Read this text very carefully and do the Written Comprehension exercice. 

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Written Comprehension

Do you need to revise the Want somebody to do something expression?

In Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, Juliet is only 14 when her father tells her she has to marry Paris tomorrow. She doesn’t love Paris, of course – she loves Romeo. But she can’t argue* with her father.

         Things like that really happened during Shakespeare’s life. A woman had to obey her father, and some girls got married as young as 12. But usually, women only got married young if their parents told them to. Most women who had the choice didn’t get married until they were 25 or more. In fact, many didn’t get married at all. Women get married much more often now than they did then.

         So why didn’t women want to get married those days? One reason was that wives had no independence! When she got married, a woman had to promise to obey her husband. She also had to give him everything she owned*.

The law said that all the wives’ properties belonged to their husbands.

  That law didn’t change for centuries. Caroline Sheridan married George Norton in 1827, when she was nineteen. Nine years later, while she was visiting a friend, her husband decided not to allow her back into their house. He kept everything - all her books, all her jewels, all her clothes, all her furniture. She had nowhere to live. She needed money, so she wrote some books and plays; they became quite popular and she got quite a lot of money for them.

But her husband decided to take that money away from her as well. The law said he had the right to do that. He also took away their tree children, and didn’t allow them to  see their mother. The law gave him the right to do that too. In fact, the law said a man was allowed to do almost anything to his wife – except kill her. And she didn’t have the right to divorce him.

         Now, of course the law is different. Women can get married when they want to. They can have their own property. And they can get divorced. So it’s not surprising that marriage is more popular than it was before, is it?

Wordbox 

argue: donner son avis

own: have/possess

Written Comprehension

1. Find the English equivalent to those French words

autoriser à  -  les épouses  -  sauf  -  appartenir à  -  des bijoux  -  meubles

2. Right or Wrong : justify with elements from the text

Juliet's father wants her to marry Paris.

Juliet must do what her father says.

In Shakespeare's day, women wanted to marry when they were young.

Today, women get married less often than they did in Shakespeare's day.

A woman wasn't very free then.

Women could own things.

Caroline Sheridan had a happy life with her husband.

Writing books was just a hobby for her.

Her husband was not allowed to take her children away from her.

Women today have no more rights than they had in Shakespeare's days.

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