Read the paragraphs below and answer the questions.
Once upon a time of all the good days in the year, on Christmas Eve - old Scrooge sat busy in his counting house. It was cold, bleak, biting weather: foggy withal: and he could hear the people in the court outside, go wheezing up and down, beating their hands upon their breasts, and stamping their feet upon the pavement stones to warm them. The city clocks had only just gone three, but it was quite dark already - it had not been light all day and candles were flaring in the windows of the neighbouring offices, like ruddy smears upon the palpable brown air. The fog came pouring in at every chink and keyhole, and was so dense without, that although the court was of the narrowest, the houses opposite were mere phantoms. To see the dingy cloud come drooping down, obscuring everything, one might have thought that Nature lived hard by, and was brewing on a large scale.
1. Which day does the story take place on?
2. What was the weather like?
3. How did people outside try to keep warm?
4. At what time of day does the story open?
5. What looked like phantoms in the fog?
The door of Scrooge's counting house was open that he might keep his eye upon his clerk, who in a dismal little cell beyond, a sort of tank, was copying letters. Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk's fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal. But he couldn't replenish it, for Scrooge kept the coal-box in his own room; and so surely as the clerk came in with the shovel, the master predicted that it would be necessary for them to part. Wherefore the clerk put on his white comforter, and tried to warm himself at the candle; in which effort, not being a man of a strong imagination, he failed.
6. Why did Scrooge have the door of his counting house open?
7. What was the clerk's main job?
8. Why did the clerk have such a small fire?
9. Which combination of things was involved in the clerk's attempt to stay warm?
10. The clerk is described as 'not being a man of a strong imagination'. What does this mean here?
"A merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!" cried a cheerful voice. It was the voice of Scrooge's nephew, who came upon him so quickly that this was the first intimation he had of his approach.
"Bah!" said Scrooge, "Humbug!"
He had so heated himself with rapid walking in the fog and frost, this nephew of Scrooge's, that he was all in a glow; his face was ruddy and handsome; his eyes sparkled, and his breath smoked again... "Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? You're poor enough."
"Come, then," returned the nephew gaily. "What right have you to be dismal? What reason have you to be morose? You're rich enough."... "What's Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer... If I could work my will," said Scrooge indignantly, "every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart."
11. What word best describes Scrooge's nephew when he comes in?
12. What does the word 'morose' mean?
13. Why does Scrooge think people who celebrate Christmas are fools?
14. How are Christmas puddings traditionally cooked?
15. According to Scrooge, what does his nephew have to do at Christmas time?
"There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say," returned the nephew. "Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time... as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of... when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely... And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!"
The clerk in the Tank involuntarily applauded. Becoming immediately sensible of the impropriety, he poked the fire, and extinguished the last frail spark for ever.
"Let me hear another sound from you," said Scrooge, "and you'll keep your Christmas by losing your situation!... You're quite a powerful speaker, sir," he added, turning to his nephew. "I wonder you don't go into Parliament."
16. Why does Scrooge's nephew like Christmas?
17. What happened when the clerk poked the fire?
18. Scrooge said to his clerk, '...you'll keep your Christmas by losing your situation.' What does he mean?
19. What type of work does Scrooge suggest to his nephew?
20. Which word best sums up Scrooge's personality?
21. What is the most important thing in Scrooge's life?
22. What is Scrooge's general view of other people?