Improve your English with Downton Abbey Characters. Season 1 Episode 5.

1. Watch the episode and choose the correct answer:

1) Lady Sybil has:

1. Given up on trying to find a job for Gwen

2. Is trying to encourage Gwen to apply again

3. Has applied for her

2) Lady Rosamund’s letter:

1. Is asking the Granthams to send her some food supplies

2. Warns them of rumours regarding Lady Mary

3. Invites them to Evelyn Napier’s wedding

3) Cora:

1. Wants to write to Rosamund to stop the rumours

2. Wants Mary to go to London

3. Wants Mary to marry as soon as possible

4) Anna and Bates’ conversation reveals that:

1. Bates has feelings that he feels would be wrong to express

2. Patrick Crawley loved Edith

3. Edith could not forget Patrick

5) Violet the Duchess

1. Refuses to admit that she always wins the best flower prize because she is the Duchess

2. Denies that she always wins the best flower prize

3. Tells Isobel it is none of her business

6) Sybil and Gwen have problems getting home

1. Because they are lost

2. Because their cost has cast a shoe

3. Because the horse is hurt

7) Edith speaks to Daisy:

1. Because she wants to comfort her

2. Because she is bitter at Mary and wants to take revenge

3. Because she doesn’t want O’Brian to intimidate Daisy

8) The tobacco box:

1. Was stolen by Thomas

2. Was lost by Lord Grantham

3. Was stolen by Bates

9) Edith is:

1. Genuinely interested in Anthony Strallan

2. Flirting with him to make Mary angry

3. Faking her interest as she wants to get married

10)Mrs Patmore made a mistake with the pudding:

1. Because the recipe was new for her

2. Because she dropped some ingredients

3. Because her eyesight has declined

11) Mary flirts with Strallan:

1. Because she wants to prove to Edith that she can always win a man from her

2. She wants Matthew to get jealous

3. She obeys her mother

12) Bates and Anna:

1. Find the box and give it to Carson

2. Find the box and put it into Robert’s room

3. Find the box and put it into O’Brien’s room

13) The prize for the best flowers is given to:

1. The Duchess

2. Mosley

3. A new gardener

2. Explain the meaning of the phrases in bold. Who said them?

1. She is barking up the wrong tree.

2. Your sister is such a harbinger of joy!

3. He is as dull as paint.

4. Mary was found wanting in her character.

5. Napier wasn’t in on it.

6. Turn the tables before he had the chance to nail you.

7. Every door will be slammed in your face.

3. Discussion:

1. Cora says: “No one ever warns you about bringing up daughters. You think it’s going to be like ‘Little Women’. Instead, they are at each other’s throats from dawn till dust.”

She is referring to the ‘Little Women’, an immensely popular novel By L.M. Alcott, an American writer. The four sisters in this book are very close, although they have quite different personalities and argue and have quarrels like all normal siblings do. Still, they love and support each other. The relationship between the Crawley sisters is far from that. Why do you think that is so?

2. What does Robert mean by saying that Mary can be very childish? ‘She thinks that if you put a toy down, it will still be sitting there”. Who is ‘the toy’?

3. Why do you think the Duchess makes a decision in favour of William Mosley?

4. What is it, do you think, that Bates is hiding?