Question

SAMUEL LANGHORNE CLEMENS
ALSO KNOW AS MARK TWAIN

Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born on November 30, 1835, in Florida, Missouri. He was sickly as a
boy, but grew to be healthy. He was both adventurous and mischievous. In 1839, his family moved to
Hannibal, Missouri. He spent much of his time playing along the Mississippi River and in the woods
nearby.
He spent summers at an uncle’s farm where he’d get into mischief along with his group of friends. At the
farm, he also saw several disturbing incidents, including slave beatings and murder, which he later
used as material for his novels.
Samuel’s father died in 1847, and he left school and became a printer’s apprentice to help support his
family. He left Hannibal in 1853 to pursue his printing work in St. Louis, New York, Philadelphia,
Cincinnati, and Iowa. From 1857 until the Civil War started in 1861, he piloted a riverboat on the
Mississippi River. After the war, he went to Nevada to prospect for silver and gold, but he didn’t like the
West’s hardships.
He returned to the East and worked as a reporter under the pseudonym of "Mark Twain," which was a
boating phrase that indicated two fathoms of water. In 1864, he went to San Francisco and wrote for
magazines and newspapers.
In 1866, he started traveling extensively, visiting Hawaii, Europe, and the Middle East, studying people
to gather material for his writing. In 1870, Samuel married Olivia Langdon. They had a son who died in
infancy and three daughters. The family lived in Hartford, Connecticut, from 1871 until 1891. In 1872, he
published his first book Roughing It. He published his first of many novels, The Guilded Age, in 1873. In
1876, he published The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and in 1885, he published The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn.
Clemens was often depressed and melancholy during his last twenty years of life. He had financial
obligations after several failed investments, and he went on a lecture tour in Europe in 1895 and 1896 to
raise money to pay his debts. During the tour, his daughter Suzy died. His wife Olivia died in 1904. His
youngest daughter Jean died in 1909. His family members’ deaths and his own poor health added to his
depression.
He received honorary degrees from Yale in 1901 and from the University of Missouri in 1902, and he
received another honorary degree from Oxford in 1907. On April 21, 1910, Samuel Clemens died of
angina.

1. Answer the questions.
1) Where was S. L. Clemens born? __________________________________________________
2) What was he like as a child? _____________________________________________________
3) When did his family move to Hannibal? ____________________________________________
4) Where did he spend his summers? ________________________________________________
5) What jobs did he have? _________________________________________________________
6) What did »Mark Twain« mean? ___________________________________________________
7) What did he do in San Francisco? __________________________________________________
8) How many children did Samuel and Olivia have? ______________________________________
9) When did he publish his first novel? ________________________________________________
10) Why was he depressed during the last 20 years of his life? ______________________________
11) What did S. L. Clemens die of? _____________________________________________________

2. Find verbs in the Past Simple in the text. Copy them into the correct column, find their
infinitive forms and translate
REGULAR VERBS IRREGULAR VERBS

Past Simple Infinitive Traduction Past Simple Infinitive traduction
moved move was be

3. Put the following sentences into negative and question forms.
a) He was sickly as a boy.
X ______________________________________
? ______________________________________

b) Samuel's father died in 1847.
X ______________________________________
? ______________________________________
When __________________________________

c) S. L. Clemens spent summers at an uncle's farm.
X _________________________________________________________
? _________________________________________________________
Who ______________________________________________________
Where ____________________________________________________

Answer 1

Resposta:

Explicação: