A CHRISTMAS CAROL

A CHRISTMAS CAROL


It was Christmas Eve. Ebenezer Scrooge was in his office, the office of Scrooge and Marley.
His clerk, poor Bob Cratchit, was working. Suddenly, Scrooge´s young nephew came into the office.
‘Hello uncle. Merry Christmas!’ he said happily.‘Do you want to come and have Christmas dinner with us tomorrow?’.
‘Christmas?’ Scrooge replied.‘Bah!’,‘Humbug!’.
Scrooge hated Christmas and he refused his nephew´s invitation for dinner on Christmas Day.
His nephew went away. Later two men came to the office, asking for money for the poor.
‘Bah! Are there no prisons for these people?’ Scrooge refused to give even a penny.
Then, when it was time to close the office, Bob Cratchit asked for the day off, because it was Christmas.
‘All right,’ Scrooge said,‘but be here early the next morning!’.
That evening Scrooge was sitting in front of his fire at home when, suddenly, he saw a ghost in front of him. ‘Who are you?’ Scrooge asked nervously.
‘In life, I was Jacob Marley, your partner. I am wearing these chains and I can never be in peace, because when I lived, I only thought about money. But I am here to help you. You have a chance to escape my terrible destiny. Tonight three ghosts will visit you.’ Then the ghost of Marley disappeared.
Scrooge went to bed and fell asleep. But in the middle of the night he woke up. The figure of a strange old man appeared near his bed.
‘I am the Ghost of Christmas Past. Of your past’, it told Scrooge. The ghost took Scrooge to scenes of Christmases from the past. In one scene Scrooge saw himself as a young boy at school.
He was reading a book. All the other boys had gone home for Christmas. In another scene Scrooge saw himself as a young man. He was talking to his girlfriend,who he really loved. But he didn´t marry her because she didn´t have any money. Scrooge began to feel sadder and sadder.
‘Stop! Show me no more!’ he cried. Finally the ghost brought him home and Scrooge fell asleep again.
Later that night, Scrooge woke up again.
‘I am ghe Ghost of Christmas Present. Look at me!’ said the second ghost, laughing. He was a large man with a beard, wearing a green robe. He took Scrooge to the house of Bob Cratchit and his family. It was cold in the house and Bob and his family were sitting around a very small Christmas pudding.
‘What a wonderful pudding. Merry Christmas everyone!’ cried Bob.
Scrooge felt sad, because he could see how poor the Cratchits were. Bob´s smallest child, Tiny Tim, was very weak and ill. The ghost finally took Scrooge to a very poor area of London. There were two poor children out in the street.
‘Can´t we do something to help these children?’ he asked the ghost, who repeated what Scrooge had said before.
‘Are there no prisons?’ The ghost laughed and disappeared.
Then, the third ghost appeared. He was dressed in black and looked …
‘Are you the Ghost of Christmas Future?’ Scrooge asked nervously.
The ghost did not answer. It took Scrooge and showed him scenes of the future. In one, people were talking about Scrooge´s death, but nobody was unhappy about it. The ghost also took him to the Cratchits´ house.
The family was very sad because the little boy, Tiny Tim, had died. Then the third ghost disappeared.
The next morning, Scrooge opened his window and asked loudly, ‘What day is it today?’.
‘Why sir? It´s Christmas Day,’ replied a young boy in the street.
Scrooge was very happy. He gave money to the boy to buy an enormous turkey for the Cratchit family. Then he went out into the street.
‘Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!’ He wished everybody he saw Merry Christmas. He met the man who had asked for money for the poor and gave him a large sum of money. Scrooge then went and visited his nephew and had the best Christmas dinner in his life.
The next day he went to his office early. He waited for Bob Cratchit.
‘You are late!’ said Scrooge in an angry voice.
‘Yes, I´m very sorry…’ replied poor Bob.
‘In that case, I´m afraid I´m going to… increase your salary! Merry Christmas, Bob!’.
Since that day, Scrooge was the happiest man in the world. He always gave money to the poor and helped Bob Cratchit´s family. And people always said of him : ‘He knew how to celebrate Christmas.’

Before reading

1- Have you ever read any stories or seen films about Christmas?

2- What aspects of Christmas did they deal with?

3- What do you think ‘A Christmas Carol’ is about?


While reading

Look through the story and check the meanings of the underlined new words.


After reading

A) Match the characters with the actions.

1- Scrooge a) appeared and told Scrooge about the three ghosts.

2- Scrooge´s nephew b) showed Scrooge what was going to happen to him.

3- Jacob Marley (Scrooge´s ex partner) c) showed Scrooge the Cratchit family´s Christmas dinner.

4- The ghost of Christmas Past d) arrived late on the day after Christmas.

5- The ghost of Christmas Present e) invited Scrooge for Christmas dinner.

6- The ghost of Christmas Future f) showed Scrooge his life when he was young.

7- Bob Cratchit g) enjoyed Christmas Day and started to be generous.

B) Now order the actions in exercise A.

C) Answer the questions.

1- What did Scrooge think about Christmas?
2- What kind of person was he?
3- What did Scrooge´s nephew do every year ?
4- Who went to see Scrooge one evening? What did he want?
5- What happened to him? Why?
6- What did he tell Scrooge?
7- What did the first ghost show Scrooge?
8- Why was Scrooge unhappy when he saw that?
9- Where did the second ghost take Scrooge?
10- Why was he sad when they visited the Cratchit family?
11- How did Scrooge feel when he saw the poor children in the street?
12- Where did the third ghost and Scrooge go? What did they see?
13- What did Scrooge do on Christmas Day and the day after?
14- How did Scrooge change? What did he do since then?
15- What did people say of Scrooge at the end of the story?
16- What is the moral of this story? Do you agree with it?