King Lear: Acts 4–5

Vocabulary

1. Choose the correct answer from a, b, c or d.

1. Some people put birds in ............ and keep them as pets.

a. cages

b. trees

c. boxes

d. tents

2. The French soldiers ............ in England in 1066.

a. crept up

b. suffered

c. arrived

d. tempted

3. He’s a ............ . He never tells the truth.

a. liar

b. thief

c. prisoner

d. soldier

4. He’s blowing that ............ too loudly. I can’t hear the other instruments.

a. drums

b. trumpet

c. guitar

d. piano

5. The patients were carried to the hospital on ............ .

a. tents

b. chairs

c. stretchers

d. floor

6. Can you ............ all the old paper and put it on the fire?

a. put up

b. tear up

c. give up

d. creep up

7. If you don’t have anything to eat, you’ll ............ .

a. sleep

b. hungry

c. resign

d. starve

8. He’s talking a lot of ............, you should listen to him.

a. rubbish

b. sense

c. things

d. nonsense

9. Do you ............ the man in the photo? I don’t know who he is.

a. tell

b. believe

c. recognise

d. look

10. Here everyone is ............ . Nobody is better than anyone else.

a. same

b. different

c. similar

d. equal

11. All the actors are standing on the ............ .

a. theatre

b. stage

c. cage

d. camp

12. The men listened to their ............, who gave them instructions.

a. officers

b. soldiers

c. prisoners

d. enemies

Reading

2. Answer the questions with the names of the characters in the box.

Who …?

1. tries to kill Gloucester? Oswald.
2. dies of poison? Regan.
3. wears the crown at the end of the play? Edgar.
4. cannot read the letter Lear gives him? Gloucester.
5. kills herself? Goneril.
6. admits he is wrong? Edmund.
7. is the king happy to be with? Cordelia.
8. decides to resign and help Lear? Albany.

3. Answer these questions.

1. Why does Lear tell Gloucester to get some glass eyes? So he can pretend to see things that others do not.
2. Where does Edgar offer to take Gloucester? To a friend's house.
3. What does Cordelia ask her father when he first wakes up in the tent? She asks him if he recognises her.
4. What does Lear ask Cordelia to do? He asks her to forgive him.
5. Why does Albany tell everyone they must get ready to fight? Because the French army has arrived in England.
6. What does Edmund tell the captain to do? He tells him to follow the prisoners to the prison.
7. Why does Albany call Goneril ‘an evil woman’? Because she wanted Edmund to help her take Ragan's land.
8. What was the message Edmund had sent to the captain? Goneril. She killed herself after she poisoned Regan.
9. What does Kent say he is surprised about? He's surprised that the king lived for so long.

4. Read the quotations and answer the questions.

1. Rich men are not punished for the same crimes as a poor man is punished for. Why don’t you get some glass eyes and pretend to see things that others do not, like a bad judge!

a. Who says this? king lear.

b. What do they mean? king lear is pointing out the injustices between the rich and the poor and how judges and the law can often favour the rich.

2. The King is with his daughter, Cordelia, and others who are helping him. We must be ready to fight now because the French army have invaded. But the French are not here to help Lear. I think we have been too cruel to the King.

a. Who is Albany talking to? Regan.

b. Albany thinks they have been too cruel. Does he change the way he behaves after this? Yes, he does. He wants to help king lear feel better.

3. Just an hour ago, I told him everything, but his heart was to weak. He died smiling.

a. Who died smiling? Edgar's father.

b. What does it mean to die smiling? He was happy.