L. Frank Baum “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”
The Cyclone1
Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry,
who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer's wife. Their house was
small. There was one room and a cyclone cellar2, where the family could go in case
one of those great whirlwinds3 arose.
When Dorothy stood in the doorway and looked around, she could see
nothing but the great gray prairie on every side. Not a tree nor a house, just flat
country and the sky everywhere.
When Aunt Em came there to live she was a young, pretty wife. The sun and
wind had changed her, she never smiled now. Uncle Henry never laughed. He
worked hard from morning till night and did not know what joy was. It was Toto
that made Dorothy laugh, and saved her from becoming as gray as everything
around her. Toto was not gray; he was a little black dog, with long silky hair and
small black eyes and a funny, wee nose. Toto played all day long, and Dorothy
played with him, and loved him dearly.
Today, however, they were not playing. Uncle Henry sat upon the doorstep
and looked anxiously4 at the sky, which was even grayer than usual. Dorothy stood
in the door with Toto in her arms, and looked at the sky too. Aunt Em was washing
the dishes. Suddenly Uncle Henry stood up.
"There's a cyclone coming, Em," he called to his wife.
"Quick, Dorothy!" shouted Aunt Em. "Run for the cellar!"
Toto jumped out of Dorothy's arms and hid under the bed, and the girl
started to get him. Aunt Em hurried to open the door in the floor and went down
into the cellar. Dorothy caught Toto and started to follow her aunt. But suddenly
there came a great shriek5 from the wind, and the house shook so hard that she lost
her footing6 and fell down. Then a strange thing happened. The house started to
rise slowly through the air. Dorothy felt as if she were going up in a balloon.
Questions to help you:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
How did Dorothy and her family live?
Why did they need a cyclone cellar?
Why was Uncle Henry anxious one day?
What did Toto do when he heard Aunt Em shouting?
What happened with the house?
1
cyclone ['saɪkləun] ураган
4
anxiously ['æŋkʃəslɪ] тревожно, с волнением
2
cellar ['selə] подвал
5
shriek [ʃri:k] пронзительный крик, визг
3
whirlwind ['wɜːlwɪnd] ураган
6
to lose one's footing - поскользнуться, оступиться
1
L. Frank Baum “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”
The Rescue1
The Cowardly Lion was much pleased to hear that the Wicked Witch had
been melted by water. So Dorothy called all the yellow Winkies together and tell
them that they were no longer slaves2.
"If our friends, the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman, were only with us,"
said the Lion, "I should be quite happy."
"Don't you think we could rescue them?" asked the girl anxiously.
So they asked the Winkies if they would help to rescue their friends, and the
Winkies said that they would be delighted to do all in their power for Dorothy.
They traveled that day and part of the next until they came to the rocky plain where
the Tin Woodman lay, all battered3 and bent4.
The Winkies lifted him tenderly in their arms, and carried him back to the
Yellow Castle again, Dorothy crying by the way, and the Lion looking sober and
sorry. When they reached the castle Dorothy said to the Winkies:
"Are any of your people tinsmiths5?"
"Oh, yes. Some of us are very good tinsmiths," they told her.
"Then bring them to me," she said. And when the tinsmiths came, bringing
with them all their tools6 in baskets, she asked, "Can you bend the Tin Woodman
back into shape again?"
The tinsmiths looked the Woodman over carefully and then answered that
they thought they could mend7 him so he would be as good as ever. So they
worked for three days and four nights, hammering and twisting and bending and
soldering and polishing and pounding8 at the legs and body and head of the Tin
Woodman, until at last he was straightened out into his old form.
Questions to help you:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Why wasn’t the Cowardly Lion happy?
Why did the Winkies agree to help Dorothy?
What happened to the Tin Woodman?
How long did it take to bend him into shape?
Who saved his life?
rescue ['reskju:] спасение, спасать
2
slave – раб
3
battered – ослабленный
4
bent – согнувшийся
5
tinsmith – кузнец
1
tool - инструмент
mend - чинить
8
hammering and twisting and bending and soldering
and polishing and pounding – ковали, скручивали,
сгибали, паяли, шлифовали, гвозди забивали
6
7
2
L. Frank Baum “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”
Attacked by the Fighting Trees
The sun shone brightly as our friends turned their faces toward the Land of
the South. They were all in the best of spirits1, and laughed and talked. Dorothy
was once more filled with the hope of getting home, and her friends were glad to
be of use to her.
They traveled on until they came to a thick2 wood. There was no way of
going around it, so they looked for the place where it would be easiest to get into
the forest.
The Scarecrow finally discovered a big tree with such wide-spreading
branches3 that all of them could pass underneath. So he walked forward to the tree,
but just as he came under the first branches they bent down4 and twined5 around
him, and the next minute he was raised from the ground and thrown among his
friends.
This did not hurt the Scarecrow, but it surprised him. He walked up to
another tree, but its branches immediately seized him and threw him back again.
"The trees seem to have decided to fight us, and stop our journey," remarked
the Lion.
"I believe I will try it myself," said the Woodman, and shouldering his axe6,
he marched up to the first tree. When a big branch bent down to seize him the
Woodman chopped7 at it and cut it in two. At once the tree began shaking all its
branches as if in pain, and the Tin Woodman passed safely under it.
"Come on!" he shouted to the others. "Be quick!" They all ran forward and
passed under the tree safely.
Questions to help you:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Why didn’t the travellers go around the forest?
What happened to the Scarecrow when walked forward to the forest?
Why did the trees seize and throw the Scarecrow?
How did the Woodman help the travellers to pass through the forest?
spirits - настроение
thick - густой
3
wide-spreading branches – широко раскинутые ветви
4
bend down - нагнуться
5
twine - обвивать
6
shouldering his axe – взвалив топор на плечо
7
chop - рубить
1
2
3
Lewis Carroll “Alice in Wonderland”
Down the Rabbit-Hole
Alice got very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having
nothing to do, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran by her.
“Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!” said the Rabbit looking at his watch.
Alice started to her feet, for she had never before seen a rabbit with a watch, ran
across the field after it, and saw it pop down1 a large rabbit-hole2. In another
moment Alice down went after it.
Down, down, down. “Would the fall never come to an end!” thought Alice,
when suddenly, thump! thump! down she came upon of sticks and dry leaves, and
the fall was over.
There were doors all round the hall, but they were all locked3. Suddenly she
came upon a little table, there was nothing on it except a tiny golden key, she tried
the little golden key in the lock, and to her great delight it fitted4!
Alice opened the door and found that it led into the loveliest garden you ever
saw. How she longed5 to get out of that dark hall, and walk about among those
bright flowers and cool fountains, but she could not even get her head though the
doorway. “Oh, how I wish I could shut up6 like a telescope!”
She went back to the table, hoping to find another key on it, or at any rate a
book of rules for shutting people up like telescopes: this time she found a little
bottle on it with a paper label7 saying “DRINK ME”.
So Alice tasted it, and finding it very nice, she very soon finished it off.
“What a curious feeling!” said Alice; “I must be shutting up like a
telescope.” And so it was indeed.
Questions to help you:
1.
2.
3.
4.
What was special about the Rabbit?
Where did Alice get when she followed it?
What did Alice find in the hole?
How did she get out of the hole?
pop down - провалиться
hole - нора
3
locked - запертый
4
to her great delight it fitted – к её огромной радости, он подошёл
5
long - страстно желать
6
shut up - свернуться
7
label - бирка
1
2
4
Lewis Carroll “Alice in Wonderland”
The Lake of Tears
Alice’s head struck against the roof1 of the hall: she was now more than nine
feet2 high. Now she couldn’t get into the garden behind the little door, so she sat
down and began to cry. Soon there was a large lake of tears all round her. Just then
she heard something splashing3 about in the lake a little way off: it was only a
mouse.
“O Mouse, do you know the way out of this lake? I am very tired of
swimming about here” The Mouse said nothing.
“Perhaps it doesn't understand English,” thought Alice; “It can be a French
mouse.” So she began again: “Ou est ma chatte?”4 which was the first sentence in
her French lesson-book. The Mouse gave a sudden jump out of the water. “Oh, I
beg your pardon!' cried Alice, “I quite forgot you didn't like cats.”
“Not like cats!” cried the Mouse. “Would YOU like cats if you were me?”
“Well, perhaps not,” said Alice in a soothing tone: “don't be angry about it.”
“We indeed!” cried the Mouse, “Our family always HATED cats: nasty,
low, vulgar things!5 Don't let me hear the name again!”
Alice hurried to change the theme: “Are you--are you fond--of--of dogs?”
The Mouse did not answer, for it was swimming away from her as hard as it could
go.
So she called softly after it, “Mouse dear! Do come back again, and we
won't talk about cats or dogs either, if you don't like them!” When the Mouse heard
this, it turned round and swam slowly back to her: “Let us get to the shore, and
then I'll tell you my history, and you'll understand why it is I hate cats and dogs.”
Questions to help you:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Why did Alice begin to cry?
Why didn’t the Mouse want to talk to Alice at first?
Was the Mouse happy to meet Alice?
What did Alice do to make the Mouse talk to her finally?
Chapter One
struck against the roof – ударилась об крышу
foot - фут единица длины = 30,48 см
3
splash - плескать
4
Ou est ma chatte? фр. = Where is my cat?
5
nasty, low, vulgar things – мерзкие, низкие, вульгарные существа
1
2
5
Rudyard Kipling “The Jungle Book”
It was seven o'clock of a very warm evening when Father Wolf woke up
from his day's rest. Mother Wolf lay with her four cubs1. "Augrh!" said Father
Wolf. "It is time to hunt again."
"Good luck go with you, O Chief of the Wolves", said the jackal Tabaqui,
who suddenly appeared. The wolves of India despise2 Tabaqui because he runs
about making mischief3, and telling tales. But they are afraid of him too,
because Tabaqui, more than anyone else in the jungle, can go mad4, and then he
forgets that he was ever afraid of anyone, and runs through the forest biting5
everything in his way. Even the tiger runs and hides when little Tabaqui goes
mad.
"Enter, then, and look," said Father Wolf stiffly, "but there is no food
here."
"For a wolf, no," said Tabaqui, "but for a person as myself a dry bone is a
good meal." "Shere Khan, the Big One, has shifted his hunting grounds6. He will
hunt among these hills for the next moon, so he has told me."
Shere Khan was the tiger who lived near the River, twenty miles away.
"He has no right!" Father Wolf began angrily - "By the Law of the Jungle
he has no right to change his territory without a warning7. He will frighten every
head within ten miles, and I - I have to kill for two, these days."
"H'sh. It is neither bullock nor buck8 he hunts tonight," said Mother Wolf.
"It is Man."
"Man!" said Father Wolf, showing all his white teeth. The Law of the
Jungle, which never tells anything without a reason, forbids every animal to eat
Man except when he is killing to show his children how to kill. The real reason
for this is that man-killing means the arrival of white men with guns. Then
everybody in the jungle suffers9. Man is the weakest of all living things, and
nobody must touch him.
Questions to help you:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Why didn’t the wolves respect Tabaqui?
Why did Father Wolf let Tabaqui come in?
What news did Tabaqui bring?
Was Father Wolf happy about this news? Why?
cub - детёныш
2
despise – презирать
3
mischief – беда, зло
4
go mad – сойти с ума
5
bite - кусать
1
has shifted his hunting grounds – сменил территорию охоты
warning - предупреждение
8
neither bullock nor buck – ни бык и ни олень
9
suffer - страдать
6
7
6