1. By Charles Dickens TheSignalman

2. Summary The Signal-Man is a short story by Charles Dickens, first published as part of the "Mugby Junction" collection in the 1866 Christmas edition of All the Year Round. Clayton tunnel entrance as seen from the north. The railway signal-man of the title tells the narrator of a ghost that has been haunting him. Each spectral appearance precedes a tragic event on the railway on which the signalman works. The signalman's work is at a signalbox in a deep cutting near a tunnel entrance on a lonely part of the railway line, and he controls the movements of passing trains. When there is danger, his fellow signalmen alert him by telegraph and alarms. Three times, he receives phantom warnings of danger when his bell rings in a fashion that only he can hear. Each warning is succeeded soon by the appearance of the spectre, and then by a terrible accident. The first accident involves a terrible collision between two trains in the tunnel. It is likely that Dickens based this incident on the Clayton Tunnel crash that occurred during 1861, five years before he wrote the story. Readers during 1866 would have been familiar with this major disaster. The second warning involves the mysterious death of a young woman on a passing train. The final warning is a premonition of the signalman's own death.

3. Atmosphere Atmosphere: short sentences are used to create suspense, also can be created by slowing the pace. The narrator creates tension with sinister adjectives and adverbs, also uses violent verbs, which gives objects a human power. In this story, the atmosphere is really important because it makes the reader to get involved in the story and with the different characters; also it helps to imagine easily the situations and the feelings. Moreover, in this story, the end really helps to give a frighten effect, and mystery effect, because it let the reader to imagine the final end.

4. Thetheme Theme: The theme of the story may have been influenced by Dickens's own involvement with the Staplehurst rail crash on 9 June 1865. While passing over a viaduct in Kent, the train in which he was travelling jumped a gap in the line where the rails had been removed for maintenance, and the cast iron viaduct fractured, causing most of the carriages to fall into the river below. Dickens was in the first carriage that derailed sideways but did not fall completely – it was suspended at a precarious angle by the coupling of the coach in front and held up by the remains of the viaduct masonry. Dickens helped with the rescue of the other passengers, and was commended for his actions, but the experience had a profound effect on his subsequent life. The theme can also be related to the struggle between rational and supernatural, the Signalman's convictions that he is haunted, and the narrator's belief that these premonitions are merely coincidences, and that there is not any spectre but the wind. In the end, there is the "final coincidence", that the signalman was killed by a moving train, where the driver was imitating the same motions as the spectre that was allegedly haunting the signalman.

5. Thecharacters -The Signalman: In the story he represents a man, that works at a train station, and there is a “ghost” That appears every time, and every time he appears something unexpected happens. He seems to be a courageous man, that supports this strange moment that he is passing. -The narrator: He is a person that retells the story, and he is very smart in the way he creates the atmosphere, and creates suspense. The people that read this story, can not perceive what will happen.

6. Thenarrator A narrator is, within any story (literary work, movie, play, verbal account, etc.), the person who tells the story to the audience. When the narrator is also a character within the story, he or she is sometimes known as the viewpoint character. The narrator is one of three entities responsible for story-telling of any kind. The others are the author and the audience; the latter called the "reader" when referring specifically to literature. The author and the audience both inhabit the real world. It is the author's function to create the universe, people, and events within the story. It is the audience's function to understand and interpret the story. The narrator only exists within the world of the story (and only there—although in non-fiction the narrator and the author can share the same persona, since the real world and the world of the story may be the same) and present it in a way the audience can comprehend. A narrator may tell the story from his own point of view (as a fictive entity) or from the point of view of one of the characters in the story. The act or process of telling the particulars of a story is referred to as narration. Along with exposition ,argumentation, and description , narration (broadly defined) is one of four rhetorical modes of discourse. More narrowly defined, narration is the fiction-writing mode whereby the narrator communicates directly to the reader In the signal man the narrator has got particpation in the story, he is the one who speaks with the signalmanbefore he dies, he tellswhat he has lived.

7. TheTone a literary technique which encompasses the attitudes toward the subject and toward the audience implied in a literary work. It is a tool to create atmosphere, with it you can create Atmospheres such as suspense ones and tension. The tone in the signalman is Scary and of suspense , the tone of the reader should be tense in order to create a suspense atmosphere

8. Vocabulary Furled: Roll or fold up and secure neatly Doubt: to be uncertain about sth Steep: excesive Foreshortened: Prematurely or dramatically shorten or reduce (something) in time or scale Glow: to shine in the darkness Vague: Of uncertain, indefinite, or unclear character or meaning Vapour: a visible suspension in the air of particles of some substance Skimming: to take up or remove Dint: An impression or hollow in a surface Clammy: Unpleasantly damp and sticky or slimy to touch Oozier: sth which flows Reluctance: Unwillingness or disinclination to do something Breast: Either of the two soft, protruding organs on the upper front of a woman's body that secrete milk after pregnancy Watchfulness: the process of paying close and continuous attention Sallow: A willow tree, esp. one of a low-growing or shrubby kind Dismal: Depressing Dungeon: A strong underground prison cell. Gloomy: Dark or poorly lit Forbidding: Refuse to allow Saturnine: Slow and gloomy Dread: Greatly feared; dreadful Trim: Make (something) neat or of the required size or form by cutting away irregular or unwanted part. Crude: In a natural or raw state; not yet processed or refined

9. Slight: Small in degree; inconsiderable Spine: Backbone Hollow: Form by making a hole Rung: Past of ring Stirs: to mix Strained: A breed, stock, or variety of an animal or plant developed by breeding Pitiable: Deserving or arousing pity Unintelligible: Impossible to understand Distress: Cause (someone) anxiety, sorrow, or pain I didn't mean to distress you Averted: Prevent or ward off (an undesirable occurrence) talks failed to avert a rail strike Mere: That is solely or no more or better than what is specified it happened a mere decade ago Painstaking: Done with or employing great care and thoroughness painstaking attentiontodetail

10. Brink: An extreme edge of land before a steep or vertical slope the brink of thecliffs Notched: Score or achieve (something) she notched her second major championship Utmost: greatest Vehemence: Passion/Violence Trickling: a flow of liquid Harp: Musical Instrument Shudder: trembles Mourning: depressing (death) Thrill: Cause (someone) to have a sudden feeling of excitement and pleasure his kiss thrilled and excited her Shaft: A long, narrow part or section forming the handle of a tool or club, the body of a spear or arrow, or a similar implement the shaft of a golf club Tarpaulin: Heavy-duty waterproof cloth, originally of tarred canvas The scuba diver was wearing a tarpaulin Mischief: Playful misbehavior or troublemaking, esp. in children she'll make sure Danny doesn't get into mischief Rough: Having an uneven or irregular surface; not smooth or level take a square of sandpaper, rough side out Heed: Careful attention if he heard, he paid no heed Dwell: Live in or at a specified place groups of gypsies still dwell in these caves

11. GroupMembers Juana Miguens Pilar Olaizola Guido Ciccone Santiago Roldan Agustina Subira Lucila Lafuente