13. Which of the verbs in the box can you use about books and magazines? Cross out the ones you can’t use. Use them in natural context.

borrow buy enjoy join lend listen to order publish play subscribe to watch write

14. Work in pairs. Guess whether statements are true (t) or false (f) for your partner.

Your partner…

• has a lot of books at home.

• has never borrowed a book from a library.

• subscribes to a magazine or a journal.

• reads the news online.

• reads more for study (work) than for pleasure.

• has listened to an audio book.

15. Put each of the following words from the box into its correct place in the passage below. There is one word extra.

villain plot characters story writers journalists covers book covers contents

Character Study

Characters are what make the heart of fiction beat. The perfectly described sweep of landscape, the thrill of pulse-poundering action, the heart-stopping revelation of a …’s final twist – none of these has the impact of meeting someone in a … who becomes a friend or … for the rest of your life. With this in mind, we set out to find the best characters from the past centure. The result: a… with a lot of character – a hundred of them, to be exact. We heard from …, …, professors, actors, directors all over the country (the world, in fact) who weighed in with their opinions and observations. One of the best things about assembling the list was the homework it required, and we hope it reminds you – as it did us – of some of the great books whose …you may not have cracked for decades, but whose … you’ve been living with for years.

16. a) Work in goups. You are going to outline the plot of a horror story. Select from the list of ‘ingredients’ below and, if you want, add your own ideas. Appoint a spokesperson to take notes. Compare your stories.

Location	Period	Characters	Event
a cemetery	1860	a honeymoon couple	people disappear
an old castle on a hill	the Middle Ages	a mad scientist	a monster is created
a church	when there is a new moon	a witch	man-eating plants invade Earth
a remote country mension	present time	a psychiatrist	someone collects people for a human zoo
a house with secret passages	some time in the future	a poltergeist	the dead return to life
an aeroplane		a young girl who, if angered, has the power to make strange things happen	an operation that goes wrong
a dark wood		an army of androids	a successful operation
		someone who has a grudge against society	inexplicable accidents
		rats, spiders, giant bees, bat

b) Compile a table for another book genre (to your choice) and write a short story.

17. Group work. Make up a list of expressions from active vocabulary to comment on the following proverbs and saying about books. Then exchange the lists with another group and comment on the given saying using the expressions prepared for you.

1. Books and friends should be few but good (a proverb). 2. No furniture is so charming as books, even if you never open them and read a single word (Sydney Smith). 3. A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good (Samual Johnson). 4. A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read (Mark Twain).