Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 8th edition

Clasical poetry (paper 1)

1-Pro logue •

Noune WORD ORIGIN EXAMPLE BANK

a speech, etc. at the beginning of a play, book, or film/movie that introduces it
the Prologue to Chaucer's ‘Canterbury Tales’
compare epilogue
epi logue
• WORD ORIGIN
a speech, etc. at the end of a play, book, or film/movie that comments on or acts as a
conclusion to what has happened
Fortinbras speaks the epilogue in Shakespeare's ‘Hamlet’.
compare prologue
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 8th edition
2-Paradise Lost
A very long poem (1667) by John Milton. It tells the story of Adam and Eve and how
they are driven out of the Garden of Eden by God because they do not obey him. In 1671
Milton published Paradise Regained, about how Jesus was sent to get Paradise back
again for Man.
-Jesus= A teacher and prophet born in Bethlehem and active in Nazareth; his life and
sermons form the basis for Christianity (circa 4 BC - AD 29
-Bethlehem=A small town near Jerusalem on the West Bank of the Jordan River; early
home of David and regarded as the place where Jesus was born.
A town in eastern Pennsylvania on the Lehigh River to the northwest of Philadelphia; an
important center for steel production
-Nazareth= A historic town in northern Israel that is mentioned in the Gospels as the
home of Joseph and Mary
3-Love/Divine poems
John Donne
(c. 1572–1631 ) an English poet who is now regarded as the greatest of the
metaphysical poets . In his youth he was a law student, soldier, drinker, lover and
writer of love poems which are famous for their original and surprising comparisons. In
one, for example, he compares a woman to a newly discovered continent: ‘Oh, my
America! my new-found land!’ In 1615 he became an Anglican priest, and six years later
Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral . He became famous as a religious speaker and writer,
putting the same powerful emotion and intellect into his religious poetry as he had put
into his love poems.
4- The Rape of the Lock
a long humorous poem ( 1712 ) by Alexander Pope , about a man who cuts off a small
piece of a woman’s hair (= a lock ) . Pope describes this rather unimportant act in grand
and elegant language, which gives the poem its humour.
5-Wyatt Earp
( 1848–1929 ) a US law officer in the Wild West , first in Wichita and then in Dodge
City . He is best remembered for being involved in the gun fight at the OK Corral in
Tombstone in 1881 . The story of this and of Earp’s life have been told in many books
and films, and in a television series in the 1950s and 1960s
(i)The long love that in my doth harbor
(ii) whose list to Hunt,
(iii) madam without many words
(iv) The Flee from Me
(v) Is it Possible forget not yet
(vi) what should I say Stand who so list
6- SurreyA county in south-east England, south-west of London. It consists of
some agricultural land and many small towns in the stockbroker belt for people who
work in London. The administrative centre is Kingston upon Thames.
(i)My friend the things that do attain love

(ii) that doth reign and live within my thought

(iii) So Cruel Prison

(iv) Wyatt Resteth

Darama (paper 2)
1-Oedi pus com plex
• •

Noune [ singular ] ( psychology )

feelings of sexual desire that a boy has for his mother and the jealous feelings towards
his father that this causes
compare Electra complex
From the Greek story of Oedipus , whose father Laius had been told by the oracle that
his son would kill him. Laius left Oedipus on a mountain to die, but a shepherd rescued
him. Oedipus returned home many years later but did not recognize his parents. He
killed his father and married his mother Jocasta.
2-Doctor Faustus
one of the greatest plays of Christopher Marlowe , written in about 1590 . Its full title is
The Tragical History of Dr Faustus . It is about a man who has studied all sciences
and arts and finds nothing more in the world to study, so he turns to magic. He sells his
soul to the Devil in return for 24 years of power and pleasure. He enjoys his 24 years but
is finally dragged away by the Devil.
3-(i)Othello
a play ( c.  1603 ) by William Shakespeare . The story is about a great man who is
destroyed by jealousy . Othello is a Moor (= North African ) who is a powerful and
respected commander in the navy of Venice. He is gradually persuaded by the evil
officer Iago that his wife, Desdemona, and another officer, Cassio, are lovers. Othello
kills his wife but then discovers that she was innocent and kills himself.
(ii)The Winter’s Tale
a play ( c.  1610 ) by William Shakespeare . It begins sadly and ends happily. Leontes,
king of Sicilia, thinks that his wife is not faithful. He puts her in prison and orders his
baby daughter to be left on a ‘desert shore’. He believes that they are both dead, and
feels very sorry for what he has done. His daughter, however, is found by a shepherd (=
a person whose job is to look after sheep ) , and grows up to become a shepherd herself.
When she falls in love with a prince they run away together to Sicilia. There, Leontes
recognizes his daughter and finds out that his wife is also alive. The young lovers are
married and the king and queen are united again.
4-The Importance of Being Earnest
a comedy play by Oscar Wilde , first performed in 1895 . A young man, Jack Worthing,
wants to marry the daughter of Lady Bracknell , but Lady Bracknell disapproves of him
because he tells her he does not know his parents as he was found in a handbag at
Victoria Station . The play is often performed in Britain, especially by amateur
0dramatics groups, and is much loved for its clever humour and comic situations.
Novel (paper 3)
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 8th edition
1-Barchester Towers
a novel ( 1857 ) by Anthony Trollope . It is the second of his six Barsetshire novels and
is about a struggle for power among the people associated with the cathedral in
Barchester, an imaginary town in England.
2-Pride and Prejudice
a novel ( 1813 ) by Jane Austen . Its main characters are the sensible and intelligent
Elizabeth Bennet and the rich and handsome Fitzwilliam Darcy. Elizabeth at first
dislikes Darcy because of his pride, but they finally recognize each other’s good qualities
and fall in love. The book ends with their marriage and that of another couple,
Elizabeth’s sister Jane and Darcy’s friend Charles Bingley. It is one of Austen’s most
popular books and has been filmed several times.
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good
fortune, must be in want of a wife.
THE BEGINNING OF PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

3-Adam Bede
the first novel ( 1859 ) by George Eliot . Adam Bede, a carpenter in a village in the
English Midlands , falls in love with a beautiful young woman, but she has a tragic
affair with another man. Later, Adam falls in love with and marries her cousin, a good,
calm and religious person.
4-A Tale of Two Cities
a novel ( 1859 ) by Charles Dickens , set in London and Paris at the time of the French
Revolution. Charles Darnay is a young French aristocrat who disagrees with the cruel
way his family has been treating poor people. He moves to London and falls in love with
Lucie, the daughter of an old doctor who had been put in prison by Darnay’s family.
Darnay marries Lucie before going back to France to rescue an old servant, but he is
arrested there and condemned to death. He is saved by an Englishman, Sidney Carton,
who is also in love with Lucie. The two men look very similar, and Sidney takes Charles’s
place on the scaffold (= the structure on which people are killed in public ) . The book
ends with his thoughts as he walks to his death, which form one of the most famous
sentences in English literature:
It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest
that I go to than I have ever known.
5-Andy Hardy
A character in 15 MGM films in the 1930s and 1940s . He was a boy who lived with his
family in a small town, and Americans liked the happy, innocent stories. Mickey Rooney
played Andy, and Judy Garland was his girlfriend . MGM won a special Oscar in 1942
because the series represented ‘the American way of life’.
(i)-Return of the Native
Prose (paper 4)