a) Listen to the extract. Who is narrating the story?
b) Read the text and mark the statements (1-8) as T (true), F (false), or DS (doesn’t say). Which words/phrases helped you decide?
1 John bullied Jane occasionally.
2 Mrs Reed chose to ignore John’s bad treatment of Jane.
3 John usually bullied Jane when Mrs Reed wasn’t looking.
4 John was angry because Jane had a book that he wanted to read.
5 The book that John threw at Jane hit her on the head.
6 Jane compares John to a Roman emperor.
7 Mrs Reed came into the room after she heard John’s shouts.
8 Jane was blamed for the incident
J ohn had not much affection for his mother and sisters,
and a strong dislike for me. He bullied and punished me; not two or three times in the week, nor on
ce or twice in the day, but continually: every nerve I had feared him, and every morsel1 of flesh in my bones shrank when he came near. There were moments when I was bewildered by the terror he made me feel, because I was helpless to do anything about his threats or his inflictions; the servants did not like to offend their young master by taking my side against him, and Mrs Reed was blind and deaf on the subject: she never saw him strike or heard him abuse me, though he did both now and then in her very presence, more frequently, however, behind her back.