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An engaging classroom playscript. Ebenezer Scrooge is a grumbling, cold-hearted, shrivelled old miser who deplores the warmth and merriment of Christmas. One freezing, candlelit Christmas Eve, Scrooge is visited by the chain-bound ghost of his old business partner, Jacob Marley, who seeks to warn him of the error of his ways. Over the course of the night, a series of spirits arrive, but can they teach Scrooge the true meaning of Christmas before it''s too late?

In this collection of essays, James Howard-Johnston evaluates historical sources from across the entire existence of the Byzantine empire. Byzantium was peculiarly well endowed for the writing of history, given a relatively high degree of literacy, a large governing class running a centralised state and its associated church, and its inheritance of the historical habit developed independently in classical Greece and Judaea. Historical coverage is complete save for one short period, the reign of Constans II (641–9). Unsurprisingly, in what was a thoroughly bureaucratic state, officials and ex-officials of state and church predominate among historians. The histories they wrote were of two principal sorts: compendia which might reach back to the beginning of time, succinct, concerned primarily with chronology, and written in relatively plain language; and contemporary histories presenting fuller narratives, more interested in causes and effects, and generally written in a higher style, with classical touches. They used the bureaucratic vernacular, were primarily concerned with high politics and foreign affairs, and calibrated time by financial years. Particular emphasis is put on their use of documentary sources, the surest and safest conveyors of detailed information from the past to the historian. A small number of individual historians are singled out for closer scrutiny, because of the importance or unusual character of their works. Procopius is portrayed as an experienced military architect/engineer and born storyteller rather than a highly educated lawyer. Theophanes deserves a special place, because of the scale of the work which he wrote with his mentor George Synkellos. George, it turns out, wrote the last contemporary section of their world history. Constantine Porphyrogenitus (905–59) was responsible for a historically enriched guide to diplomacy, but most of the valuable information which it contains about the early medieval history of the Balkans, Ukrainian steppes, and Transcaucasia is attributable to his father, Leo VI. The Logothete's world chronicle is singled out because of its vitriolic attack on the first three Macedonian emperors. Finally, Anna Komnene demands attention as the first known female historian. Her Alexias, probably the finest history produced in Byzantium, is shown to contain a great deal of material drafted by her husband, Nikephoros Bryennios. This contentious view is canvassed in the last three essays.

If you are going into town, your bear cub is going to want to come with you. They will help you carry your bags, they will happily sit next to a stranger on a busy bus, and they will absolutely love playing with the pigeons in the fountain. They will NOT, however, join you in a queue. Queues are BORING! But when you have a parcel to send to Granny, you''re going to have to keep your bear cub entertained. . . In this joyful tale, the games to distract the bear cub become bigger and more elaborate, eventually involving everyone in the queue. After a flamboyant finale, it''s time to go home at last. . . except the bear cub has vanished! Queueing turned out to be such fun that the cub has joined the back of the line to start again. It turns out that bear cubs DO do queues, after all!

Mirabelle and her family are on holiday, staying in a lovely cottage by the sea. There''s just one problem-they''re not meant to be using magic.Can Mirabelle manage a whole week without any magical mischief? Of course not! But perhaps she can use a teeny bit of magic to create a magical creature? Just for one night . . .

Samuel Johnson was a poet, essayist, dramatist, and pioneering lexicographer, but his continuing reputation depends less on his literary output than on the fortunate accident of finding an ideal biographer in James Boswell. As Johnson''s constant and admiring companion, Boswell was able to record not only the outward events of his life, but also the humour, wit, and sturdy common sense of his conversation. His brilliant portrait of a major literary figure of the eighteenth century, enriched by historical and social detail, remains a monument to the art of biography. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

When Pippi Longstocking moves in next door to Tommy and Annika they are completely amazed by their new playmate. Pippi is cheeky, courageous and completely unpredictable. She lives alone with a monkey, a horse, and no rules whatsoever! Everything is fun with Pippi around! In this story she performs at the circus, uses her super strength to stop two robbers, and throws an unusual birthday party.

Dostoevsky''s last and greatest novel, The Karamazov Brothers (1880) is both a brilliantly told crime story and a passionate philosophical debate. The dissolute landowner Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov is murdered; his sons - the atheist intellectual Ivan, the hot-blooded Dmitry, and the saintly novice Alyosha - are all at some level involved.Bound up with this intense family drama is Dostoevsky''s exploration of many deeply felt ideas about the existence of God, the question of human freedom, the collective nature of guilt, the disatrous consequences of rationalism. The novel is also richly comic: the Russian Orthodox Church, the legal system, and even the authors most cherished causes and beliefs are presented with a note of irreverence, so that orthodoxy, and radicalism, sanity and madness, love and hatred, right and wrong are no longer mutually exclusive. Rebecca West considered it "the allegory for the world''s maturity", but with children to the fore. This new translation does full justice to Doestoevsky''s genius, particularly in the use of the spoken word, which ranges over every mode of human expression. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring Addiction is a subject which straddles public and personal interests; societal and criminal justice concerns; and family, social, and medical responses. It is a continuing area of uncertainty and concern for society and professionals trained in the field.This Very Short Introduction presents the basic facts about addiction: what it is, how and why it develops, how it is treated, and how society can respond to it. Addictions to both illicit drugs and licit drugs (e.g., alcohol) are covered, as is the possibility that certain behaviours not involving drug use (e.g., compulsive gambling) can qualify as addictions. Keith Humphreys provides a jargon-free account of our present understanding of addiction, from treatment evaluations to studies on the effects of public policies. He also illuminates the personal experience of addiction and recovery. Humphreys considers why some people become addicted and others do not, what treatments exist to help people who are addicted, and how the laws and regulations society establishes about drugs affects the rate and experience of addiction. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

The General Strike of 1926: the tragic story of how the world''s best organized working class confronted the world''s most powerful, and self-confident, government.In May, 1926, nearly three million British workers downed tools to support nearly one million of their countrymen, miners whose employers meant to lengthen their working day and cut their pay. This General Strike brought the country to a grinding halt - which, according to Conservative Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, represented a threat not merely to the nation but to the parliamentary system itself. For nine days, the world''s best organized working class confronted the world''s most powerful, and self-confident, government. And yet the outcome was never in doubt, for Britain''s most important trade-union leaders thought as Baldwin did, although they kept saying they were engaged in a wages dispute only. Really, they feared winning even more than they feared losing.In Nine Days in May, award-winning author and historian Jonathan Schneer mines hitherto untapped archival sources to explain why and how the Strike came about, why and how it was waged and countered, why and how it ended. In addition to government reports and TUC reports, he uses reports of undercover agents and spies, "special" constables sworn in for the duration of the Strike, volunteer strike-breakers, Communist agitators, trade-union leaders and rank-and-file members of trade unions; also, of course, the papers of politicians of all parties.This is a tale of Shakespearian dimensions, replete with tragic heroes and villains and buffoons and opportunists and double-dealers, and contending, evenly matched, forces - both of which meant to do their duty whatever the cost. There may never be another general strike in Britain, but the General Strike of 1926 was one for the ages, illuminating the human condition.

Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring Thomas More is an enduringly fascinating and profoundly controversial figure. A brilliant scholar, his Utopia of 1516 dared to imagine how society might be completely reordered. At the same time, his hatred of the Reformation caused him to advocate, and seek to implement, the death penalty for heretics. A friend and advisor to Henry VIII, More''s refusal to support Henry''s break with Rome led to his execution in 1535, and the start of a long argument about his legacy. This Very Short Introduction assesses More''s life, writings and achievements, and examines changing views of his character, in both historical interpretation and various works of fiction. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Why do all human societies make music, but in such different ways? Scientific attempts to answer this question through cross-cultural comparison stalled during the 20th century and have only recently begun to make a resurgence. In this book, Patrick Savage, a leader in this resurgence synthesises recent advances from musicology and related fields including psychology, linguistics, computer science, and evolutionary anthropology to outline ways to understand and compare all the world's music. He applies comparative musicology to longstanding debates including universal and culturally-specific aspects of human music; evolutionary relationships between song, speech, and animal vocalisation; and applications to areas including music copyright, 2nd language acquisition, social bonding, and cultural heritage revitalisation. In doing so, he argues for an inclusive, multidisciplinary field that uplifts traditionally marginalised voices and combines the qualitative methods traditionally employed by musicologists and cultural anthropologists with quantitative methods from the natural sciences. The book is accessibly written using over 50 figures/tables and an interactive tutorial with audio examples, with each chapter designed to be readable/teachable on its own. It is designed to be appreciated by anyone from undergraduate students to senior professors, without requiring any specialised background knowledge.

Oxford International Lower Secondary English teaches students the skills they need to become confident communicators. This three-level lower secondary course will provide students with a strong grasp of English language and literature, vocabulary and grammar. Students will discover the joy of learning through engaging with a range of diverse texts from all over the world. There are speaking and listening opportunities throughout and a wide variety of writing and performance activities.Oxford International Lower Secondary English takes an enquiry-based approach which encourages learners'' active collaboration. The global themes covered in the text ask students big questions and encourage them to make connections. Supporting comprehension questions are differentiated to allow thorough assessment of student understanding. Language tips and word origin boxes allow students to build vocabulary and grammar knowledge. Each page includes student-friendly learning objectives, allowing students to take charge of their learning.Comprehensive Teacher''s Guides support the Student Books with lesson guidance and additional ideas for teaching. The digital subscription includes interactive Online Books with audio, videos, activity sheets and online quizzes; comprehensive assessment; planning and parent support.

''But I must stop now. I can no longer speak for tears - and my client has ordered that tears are not to be used in his defence.''Cicero (106-43 BC) was the greatest orator of the ancient world: he dominated the Roman courts, usually appearing for the defence. His speeches are masterpieces of persuasion: compellingly written, emotionally powerful, and somtimes hilariously funny. This book presents five of his most famous defences: of Roscius, falsely accused of murdering his father; of the consul-elect Murena, accused of electoral bribery; of the poet Archias, on a citizenshiup charge; of Caelius, ex-lover of Clodia Metelli, on charges of violence; and of Milo, for mudering Cicero''s hated enemy Clodius. Cicero''s clients were rarely whiter-than-white; but so seductive is his oratory that the reader cannot help taking his side. In these speeches we are plunged into some of the most exciting courtroom dramas of all time.These new translations preserve Cicero''s literary artistry and emotional force, and achieve new standards of accuracy. Each speech has its own introduction, and a general introduction discusses Cicero''s public career and the criminal courts. The substantial explanatory notes guide the reader through the speeches, and offer new scholarship presented in a clear way.

''To Those who Appreciate Wistaria and Sunshine. Small medieval castle on the shores of the Mediterranean to be let For the month of April, above a bay on the Italian Riviera.''Four very different women--the dishevelled and downtrodden Mrs Wilkins, the sad, sweet-faced Mrs Arbuthnot, the formidable widow Mrs Fisher, and the ravishing socialite Lady Caroline Dester--are drawn to the shores of the Mediterranean that April. As each, in turn, blossoms in the warmth of the Italian spring and finds their spirits stirring, quite unexpected changes occur.The Enchanted April (1922) is a deceptive and timely novel immured in a post-war context, a period noted for its wistful and sometimes satiric writings. Von Arnim''s novel is part of this oeuvre and portrays an escape to a carefully described pastoral enclave away from encroaching urbanisation and the spread of new technologies, in an era when the Great War had left many emotionally and physically starved. The journey to San Salvatore by four unhappy women is an escape from stifling parochialism, constraining social and gendered expectations as well as stultifying insularity, but the evocation of an extraordinarily aesthetic and ''enchanted'' location suggests more than personal recuperation.ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Love... it means too much to me, far more than you can understand.At its simplest, Anna Karenina is a love story. It is a portrait of a beautiful and intelligent woman whose passionate love for a handsome officer sweeps aside all other ties - to her marriage and to the network of relationships and moral values that bind the society around her. The love affair of Anna and Vronsky is played out alongside the developing romance of Kitty and Levin, and in the character of Levin, closely based on Tolstoy himself, the search for happiness takes on a deeper philosophical significance. One of the greatest novels ever written, Anna Karenina combines penetrating psychological insight with an encyclopedic depiction of Russian life in the 1870s. The novel takes us from high society St Petersburg to the threshing fields on Levin''s estate, with unforgettable scenes at a Moscow ballroom, the skating rink, a race course, a railway station. It creates an intricate labyrinth of connections that is profoundly satisfying, and deeply moving. Rosamund Bartlett''s translation conveys Tolstoy''s precision of meaning and emotional accuracy in an English version that is highly readable and stylistically faithful. Like her acclaimed biography of Tolstoy, it is vivid, nuanced, and compelling.

Since their discovery in 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls have become an icon in popular culture that transcends their status as ancient Jewish manuscripts. Everyone has heard of the Scrolls, but amidst the conspiracies, the politics, and the sensational claims, it can be difficult to separate the myths from the reality. In this Very Short introductions, Timothy Lim discusses the cultural significance of the finds, and the religious, political and legal controversies during the seventy years of study since the discovery. He also looks at the contribution the Scrolls have made to our understanding of the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible, and the origins of early Christianity. Exploring the most recent scholarly discussions on the archaeology of Khirbet Qumran, and the study of the biblical texts, the canon, and the history of the Second Temple Period, he considers what the scrolls reveal about sectarianism in early Judaism. Was the archaeological site of Qumran a centre of monastic life, a fortress, a villa, or a pottery factory? Why were some of their biblical texts so different from the ones that we read today? Did they have ''a Bible''? Who were the Essenes and why did they think that humanity is to be divided between ''the sons of light'' and those in darkness? And, finally, do the Scrolls reflect the teachings of the earliest followers of Jesus? ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.