This year marks 200 years since the birth of Charles Dickens, one of our most famous writers. His output was prolific and he was a celebrity in his lifetime as well as since his death.

One of his most famous stories is that of Scrooge the miser and his redemption through the visits of 3 ghosts who show him the error of his ways. This story has stood the test of time and from cartoons to films to musicals it is still part of Christmas today.

Opposite is the opening of the story.

Find out more about Dickens and the story in these two Gapfillers exercises:

Reading - Dickens The inimitable

Listening - A Christmas Carol

Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to.

Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

Mind! I don't mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country's done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. How could it be otherwise? Scrooge and he were partners for I don't know how many years. Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend, and sole mourner. And even Scrooge was not so dreadfully cut up by the sad event, but that he was an excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral, and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain. The mention of Marley's funeral brings me back to the point I started from. There is no doubt that Marley was dead. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate. If we were not perfectly convinced that Hamlet's Father died before the play began, there would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts, than there would be in any other middle-aged gentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy spot -- say Saint Paul's Churchyard for instance -- literally to astonish his son's weak mind.

Why reading English stories might be a good idea.

This month I want to encourage you all to read in English. Every Thursday we have a short story (or a chapter from one) with vocabulary and comprehension exercises to help you get the most out of the text.

There are some more links to readings on a Christmas theme below.

I hope that this edition of our monthly newsletter will inspire you to read!!

Christmas is just around the corner and there is a lot to do in the run up to this festival.

We love to celebrate Christmas with you here on Gapfillers. It is part of the culture of the UK and other English speaking countries and it offers us some wonderful literature to share as well as a whole host of vocabulary dedicated to the Christmas festivities.

Some Christmas Treats?

Grammar:

Christmas Grammar Exercise

Reading:

The Snowman

Poem:

A Christmas Tree

Short Story:

The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle - a Sherlock Holmes story

How about some singing?

Christmas Karaoke

Listening:

Mrs Beeton's Christmas Plum Pudding Song

Joke:

Here are some Christmas cracker jokes.

Blog - The Diary of a 21st Century Nobody

Christmas Looms!