Haunted house for sale with floating tenants

Haunted house for sale with floating tenants
(from: Headway Upper-Intermediate, 1st edition, test booklet, p1-2)
Put the verb in brackets in the correct tense or verb form. You must also decide if the verb should be active or passive
There are lots of spine-chilling extras waiting
for whoever buys the thirteenth-century
Chingle Hall near Preston, Lancashire.
The hall, which is the oldest surviving brickbuilt
residence
in
the
country,
(a)
_____________________ (say) to be the most
haunted
house
in
Britain.
It
(b)
_____________________
(sell)
by
the
international auctioneers, Sotheby's. The
owners expect (c) _____________________
(sell) the house for about £300,000.
A monk, a Roman soldier, a boy who hanged
himself
and
a
ghost
(d)
_____________________ all (see) at various
times over the centuries. Not only this, but
residents (e) _____________________ also
(hear) heavy footsteps and mysterious
knockings, and (f) _____________________
(feel) cold spots in warm rooms.
The hall (g) _____________________ (build)
in 1260 by Alan de Singleton, and it (h)
_____________________ (have) a remarkable
history ever since. Oliver Cromwell is said (i)
_____________________ (stay) at the house
on the eve of the Battle of Preston in 1648, and
the hall may have been the scene of the
capture of at least one Royalist sympathizer,
as the sound of a running horse and the rattle
of
a
soldier's
equipment
(j)
_____________________ (hear) in the lane
outside.
In the 1920s, the hall was the home of the
Longton family. Their son wanted to marry a
local girl, but his father refused (k)
_____________________
(let)
him
(l)
_____________________ (do) this. Today the
boy's ghost haunts the barn where he hanged
himself.
Henry Soaper (m) _____________________
(live) in the hall for the past ten years. Some
time after they moved in, while the house (n)
_____________________ (restore), they found
ancient fireplaces, timber from Viking ships and
an old chapel. 'I (o) _____________________
(read) that there are secret hiding places
somewhere,'
he
said.
'We
(p)
_____________________ (look) for them for
years, but we (q) _____________________
(not find) them yet.'
He went on, 'One day, my daughter (r)
_____________________ (go) upstairs when
she said she saw a Roman soldier coming
down.
She
stopped
(s)
_____________________ (go) up, and tried (t)
_____________________ (turn) round, but
she couldn't move. The soldier walked straight
through her. We didn't really believe her until a
few years later, a guest who was being shown
round asked if he could photograph a 'cold'
spot. The developed film showed the image of
a Roman soldier reflected in a mirror.'
A HAUNTED HOUSE
Read the account of the legend of Chavenage, then do the tasks relating to it.
There are tens of thousands of haunted houses in Britain, reputed to be the most haunted country in the world.
Chavenage, near Tetbury, Gloucestershire, is a magnificent house built in 1576. Certainly, the house has a room with a
haunted feel to it, full of sepulchral stillness and different kinds of silence.
The trouble at Chavenage dates from the time of the Civil War. In December 1648, one month before Charles I was
beheaded, Oliver Cromwell stayed in the room: hence its name. He had come to Chavenage to persuade its owner,
Colonel Nathaniel Stephens, to agree that the king should indeed be beheaded. Eventually a reluctant Stephens
acquiesced. But his daughter, Abigail, was horrified that the family should be associated with regicide. She swore that
Stephens would suffer an awful punishment and his line would be cursed for evermore. He died, according to legend,
very soon after the king.
An anonymous contemporary account of what happened tells how, as the sick man was breathing his last, a mysterious
carriage pulled up at Chavenage. There was time to perceive that the driver was a beheaded man, that he was arrayed in
the Royal vestments. The story is maintained to this day; every Lord of Chavenage dying in the manor house takes his
departure in this ominous conveyance.
Charles I: King of England (1625-49), beheaded in January 1649.
Oliver Cromwell: (1599-1655) General ot the Parliamentary forces during the Civil War (1642-45) and later Lord Protector in the period
of the Commonwealth (1649-60).
Vocabulary exercise
Use the context and the clues given to decide on the meaning of the following words and phrases.
1 haunted:
6 regicide:
a) inhabited by ghosts
a) disobedience to the king
b) in danger of falling down
b) killing the king
Chavenage is haunted.
Charles was beheaded
2 sepulchral
a) like the inside of a house
b) like the inside of a tomb
Stillness means that nothing moves
7 swore:
a) used bad language
b) made a solemn promise to God
The family was cursed for ever more.
3 hence:
a) that is the reason for
b) that is the place where
The room is now called the Cromwell Room.
8 line:
a) descendants
b) profession
The story is maintained to this day.
4 reluctant:
a) eager
b) unwilling
Did Stephens agree immediately or eventually?
9 breathing his last:
a) dying
b) praying
He was sick.
5 acquiesced:
a) agreed
b) refused
Why was his daughter horrified?
10 pulled up:
a) departed
b) stopped
Why was the carriage there?
Who was the passenger it had come to collect?
11 Substitute simple words for 'arrayed' and 'vestments'.
12 Substitute a simple phrase for 'takes his departure in this conveyance'. Why do you think the conveyance is called
ominous? The driver is a beheaded man.
Summary
Use the definitions from the correct answers to the vocabulary questions to complete the sentences below and write a
summary of the legend of Chavenage in not more than 60 words.
In 1648 Oliver Cromwell came to Chavenage ... Stephens ... but his daughter ...
When Stephens died, the legend says ... Since then, all the owners of Chavenage ...