English Lessons With Blackadder PDF
English Lessons With Blackadder PDF
Blackadder
A course for Upper-Intermediate Students by David Nicholls
A new approach to learning English, this is a series of lessons based on the episodes of the hit
UK TV show Blackadder. Lessons include grammar explanations, exercises, vocabulary tasks
and discussion questions. They are ideal for self-study and classroom use.
Blackadder the Third
Dish and dishonesty
Comprehension:
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Now use the words in the left column in the following sentences (in the correct forms)
We use this tense with unfinished periods, and with past actions which have present results.
PAST SIMPLE
We use this tense of we know when an action happened, or if it has finished and has no relation
to the present.
1) I ____ ____ out of socks again. I cant find any! (run out of)
2) How long ____ you ____ in this borough? (live)
3) I ____ Baldrick the Lord, yesterday. (make)
4) I ____ just ____ a priceless turnip (break)
5) On one occasion he entered the House of Commons and ____ ____ in the speakers chair
(pass out)
Discussion Questions
Answers
1) A General Election
2) Virtually no one.
3) Napolean Bonapart (the evil dictator), his old Geography master, and the utter slob, the
Prince of Wales.
4) Not at first. He doesnt understand that they want to bankrupt him.
5) The Politicians are equally split (divided) on whether to strike the Prince from the civil
list. So he plans to bribe one tory politician by appointing him a high court judge.
6) He dies
7) It was a borough (voting district) with very few voters living there, so they could be easily
bribed to vote for the peer who would pass it on to his son.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotten_and_pocket_boroughs
8) 1
9) To buy the land of the constituency Dunny on the world.and even though its a
tuppence ha'penny kind of place, there are many other expenses also like window tax,
food for the animals
10) Fraud and sexual deviance (hes going to be an MP )
11) He would buy a turnip in the countryside
12) Because he is a substitute for the previous returning officer, who brutally stabbed himself
while shaving.
13) 16472
14) Someone in his service who has done good work against the evil Pitt
15) Baldrick.
1) I have run out of socks again. I cant find any! (run out of)
2) How long have you lived in this borough? (live)
3) I made Baldrick the Lord, yesterday. (make)
4) I have just broken a priceless turnip (break)
5) On one occasion he entered the House of Commons and passed out in the speakers chair
(pass out)
Blackadder the Third
Ink and Incapability
Comprehension:
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A masterpiece famous
pointless A different name which you give yourself
renowned The story of a novel or film
valuable Without reason or purpose
A pseudonym A papery thing tied up with string
A plot crafty
A patron A competition
A syllable A work of art
A manuscript Worth a lot of money
cunning A sponsor
A flaw A part of speech
A quiz A mistake
Now use the words in the left column in the following sentences (in the correct forms)
Dr Johnson wrote the ____ masterpiece which became the first dictionary.
Blackadder uses the ____ Gertrude Perkins.
I think I can see the ____ in this plan.
I won a prize last night in the ____
I have a ____ plan
Baldrick, what have you done with the ____ ?
Grammar Unreal conditionals
1) If anyone ____ the dictionary, I ____ off his head with my bare hands and feed it to the cat
(lose/tear).
2) I wish I ____ a writer (be)
3) If I ____ Prince George, I ____ Blackadder. (be/sack)
4) I ____ a detective story if I ____ a writer (write/be)
Discussion Questions
1) Who do you think is the cleverest man in Russian history? And the greatest writer?
2) Who is the best female Russian writer?
3) Would you like to write a novel? What would it be about?
4) Do you have a favourite dictionary?
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Answers
1) He will become best friends with the cleverest person in England, Dr Samuel Johnson
2) He sent him his novel
3) Yes he has sent him his novel, and unfortunately he has even written back to refuse to
publish it.
4) The dictionary
5) He uses words which dont exist so that he thinks he has missed some words out in his
dictionary.
6) Edmund A butlers tale. Blackadders book! He has read it!
7) He puts it on the fire.
8) No, he doesnt.
9) Impersonal pronoun (NOT TRUE!) and doesnt really mean anything.
Dr Johnson wrote the renowned masterpiece which became the first dictionary.
Blackadder uses the pseudonym Gertrude Perkins.
I think I can see the flaw in this plan.
I won a prize last night in the quiz
I have a cunning plan
Baldrick, what have you done with the manuscript ?
1) If anyone lost the dictionary, I would tear off his head with my bare hands and feed it to the
cat (lose/tear).
2) I wish I were a writer (be)
3) If I had been (were) Prince George, I would have sacked Blackadder. (be/sack)
4) I would write a detective story if I were a writer (write/be)
Blackadder the Third
Nob and Nobility
Comprehension:
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Now use the words in the left column in the following sentences (in the correct forms)
Discussion Questions
Answers
Comprehension:
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A play To be connected to
A suspicion To become stressed or annoyed about s.t
To be/have something to do with To be tired of
Oppressed masses A recital of a performance
To be/get worked up about s.t Someone who betrays his country
disease A dramatic work
To overthrow An illness
To be fed up with An intuition or doubt
sensitive To put s.t on / turn s.t on
thick To make a noise like a lion
To pop in The mistreated lower classes
A rehearsal Sympathetic and receptive
To stick s.t on To abolish and overcome
Traitors To blow up
To explode stupid
To roar To drop by
Now use the words in the left column in the following sentences (in the correct forms) which
were in this episode.
There are tremendous rumblings in Prussia, although that might ____ ____ ____ ____ with the
sausages
My ____ were first aroused by his use of the words Death to the stupid Prince!
Tell me about these oppressed masses. What are they so ____ ____ about?
The working man is poised to ____ us.
Im ____ ____ ____ you treating me like I am a bit thick (a thicky)
All my actors ____ ____ on their way to rehearsal.
I thought they just ____ ____ a silly hat and got drunk.
All great orators ____ before commencing their speeches.
Discussion Questions
What do you think about the American and French revolutions? Why did they happen? What
were the consequences of these events?
What about the Russian revolution?
Do you believe that some wealth must be redistributed? How?
Do you often go the theatre? Do you have any favourite plays or actors?
Can you tell me about any plots to kill historical figures?
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Answers
1) Because he doesnt like the actors, and he has to go to with Prince George who doesnt
understand that its not real.
2) He thinks Blackadder was the target.
3) Because these are revolutionary times, with revolutions in America and France.
4) He wants two actors to teach him how to use his voice, before he makes a sensitive
speech at his Fathers birthday.
5) Because they want to work with the Prince, for the prestige.
6) Because they believe that the word Macbeth will bring them bad luck if anyone says it,
and so they must do a little ritual to exorcise the bad spirits.
7) He must practice his roar.
8) The Prince insulted him, and so he left to get a job for Napoleon in Sardinia.
9) He hears the actors rehearsing their play, and thinks they are really plotting to kill the
Prince.
10) They are arrested as traitors for their plot to kill the Prince.
Comprehension:
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Put the following sentences into reported speech, using the reporting verbs.
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Grammar
If we were the last 3 humans on Earth, Id be trying to start a family with Baldrick.
We use this form to speak about hypothetical past actions and their past consequences
Finish the following sentences about the show with your own ideas using 2 nd and 3rd conditional.
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Answers
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Reporting Verbs
Suggested becoming
Admitted being
Advised the Prince to marry
Insisted that the Prince had fine manners
Warned Baldrick never to ask for directions
Denied anyone being there (or denied that anyone was there)
Amy praised Blackadder for being brave
Accused her father of not defending her honour
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Conditionals
Suggested answers
Comprehension:
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Now use the words in the left column in the following sentences (in the correct forms) which
were in this episode.
Discussion Questions
Have you ever been to Scotland? What stereotypes do you have of the place?
Which famous Russians have been involved in duelling?
How reliable are portraits for showing us the appearance of historical figures?
Do you know the Duke of Wellington? What do you think of Napolean?
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Answers
1) If he had wanted to talk to a vegetable he would have bought one at the market.
2) He turned up. The other guy was such an idiot that he forgot to.
3) Blackadders cousin McAdder.
4) He spent the night with 2 ravishing ladies who were the nieces of the Duke of
Wellington.
5) Wellington is very protective of his relatives. He has challenged the Prince to a duel
because of his actions.
6) Someone could fight the duel instead of the Prince, perhaps even Blackadder.
7) He realises that McAdder could fight the duel instead of himself.
8) Because Wellington is on his way to the Princes house and he must think that
Blackadder is the Prince.
9) Because he sits in their presence.
10) Because McAdder will fight the duel for him.
11) He asks for everything. The money, the castles and some French porn.
12) Kick him in the nuts (balls) and then set fire to the building.
Grammar
Suggested answers
He must have made him angry.
He might have wanted the reward.
McAdder must have been there earlier.
Wellington cant have met the Prince before.
He might have understood that it was dangerous