Любимые английские сказки / My Favourite English Fairy Tales: читать начало книги онлайн

4. My little brothers always .............................................................. at each other when mom doesn’t look.

5. He took some fruit from one stall, some eggs from another, some bread from the third and ..................

3) Fill in the gaps using words in brackets.

1. One night she ..................... (to be) woke up at midnight, and when she .............................. (to go) downstairs, she ........................... (to see) a strange old fellow.

2. They ............ (to ride) till at last they .............. (to stop) before a cottage door.

3. So she ................. (to take) the box of ointment and ................ (to stroke) its two eyelids with it.

4. The cottage ....................... (to become) elegantly furnished.

4) Translate the following sentences:

1. Мать была красивой леди, одетой в белый шёлк.

2. Но она ничего никому не сказала.

3. Она поплелась на рынок, чтобы купить нужные вещи.

4. Он ходил от прилавка к прилавку, забирая что-нибудь с каждого.

5. Вот тебе за то, что суёшь нос в не своё дело!

5) Retell the fairy-tale.

II. The Pied[14] Piper[15]

Newtown is a sleepy little town that was once noisy enough, and what made the noise was – rats. They ate their way into every barn[16], storeroom[17] and a cupboard. Even beer in the barrels was not safe from them.

Why didn’t the good people of the town have cats? Well, they did, and there was a fair fight, but in the end the rats were too many, and the pussies were defeated. Poison, I hear you say? They poisoned so many that it nearly caused a plague. Ratcatchers? Many of them tried their luck but there seemed to be more rats than ever.

The Mayor[18] and the town council were desperate. As they were sitting one day in the town hall trying to figure up what to do, the town messenger run in. ‘Please your Honour[19],’ he said, ‘here is one fellow come to town. I don’t know what to think of him.’ ‘Show him in[20],’ said the Mayor, and he stepped in. He was tall and thin, and had piercing eyes[21]. His clothes was painted in all colours of the rainbow.

‘I’m called the Pied Piper,’ he said. ‘What will you pay me if I free your town of every single rat?’

Fifty pounds[22] were promised him (and it meant a lot of money in those days) as soon as not a rat was left in Newtown.

The Piper laid his pipe to his lips and started playing it. Every rat came out from its hole and followed the sound of his pipe.

The Piper went through town to the harbour[23], and when he was at the water’s edge he stepped into a boat, and all of the rats followed him. On and on he played and played until each rat sank.

The townsfolk had been throwing up their caps and hurrahing[24], but when the Piper stepped ashore[25], the Mayor said ‘you see what poor folk we are; how can we manage to pay you fifty pounds? Will you not take twenty?’

‘Fifty pounds was what I was promised,’ said the Piper shortly; ‘and if I were you I‘d pay it quickly. Because I can pipe many kinds of tunes, as folk sometimes find to their cost[26].’

‘Would you threaten us, tramp[27]?’ shrieked the Mayor, and at the same time he winked to the council; ‘the rats are all dead and drowned,’ said he; and so ‘You may do your worst, my good man,’ and with that he turned short upon his heel.

‘Very well,’ said the Piper, and he smiled a quiet smile. With that he laid his pipe to his lips again, but now there came another tunes. And as he went down the streets from school-room and playroom, from nursery and workshop, children ran, following the Piper to the cool green forest full of oaks and wide-spreading[28] beeches. In and out among the oak trees was heard the laughter of the children break and fade as deeper and deeper into the green wood.

All the while[29], the elders watched and waited. They mocked no longer now. And never saw they the Piper in his pied coat again. The Mayor sent his men to look for the Piper and bring the children back but none could find the lost children.

Exercises

1) True or false?

[14] pied – пёстрый

[15] piper – дудочник

[16] barn – амбар

[17] store-room – кладовая

[18] mayor – мэр

[19] your Honour – Ваша честь (обращение)

[20] show smb in – провести кого-нибудь внутрь

[21] piercing eyes – пронзительный взгляд

[22] pound – фунт (денежная единица)

[23] harbour – порт

[24] hurrah – Ура!

[25] ashore – на берег

[26] to one‘s cost – на свою беду

[27] tramp – бродяга

[28] wide-spreading – широко раскинувшийся

[29] all the while – всё это время