People said it was only an old story. Then someone found the real city under the ground.
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These are the new words. Match each word (1–8) to its meaning (A–H). Say your answers out loud — "I think 1 is D" — then check.
1 = B (a soldier) · 2 = C (a wall) · 3 = D (a wooden horse) · 4 = E (an arrow)
5 = G (a trick) · 6 = A (a queen) · 7 = H (to fight) · 8 = F (to hide)
Wolfgang Petersen's Troy (2004), an old story about a great war. Read each part. Then try the questions from memory, and talk about the last one. (There are spoilers — that is fine, we want to talk about it.)
Prince Paris comes from the city of Troy. He visits Sparta and falls in love with Helen, the queen. Helen is already married to King Menelaus. Paris takes Helen back to Troy with him. Menelaus is very angry. He asks his brother, King Agamemnon, for help.
Agamemnon is the most powerful king in Greece. He wants to attack Troy anyway, because Troy is rich. Now he has a good reason. He brings together a huge army, with the great warrior Achilles, and sails to Troy. Troy's king, Priam, and his son Hector must now defend their city.
The war does not end quickly. Both sides fight for years outside Troy's high, strong walls.
1. Why does the Greek army sail to Troy?
2. Who are the two kings who lead the Trojans and the Greeks?
1. Because Paris, a Trojan prince, has taken Helen, the wife of King Menelaus, back to Troy.
2. Priam is the king of Troy; Agamemnon leads the Greek army.
Agamemnon takes something important from Achilles: a woman called Briseis. Achilles is very angry, and he stops fighting. Without Achilles, the Greek army is much weaker. Achilles' young cousin, Patroclus, wants to help. He secretly wears Achilles' armour and fights in his place.
Hector thinks Patroclus is really Achilles, and he kills him. When Hector learns the truth, it is too late. Now Achilles is angrier than ever before. He comes back to fight, finds Hector, and kills him in front of Troy's walls.
King Priam is heartbroken. That night, he goes alone to Achilles and asks for his son's body back, so he can bury him properly.
1. Why does Achilles stop fighting?
2. What does King Priam do after Hector dies?
1. Agamemnon takes Briseis from him, and Achilles is too angry and proud to keep fighting for him.
2. He goes alone, at night, to Achilles' camp to ask for Hector's body, so he can give his son a proper burial.
After many years, nobody can win the war. So the clever Greek king Odysseus has an idea: a trick. The Greeks build an enormous wooden horse and leave it outside Troy's gates. Then they pretend to sail away. The Trojans think they have won! They pull the huge horse inside their own city walls to celebrate.
But Greek soldiers are hiding inside the wooden horse. At night, they climb out and open the city gates. The Greek army comes back and enters the city. Troy burns. King Priam is killed. And Paris — with one arrow — kills the great warrior Achilles, hitting the only weak part of his body: his heel.
A few Trojans escape the burning city alive. A war that started with one stolen queen ends with a trick, not a battle.
1. What is Odysseus's trick?
2. How does Achilles die?
1. He hides soldiers inside a giant wooden horse, and the Trojans pull it inside their own walls, believing the war is over.
2. Paris shoots him with an arrow in the heel, the one weak part of his body.
This story is full of comparisons — the greatest warrior, the strongest walls, an even older city. English uses two simple forms to compare people and things.
Read the meaning in brackets and complete the sentence.
1. Achilles is (strong) than any other Greek soldier. (comparing two)
2. Many people say Achilles is (great) warrior of them all. (top of the whole group)
3. The walls of Troy are (high) than the Greeks expected. (comparing two)
1. stronger (comparative)
2. the greatest (superlative)
3. higher (comparative)
Put the adjective in the correct form. Then read it out loud.
1. Troy is much (old) than Rome.
2. Odysseus's trick is (clever) plan in the whole war.
3. Hector is (calm) than his brother Paris.
1. older (comparative)
2. the cleverest / the most clever (superlative)
3. calmer (comparative)
Fill each gap with a comparative or superlative. Read it aloud when you finish.
People say Achilles is (fast) fighter in the whole army — nobody can beat him. But the wooden horse trick turns out to be (dangerous) than any soldier, because it is (clever) than a simple attack on the walls.
the fastest · more dangerous · cleverer / more clever
Use the -est / the most for the top of a whole group, and -er / more + than to compare just two things.
For a long time, people thought this was only a beautiful old story. Then someone found something real.
The story comes from a very old poem called the Iliad, written by the Greek poet Homer. In the 1870s, a man called Heinrich Schliemann dug into a hill called Hisarlik, in modern Turkey. He found the walls of a real, ancient city that had burned down. This does not prove every part of the story is true. But it shows that a real city stood there — the legend is not only invention.
In the old poem, the Greek gods are everywhere, helping and hurting the humans. The film removes the gods completely, so it feels more like real history. The film also makes the war very short — just a few weeks. But the old story says the war lasted ten years. And in the film, two kings — Menelaus and Agamemnon — die during the war. In the original story, both men actually survive the war and go home.
Want to learn more? Read The Iliad & The Odyssey.
Do all three tasks out loud. Use the timer to keep talking.
Tell the story of Troy in your own words. Use these steps to help you: Paris takes Helen to Troy → Agamemnon's army sails to Troy and the long war begins → Achilles gets angry and Hector dies → the wooden horse and the fall of the city.
Try to use some key words (soldier, wall, wooden horse, arrow, trick, queen, fight, hide) and comparatives / superlatives.
Hector doesn't agree with the war, but fights anyway to protect his family. Would you fight for your family in a war you thought was wrong? Say why.
Talk about old stories and legends. Use comparatives and superlatives.
Not sure what to say? Choose one: