The locked room

Chapters
1. The ash-tree
2. A school story
3. The curtains
Activities Before you read

1. Find these words in your dictionary. They are all in the story

Ash-tree: Fresno
Behaviour: Comportamiento, conducta
Bible: Biblia
Chapter: Capítulo
Grave: Tumba
Graveyard: Cementerio
Horror: Horror, espanto
Host: Anfitrión
Pattern: Modelo, ejemplo, patrón
Terrified: Aterrorizado
Vicar: Vicario
Well: Pozo
Witch: Bruja

Which word or words answer these questions? (You will have to use one word twice.)

a. Which four words might you find in or near a church?

Bible, vicar, grave, graveyard.
b. Which word appears thousands of times in a library?
Chapter
c. Which two words are about feelings?
Horror and terrified
d. Something which is repeated many times is a…
Pattern
e. Which two words are very different types of people?
Vicar and witch
f. Which word might you read in a child's school report?
Behaviour
g. Which word might you see in a wood?
Ash-tree
h. Which word is a person giving a party?
Host
i. Which word means a place where you can get water from?
Well
2. The stories in this book are all horror stories. The first one is called “The Ash-Tree”.
How do you think a tree could be frightening?
- I think that, maybe, a tree can contain a dead person´s soul or maybe the
tree it´s alive.
3. The kind of school where pupils live all the time is called a boarding school. Do you
think these schools are a good idea? Why or why not?
- I don´t know enough about boarding schools, but I think that these kind of
schools wants or tries to discipline their students and teach more completely
therefore I think that these schools are good.
4. “The Curtain” is part of a longer story called The Diary of My Poynter. What
connection do you think there might be between a diary and something as ordinary as
curtains?
- Maybe, I think that exists a ghost and the Diary invokes it. So, when ghost
comes the curtains moves.

After you read.

5. In “The Ash-Tree”, how do Sir Matthew and Sir Richard die and where are they found?
- They died because a stranger animal, that probably was invoked by the bible. I
think that stranger animal it´s a Mrs. Mothersole who was found guilty of being
a witch and that she was living into ash-tree.
Sir Matthew and his grandson were found in the same room and the same way
where the ash-tree was.
6. At the end of “A School Story” two dead bodies are found in the well. Who are they?
- That´s bodies were of teacher Sampson and the terrible man or ghost.
7. In “The Curtains”, James thinks his little dog has followed him into the bedroom, but
he is wrong. What is it?
- The thing more strangest that James saw. Something almost human but
without eyes, no nose, no mouth only hair. The diary of Mr. Poynter tells that
these thing was a young that found dead in his room with all his hair pulled out.