A big summer house. A doctor husband. A room with yellow wallpaper — and a wife who is not allowed to write.
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First, let's learn eight words. Read each word and its sentence, guess the meaning, then click Reveal to check. Say each word out loud.
Read each part. Then try the questions from memory, and talk about the last one.
A young woman and her husband, John, come to a big old house for the summer. John is a doctor. The woman feels ill and very tired. But John says: "You are not sick. You are only a little nervous. You must rest."
So she must rest all day. She must not work. She must not write. But she loves writing. So she writes in secret, in a little diary. This diary is her story.
Their room is at the top of the house. Long ago it was a nursery — a room for children. The windows have bars. The bed is heavy and stands fixed to the floor. And on the walls there is old yellow wallpaper. It is torn in places. The pattern is strange, and the colour is ugly — an old, dirty yellow. "I never saw a worse paper in my life," she writes.
She does not like the room. She asks for a different one. But John says no. This room is big and full of air, he says. It is good for her.
1. What must the woman do all summer? What must she not do?
2. What is strange about the room?
1. She must rest all day. She must not work and must not write — so she writes in secret, in a diary.
2. It was a nursery. The windows have bars, the bed is fixed to the floor, and the yellow wallpaper is old, torn and ugly.
Weeks go by. John works in town all day, so the woman is alone for many hours. She has nothing to do. So she looks at the wallpaper. She looks at it for hours and hours.
Slowly, the wallpaper gets more and more interesting to her. She starts to see things in the pattern. Behind the pattern, there is a shape. Every day, the shape gets clearer. It is a woman! A woman is behind the pattern, and she is creeping — moving slowly, low, near the floor. At night, the woman shakes the pattern, like the bars of a window. She wants to get out.
The wife tells John: "Please, take me away from here." But John says: "You are getting better! You look stronger every day. We stay." So she stops telling him things. Now the wallpaper is her secret.
But she is not getting better. Things are getting stranger and stranger.
1. What does the wife see behind the pattern?
2. What does she ask John — and what does he answer?
1. A woman. She is behind the pattern, creeping low near the floor. At night she shakes the pattern — she wants to get out.
2. She asks him to take her away. John says no: "You are getting better. We stay." So she stops telling him things.
It is the last day of summer. Tomorrow they leave the house. In the night, the wife helps the woman behind the pattern. She pulls the paper, and the woman shakes it. Together they tear off metres and metres of yellow paper.
In the morning, she locks the door and throws the key into the garden. Now the room is hers. She creeps around and around the room, low, with her shoulder near the wall. She feels free.
In the evening, John comes home. The door is locked! He shouts and knocks. "The key is in the garden, near the front door," says the wife in a soft, calm voice. She says it again and again. At last John gets the key and opens the door.
He stops. He cannot believe his eyes. His wife is creeping around the room. "I got out at last," she says, "and I tore off most of the paper, so you cannot put me back!" And John — the strong doctor — falls down on the floor in a faint. So now she creeps over him, every time she goes around the room.
1. What do the wife and the woman do to the wallpaper in the night?
2. What happens when John opens the door?
1. They tear it off together — the wife pulls and the woman shakes — metres and metres of yellow paper.
2. He sees his wife creeping around the room. She says: "I got out at last — you cannot put me back!" John faints, and she creeps over him every time she goes around.
This story is about slow change. Nothing happens fast — things simply get worse, day by day. In English, get + adjective means become.
1. She rests all day, but she does not .
2. It , and the moon comes up. The woman starts to shake the pattern.
3. Every day, the shape behind the pattern .
4. She looks at the paper for hours, and her eyes .
5. John thinks she is getting better — but really she is .
1. get better
2. gets dark
3. gets clearer
4. get tired
5. getting worse
Change the adjective in brackets into a "double" comparative (for example: cold → colder and colder).
1. The story gets (strange).
2. The nights get (long).
3. The wallpaper gets (interesting) to her.
4. Her diary gets (short) — she writes less and less.
1. stranger and stranger
2. longer and longer
3. more and more interesting
4. shorter and shorter
Write the missing forms of get (gets or getting). Then read the little story out loud.
At first, the woman is only tired. But she must sit in one room all day, so she bored and sad. The wallpaper more and more interesting to her. Every night, the woman behind the pattern clearer. John says: "You are better!" But he is wrong. Things are stranger and stranger — until the last day of summer.
gets · gets · gets · getting · getting
get + adjective shows slow change — and this story is all about slow change.
Now take the story's ideas into the real world. Talk about each one out loud. There are no right answers — say what you think, and say why.
In 1892, a doctor could say: "Rest. Do nothing. No books, no writing, no visitors." Today, doctors often say the opposite: "Move, meet people, do things you love." Why do you think the advice changed? What is good advice for a very tired person today?
In the story, an empty room with nothing to do makes everything worse. Imagine a friend must stay in one room for a month — for example, after breaking a leg. Choose five things to put in the room to help them. Explain each thing: "I put … in the room because …".
The woman writes in secret, and writing helps her. Many people write diaries, lists or letters. Why is writing things down helpful? Do people write more or less today, with phones? Is that good or bad?
The woman says: "I am ill." Her husband, the doctor, says: "No, you are fine." In the story, everybody believes the doctor. Why? Is it different today? What should a good doctor do when a patient says "Something is wrong"?
This is the most important part of the lesson — do all of it out loud. Use the timer, and try to speak for the whole time.
Tell the whole story in your own words: the summer house → the doctor husband → the yellow room with bars → the secret diary → the woman behind the pattern → the last night → the locked door → John opens the door.
Use get + adjective at least three times ("she gets worse", "the shape gets clearer", "things get stranger and stranger").
You are the wife's friend. It is the first week of summer, and you can change everything. Make a better plan for her: What does she do every morning? Who visits her? What is in her room? Tell the new summer, week by week: "First she…, then she…, and slowly she gets stronger…"
Describe a room you know well — your kitchen, a classroom, a café. The walls, the window, the furniture. Then change it: you must live in this room for a long, happy summer. What do you change, add or take away? Why?