King Charles, his coronation and the future
Charles III will be crowned on May 6th
Until he is crowned, Charles cannot wear the crown
On May 6th, King Charles III will be officially crowned as King of England, the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth Realms. The ceremony will take place in London's Westminster Abbey, where English Kings and Queens have been crowned for 1000 years or more.
King Charles will sit on a throne that is more than 700 years old. He will be crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury, with the "Saint Edward's Crown", a royal crown that has been used since the year 1320, and perhaps for more than 1,000 years. His wife Camilla will be crowned as Queen Camilla. She will wear a more modern crown, one that was made in 1911 for Queen Mary, the wife of King George V.
Although about 2,000 people will attend the ceremony, and this will be shown live on TV all over the world, Charles's coronation will be simpler and shorter than the last coronation, that of his mother "the Queen" in 1953. Times have changed, attitudes have changed, and the British monarchy has just changed considerably.
After the ceremony in Westminster Abbey, King Charles and Queen Camilla will ride in a carriage, pulled by horses, to Buckingham Palace. Following another tradition, they will then come out onto the balcony, to wave to the crowds below.
The Coronation on Saturday 6th May will be a great national day of festivities all over the UK and beyond. The festivities will continue all the weekend, and into Monday when there is a special national holiday. There will be flags all over the country, souvenirs and decorations in shops, monuments and public places, and street parties in cities, towns and villages.
Street parties are now a popular tradition in Britain. People who live on the same street, or in the same building, bring out tables and chairs, cakes and sandwiches, tea and other drinks, and enjoy a tea party together. Anyone can organise a street party. They now happen whenever there is a big national day of celebration. Street parties do not happen every year, since there is no "national day" in Britain! Britain does not have an Independence Day like the USA, nor an Eid as in Muslim countries, nor a 14th July like France… and nobody wants to organise an outdoor street party at Christmas or for the New Year!
During the weekend of 6th - 8th May, most people in Britain will be celebrating the Coronation, happy to have a new King. Some will not. Most people in Britain are happy with the monarchy, or accept it, but there are others who think that Britain should be a republic. They are in a minority, and in autumn 2022, even after the death of the Queen, two thirds of people in Britain were in favour of the monarchy.
What will happen next? That will depend very much on King Charles. He has said that he wants to modernise the British monarchy and make it more relevant to the 21st century. If he succeeds, the monarchy may continue for many years to come. If he fails, who knows what will happen?
Word guide
Crown -
an official
hat used by monarchs - realm: kingdom -
throne - a seat for kings, as in "Game
of Thrones" - bishop, archbishop : the top people in
a church -
attend: be present at - attitude: the
way people think about things -
considerably - a lot, in a big way - carriage: a
vehicle without a
motor - wave - make a sign with the hands and arms
- enjoy : have a
good time - Muslim - Islamic - monarch: a
king or a queen - a
minority: (much) less than half - two thirds:
67% - depend on: be a
result of - relevant to: appropriate for, suitable
for - fail: the
opposite of succeed.
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Student Worksheet
1. Interactive multiple-choice exercise. Can be completed on screen or on paper :
Here is an extract from the article. Choose the correct answer from the options given in each case. Click the down arrow v to show the options, then select the one that you think is right. 😉 Try to do this exercise without looking back to the articleTo save your answers, take a screenshot when you have finished doing the exercise
Street parties are now a popular tradition in Britain....... Street parties every year, since there "national day" in Britain! Britain an Independence Day like the USA, an Eid as in Muslim countries a 14th July like France… and wants to organise a street party at Christmas or for the New Year!
the weekend of 6th - 8th May, people in Britain will be celebrating the Coronation, happy a new King. Some . Generally speaking, people in Britain are happy with the monarchy, or accept it, but there are who think that Britain be a republic. They are in a minority, and in autumn 2022, after the death of the Queen, two of people in Britain were in favour of the monarchy.
2. Anagram puzzle
Here are anagrams made from words used in the article. What were the original words ? Combine the letters of each anagram into a single original word2. Her apps
3. Dry bacon lies
4. Onion actor
5. Ed wins cash
6. Election bar
7. Pub relic
8. Mini Tony
For Teachers
Grammar:
1. Verb tenses, future and past.
This text is about the future..... not just the future of the British monarchy, but about expressing the future, in grammatical terms. The text is particularly rich in examples of use of the future with will. Very often we just us a preent tense to refer to future events in English, as in this example "I'm taking my exam next week". In this case, "next week" tells us that the action is in the future. However in a document writing about something that will happen in the future, then we tend to use the future with will – as in this text – even though the futurity of the context is evident.
The first five paragraphs, and the last two, are rich in examples of the future with will. It is used in the active and the passive, the affirmative and the negative, and even in the last paragraph in a question.. This short text is a treasure trove for teaching about the use of will.
Paragraphs 2 and 3 have some classic uses of the present perfect
2. Negation
Paragraphs 6 and 7 have half a dozen examples of different types of negation in English. It is iportant to show how negation can be applied in different ways, not just by adding not to a verb, but alternatively by adding no to a noun, uing neither or nor, or using a negative word such as nobody. These different types of negation are explored in the multiple choice exercise above.
The multiple choice exercise
Several boxes require students to select the correct negative structure.
Note that in box 4 of the first paragraph, the only acceptable answer is nor. Neither can only introduce the first element in a list, not the second.
In the second box of the second paragraph, the choices with of are not possible since we cannot say of people.
In the sixth box, only one of the modal verbs is possible.
The anagrams
The purpose of an exercise like this is sot so much to find the answers, as to make students look attentively for the answers, which involves a word by word approach to the text. They also need to pay attention to spelling.
