Oxford Exam Trainer B1 Reading 10th Grade I Semester

LOVED BY THE SCOTS

The poems of the Scottish poet Robert Burns are known and loved by Scottish people everywhere, and his birthday, 25^th January, is still celebrated in memory of him.

He wrote many poems in English, but the kind of English verse that was fashionable at the time did not match his style, so in his best poetry he instead used the dialect of his own county of Ayrshire, in Scotland. In this Scots dialect, he wrote all kinds of poems. These poems included beautiful lyric songs, as well as angry poems written to show his dislike of people who wanted to look better than they were. He also wrote comic and dramatic stories in verse. Some of the songs he wrote, for example, Auld Lang Syne, are famous to thousands of people who know very little about Scotland.

Burns was born in 1759 into a poor farming family. As a boy, he had to work very hard in the fields, but he loved reading. He was very poor, but still, he was happy and loved. At a very young age, he began to write poetry. However, it wasn’t until he was twenty-six that his book of poems, most of them in the Scottish dialect, was published. Before publication, his poems had been passed round among his friends.

His father died when Burns was a young man. After his father’s death, he had to take care of his brothers and sisters, whom he helped all his life, even though he had little money himself. Also, the father of Jean Armour, the girl he loved, did not allow her to marry him. Burns felt miserable and decided to take a job in Jamaica. However, before he was due to leave, his first book of poems was published in 1786. Almost immediately, it became a great success and Burns decided to stay in Scotland.

Two years after his success, Burns at last married Jean Armour and rented a farm near Dumfries, but he was unable to run the farm successfully. Eventually, he managed to get a job in a government organization, though he became rather unpopular in fashionable circles because he admired the French Revolution, which the British government did not agree with.

He had times of sadness and illness, but he went on writing fine poetry. He died when he was only thirty-seven from heart disease, from which he had suffered since his young age.

1. Burns didn’t enjoy …

LOVED BY THE SCOTS

The poems of the Scottish poet Robert Burns are known and loved by Scottish people everywhere, and his birthday, 25^th January, is still celebrated in memory of him.

He wrote many poems in English, but the kind of English verse that was fashionable at the time did not match his style, so in his best poetry he instead used the dialect of his own county of Ayrshire, in Scotland. In this Scots dialect, he wrote all kinds of poems. These poems included beautiful lyric songs, as well as angry poems written to show his dislike of people who wanted to look better than they were. He also wrote comic and dramatic stories in verse. Some of the songs he wrote, for example, Auld Lang Syne, are famous to thousands of people who know very little about Scotland.

Burns was born in 1759 into a poor farming family. As a boy, he had to work very hard in the fields, but he loved reading. He was very poor, but still, he was happy and loved. At a very young age, he began to write poetry. However, it wasn’t until he was twenty-six that his book of poems, most of them in the Scottish dialect, was published. Before publication, his poems had been passed round among his friends.

His father died when Burns was a young man. After his father’s death, he had to take care of his brothers and sisters, whom he helped all his life, even though he had little money himself. Also, the father of Jean Armour, the girl he loved, did not allow her to marry him. Burns felt miserable and decided to take a job in Jamaica. However, before he was due to leave, his first book of poems was published in 1786. Almost immediately, it became a great success and Burns decided to stay in Scotland.

Two years after his success, Burns at last married Jean Armour and rented a farm near Dumfries, but he was unable to run the farm successfully. Eventually, he managed to get a job in a government organization, though he became rather unpopular in fashionable circles because he admired the French Revolution, which the British government did not agree with.

He had times of sadness and illness, but he went on writing fine poetry. He died when he was only thirty-seven from heart disease, from which he had suffered since his young age.

2. His works …

LOVED BY THE SCOTS

The poems of the Scottish poet Robert Burns are known and loved by Scottish people everywhere, and his birthday, 25^th January, is still celebrated in memory of him.

He wrote many poems in English, but the kind of English verse that was fashionable at the time did not match his style, so in his best poetry he instead used the dialect of his own county of Ayrshire, in Scotland. In this Scots dialect, he wrote all kinds of poems. These poems included beautiful lyric songs, as well as angry poems written to show his dislike of people who wanted to look better than they were. He also wrote comic and dramatic stories in verse. Some of the songs he wrote, for example, Auld Lang Syne, are famous to thousands of people who know very little about Scotland.

Burns was born in 1759 into a poor farming family. As a boy, he had to work very hard in the fields, but he loved reading. He was very poor, but still, he was happy and loved. At a very young age, he began to write poetry. However, it wasn’t until he was twenty-six that his book of poems, most of them in the Scottish dialect, was published. Before publication, his poems had been passed round among his friends.

His father died when Burns was a young man. After his father’s death, he had to take care of his brothers and sisters, whom he helped all his life, even though he had little money himself. Also, the father of Jean Armour, the girl he loved, did not allow her to marry him. Burns felt miserable and decided to take a job in Jamaica. However, before he was due to leave, his first book of poems was published in 1786. Almost immediately, it became a great success and Burns decided to stay in Scotland.

Two years after his success, Burns at last married Jean Armour and rented a farm near Dumfries, but he was unable to run the farm successfully. Eventually, he managed to get a job in a government organization, though he became rather unpopular in fashionable circles because he admired the French Revolution, which the British government did not agree with.

He had times of sadness and illness, but he went on writing fine poetry. He died when he was only thirty-seven from heart disease, from which he had suffered since his young age.

3. After his success, …