Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen

 


(2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) Danish writer.

Complete the text with the following words:

powerful – poems – films – born – plays – ugly – shoemaker – red – travelling – emperor – moved – died – fairy – education – mermaid – pea

Andersen was _______1________ in Odense, Denmark. His father was a ________2______, and his mother washed clothes for customers. The family was poor. When Andersen was 11, his father died. At 14, Andersen left his mother and his home. He _______3________ to Copenhagen.

The king helped Andersen finish his ______4_________. Andersen wanted to be an actor or dancer. He did not have the talent for either. He started to write novels, _______5________, poems, short stories, and travel books. In 1835, he published four ______6_________ tales that were liked by the readers. After this success, he wanted to write more fairy tales.

Andersen’s stories were popular all over Europe. He was invited into the homes of rich and ______7__________ people. He fell in love with several men and women. He was in love with singer Jenny Lind. He also fell in love with ballet dancer Harald Scharff.

Andersen was a happy and carefree man. He travelled all over Europe. He hoped ______8_________ would make him even happier. He _______9_________ on 4 August 1875 from complications following a fall and from cancer.

Although a prolific writer of plays, novels, and ______10_________, he is best remembered for his fairy tales.

Andersen’s fairy tales, consisting of 156 stories across nine volumes and translated into more than 125 languages, have become culturally embedded in the West’s collective consciousness, readily accessible to children, presenting lessons of virtue in the face of adversity. His most famous fairy tales include “The ______11_________’s New Clothes,” “The Little ______12_________,” “The Nightingale,” “The Steadfast Tin Soldier”, “The _______13________ Shoes”, “The Princess and the ______14_________,” “The Snow Queen,” “The ________15_______ Duckling,” “The Little Match Girl,” and “Thumbelina.”

His stories have inspired ballets, plays, and animated and live-action ______16_________.

2–true or false?

  1. Hans Christian Andersen was born in Odense, Denmark.
  2. Hans Christian Andersen was rich boy with parents that had provided him with all that he needed.
  3. Hans Christian Andersen wrote more than 160 fairy tales which included stories like the Ugly Duckling, The Little Match Girl, and the Emperor’s New Clothes.
  4. Hans Christian Andersen wrote many stories and then wanted to become an actor and singer.
  5. Hans Christian Andersen got his love for telling stories from his father.
  6. It was not until Hans was 30 years old that he wrote fairy tales but people loved his writing and he became world famous.
  7. The story “The Ugly Duckling” was a refection of Hans Christian Andersen’s life.
  8. In “The Little Match Girl,” the little girl goes home to her father even though she didn’t sell any matches.
  9. “The Little Match Girl” was written with Hans Christian Andersen’s mom in mind.
  10. In “The Emperor’s New Clothes” the tailors made the Emperor clothes made with beautiful fabrics that amazed his kingdom.

3–Hans Christian Andersen Quiz:

1. When was Hans Christian Andersen born?
a) 9 February 1804
b) 2 April 1805
c) 3 July 1801
d) 30 December 1806

2. Where was Hans Christian Andersen born?
a) Lind
b) Thisted
c) Hobro
d) Odense

3. Which university did Hans Christian Andersen attend?
a) Aarhus
b) Copenhagen
c) Roskilde
d) Alborg

4. When did Hans Christian Andersen write OT: A Danish Romance?
a) 1931
b) 1927
c) 1935
d) 1836

5. What was the theme of Hans Christian Andersen’s play The Mulatto?
a) Science
b) Slavery
c) War
d) Discovery

6. When was Hans Christian Andersen’s Tales, Told for Children first published?
a) 1835
b) 1832
c) 1834
d) 1828

7. Which of the following books was published in 1837?
a) In Spain
b) A Poet’s Bazaar
c) Pictures of Sweden
d) Only a Fiddler

8. Which of the following tales deals with the ultimate triumph of goodness and beauty?
a) The Emperor’s New Clothes
b) The Snow Queen
c) The Arab and the Camel
d) The Wolf and the Lamb

9. When did Hans Christian Andersen die?
a) 18 January 1976
b) 3 June 1878
c) 4 August 1875
d) 12 November 1885

10. Where did Hans Christian Andersen die?
a) Norreby
b) Vodskov
c) Heming
d) Copenhagen


Tales



“The Ugly Duckling” was first published on 11 November 1843.

  1. What was the mother duck waiting for?
  2. What came out of the large egg?
  3. What where the other ducks saying about the big bird?
  4. What happen to the ugly duckling when he walk around?
  5. How did the ugly duckling feel?
  6. What did the ugly duckling do?
  7. What did the ugly duckling see at the lakeside?
  8. What did the ugly duckling turn into?
  9. What do you learn after reading this story?

5–The Emperor’s New Clothes

Two swindlers pretend to weave the vain emperor new clothes, but claim it’s invisible to stupid people. Will anyone be brave enough to say there’s nothing there? 




The Emperor's New Clothes


Read the story and answer the folling questions:

  1. What are the Emperor’s new clothes made out of in ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’?
  2. The swindlers claim that clothes made with their special cloth are ___
  3. The Emperor spends all his money on ___
  4. Why is the Emperor so upset when he views the cloth with his councilors?
  5. How do people in town react when they view the work of the weavers?
  6. Who calls the Emperor out on what he is wearing in ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’?
  7. What does the Emperor do after everyone cries that “he has nothing on” ?
  8.  why does the Emperor act as he does at the end of the story?
  9. What is a moral of ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’?




Here you can read THE RED SHOES. And now you can answer the questions:

1. The author of the story, “The Red Shoes” is ____.

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm – Hans Christian Andersen – J. K. Rowling – Jessie J.

2. Who made the first red shoes for Karen?

A shoemaker – A shoemaker’s wife – An old lady – An old soldier

3. Who was the red shoes made for in the rich shoemaker’s store?

A queen – A count’s daughter – An old lady – An old soldier

4. Who said, “Dear me, what pretty dancing shoes!” every time s/he saw the red shoes?

A queen – A count’s daughter – An old lady – An old soldier

5. The story of “The Red Shoes” is probably trying to tell us about ____.

vanity and obsession – wealth and health – kindness and care – friendship and parenthood

6. When Karen put on the red shoes and couldn’t stop dancing, who helped her to stop dancing?

The old lady – The clergyman – The angel- The executioner

7. Who said this: “Now, I have suffered enough for the red shoes. I will go to church so that people can see me.“

The old lady – The clergyman – Karen – The executioner

8. Who said this: “I don’t suppose you know who I am. I strike off the heads of the wicked.”

The old lady – The clergyman – Karen – The executioner

9. Who said this: “Look here, if you will give me the little girl, I will take care of her.”

The old lady – The clergyman – Karen – The executioner

10. Who said this: “Dance you shall, dance in your red till you pale and cold.”

The old lady – The clergyman – The Angel – The executioner

11. Who said this: “Mercy!”

Karen – The clergyman – The Angel – The executioner

12. Once upon a time there was little girl, pretty and dainty.

Which one of the following does NOT match the word “dainty”?

delicate – elegant – fine – clumsy

13. She wanted to sit down on the pauper’s grave where the bitter fern grows.The word “pauper” means the person is ____.

very rich – very poor – very strong – very weak


 7-The Steadfast Tin Soldier



On his birthday, a boy receives a set of 25 toy soldiers all cast from one old tin spoon and arrays them on a table top. One soldier stands on a single leg, as having been the last one cast there was not enough metal to make him whole. Nearby, the soldier spies a pretty paper ballerina with a spangle on her sash. She, too, is standing on one leg, and the soldier falls in love. That night, a goblin among the toys in the form of a jack-in-the-box, who also loves the ballerina, angrily warns the soldier to take his eyes off her, but the soldier ignores him.

The next day, the soldier falls from a windowsill (presumably the work of the goblin) and lands in the street. Two boys find the soldier, place him in a paper boat, and set him sailing in the gutter. The boat and its passenger wash into a storm drain, where a rat demands the soldier pay a toll.

Sailing on, the boat is washed into a canal, where the tin soldier is swallowed by a fish. When this fish is caught and cut open, the tin soldier finds himself once again on the table top before the ballerina. Inexplicably, the boy throws the tin soldier into the fire, which is most likely the work of the jack-in-the-box goblin. A wind blows the ballerina into the fire with him; she is consumed by it. The maid cleans the fireplace in the morning and finds that the soldier has melted into a little tin heart, along with the ballerina’s spangle, which is now burned black as coal.

Test yourself. For each question choose one of the multiple answers :

 

1. Who is the author of the fairy tale “The Steadfast Tin Soldier”?

2. Why the soldier is steadfast?

3. How many tin soldiers were there?

4. What are the main personal qualities of the Steadfast Tin Soldier?

5. Which metal was the soldier made of?

6. What was the soldier made from?

7. Who did The Steadfast Tin Soldier fall in love with?

8. What was a soldier’s thought when he first saw the dancer?

9. Who was in the snuffbox?

10. How did the soldier get on the street?






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