Pre-intermediate level
Points for Understanding Answer Key
The Treasure of Monte Cristo
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
1 1
mast a tall pole that the sails hang from, on a ship. a port an area of water where ships stop. There are often buildings around it. starboard the right side of a ship. anchor - a heavy object on a chain, dropped into the water to stop a ship from moving. deck - the outside top part of a ship that you can walk on. sail - to travel by ship. oars - long sticks with a at, wide end, used for rowing a boat. cabin - a room on a ship. cargo - goods carried on a ship. Edmond Dants Danglars Leclre Mercds Morrel the rst ofcer. the cargomaster. the captain, who had died at sea. Dants ancee. the owner.
(a) (b) (c)
Captain Leclre of the Pharaon is dead. But Edmond Dants has been told that he will be the new captain. Dants tells the news. His father, Louis, hears it. Later, Mercds hears it too.
Dants is arrested because Danglars writes a letter saying that Dants was going to deliver a letter to friends of Napoleon in Paris. Danglars disguises his handwriting and does not sign this letter. He sends it to the Prosecutor of Marseille. Dants is accused of treason. Improve Villeforts career: His marriage to Rene, daughter of the Marquis Saint-Mran, and his fathers politics but only if Villefort sends a letter to the King. (Read Chapter 6). Ruin Villeforts career: If Dants knows that Noirtier is Villeforts father, Noirtiers political opinions will harm his sons career, because Noirtier supports Napoleon. Dants offers his jailor three hundred francs to take a letter to Mercds. Dants wants everyone to know what has happened, so that he will be set free. He knows that Mercds will help him. But the jailor refuses and Dants is put in a dungeon. Duc de Blacas is King Louis friend and he serves him well. He tries to give the king good advice, but he sometimes trusts the wrong people. For example, he trusts Villefort. Dandr is the Minister of Police. He has money and special agents to help him but he does not always know what is happening in France. For example, he does not know how many men are with Napoleon. And one of his agents in Paris loses a man he is following. Dandr does not serve the king well. Villefort is the Prosecutor of Marseille. His employer, the king, knows that he is clever and ambitious. The king does not like Villefort, but thinks that he will be useful. In fact, Villefort tells the king lies. But the king believes him and gives him a medal. He thinks that Villefort is a good servant, but he is a bad one. Marshal Bernard is Napoleons adviser, on Elba. He serves Napoleon, his employer, well because letters for Napoleons supporters, the Bonapartists, leave the island and Napoleon himself escapes from Elba. General Quesnel is working for the king and he is loyal to him. But he is a double-agent and he goes to Bonapartist clubs and so people think that he is a friend of Napoleon. Quesnel is murdered by Villeforts father, who lives in the Rue Coq-Hron. (We know this from Chapter 3). We nd out more about this murder in Chapter 7. So Quesnel is not a very good agent because he is found out. Perhaps he does not serve the king well.
Macmillan Readers
The Treasure of Monte Cristo 1
This page has been downloaded from www.macmillanenglish.com /readers. It is photocopiable, but all copies must be complete pages. Macmillan Publishers Limited 2007.
Pre-intermediate level
Points for Understanding Answer Key
1 2 3
Noirtier comes to the hotel in Paris to tell his son, Villefort, that Napoleon has left Elba. General Quesnel went to 53, Rue Saint-Jacques to visit the Bonapartist club there. Napoleon is coming to Lyons on the 10th or 12th of March. He will nd many supporters there who will march with him to Paris.
8 9 10
Villefort told Morrel that Dants was in Fenestrelle prison, which was a lie. Villefort promised to send a letter, that both he and Morrel had signed, to the Minister of Prisons. But Villefort did not send the letter, he kept it. Prisoner 34 (Dants) meets Prisoner 27 (the priest, Faria) when Farias tunnel at last reaches the oor of Dants cell. Then the two men meet, face to face, for the rst time.
Faria is in the Chteau dIf because he spoke against the governments of the regions of Italy in 1806. He wanted one king to rule the whole of Italy. Powerful men did not agree with this idea and Faria was put in prison. Faria tells Dants about the treasure. He tells him how he found out about it and where it is. Faria tells Dants this, because wants them to share the treasure, if they ever escape. If only Dants escapes, then he can have all of it. Faria decides this because he loves Dants like his own son. Faria dies and his body is put in a sack, ready to be buried. Dants puts the body on his own bed and covers it. Then he goes back to Farias cell and sews himself into the sack. The jailers take out the sack, tie a stone to it and throw it into the sea, the graveyard of the Chteau dIf! Dants had escaped from the fortress.
11
12
Dants says, in Italian, that he is a sailor from Malta. His ship had sunk in the storm and all the other sailors had drowned. At that moment, there is an explosion from the Chteau dIf. A prisoner has escaped. Captain Baldi looks at Dants, his torn clothes and pale face. He guesses that Dants is that prisoner. But he does not care. Dants will be useful to him. He is given a shirt and some trousers by Jacopo, a sailor. He is surprised that Dants does not know the date but he believes Dants story that he had been hit on the head. This had made him forget things.
13
(a) Dants shoots a goat and while the crew is cooking it, he has the chance to look around the island of Monte Cristo by himself. (b) Farias treasure was in the caves under the twentieth rock, just as the letter had said. (c) The gunpowder helped Dants to move the stone. (d) The yacht that Dants bought with part of the treasure was a small, fast boat. Dants could sail it alone to Monte Cristo and collect the rest of his treasure. Then he could hide the treasure in the yacht. When Dants nds his enemies, he will probably kill them. Or he will make them as unhappy as he had been. He will want them to be punished.
Macmillan Readers
The Treasure of Monte Cristo 2
This page has been downloaded from www.macmillanenglish.com /readers. It is photocopiable, but all copies must be complete pages. Macmillan Publishers Limited 2007.
