Oxford University Press

This invaluable reference work offers the best advice on English usage, drawing on the unrivalled resources of Oxford's English Dictionaries programme and language monitoring. This second edition of the 'Pocket Fowler' harks back to the original 1926 edition of A Dictionary of Modern English Usage by Henry Fowler, born 150 years ago in 1858. Updated with the use of the Oxford English Corpus, a database of over two billion words of 21st century English, the new edition answers your most frequently asked questions about language use. Should you use a split infinitive or a preposition at the end of a sentence? Is it infer or imply? Who or whom? What are the main differences between British and American English? Over 4,000 entries offer clear recommendations on issues of grammar, pronunciation, spelling, confusable words, and written style. Real examples are drawn from classic and contemporary literary sources, newspapers and magazines, and the Internet. Pocket Fowler's Modern English Usage is an indispensable companion for anyone who wants to use the English language effectively.

• An affordable, up-to-date, compact German and English dictionary • Over 90,000 words and phrases, and 120,000 translations • Culture supplement gives lively and up-to-date information on lifestyle and culture in German-speaking countries • Correspondence guide includes examples letters, emails, CVs and résumés, and a section on text messaging • Grammar supplement provides full information on all the key points of German grammar Authoritative and up to date, this third edition of the Pocket Oxford German Dictionary covers over 90,000 words and phrases, and 120,000 translations of contemporary German and English. More than just a dictionary, this handy reference book also includes sections on grammar, culture, and communication. The grammar supplement provides full information on all the key points of German grammar, including verb tables for quick reference. The section on culture offers lively and useful information on life in the German-speaking world, covering everything from political institutions to how weddings are celebrated. The communication supplement gives help with all types of correspondence, including example letters, emails, CVs and résumés, and a guide to text messaging. The Pocket Oxford German Dictionary is the perfect reference for student and adult learners needing an affordable, portable dictionary.

• A hardback thesaurus, ideal for home, work, or school, with over 230,000 syonyms and antonyms • Features all the words you need for everyday use, with synonyms given in order of usefulness • New usage notes on commonly confused words help you to avoid common pitfalls • Centre section includes new and updated lists of nouns, such as types of birds, bread, and butterflies, to help you expand your vocabulary and find quick answers to puzzles and queries A handy hardback volume for home, school, or work, the Pocket Oxford Thesaurus features synonyms and antonyms for everyday words, as well as language help. Updated with all the latest must-know vocabulary, and with a completely revised text, this second edition is an invaluable tool for anyone who writes for work, school, or pleasure, or anyone looking for the word on the tip of their tongue. The centre section of this thesaurus has been revised and now contains even more lists of nouns, such as insects, fruits, or drinks. This information can help you to broaden your knowledge, or to find the answer you are looking for in a quiz or a puzzle. The A-Z text of the thesaurus features usage notes to help you identify frequently confused words, such as affect and effect, or compliment and complement, so that you can avoid common pitfalls when you are writing. This thesaurus also contains Word Link features, helping you to find words that are closely associated with each other. For example, the Word Link at the entrylaw informs you that the words legal, judicial, and juridicial all relate to laws, and the Word Link at darkness reveals that the fear of darkness is called scotophobia. Packed with extra tips and help, and with a completely revised and up-to-date text, the Pocket Oxford Thesaurus is an ideal reference book for anyone who wants to improve their writing.

- Exciting and skilful adaptations of a range of modern novels — New, innovative activities specifically tailored to support the revised Programme of Study for Key Stage 3. Activities include work on Speaking and Listening, close text analysis and the structure of playscripts, and act as a springboard for personal writing — Insights into the plays themselves by their popular authors and adapters — Advice on staging Dominic Cooke's acclaimed Royal Shakespeare Company adaptation of the bestselling novel by Malorie Blackman. First performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2007.

This three-level grammar practice series takes students through from Basic to Advanced level English.

In a house in Oxford three people are having breakfast — Carol, her husband Jan, and his father Josef. They are talking about Prague, because Carol wants them all to go there for Christmas. Josef was born in Prague, but he left his home city when he was a young man. He is an old man now, and he would like to see Prague again before he dies. But he is afraid. He still remembers another Christmas in Prague, many long years ago — a Christmas that changed his life for ever...

When he was a boy, he was poor and hungry. When he was a young man, he was still poor and still hungry. He learnt how to steal horses, he learnt how to fight, he learnt how to live — outside the law. Australia in the 1870s was a hard, wild place. Rich people had land, poor people didn't. So the rich got richer, and the poor stayed poor. Some say Ned Kelly was a bad man. Some say he was a good man but the law was bad. This is the true story of Australia's most famous outlaw.

There, on top of the mushroom, was a large caterpillar, smoking a pipe. After a while the Caterpillar took the pipe out of its mouth and said to Alice in a slow, sleepy voice, 'Who are you?' What strange things happen when Alice falls down the rabbit-hole and into Wonderland! She has conversations with the Caterpillar and the Cheshire Cat, goes to the Mad Hatter's tea party, plays croquet with the King and Queen of Hearts...

Marilla Cuthbert and her brother Matthew want to adopt an orphan, to help on the farm at Green Gables. They ask for a boy, but they get Anne, who has red hair and freckles, and who talks and talks and talks. They didn't want a girl, but how can they send a child back, like an unwanted parcel? So Anne stays, and begins a new life in the sleepy, quiet village of Avonlea in Canada. But it is not so quiet after Anne comes to live there...

In the mountains of Transylvania there stands a castle. It is the home of Count Dracula — a dark, lonely place, and at night the wolves howl around the walls. In the year 1875 Jonathan Harker comes from England to do business with the Count. But Jonathan does not feel comfortable at Castle Dracula. Strange things happen at night, and very soon, he begins to feel afraid. And he is right to be afraid, because Count Dracula is one of the Un-Dead — a vampire that drinks the blood of living people...

Who wants to live in a house, wear clean clothes, be good, and go to school every day? Not young Huckleberry Finn, that's for sure. So Huck runs away, and is soon floating down the great Mississippi River on a raft. With him is Jim, a black slave who is also running away. But life is not always easy for the two friends. And there's 300 dollars waiting for anyone who catches poor Jim...

In the jungle of Southern India the Seeonee Wolf-Pack has a new cub. He is not a wolf — he is Mowgli, a human child, but he knows nothing of the world of men. He lives and hunts with his brothers the wolves. Baloo the bear and Bagheera the panther are his friends and teachers. And Shere Khan, the man-eating tiger, is his enemy. Kipling's famous story of Mowgli's adventures in the jungle has been loved by young and old for more than a hundred years.

Greg is a teenager with a problem — his father. After the death of Greg's mother in an accident, his father takes no interest in life at all. Greg tries hard to help him. His father is too old to rock and roll, of course... or is he? These short stories by Jan Mark look at life, love, and friendship through teenagers' eyes.

Mr James Conway wants to make money. He wants to build new houses and shops — and he wants to build them on an old graveyard, on the island of Haiti. There is only one old man who still visits the graveyard; and Mr Conway is not afraid of one old man. But the old man has friends — friends in the graveyard, friends who lie dead, under the ground. And when Mr Conway starts to build his houses, he makes the terrible mistake of disturbing the sleep of the dead...

William Shakespeare. Born April 1564, at Stratford-upon-Avon. Died April 1616. Married Anne Hathaway: two daughters, one son. Actor, poet, famous playwright. Wrote nearly forty plays. But what was he like as a man? What did he think about when he rode into London for the first time... or when he was writing his plays Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet... or when his only son died? We know the facts of his life, but we can only guess at his hopes, his fears, his dreams.

Everybody has bad dreams. Horrible things move towards you in the dark, things you can hear but not see. Then you wake up, in your own warm bed, and turn over to go back to sleep. But imagine that you wake up on a hard floor, in a darkness blacker than the blackest night. You listen to the silence, and smell a wet dead smell. Death is all around you, waiting... In these stories by Edgar Allan Poe, death whispers at you from every dark corner, and fear can send you mad...

Every town should have a 'card' — someone who gets talked about, someone who does mad and wonderful things, someone who makes you laugh. Bursley in the Five Towns has a 'card': Edward Henry Machin (Denry for short). Denry begins life in a poor little house where the rent is twenty-three pence a week. But before he's thirty, he's made a lot of money, and had more adventures than you and I have had hot dinners. The town of Bursley never stops talking about him. Whatever will young Denry do next?

Victor Frankenstein thinks he has found the secret of life. He takes parts from dead people and builds a new 'man'. But this monster is so big and frightening that everyone runs away from him — even Frankenstein himself! The monster is like an enormous baby who needs love. But nobody gives him love, and soon he learns to hate. And, because he is so strong, the next thing he learns is how to kill...

Terrorists blow up the Queen's coach outside Parliament. The Queen escapes, but five people are killed, and forty others badly hurt — ordinary, innocent people, like Alan Cole, the Queen's coachman, who loses his leg in the bombing. And for Alan and his daughter Jane there is more terror to come, in the search for the truth behind the bombing. Will the terrorists be caught and brought to justice? But what kind of justice? What can give Alan Cole his leg back, or give life back to people who have been blown to pieces by a bomb?

'I ran to the side of the ship. «Help, help! Murder!» I screamed, and my uncle slowly turned to look at me. I did not see any more. Already strong hands were pulling me away. Then something hit my head; I saw a great flash of fire, and fell to the ground...' And so begin David Balfour's adventures. He is kidnapped, taken to sea, and meets many dangers. He also meets a friend, Alan Breck. But Alan is in danger himself, on the run from the English army across the wild Highlands of Scotland...

'Moondial!' As Minty spoke the word, a cold wind went past her, and her ears were filled with a thousand frightened voices. She shut her eyes and put her hands over her ears — and the voices and the wind went away. Minty opened her eyes ...and knew that she was in a different morning, not the one she had woken up to. And so Minty's strange adventure begins — a journey through time into the past, where she finds Tom, and Sarah... and the evil Miss Vole.

'I wish I could get through into looking-glass house', Alice said. 'Let's pretend that the glass has gone soft and... Why, I do believe it has! It's turning into a kind of cloud!' A moment later Alice is inside the looking-glass world. There she finds herself part of a great game of chess, travelling through forests and jumping across brooks. The chess pieces talk and argue with her, give orders and repeat poems... It is the strangest dream that anyone ever had...

Down by the river bank, where the wind whispers through the willow trees, is a very pleasant place to have a lunch party with a few friends. But life is not always so peaceful for the Mole and the Water Rat. There is the time, for example, when Toad gets interested in motor-cars — goes mad about them in fact... The story of the adventures of Mole, Rat, Badger, and Toad has been loved by young and old for over a hundred years.

Hurricane Mabel is far out in the Atlantic Ocean and moving slowly northwards. Perhaps it will never come near land at all. But if it hits the island of San Fernandez, many thousands of people will die. There could be winds of more than 250 kilometres an hour. There could be a huge tidal wave from the sea, which will drown the capital city of St Pierre. Mabel will destroy houses, farms, roads, bridges... Only one man, David Wyatt, believes that Mabel will hit San Fernandez, but nobody will listen to him ...