STAGE
This ungraded summary is for the teacher’s use only
and should not be given to students.
The story
Oliver Barrett, who is studying at Harvard University,
meets a girl called Jenny Cavilleri, who is studying at
Radcliffe University. They are very different people, in
terms of background, character and interests. Oliver’s
father is a wealthy banker, and Jenny’s is a hard-
working baker. Oliver’s great interest is sport, and
Jenny’s is music. Their attitudes to their families are
different, too. Jenny is very close to her father, and
calls him by his first name, while Oliver always seems
annoyed with his father, and cannot communicate
with him.
Despite these differences, Oliver and Jenny fall
in love, and decide to marry after their graduation.
Oliver’s father thinks his son is getting married too
young, and refuses to allow him any more money.
Oliver has three years of law school ahead of him
before he can practise as a lawyer, and is too proud
to plead with his father, so Jenny gives up her music
scholarship in Paris and works as a teacher to support
Oliver. They are very poor, but happy. Jenny tries hard
to bring Oliver and his father together, but without
success. Finally, Oliver finishes at law school, with
excellent results, and is immediately offered a well-
paid job with a large company in New York. Now they
are comfortably off, and can look forward to having a
baby.
But nothing happens, and when they go to consult
a doctor, he tells Oliver that Jenny is dying of a serious
blood disease. Oliver is horrified and tries to keep it a
secret from Jenny, but she soon discovers the truth.
A month later Jenny goes into hospital. Oliver has
to borrow a lot of money from his father to pay the
medical bills, but he still cannot bring himself to talk
properly to his father, or tell him about Jenny. She
dies in Oliver’s arms. Oliver’s father hears about her
illness, and comes to offer help. For the first time,
Oliver breaks down, and accepts his father’s love and
support.
81
Background
nd to the story
The author, Erich Segal, was born in 1937. Love Story,
y
published in 1970, was his first novel. It became an
international bestseller and a very popular film.
The story is set in the USA, in the late 1960s, when
the British pop group The Beatles were at the height of
their popularity. Harvard is one of the most respected
and prestigious universities in North America, and
is on the East coast of the United States. A classic
career path for an American lawyer would be to
graduate from Harvard University, then study for three
more years at Harvard Law School, in order to take the
final qualifying legal exams, as Oliver does in the story.
Traditional universities, like Harvard and Yale, often
consider sporting ability to be almost as important as
intellectual achievement, and a high sporting profile
may even help a graduate to gain employment.
Before reading
Here are some ways to help your students approach
the story:
1 Give students the title of the book and show them
the picture on the cover. Ask them to try and guess
what kind of the story it is.
2 Give students a copy of the text on the back
cover of the book, and of the story introduction
on the first page. When they have read the texts,
ask them a few questions about the story, or use
the Before Reading Activities in the back of each
Bookworm.
3 Use the pre-reading activity in this worksheet.
4 If there is a recording of this title, play the first few
pages and stop at an interesting point.
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 STAGE
Love Story
3 Pre-reading activity

Word search

S C H O L A R S H I P H

C W O Z A F P O O R I U

O D C Q W A P A S T A S

R Y K E Y T J Q P V N B

E I E X E H F X I Z O A

X N Y A R E L A T I O N

W G J M A R R I A G E D

K I S S G I R L L O V E

Write your answers here.

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Write sentences using two or more of these words each time.

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To the teacher

Aim: To introduce students to key vocabulary any difficult words. Ask students to suggest what
Time: 15–20 minutes kind of story might include these words, and then
Organization: Give one copy of the word search to ask them to make sentences using two or more of
each student or put the word search on an overhead these words each time.
projector. Give the students ten minutes to find as Key: scholarship, poor, pasta, key, relation, marriage,
many words as possible. Go through words they kiss, girl, love, score, dying, hockey, exam, lawyer,
have identified and help them with the meanings of father, hospital, piano, husband.

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 STAGE
Love Story
3 After reading activity 1

Order the events

EVENT OrdEr

a Oliver’s father becomes Head of the Peace Corps.

b Oliver and Jenny get married.

c Oliver gets angry, and Jenny walks out.

d They discover that Jenny is dying.

e Jenny watches Oliver play in the Dartmouth match.

f Jenny asks Oliver to hold her as she dies.

g Oliver and Jenny make love for the first time.

h Oliver and Jenny move to New York.

i Oliver goes to borrow a book from the Radcliffe library.

j Oliver’s mother sends a birthday party invitation.

k Oliver rings Jenny to tell her he’s in love with her.

l Oliver’s father takes him out to dinner.

m Oliver takes Jenny to meet his parents.

n Oliver takes Jenny for coffee.

o Jenny takes Oliver to meet her father.

p Oliver’s great-grandfather gives Barrett Hall to Harvard University.

q Oliver cries in his father’s arms.

r Phil moves into the New York flat.

To the teacher

Aim: To revise and summarize the story
Time: 20–30 minutes
Organization: Give out copies of the worksheet to
groups or pairs of students. The sentences, which
make up a summary of the story are in the wrong
order. Ask students to put them in the correct order.
When they have completed the re-ordering exercise,
and it has been checked, ask them to tell the story
in pairs or as a round, adding details to make it more
interesting. Alternatively you could ask them to
connect up pairs of sentences with suitable linking
words.
Key: 1p, 2i, 3n, 4e, 5k, 6l, 7g, 8m, 9a, 10o, 11b, 12j,
13c, 14h, 15d, 16r, 17f, 18q.

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 STAGE
Love Story
3 After reading activity 2

Snap! or Pelmanism

SET ONE
Scoring goals Ray Stratton

Twenty-five
The piano Paris

Mozart, Bach and

the-Beatles Old Stonyface Italian cakes

The Radcliffe library, Twelve stitches Bozo

Glasses A non-conversation Joans and Marsh

Five million The Olympic Games Just be natural

Italy Phil Five thousand dollars

Harvard University MG sports car Cleaning the flat

Preppie The last word Crying

To the teacher

Aim: To revise events and key facts of the narrative
Time: 30–40 minutes
Organization: Make a pack of fifty-two cards by
cutting out and sticking each of the words and
sentences on a piece of card. The pack consists
of two sets of twenty-six cards. The first set has
characters, actions or objects on the cards, and the
second set has complete sentences with information
from the story. The aim is for students to match up
the two sets of cards. The games are best played in
groups of three or four students: each group needs a
complete pack of fifty-two cards.
For SNAP! give the players equal numbers of
cards, face down. Each player in turn lays one of their
cards, face up, on a pile in the centre of the-table. If
two corresponding cards are put down, one after the
other, the player who realizes it first shouts ‘Snap!’
and can pick up the whole pile of cards in the centre.
Play continues until one player holds all the cards and
is therefore the winner.
For PELMANISM put all the cards face down on
the table, either in parallel rows (this makes it much
easier!) or at different angles to each other. Each
player turns over two cards at a time. If the cards are
a matching pair, that player keeps both cards, and has
another turn. If they do not match, they are turned
over again, and the next person has a turn. Players
try to remember where cards are, and the winner is
the one with the most pairs of cards at the end of
the game.

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 STAGE
Love Story
3
Set two
After reading activity 2

Snap! or Pelmanism

SET TWO

Oliver and Jenny first THIS is Oliver’s car. THIS is what Oliver
meet HERE. thinks talking to his
father is like.
Jenny loves having THIS.
Jenny sometimes wears
THESE. Oliver eats THESE on
HE is a good friend of his first visit to Jenny’s
Oliver’s. father.
Oliver’s father was
chosen to play in
THESE. Jenny wins a scholarship Oliver wants to call his
to study music HERE. son this.

Jenny’s father comes

from HERE. Jenny dies at THIS age. Oliver accepts a highly-
paid job with THIS
company.
Oliver studies HERE. Jenny loves THIS type of
music.
THIS is what the doctor
Jenny plays THIS tells Oliver to do.
instrument. Harvard had THIS
number of books.
Oliver borrows THIS
Oliver sometimes thinks from his father.
of his father like THIS. Jenny sometimes calls
Oliver THIS.
Phil does THIS, again
Jenny calls her father and again.
THIS. THIS is what Oliver likes
doing!
Oliver says strong men
Oliver has to have don’t do THIS.
THESE in his face after
an ice hockey match.

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