 | Treasure Island Bristol appears as a busy port in Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic pirate novel, "Treasure Island", the story of young Jim Hawkins and his adventures in the search for the buried treasure of the evil Captain Flint. Read this passage from Treasure Island then try the vocabulary exercise below. The exercise is based on the meanings of the words in bold. |  |
 | Chapter 7 - ‘I Go To Bristol’......Jim Hawkins falls asleep on the stagecoach.... "I must have dozed a great deal from the very first, and then slept like a log uphill and down dale through stage after stage; for when I was awakened at last, it was by a punch in the ribs, and I opened my eyes to find that we were standing still before a large building in a city street, and the day had already broken a long time. "Where are we?" I asked. "Bristol", said Tom. "Get down." Mr Trelawney had taken up his residence in an inn far down the docks, to superintend the work upon the schooner. Thither we now had to walk, and our way, to my great delight, lay along the quays and beside the great multitude of ships of all sizes and rigs and nations. In one, sailors were singing at their work; in another, there were men aloft, high over my head, hanging to threads that seemed no thicker than a spider’s. Though I had lived by the shore all my life, I seemed never to have been near the sea till then. The smell of tar and salt was something new. I saw the most wonderful figureheads, that had all been far over the ocean. I saw, besides, many old sailors with rings in their ears, and whiskers curled in ringlets, and tarry pigtails, and their swaggering, clumsy sea-walk; and if I had seen as many kings or archbishops, I could not have been more delighted. And I was going to sea....boundfor an unknown island, to seek for buried treasure."

Exercise - Vocabulary Look at the definitions below. Each one is for a word in bold in the text. Choose the word or expression from the list on the right which matches the definition. Check your answers Links for more information Bibliomania.com - Free online literature for the complete text of Treasure Island The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites. | |