The Landlady--crossword

The Landlady
Complete this crossword, then click on "Check" to check your answer. If you are stuck, you can click on "Hint" to get a free letter. Click on a number in the grid to see the clue or clues for that number.

This crossword was created by Lilliam Hurst using Hot Potatoes by Martin Holmes

HAVE FUN!

CLICK ON:

http://wwwedu.ge.ch/cptic/prospective/projets/anglais/exercises/landlady.htm

IRISH TALES

Now I would like to share with you one of my most gratifying experiences concerning extensive reading. Last year I had the idea of giving an Irish fairy tale to the 10th grade. They simply loved it! Now I recommend this little collection from the editors Gill & Macmillan. It is a delightful collection of traditional Irish legends, beautifully illustrated and simply retold to be read by and to children and teenagers.

An absolutely fantastic short story

One of the short stories I enjoyed reading most is "The Solipsist" by Fredric Brown.
It's a two page story that makes you reflect on the meaning of life and the very existence of God.
If it is not available to you now you can watch the video in:
http://www.ifilm.com/video/2670993
You can also know about this disorder -solipsism- in:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solipsism

Who is this lady?

How did you like "The Landlady"?

If you didn't get it, here's what happened: she poisoned the other two men and stuffed them.

Billy had read of their disappearances in the newspaper, and then he was to be the next victim!

The bitter almond taste in his tea was potassium cyanide.

The Landlady

Plot
This is one of Dahl's most famous stories and it's been dramatized on television at least once. It's got one of my favorite endings too, simply because it's so simple and subtle. And scary! :)

Billy Weaver arrives in Bath after taking the train from London. He's never been to the town before, but he's due to start a new job there soon and he's excited at the prospect. He heads toward The Bell and Dragon, which is a pub he's been told he could spend the night at. On the way though, he notices a sign in the window of a nearby house: "BED AND BREAKFAST." Billy looks in the window and notices that it's a charming house, with a roaring fire and a little dog curled up asleep on the rug. On an impulse, he decides to check it out and rings the bell. It is answered immediately a little old lady who invites him to enter and tells him the room rate. As it's less than half what he was prepared to pay, Billy decides to stay. She tells him that he is the only guest as she takes him to his room. When he goes downstairs to sign the guest-book, he notices that there are only two names in the entire book. The names are over two years old... and what's more, they strike him as being familiar. As he struggles to remember where he's heard the names before, the landlady brings him a cup of tea. He seems to remember that one of them was an Eton schoolboy that disappeared, but she assures him that her Mr. Temple was different. Billy sits down before the fire with his tea and notices a strange odor that comes from the woman, something like walnuts or new leather. They begin talking about the former guests, and she notes that both of them were handsome young men just like him. He asks if they left recently, and she replies that both of them are still in the house on the fourth floor. Billy is confused and tries to change the subject by commenting on a parrot in a cage, which he thought was alive but just realized is stuffed. The landlady reveals that she herself stuffed the bird, and as she is a taxidermist she stuffs all her own pets. Billy realizes with a shock that the little dachsund by the fire isn't alive. He also notices a curious bitter almond taste in his tea, and he asks the landlady again: "Haven't there been any other guests here except them in the last two or three years?" She gives him a little smile as she replies, "No, my dear. Only you."

"The Hitchhiker"

After reading it, we invite you to answer these questions:

-The narrator uses the following words to describe his car. What does this tell us about his personality?
. exciting toy
. terrific acceleration
. genuine soft leather
. finest quality

-What motivates the driver to stop for the hitchhiker?

Short Stories
"The Hitchhiker" by Roald Dahl

Plot

The narrator is driving to London in his lovely new BMW when he picks up a hitchhiker. The man, who looks rather like a rat, mentions that he's going to the horse races, but not to bet or work the ticket machines. The narrator is intrigued and says that he's a writer. They get to talking about the car, and the narrator proudly states that it can hit one hundred and twenty-nine miles per hour. The hitchhiker doubts that, so once they hit a straight patch of road, the narrator steps on the gas. They're almost there when a policeman on a motorcycle zooms past and signals them to stop. The cop is a bit of a bully and threatens to have the narrator thrown in prison. He takes down his address and also the address of the hitchhiker. Then he gives them a ticket and leaves and they continue on their way. The narrator is worried about the ticket, but the hitchhiker says it will be fine. They begin talking about their careers again, and eventually the hitchhiker announces that he is a "fingersmith." He is so skilled with his hands that he even manages to remove the narrator's belt without him noticing. He attends the races and steals money from the winners. "That policeman's going to check up on you pretty thoroughly," the narrator says. "Doesn't that worry you a bit?" The hitchhiker responds that no one will be checking up on him, as policemen have notoriously bad memories. "What's memory got to do with it?" the narrator asks. "It's written down in his book, isn't it?" The hitchhiker proudly announces that he's stolen both books from the policeman. "Easiest job I ever done." They pull off the road to burn the books.

The narrator of this story is never named, but it sounds very much as if it's Dahl himself. What do you think?

SHORT STORIES

A short story is a form of short fictional narrative prose. Short stories tend to be more concise and to the point than longer works of fiction, such as novellas (in the modern sense of this term) and novels.
Short stories have their origins in oral story-telling traditions and the prose anecdote, a swiftly-sketched situation that comes rapidly to its point. With the rise of the comparatively realistic novel, the short story evolved as a miniature, with some of its first perfectly independent examples in the tales of E.T.A. Hoffmann and Anton Chekhov.
Many authors today release compilations of their short stories in short story collections.