Lesson 6: From a Railway Carriage

Key words: hedge, ditch, charge, wink, bramble

A

Listen, read aloud, and recite the poem.

From a Railway Carriage

Faster than fairies, faster than witches, Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches; And charging along like troops in a battle All through the meadows the horses and cattle: All of the sights of the hill and the plain

Fly as thick as driving rain;

And ever again, in the wink of an eye, Painted stations whistle by.

Here is a child who clambers and scrambles, All by himself and gathering brambles; Here is a tramp who stands and gazes;

And here is the green for stringing daisies! Here is a cart runaway in the road

Lumping along with man and load;

And here is a mill, and there is a river:

Each a glimpse and gone forever!

[Robert Louis Stevenson]

B

Read the poem silently and match the words with their meanings.

| Words | Meanings | |---|---| | hedge | | | ditch | | | charge | | | wink | | | stringing | | | lump | | | bramble | | | tramp | | | glimpse | |

Meanings:

• attack or rush
• a canal or drain
• hanging
• a signal made quickly by closing and opening an eye
• a row of bushes or small trees
• move heavily along
• a look at something for a very short time
• a prickly bush
• a homeless and jobless person

C

Make a list of things that you can see passing quickly by a running train.

D

Make a list of the words and phrases that tell us about how fast the train is running. Examples: faster than fairies, charging along, etc.

E

Listen and read the first two lines with stress.

Faster than fairies, faster than witches, Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;

F

How fast can you say?

The rain in Spain stays in the plain.