / useful.
4 He needs his gun to kill animals for food /
to feel safe.
8 1.02 Listen again and match the sentences.
e
1 Jim thinks Huckleberry is a ghost
2 It’s possible to see a lot at night a
3 At first, Huckleberry d
4 Huckleberry watches the sleeping man b
5 Huckleberry stops now and then c
a because the moon is very bright.
b from behind a tree.
c because he is listening carefully.

5 He is afraid when he finds the fire / the snake. d can’t find the place where he saw the fire.
e because everyone thinks he is dead.
4 Circle the three words you think best describe
Huckleberry in the extract. Compare your
choices with a partner and explain your reasons.
WRITING 
Explaining why
responsible intelligent suspicious things are useful
capable happy bored
Students’ own answers 9 Notice how because, in order to, and for are
used to link two ideas and explain a reason.
5 Complete the sentences with the correct words ● Huckleberry pretends he is dead because he
from the glossary. wants to escape from his unhappy home.
1 Hunters use traps to catch animals. ● In order to escape from his unhappy life at
home, Huckleberry pretends he is dead.
2 Fruit tastes bad when it isn’t ripe .
● He has traps for catching animals.
3 In the morning, there were just ashes
where we had our fire. Write sentences explaining why Huckleberry
4 It was hard walking on the ice – we kept uses or does the following things:
sliding and falling over. 1 makes a tent protect things
5 It took a long time to get over losing He makes a tent in order to/because he wants
the game. to protect his things.
6 We built simple rafts and used them to
2 has a gun protection
cross the river.
He has a gun for protection/in order to have
6 What do you think Huckleberry does next?
protection/because he wants protection.
Students’ own answers
3 goes fishing food
7 1.02 
Listen to the next part of the story and circle He goes fishing for food/in order to get
the correct options. food/because he wants food.
1 Which senses does Huckleberry use in this extract? 4 is happy to see Jim knows him
hearing taste touch sight smell
He is happy to see Jim because he knows him.
2 Why do you think he takes his canoe?
a to escape quickly
b to surprise the other person DID YOU KNOW?
c because it’s too dark to walk around the island Jim is a slave, an African American owned by a woman
Students’ own answers who wants to sell him. Huckleberry tries to help Jim
by taking him to a part of the U.S.A. where slavery was
not legal. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was one of the
earliest anti-racist novels. It criticizes slavery and shows
slaves as human beings, not property.
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