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This is a series of lesson plans for proficiency level students based around stories from “The Oxford Book of English Short Stories” edited by A. S. Byatt. Set the story as homework the week before, encourage students to bring any vocabulary questions to class.
Vocabulary
Here is a matching exercise for some of the more difficult vocabulary in the story. Have the students complete the exercise in pairs.
| a. Ungainly | 1. the back of a boat |
| b. Blurry | 2. A mental institute |
| c. Beside the point | 3. clumsy / moving without grace |
| d. A bog | 4. to squeeze material to extract water |
| e. To ford | 5. to begin to deal with a problem in a sensible way |
| f. Bow | 6. dry and wrinkled |
| g. To wring out | 7. irrelevant |
| h. Stern | 8. the front of a boat |
| i. To come / get to grips with something | 9. To designate for a specific purpose |
| j. Wizened | 10. To cross a river |
| k. To earmark st | 11. unfocused |
| l. Loony-bin | 12. a wet, muddy area of ground |
Here you can download the table to print:
https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=79CFF252BEEA0A7D!358&authkey=!AOgTwYv1J95mH4E
Here are the answers:
- a – 3
- b – 11
- c – 7
- d – 12
- e – 10
- f – 8
- g – 4
- h – 1
- i – 5
- j – 6
- k – 9
- l – 2
Here are the locations of the words in the text and some sentence examples:
- ungainly – bottom of pg 346
- blurry – actual reference is blurring at the bottom of pg 347
- beside the point – middle of pg 348, other sentences example: “He is a nice man, but that’s beside the point; he’s rubbish at his job.”
- bog – bottom of 348
- to ford – bottom of 348
- bow – bottom of 348 in relation to a “bow wave”
- stern – isn’t in the text but is a counterpoint to “bow”
- to wring out – top of 349, wring is irregular – wring wrung wrung.
- come to grips with something – middle of 351, other sentence examples: “We must all get to grips with this tragedy” “If you are going to be an executive you need to get to grips with your fear of public speaking.”
- wizened – middle of 351
- to earmark st – bottom of 351, other sentence example: “this money is earmarked for the Christmas party”
Ask students for any other vocab issues they have.
Discussion Questions
Discuss these questions in groups or as a class:
- What happens in the story?
- What does the troll represent?
- Why does the story have a framing device? (a story within a story) What does it add to the story?
- Some analysts say the story is religious, the character’s latent Christianity defeating the Troll, do you agree?
- What do you think of the gory imagery of the troll?
- How do you explain the ending?
- What other mythical creatures can you think of? (vampires, werewolves, zombies etc.)
- Why do you think these monsters are so popular? Why do people keep writing stories about them?
- Which ones frightened you most as a child? Which ones still scare you now?
- What do you think are the origins of these creatures?