Short story: After Twenty Years

Objective & content

O. Henry's famous short story After Twenty Years (1906), retold at A2+. The language is simplified, the story is not: every clue and the twist are O. Henry's. On a cold, dark night in New York, a policeman finds a man waiting in a doorway. Twenty years ago, the man and his best friend Jimmy promised to meet again at this place, on this night. Then a tall man arrives... By the end, pupils can follow a story of about 1,100 words, find the clues to who the policeman really was, and use three verb forms from the story.

Pedagogical guide

The story runs over three pages, set like a novel, with five drawings at the moments they show; the page turns on "Is that you, Jimmy Wells?". Page 4 holds the tasks. Six choice and true or false questions check the story. "Find the clues" sends pupils back into the text: how the policeman knew about the old restaurant, what he saw when the man lit his match, why the tall man said "I grew a bit after I was twenty", and what the man saw under the shop lights. A box gives three verb forms from the story (the past simple, have + past participle, had + past participle), then pupils complete four sentences from the story with them. In the last task, pupils work in pairs: they write Bob's answer to Jimmy's note. Page 5 is the answer key with the teacher notes.

Suggested procedure

1. (5 min) Ask "Imagine you meet your best friend again in twenty years. What will be different?" and keep a few answers on the board.
2. (15 to 20 min) Read the story aloud, or pupils read in pairs. Stop after "Twenty years is a long time, but it can't change the shape of a man's nose." and ask "Who is the tall man?"
3. (10 min) Pupils answer the choice questions, then the "Find the clues" questions; check together.
4. (10 min) Pupils read the box and complete the four sentences.
5. (10 min) In pairs, pupils write Bob's answer in five sentences and read it to the class.

Adaptations

[S] Read the story aloud while pupils follow, and go through the words they may need first (appointment, fortune, scar, under arrest). Pupils can answer the choice questions and two of the clues only.

[A] Pupils write the scene twenty years earlier, at the restaurant, when the two friends made their promise.

Materials & prerequisites

One copy per pupil, in colour or black and white: pages 1 to 4 are for pupils, page 5 is the answer key. Pupils should know the past simple of common irregular verbs and have met the present perfect.