## Paddington Bear

Assignment

A famous character from English children's literature can be found in a London train station: Paddington Bear. In this assignment, you will read a fragment from Paddington Bear and watch a trailer for the film Paddington. There are exercises for both the reading and the listening assignment.

Reading skills: Read this fragment from 'A Bear called Paddington' a few times. Then to do the exercise below. Don't worry if there are some words you don't know; you don't need to know all the words to understand what the text is about more or less.

Mr and Mrs Brown first met Paddington on a railway platform. In fact, that was how he came to have such an unusual name for a bear, because Paddington was the name of the station. The Browns were there to meet their daughter, Judy, who came home for the holidays.

Mr Brown saw something small and furry near the LEFT LUGGAGE office. “It looks like a bear,” he said.

“A bear?” repeated Mrs Brown. “On Paddington Station? Don’t be silly, Henry. There can’t be!”

But Mr Brown was right. There was a bear sitting on an old leather suitcase with a card around his neck, and as they drew near it stood up and politely raised his hat.

“Good afternoon,” it said. “May I help you?”

“It’s very kind of you,” said Mr Brown, “but as a matter of fact, we were wondering if we could help you?”

“You’re a very small bear,” said Mrs Brown. “And I have never seen a bear on a railway station before. Where are you from?”

The bear looked around carefully before replying. “I come from the jungle in Peru. I’m not really supposed to be here at all. I’m a stowaway. "

“You don’t mean to say you’ve come all the way from South America on your own?” exclaimed Mrs. Brown. “Whatever did you do for food?”

Unlocking the suitcase, the bear took out an almost empty glass jar. “I ate marmalade,” it said. “Bears like marmalade.”

Mrs. Brown looked at the label around the bear’s neck. It said, quite simply,

PLEASE LOOK AFTER THIS BEAR. THANK YOU.

“Oh, Henry!” she cried. “We can’t leave him here all by himself.There’s no knowing what might happen to him. Can’t he come home and stay with us?”

“Stay with us?” repeated Mr. Brown nervously.

He looked down at the bear. “Er, would you like that?” he asked.

“That is, “ he added hastily, “if you have nothing else planned.”

“Oooh, yes,”replied the bear. “I would like that very much. I’ve nowhere to go and everyone seems in such a hurry.”

“That settles it” said Mrs. Brown. “Now, you must be thirsty after your journey. Mr Brown can get you some tea while I go and meet our daughter, Judy.”

“But, Mary,” said Mr Brown. “We don’t even know his name.”

Mrs Brown thought for a moment. “I know,” she said. “We’ll call him Paddington – after the station.”

“Paddington!” The bear tested it several times to make sure. “It sounds very important.”

Listening skills: Watch the trailer for the film Paddington. Then do the exercise below.