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YOUNG ADULT

READERS

EMILY BRONTË WUTHERING HEIGHTS

STAGE 4

Wuthering Heights

In Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë shows us the destructive power of hatred and revenge, but she also explores love in its many forms and, in the end, her story is about hope.

WUTHERING HEIGHTS

Cathy’s life is changed forever when her father brings home an abandoned child he names Heathcliff. As Cathy and Heathcliff grow up, their love for each other is as wild as the moors. But, can love overcome jealousy? Can forgiveness enter hearts filled with pain and suffering?

EMILY BRONTË

Emily Brontë

STAGE 4

Eli Readers is a beautifully illustrated series of timeless classics and specially written stories for learners of English.

In this reader you will find: - Information about Emily Brontë’s life - Sections focusing on background and context - Glossary of difficult words - Comprehension activities - FCE-style activities - Exit test Tags Love and Hatred

Jealousy and Revenge

Victorian Society

Elementary

600 headwords

A1

STAGE 2

Pre-Intermediate

800 headwords

A2

KET

STAGE 3

Intermediate

1000 headwords

B1

PET

STAGE 4

Upper Intermediate

1800 headwords

B2

FCE

STAGE 5

Advanced

2500 headwords

C1

CAE

STAGE 6

Proficiency

Unabridged Texts

C2

CPE

Classic

with free downloadable Booklet

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with Audio CD

YOUNG ADULT ELI READERS

STAGE 1

ELT B 2

www.elireaders.com

ELT B2

YOUNG ADULT

READERS

MAIN CHARACTERS

Catherine Earnshaw

Cathy Linton Edgar Linton

Hindley Earnshaw

Hareton Earnshaw

Heathcliff

Isabella Linton

Linton Heathcliff

emily brontë

One wet Sunday evening, they were sent out of the room for making a noise, but when I came to look for them to send them to bed, they were nowhere to be found.

We searched the whole house until late at night. Eventually, Master Hindley became furious, and told us to lock* all the doors and windows even if Cathy and Heathcliff had to stay out all night in the rain. I stayed up waiting, until eventually I heard footsteps in the yard and went out to see who it was.

There was Heathcliff, alone. I was terribly worried.

‘Where is Miss Cathy?’ I asked him. ‘No accident, I hope?’

‘She is at Thrushcross Grange,’ he said, ‘and I would have been there too, but they did not have the manners* to ask me to stay.’

‘What in the world is she doing at Thrushcross Grange?’ I asked as I took him into the kitchen to dry himself.

‘Cathy and I were on the moors, when we saw the lights of Thrushcross Grange and decided to see how the Lintons spend their Sundays, to see if they are always sent out in the cold and punished like we are, while their mother and father sit eating and drinking, singing and laughing by the fire. Do you think that is how they spend their Sundays?’

‘Probably not,’ I answered, ‘but I expect they are good children.’

‘Good children?’ he cried. ‘We ran down to the Grange and looked in through the windows. Ah, everything in it was beautiful and Mr and Mrs Linton weren’t there, so Edgar and Isabella had the place to themselves. Cathy and I would have been in heaven, but what do you think your good children were doing, Nelly? Screaming and fighting over who would hold their pet dog!

How we laughed at them. Cathy or I would never be like that with lock close with a key

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manners good, correct behaviour

AFTER-READING ACTIVITIES

Reading Comprehension 1 Decide which of the following sentences refer to Heathcliff and Cathy (HC1) and which to Hareton and Catherine (HC2).

HC1 HC2 1 They loved each other from the beginning.

■ ■ 2 She did not like him at first and was embarrassed by him. ■ ■ 3 She laughed at his appearance.

■ ■ 4 She laughed at his ignorance.

■ ■ 5 She decided not to marry him because he was ignorant and dirty.

■ ■ 6 She decided to help him, taught him to read, and helped him become a gentleman.

■ ■ 7 They were passionate and wild.

■ ■ 8 They were joyful and content.

■ ■

Grammar 2 Put the correct word in the spaces below and say what type of word they are – the first has been done to help you.

1 _______ (time word) I left the next morning, I went to visit the 2 _______ (_______) of Edgar and Cathy. On the other side of Cathy, a woman I had never met, but 3 _______ (_______) story had filled my soul, there was a 4 _______ (_______) grave and a 5 _______ (_______) stone marked ‘Heathcliff’. I looked out 6 _______ (_______) the moors and stood listening to the wind that blew 7 _______ (_______) in the trees. I did not believe that the dead walked the moors as ghosts. I was sure that they were at peace, leaving the living to find 8 _______ (_______) at last.

Speaking 3

Discuss the following questions in pairs.

• Are you shocked by Heathcliff’s behaviour in this chapter?

• What do you think of Heathcliff’s treatment of Linton?

• What do you think of the young Catherine at the end of this story?

• Why do you think Heathcliff died?

• Are you pleased that this book has a happy ending?

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Vocabulary 4 Fill in the gaps in this famous poem by Amanda Crater. Use the words in the box below. approval • condemn • encouragement • justice • love • ridicule • shame If a child lives with criticism, he learns to _________________.

If a child lives with hostility, he learns to fight.

If a child lives with _________________, he learns to be shy.

If a child lives with _________________, he learns to feel guilty.

If a child lives with tolerance, he learns to be patient.

If a child lives with _________________, he learns confidence.

If a child lives with praise, he learns to appreciate.

If a child lives with fairness, he learns _________________.

If a child lives with security, he learns to have faith.

If a child lives with _________________, he learns to like himself.

If a child lives with acceptance and friendship, He learns to find _________________ in the world.

Speaking 5

Now that you have read the poem, discuss the questions below in pairs.

• Do you agree with the writer of this poem?

• Do you think that Heathcliff’s childhood made him violent and vengeful, or was that part of his nature?

• Why do you think that Catherine and Hareton are so happy together? Do you think their childhoods were happier than Heathcliff and Cathy’s?

• Do you think your childhood experiences can change you? Or do you think you are born with the character you have?

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FOCUS ON...

Emily Brontë (1843 - 1916) Novelist and Poet

Brontë sisters

Emily Jane Brontë was an English novelist and poet. Although she is best remembered for her novel, Wuthering Heights, she was also a respected poet. She was born and lived most of her life in the northern English county of Yorkshire. It is a place of wild beauty which she loved. The character of the landscape she grew up in is mirrored her writing, both prose and poetry. With her sisters Charlotte (Jane Eyre) and Anne (Agnes Grey), Emily was part of one of the most famous literary families in the world.

Early Life Emily Brontë was born on 30th July 1818, in the village of Thornton, near Bradford, the fifth of six children. In 1824, her father was given the job of curate, or assistant vicar, at the nearby town of Haworth. The Parsonage at Haworth was where Emily lived for most of the rest of her life. From the beginning, Emily’s life was filled with tragedy.

Her mother died of cancer when she was three, then she lost her two oldest sisters – Maria who died at the age of 11 and Elizabeth who was 10.

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Following an unhappy few months at a boarding school, Emily returned home and was educated there, along with Charlotte, Anne and her only brother, Branwell. One

of her favourite activities was writing stories with her youngest sister Anne about imaginary worlds, including an island in the Pacific, called Gondal.

Brontë Parsonage Museum

Pseudonyms Although Emily had brief periods away from home during her life, either to study or to work as a teacher, she was always longing to go home. When Charlotte discovered some of her poems, in the early 1840s, Emily was persuaded to get them published together with poems written by her two sisters. Because of the prejudice of the time against women writers – it was not thought appropriate for women to write – the three sisters decided to publish under the pseudonyms of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. The volume of poetry they published in 1846, was not a big success.

1846 issue of Brontë poems

Wuthering Heights All three sisters began to work on novels after that. Wuthering Heights was published in 1847, under the name Ellis Bell. Contemporary critics immediately recognised the power and originality of the writing, but thought the book strange and ambiguous. Some critics were unhappy about the narrative structure of the book, with the story being told to us by Lockwood and Nelly Dean, and others were shocked by the amoral passion of its main characters, Cathy and Heathcliff. Since that time however, Wuthering Heights has been seen as one of the most important works of English literature.

Emily Dies Following her brother Branwell’s death in 1848, Emily caught a bad cold and died, probably of a severe chest infection, on 19th December 1848. She is buried in Haworth church. Anne Brontë died only a few months later. It was not until two years after her death, in 1850, that the only remaining Brontë

sister, Charlotte, announced that she and her sisters were Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. Many people could not believe that Emily, who had had such a quiet life, could have written a book of such power, violence and passion.

They perhaps underestimated the power of her imagination.

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