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Macbeth

The story

The play opens as three witches plan a meeting with the Scottish nobleman Macbeth, who at that moment is fighting in a great battle. When the battle is over, Macbeth and his friend Banquo come across the witches who offer them three predictions: that Macbeth will become Thane of Cawdor and King of Scotland, and that Banquo's descendants will become kings.

Banquo laughs at the prophecies but Macbeth is excited, especially as soon after their meeting with the witches Macbeth is made Thane of Cawdor by King Duncan, in return for his bravery in the battle. He writes to his wife, Lady Macbeth, who is as excited as he is. A messenger tells Lady Macbeth that King Duncan is on his way to their castle and she invokes evil spirits to help her slay him. Macbeth is talked into killing Duncan by his wife and stabs him to death. No-one is quite sure who committed this murder and no-one feels safe, but Macbeth is crowned king.

Now that Macbeth is king he knows the second prediction from the witches has come true, but he starts to fear the third prediction (that Banquo's descendants will also be kings). Macbeth therefore decides to kill Banquo and his son, but the plan goes wrong - Banquo is killed but his son escapes. Macbeth then thinks he is going mad because he sees Banquo's ghost and receives more predictions from the witches. He starts to become ruthless and kills the family of Macduff, an important lord. Macbeth still thinks he is safe but one by one the witches' prophecies come true, Lady Macbeth cannot stop thinking about Duncan, becomes deranged and dies. A large army marches on Macbeth's castle and Macbeth is killed by Macduff.

What is the message/ meaning of the story?

I think that Shakespeare was trying to convey a message through his play. Macbeth was bombarded with pressure from supernatural forces, from his wife, and even his own ambition. He takes advantage of free will by using it for the worst. Macbeth followed selfish ambitions, and killed many people. He became so arrogant and egotistical, that he thought he was immortal, but died because of his actions. 

I think that Shakespeare is trying to convey the message that you should make your choices rationally and carefully because for every action there will be consequences. 

William Shakespeare

Questions without auxiliares

Subject/Object questions

Sometimes you might see questions like this.

• Who broke the window?
• What happened next?
• Who told you that?

There is no auxiliary verb and the word order is not inverted.

These are called subject questions – because the question word is the subject of the sentence.

Look at these two questions.

• Who does Romeo love? Romeo loves Juliet.
• Who loves Romeo? Juliet loves Romeo.

In the first question, Romeo is the subject of the verb.
In the second question ‘who’ is the subject and Romeo is the object.

Who came here? questions the subject

Who did you speak with. Questions the object
This confusion is also partly due to the fact that "who" has taken over the function "whom", the question word for the object, filled when it fell out of use except in very formal writing.

What happened? subject
What did you do? object

How many people died? subject
How many people did you interview? object

File 11 As and Like - Both

As and like are often confused since they are both used to compare actions or situations. There are, however, important differences.

As

We use as to talk about job or function. 

• I worked as a shop assistant for 2 years when I was a student.
• He used his shoe as a hammer to hang the picture up.

In comparisons, the structure ‘as adjective as’ is often used.

• He’s not as tall as his brother
• She ran as fast as she could.

In the following comparisons as is a conjunction – it’s followed by a clause with a subject and a verb.

• He went to Cambridge University, as his father had before him.
• She’s a talented writer, as most of her family are.

Like

In the following comparisons, like is a preposition and it’s followed by a noun or a pronoun.

• I’ve been working like a dog all afternoon.
• None of my brothers are much like me.
• She looks just like her mother.

Like and As if/As though

Like, as if and as though can all be used to make comparisons. There is no difference in meaning among the 3 forms.

• You look as if you’ve seen a ghost.
• You talk as though we’re never going to see each other again.
• It looks like it’s going to rain.

Expressions with ‘as’

The following expressions all use as.

• As you know, classes restart on January 15th.
• I tried using salt as you suggested but the stain still didn’t come out.
• As we agreed the company will be split 50/50 between us.
• Their house is the same as ours.

Both

We use both to refer to two things or people together:

Both those chairs are occupied, I’m afraid. (The two chairs are occupied.)

Are both your parents going to Chile? (Are your mother and father going to Chile?)

Both with nouns

When we use both before a determiner (e.g. a/an, the, she, his) + noun, both and both of can be used:

She knew both my children. (or … both of my children.)

Both her brothers are living in Canada. (or Both of her brothers …)

We can use both before a noun:

This button starts both engines at the same time. (or … both of the engines …)

Are both cats female?

File 11 PRACTICAL ENGLISH - on the phone

Useful telephone vocabulary and phrases in English.

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Making contact :	Hello / Good morning / Good afternoon ... This is John Brown speaking Could I speak to ......... please? I'd like to speak to ..... ..... I'm trying to contact ..........
Giving more information:	I'm calling from Tokyo / Paris / New York / Sydney ... I'm calling on behalf of Mr. X ...
Taking a call :	X speaking. Can I help you?
Asking for a name / information :	Who's calling please? Who's speaking? Where are you calling from? Are you sure you have the right number / name?
Asking the caller to wait :	Hold the line please. Could you hold on please? Just a moment please.
Connecting :	Thank you for holding. The line's free now ... I'll put you through. I'll connect you now  / I'm connecting you now.
Giving negative information :	I'm afraid the line's engaged. Could you call back later? I'm afraid he's in a meeting at the moment. I'm sorry. He's out of the office today. / He isn't in at the moment. I'm afraid we don't have a Mr./Mrs./Ms/Miss. ... here I'm sorry.  There's nobody here by that name. Sorry.  I think you've dialled the wrong number./ I'm afraid you've got the wrong number.
Telephone problems :	The line is very bad ...  Could you speak up please? Could you repeat that please? I'm afraid I can't hear you. Sorry. I didn't catch that.  Could you say it again please?
Leaving / Taking a message :	Can I leave / take a message? Would you like to leave a message? Could you give him/her a message? Could you ask him/her to call me back? Could you tell him/her that I called? Could you give me your name please? Could you spell that please? What's your number please?

Short Stories - Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl - Official site

SUMMARY OF THE STORY

This story is about Mary Maloney and her husband Patrick who was a detective. It seems that she loved her husband dearly. But shockingly she killed him when he told her that he was going to leave her. As she had lived with a detective husband, she knew the ways to prove herself innocent from the charge of murdering him. She went to a grocery to buy some edibles and behaved as if nothing had happened. She told the grocer, Mr. Sam that she was buying those edibles for her husband. After coming home, she rang up the police and the detectives and informed them about the murder of her husband, Patrick. Investigations went on, but in vain. Nobody could raise a finger of suspicion on Mary Maloney as there was no evidence against her. Thus, a murderer moves freely in the society.

 

POSITIVE POINTS OF THE STORY

 

I liked the story very much. It reflects the changes and colours of human nature. It is quite unpredictable. Human feelings such as love, faith, affection and loyalty can be blown away with any fit of a cruel wind. They are not deep rooted in human nature and can be uprooted to enact a crime. We lie to ourselves when we say that we love someone from the core of our heart. Heart is only a biological organ and has nothing to do with our feelings. It is a bitter truth that we love ourselves the most. Our feelings change with circumstances. We love others as long as we receive reciprocation from the other side. Otherwise everything is finished. As in the story Mary who loved a lot her husband and always thought and waited for him with anxiety, wasted no time to kill him cruelly. Even after committing the dreadful crime, she had no regrets and worked out a plan to set herself free from any charges.

NEGATIVE POINTS OF THE STORY

Every coin has two sides. Same here with the story also though the plot of the story is strong. It sometimes loses the grip on the reader. The writer elaborates Mary Maloney’s love and anxiety for her husband, Patrick a lot. But when Patrick told Mary that he was going to leave her forever, the writer had failed to show the struggle of thoughts in Mary’s mind. Instead of giving any resistance or reaction, she went in the kitchen to prepare the supper. It is also not very clear whether Patrick also loved Mary as deeply as she did. Apart from this, the writer did not mention clearly why Patrick wanted to leave Mary even when she was pregnant.

 

CONCLUSION

To conclude, it is a soul touching story reflecting the variations in human nature. It is awful that man is more dangerous than animals. He only loves himself and if his wishes and feelings are not reciprocated he can commit a crime and with no repentance.

 

By RACHNA RAJARAMAN (India)

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Lamb to the Slaughter : a summary by Yvanna, Marina and Maëva (France)

Mary Maloney, a devoted woman to her husband was looking forward to seeing him again. As usual, she had prepared everything he could need at home when he would come back from work. But, when he came back that day, he looked preoccupied. She kept on taking so much care of him as she was used to, but it seemed like he had something to tell her, something she would never forget.

When he was done telling her whet he had to tell her, she felt like the whole world had fallen apart but she could barely pretend that everything was alright.

In a different state of mind, she hit him until he couldn’t breathe anymore.

What would come next? She was already planning it.

She would cook the meat and walk to the grocery shop. She would tell the man about the dinner she was about to prepare for Patrick. And when she would come home, she would pretend she was expecting her husband to be still alive and burst into tears when she would find him lying on the floor. That was what she would do, that would be her alibi. And that was exactly what she did, in a right and natural way.

When the policemen arrived, they couldn’t find who the murderer was.

“Get the weapon, and you’ve got the man,” they said, while they were blindly eating the lamb. And Mary Maloney felt she was somehow out of danger.

The characters in Lamb to the Slaughter by Riche and Naïma (France)

Mrs Maloney is a pregnant housewife who is married to Patrick and who loves him. She thinks she knows everything about him( his schedule, tastes,…).

She looks harmless and meek …as a lamb at first but she is so desperate on hearing that Patrick is going to leave her that she kills him.

We also discover another aspect of her personality when she regains her self control. She manages to manipulate the grocer and the policemen who are led to believe that she is innocent.

Patrick Maloney: we don’t know much about him except that he is Mary’s husband and we can imagine that they share a boring routine. He is a policeman.He wants to tell Mary something and we quickly understand that he has been unfaithful and wants to get a divorce.

The policemen: They do their best to console her. They are also the fools of the story because they are made to eat the crime weapon without suspecting anything!