Text 1

DANIEL DEFOE

Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe has had a fortunate escape from drowning. The ship he was travelling in was wrecked by a terrible storm in the Caribbean Sea, and he only just managed to reach land. However, quickly realizing that he would need provisions, he swam back to the ship before it sank completely, made a raft and brought some useful things back with him -clothes, food, guns and tools.

Now Crusoe is apparently alone in this strange country, where it seems he will have to work hard in order to survive.

Robinson Crusoe

My next work was to view the country and seek a proper place for my habitation, and where to stow my goods to secure them from whatever might happen. Where I was, 1 yet knew not; whether on the continent, or on an island: whether inhabited or not inhabited; whether in danger of wild beasts, or not. There was a hill, not above a mile from me, which rose up very steep and high, and which seemed to overtop some-other hills, which lay as in a ridge from it, northward. I took out one of the fowling-pieces and one of the pistols, and a horn of powder; and thus armed, I travelled for discovery up to the top of that hill, where, after I had with great labour and difficulty got to the top, I saw my fate to my great affliction, viz., that I was in an island environed every way with the sea, no land to be seen, except some rocks which lay a great way off, and two small islands less than this, which lay about three leagues to the west.

I found also that the island I was in was barren, and, as I saw good reason to believe, uninhabited, except by wild beasts, of whom, however, I saw none; yet I saw an abundance of fowls, but knew not their kinds; neither, when I killed them, could I tell what was fit for food, and what not. At my coming back, I shot at a great bird which 1 saw sitting upon a tree on the side of a great wood. I believe it was the first gun that had been fired there since the creation of the world. I had no sooner fired, but from all the parts of the wood there arose an innumerable number of fowls of many sorts, making a confused screaming, and crying everyone according to his usual note; but not one of them of any kind that I knew.

Contented with this discovery, 1 came back to my raft, and fell to work to bring my cargo on shore, which took me up the rest of that day; and what to do with myself at night I knew not, nor indeed where to rest, for 1 was afraid to lie down on the ground, not knowing but some wild beast might devour me, though, as I afterwards found, there was really no need for those fears. However, as well as I could I barricaded myself round with the chests and boards that I had brought on shore, and made a kind of a hut for that night's lodging.

Notes on text 1

seek: look for

stow: put away

horn of powder: container of gunpowder

viz: (videlicet, Latin) namely

barren: with very few plants

fowls: birds

raft: a simple boat made of flat pieces of wood

cargo: goods carried on a boat

devour me: eat me up

barricaded: made a wall or fence

hut: small shelter made of wood

                                                                                       Text 2

JONATHAN  SWIFT

Gulliver's Travels

In A Voyage to Lilliput, the first part of the book, Gulliver, an English ship's elector, is shipwrecked in a storm somewhere in the Indian Ocean. He assumes his shipmates have all drowned, as he alone manages to swim to land. In this extract, he is exhausted after his long swim. He does not know what country he is in, and there is no sign of any of the inhabitants.

Gulliver's Travels

I lay down on the grass, which was very short and soft, where I slept sounder than ever I remember to have done in my life, and as I reckoned, above nine hours: for when I awaked, it was just daylight. I attempted to rise, but was not able to stir. For as I happened to lie on my back, I found my arms and legs were strongly fastened on each side to the ground; and my hair, which was long and thick, tied down in the same manner. I likewise felt several slender ligatures across my body, from my armpits to my thighs. I could only look upwards; the sun began to grow hot, and the light offended my eyes. I heard a confused noise about me, but in the posture I lay, could see nothing except the sky.

In a little time I felt something alive moving on my left leg; which advancing gently forward over my breast came almost up to my chin; when bending my eyes downwards as much as I could, I perceived it to be a human creature not six inches high with a bow and arrow in his hands and a quiver at his back. In the meantime, I felt at least forty more of the same kind (as I conjectured) following the first. I was in the utmost astonishment, and roared so loud that they all ran back in a fright; and some of them as I was afterwards told were hurt with the falls  they got by leaping from my sides upon the ground. However, they soon returned; and one of them, who ventured so far as to get a full sight of my face, lifting up his hands and eyes by way of admiration, cryed out in a shrill, but distinct voice, hekinah degul. The others repeated the same words several times, but I then knew not what they meant. I lay all this while, as the reader may believe, in great uneasiness.

At length, struggling to get loose, 1 had the fortune to break the strings and wrench out the pegs that fastened my left arm to the ground; for, by lifting it up to my face, I discovered the methods they had taken to bind me; and, at the same time, with a violent pull, which gave me excessive pain, I a little loosened the strings that tied down my hair on the left side, so that I was just able to turn my head about two inches. But the creatures ran off a second time, before I could seize them; whereupon there was a great shout in a very shrill accent. And after it ceased, I heard one of them cry aloud, toigo phonac; when in an instant I felt above a hundred arrows discharged on my left hand, which pricked me like so many needles. And besides, they shot another flight into the air, as we do bombs in Europe; whereof many, I suppose, fell on my body, (though I felt them not) and some on my face, which I immediately covered with my left hand.

Notes on text 2

sounder: more soundly, more

deeply awaked: (archaic) awoke, woke up

ligatures: ropes tying him down

posture: position

breast: chest

perceived it to be: realised it was

six inches: fifteen centimetres

quiver: a container for arrows

conjectured: guessed

utmost: greatest

ventured: dared

cryed: old-fashioned spelling of cried

shrill: high and sharp

wrench out: pull out by force

hekinah degul: to go

phonac: words in the Lilliputian language

two inches: five centimetres

whereupon: at which point

an hundred: (archaic) a hundred

discharged: shot

whereof: (archaic) of which

                                                                                          Text 3 

JANE  AUSTEN   (1775-1817)

Pride and Prejudice

A rich young gentleman has moved into the country, and is renting a large house, Netherfield Park. His name is Mr Bingley. All the mothers in the neighbourhood would like to give him the opportunity to meet their daughters as soon as possible. Mr and Mrs Bennet, who live near Netherfield Park, have five daughters who are all about the right age for marriage. So Mrs Bennet is especially interested in Mr Bingley.

 Pride and Prejudice

'My dear Mr Bennet', said his lady to him one day, 'have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last'?  Mr Bennet replied that he had not.

'But it is,' returned she; 'for Mrs Long has just been here, and she told me all about it.' Mr Bennet made no answer.

'Do not you want to know who has taken it?' cried his wife impatiently. 'You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.' This was invitation enough.

'Why, my dear, you must know, Mrs Long says that Netherfield is taken by a young man of large fortune from the north of England; that he came down on Monday in a chaise and four to see the place, and was so much delighted with it that he agreed with Mr Morris immediately; that he is to take possession before Michaelmas, and some of us servants are to be in the house by the end of next week.' 'What is his name?' 'Bingley.' ' Is he married or single?'

'Oh! Single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What  a fine thing for our girls!' 'How so? How can it affect them?'

'My dear Mr Bennet,' replied his wife, how can you be so tiresome! You must know that 1 am thinking of his marrying one of them.' ' Is that his design in settling here? '

'Design! Nonsense, how can you talk so! But it is very likely that he may fall in love with one of them, and therefore you must visit him as soon as he comes.'

I see no occasion for that. You and the girls may go, or you may send them by themselves, which perhaps will be still better, for as you are as handsome as any of them, Mr Bingley might like you the best of the party.'

'My dear, you flatter me. I certainly have had my share of beauty, but I do not pretend to be anything extraordinary now. When a woman has five grown up daughters, she ought to give over thinking of her own beauty.' In such cases, a woman has not often much beauty to think of.' 'But, my dear, you must indeed go and see Mr Bingley when he comes into the neighbourhood'.

It is more than I engage for. I assure you.

'But consider your daughters. Only think what an establishment it would be for one of them. Sir William and Lady Lucas are determined to go, merely on that account, for in general you know they visit no new comers, indeed you must go, for it will be impossible for us to visit him, if you do not.'

'You are over scrupulous surely. I dare say Mr Bingley will be very glad to see you; and I will send a few lines by you to assure him of my hearty consent to his marrying whichever he chooses of the girls; though I must throw in a good word for my little Lizzy.

Notes on text 3

My dear Mr Bennet: it was usual in the early nineteenth century for husbands and wives to speak to each other formally like this

let: rented

cried: said loudly

of large fortune: wealthy

chaise and four: carriage with four horses

Michaelmas: end of September

four or five thousand: L 4000 or L 5000 a year, a very large income at the time

party: group

flatter: pay compliments to, praise exaggeratedly any thing: usually written as one word these days engage for: promise to do

establishment: (here) marriage

over scrupulous: too worried about being polite chuses: old spelling of chooses

Lizzy: short for Elizabeth

                                                                                         Text 4

GEORGE ORWELL (1903-1950)

Down and Out in Paris and London

In this book Orwell describes his real experiences in the severe economic slump of the twenties and thirties. Sometimes he manages to find casual work, which is always hard and badly paid. However, at this point in the book, he has taken to the life of a tramp, and describes one of the tramps he meets on the road.

Down and Out in Paris and London

Paddy was my mate for about the next fortnight, and, as he was the first tramp I had known at all well, I want to give an account of him. I believe that he was a typical tramp and there are tens of thousands in England like him.

He was a tallish man aged about thirty-five, with fair hair going grizzled and watery blue eyes. His features were good, but his cheeks had tanked and had that greyish, dirty-in-the-grain look that comes of a bread and margarine diet. He was dressed, rather better than most tramps, in a tweed shooting-jacket and a pair of very old evening trousers with the braid still on them. Evidently the braid figured in his mind as a lingering scrap of respectability, and he took care to sew it on again when it came loose. He was careful of his appearance altogether, and carried a razor and bootbrush that he would not sell_, though he had sold his papers and even his pocket-knife long since. Nevertheless, one would have known him for a tramp a hundred yards away. There was something in his drifting style of walk, and the way he had of hunching his shoulders forward, essentially abject. Seeing him walk, you felt instinctively that he would sooner take a blow than give one.

He had been brought up in Ireland, served two years in the war, and then worked in a metal polish factory, where he had lost his job two years earlier. He was horribly ashamed of being a tramp, hut he had picked up ail a tramp's ways. He browsed the pavements unceasingly, never missing a cigarette-end, or even an empty cigarette packet, as he used the tissue paper for rolling cigarettes. On our way into Edbury he saw a newspaper parcel on the pavement, pounced on it, and found that it contained two mutton sandwiches, rather frayed at the edges; these he insisted on my sharing. He never passed an automatic machine without giving a tug at the handle, for he said that sometimes they are out of order and will eject pennies if you tug at them. He had no stomach for crime, however. When we were in the outskirts of Romton, Paddy noticed a bottle of milk on a doorstep, evidently left there by mistake. He stopped, eyeing the bottle hungrily.

'Somebody could knock dat bottle off, eh? Knock it off easy. '

I saw that he was thinking of 'knocking it off himself. He looked up and down the street; it was a quiet residential street and there was nobody in sight. Paddy's sickly, chap-fallen face yearned over the milk. Then he turned away, saying gloomily:

'Best leave it. It don't do a man no good to steal. Thank God, I ain't never stolen nothin yet. '

Notes on text 4

mate: a friend and companion

tramp:  a homeless person who walks from one place to another

grizzled: grey

tanked: become thinner

dirty-in-the-grain: permanently dirty

braid: a sort of narrow ribbon scrap: a small piece

hundred yards: about a hundred metres

drifting: aimless, without purpose

hunching: rounding

abject: hopeless, without pride

blow: a punch, a hit

browsed: searched

rolling cigarettes: making his own cigarettes

 pounced on it; picked it up quickly

frayed: broken

tug: a pull

eject, to push out

dat: (dialect) that

knock it off: (slang) steal it

sickly: ill-looking

chapfallen: depressed, down-hearted

yearned over: longed for, wanted

It don't do... no good: (ungrammatical) It doesn't do... any good

 I ain't never stolen nothin': (ungrammatical) I've never stolen anything

                                                                                       Text 5

CHARLOTTE BRONTE (1816-1855)

Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre's parents are dead, and she has no money, so she is working as a governess at Thornfield Hall, teaching the illegitimate daughter of Mr Rochester. He is a strange man, moody and sometimes rude, but Jane is attracted to him despite his faults. There is also something strange about Thornfield Hall. Jane has heard curious wild laughter coming from an upstairs room, and seen a servant, Grace Poole, who lives and works in the attic, quite separately from the other servants.

Jane Eyre

 I started wide awake on hearing a vague murmur, peculiar and lugubrious, which sounded, I thought, just above me. I wished I had kept my candle burning: the night was drearily dark; my spirits were depressed. I rose and sat up in bed listening. The sound was hushed.

I tried again to sleep; but my heart beat anxiously: my inward tranquillity was broken. The clock, far down in the hall, struck two. Just then it seemed my chamber door was touched, as if fingers had swept the panels in groping a way along the dark gallery outside. I said, 'Who is there?' Nothing answered. I was chilled with fear.

All at once I remembered that it might be Pilot, who, when the kitchen door chanced to be left open, not infrequently found his way up to the threshold of Mr Rochester's chamber: I had seen him lying there myself in the mornings. The idea calmed me somewhat: I lay down. Silence composes the nerves; and as an unbroken hush now reigned again through the whole house, I began to feel the return of slumber. But it was not fated that I should sleep that night. A dream had scarcely approached my ear, when it fled affrighted, scared by a marrow-freezing incident enough.

This was a demoniac laugh - low, suppressed, and deep - uttered, as it seemed, at the very keyhole of my chamber door. The head of my bed was near the door, and I thought at first the goblin-laughter stood at my bedside - or rattier crouched by my pillow. But I rose, looked round, and could see nothing; while, as 1 still gazed, the unnatural sound was reiterated: and 1 knew it came from behind the panels. My first impulse was to rise and fasten the bolt: my next again to cry out, 'Who is there?'

Something gurgled and moaned. Ere long, steps retreated up the gallery towards the third-storey staircase: a door had lately been made to shut in that staircase: I heard it open and close, and all was still.

'Was that Grace Poole? And is she possessed with a devil?' thought I. Impossible now to remain longer by myself; I must go to Mrs Fairfax. I hurried on my frock and a shawl. I withdrew the bolt and opened the door with a trembling hand. There was a candle burning just outside, and on the matting in the gallery. I was surprised at this circumstance. But still more was I amazed to perceive the air quite dim, as if filled with smoke; and, while looking to the right hand and left, to find whence these blue wreaths issued, 1 became further aware of a strong smell of burning.

Something creaked: it was a door ajar: and that door was Mr Rochester's, and the smoke rushed in a cloud from thence. I thought no more of Mrs Fairfax: I thought no more of Grace Poole, or the laugh: in an instant. I was within the chamber. Tongues of flame darted round the bed: the curtains were on fire. In the midst of blaze and vapour. Mr Rochester lay stretched motionless, in deep sleep.

Notes on text 5