Princess Kate
The ordinary girl who will
be Queen
A2 - B1 simple
English
WITH AUDIO ►: Click to open/close audio player
She's one of the best-known women in the world. Her official name is Catherine, Princess of Wales; but for many people she is just Kate. Sometimes she's still called by her original name, Kate Middleton.
William and Kate at an official event
One day, "Kate" will be the Queen of England. Once she was just an ordinary girl, Miss Kate Middleton, the daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Middleton. Kate is short for Catherine, or for Katherine, and it's always written with a "K".
Kate was born in 1982, the first of three children. Both her parents worked for British Airways.
Her mother is from an ordinary family from the north of England; some of her ancestorspast generations of a family worked in the coala black rock that can be burned mines. Kate's father comes from a family of lawyersprofessionals of the law and businessmen.
Kate was educated in private schools, and as a teenager she went to Marlborough College, a famous school in the south of England. She was good at sport, and was captain of the girls' hockeya ball game played on grass (not on ice!) team.
In 2001 she went to St. Andrew's University, in the east of Scotland. She studied Art History, and met another student called William. William was actuallyreally, in fact Prince William, the grandson of the Queen, and he was studying geography.
The two lived in an apartment with some other students. After university Kate and William went different ways, but they remainedcontinued to be, stayed friends. By then Kate, William's girlfriend, was a celebrity, the most famous woman in Britain. Wherevereveryplace, every place she went there were people with cameras.... too many cameras. In 2010 William asked Kate to marry him, and she said yes.
They were married next year, on St. Catherine's Day, in Westminster Abbey, London. After their weddingmarriage ceremony, they became the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. In 2013 their first son was born; they called him George, after his great-grandfather King George VI. Later, Kate had two other children, Charlotte and Louis.
Then in 2022 Queen Elizabeth II died, and William's father, Prince Charles, became King Charles. Soon after, William became the Prince of Wales, the historic name of the first son of the English king. Kate, his wife, became the Princess of Wales.
Kate and William had a very busyactive life; they were very popular, so lots of people wanted to meet them. They went on officialformal visits, they opened new buildings, they went to conferences.... they had a very busy life indeed.
However at the start of 2024, Kate went into hospital with a medical problem. Soon doctors announcedsaid, proclaimed that she had a type of cancera serious illness. She had to stop her public life, while doctors treated her condition. They were successful, and in the summer Kate began doing things in public again.
Everyone hopes that her cancer will not come back. One day Prince William will become the next King of England, and then "Kate Middleton" will become queen.
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Student Worksheet
Kate - the ordinary girl who will be Queen
Interactive exercise - use on screen or on paper: Missing wordsTwenty words have been omitted from this copy of part of the text. Try to put them back by memory. Take care with spelling! .
Kate was in 1982, the first of three children. her parents worked for British Airways.
Her mother is from an family from the north of England; some of her worked in the coal mines. Kate's father comes from a family of and businessmen.
Kate was educated in private schools, and as a she went to Marlborough College, a famous school in the of England. She was good sport, and was captain of the girls' hockey .
In 2001 she went to St. University, in the east of Scotland. She studied Art History, and another student called William. William was Prince William, the of the Queen, and he studying geography.
The two lived in an apartment with some students. After university Kate and William went different , but they remained . By then Kate, William's girlfriend, was a celebrity, the most famous woman in Britain.
Creative writing: question forming
Students should imagine themselves in the position of a journalist, interviewing Kate for a newspaper in their country. They should think up at least six questions to ask.Here are the beginnings of six different questions. You can write your questions in the box, or on a sheet of paper.
Where ?
Why ?
Did you ?
Do you think ?
Have you ?
For
teachers:
Word fill exercise
Some of the missing words are just useful words or expressions to check, such as short for or both. Others are new vocabulary. Students may like to do this exercise in pairs. Alternatively it can be done as a class exercise, projected on the white board.Language points:
Family relations: this text is full of vocabulary to express family relations. Son, daughter, parents, mother, father, ancestors, grandson, great-grandfather, children.Teachers . Have students check their family relations vocabulary by defining all the relationships indicated with a red line on this chart. Express the relations in both directions, i.e. Prince George is Princess Charlotte's brother, she is his sister.
A useful term that is not in the text is "in-law", as in father-in-law. King Charles is Kate's father-in-law, Kate is Charles's daughter-in-law.... and so on. An in-law is a parent / grandparent / child by marriage.
Cardinal points: the text mentions north, south and east. Ask students which cardinal point is not mentioned? Clue: it is often associated with cowboys.
Queen of England: The "Queen of England" is the Queen of the United Kingdom; she is Queen of Scotland, of Northern Ireland and Wales too.... but it is normal to use the title "Queen of England", which is the oldest of the British queen's many titles. We do not say the Queen of Britain... though we do say the British monarchy.
Grammar:
1. Everyone, everywhere, whereverNormally Everyone and everywhere are indefinite pronouns.... but wherever is an adverb.
Adverbs cannot be used as the subject of a sentence, but pronouns, of course, can. So ...
- We can say I looked for a hotel, but everywhere was full
- We cannot say: I looked for a hotel, but wherever was full.
- Wherever / everywhere she went there were people with cameras.
The text makes extensive use of appositives, nouns or noun phrases directly following another noun to explain or identify it. These are the equivalent of relative clauses, without the relative pronoun and verb.
- Miss Kate Middleton, the daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Middleton. (= who was/is the daughter of...)
- Kate was born in 1982, the first of three children.
- ...to Marlborough College, a famous school in the south of England. (= which is a famous...)
- William was actually Prince William, the grandson of the Queen...
- By then Kate, William's girlfriend, was a celebrity...
- ...William became the Prince of Wales, the historic name of the first son of the English king.
- Kate, his wife, became the Princess of Wales.
Phonetics. Standard English pronunciation (IPA transcription). Note the word lawyer [ˈlɔɪ jə] which rhymes with Goya.
Note that Kate rhymes with date, not with cat.
More.... What is A2 English? What does it entail?
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