Herman Melville

Level B2+
 volume + audio mp3
 Moby Dick, Herman Melville’s masterpiece, is considered one of the greatest novels in world literature. Ishmael, a simple sailor, relates his adventures on board an American whaling ship. Her gloomy but charismatic captain, Ahab, is a tortured soul – he is obsessed by the desire and determination to hunt a gigantic white whale that has taken off one of his legs. He wants to take revenge on the animal at any cost, indifferent to danger, weather conditions, the ship’s original mission, and the sailors’ lives.
 The reader is enriched by stimulating in-depth analyses about racism, globalization, whales and whaling, and the main themes of the novel.
 
 Teacher's Resources available online: Answer Key - Audioscripts - Key to Summing-up Activities.
 
 Moby Dick, il capolavoro di Herman Melville, è considerato uno dei più grandi romanzi della letteratura mondiale. Narrato in prima persona da Ishmael, marinaio
 su una baleniera americana, racconta il lungo viaggio alla caccia di Moby Dick, una gigantesca balena bianca.
 Il veliero è guidato da Ahab, un cupo e tormentato capitano cui l’enorme animale marino aveva mozzato una gamba. Ahab vuole vendicarsi a tutti i costi, incurante dei pericoli che fa correre alla nave e ai suoi marinai.

Main parts of a whaling ship

Features of the two groups of whales

Chapter 1 – It’s time for the sea

• Extension: Ishmael, Queequeg and racism

Chapter 2 – Aboard the Pequod

Chapter 3 – There she blows

• Extension: Whales

Chapter 4 – And the journey goes on

• Extension: Whaling

• Extension: From whaling’s decline to whales as legal persons

Chapter 6 – Moby Dick, at last

• Extension: Moby Dick, an allegorical novel

SUMMING-UP ACTIVITIES

GLOSSARY

And the journey goes on 4 BEFORE READING Chapter 1 The story so far. The following are the main events of Chapter 3 written in scrambled order. Put them into the correct sequence, 1-10. Three have already been done for you. a. A terrible storm breaks out. At dawn, Starbuck s boat is destroyed by the Pequod but the sailors are rescued by the ship itself. 1 b. Ahab has his personal sailors for Moby Dick s hunt. c. Near Java, Daggoo yells that he sees Moby Dick. The boats 6 go out to see. He is wrong, it is a giant squid. d. On the Jeroboam, there s a strange, crazy man who thinks he s Gabriel, the archangel. He has basically taken control of the boat. e. Stubb s boat kills a sperm whale. It is then butchered on the ship. The oil is extracted from the blubber and the head of the whale. f. The next ship they meet is the Jeroboam. Her captain refuses to go aboard the Pequod saying there is an epidemic on his ship. g. The Pequod chases a sperm whale unsuccessfully. h. The Pequod has the head of a right whale and the head of a sperm whale on its sides for safety reasons and to ward off ill-luck. 10 i. The Pequod meets the Albatross. j. The Pequod passes another ship called the Town-ho. 2 Complete the illustration with the following words/phrases: decoration chains   moustache   nostril   shirt   vest   watch-chain   whisker a. ............................................... b. ............................................... c. ............................................... e. ............................................... f. ............................................... g. d. ............................................... 60 ............................................... 

Moby Dick And the journey goes on 7 Chapter 4 One day, while we were still sailing in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Indonesia, a shocking incident occurred. Tashtego, who was the most expert sailor at working with spermaceti (the whale s white, oily substance), was using a bucket to extract the oil from the hole in the head of the whale. He was holding a rope with one hand and was filling the bucket with the other, lowering and raising himself continuously in the hole at an incredible speed and rate. We were watching him in admiration when, although he had a heavy rope tied around his waist for safety reasons, suddenly he lost his balance and fell down into the whale s head! To our horror, the whale s head fell into the sea with the man inside because the chain which held the animal s head was not strong enough to hold the weights of a whale head and Tashtego!  Man overboard1! Man overboard!  Daggoo shouted. Seconds later, Queequeg took a long knife and dove into the sea. There was a splash after which he disappeared. The sea was soon nearly immobile but no one or nothing could be seen on the surface. Those were anxious moments and we all stared at the sea. Endless minutes passed and we started to look at one another in despair. Everyone was thinking we were losing two expert harpooners and a still valuable head full of oil, when at last we saw Queequeg come up again. He was swimming with one arm and was holding Tashtego with the other.  He s got him!  someone shouted.  And he s swimming back!  cried another. A boat was immediately lowered with some sailors. When they reached Queequeg and Tashtego, they pulled them into the boat. The two harpooners were finally rescued and taken aboard the Pequod. Both of them were exhausted and Tashtego was shocked, too. Some hours later, Queequeg explained that when he reached 1. overboard: over the side of a boat/ship and into the water. 61 

Testo semplificato di Moby Dick con glossario, esercizi e attività. Perfetto per studenti B2 e il potenziamento della letteratura inglese.

Moby Dick – English Graded Readers, Level B2

Level B2 • Intermediate - Collana Rainbows

Moby Dick

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