Chapter 1. Greenwood Dreams
ТЕКСТ ДЛЯ РАЗВИТИЯ РЕЧИ
Robin Hood and his merry men
(Приключения Робин Гуда)
Almaty 2012
Текст для развития речи
Robin Hood and his merry men
(Приключения Робин Гуда)
1.Greenwood Dreams. / Мечты о лесной жизни.
2.Through the Greenwood. / Под пологом леса.
3.Trials of Strength. / Первое испытание.
4.Escape from Prison. / Побег из тюрьмы.
5.“Robin Hood, Dead or Alive!” / “Взять живым или мертвым”.
6.Little John. / Малютка Джон.
7.The Outlaw Code. / Законы разбойников.
8.Robin and Poor Knight. / Робин Гуд и бедный рыцарь.
9.Tricking the Abbot. / Наказанный аббат.
10.The Ambushed Abbot. / Засада на аббата.
11.Vengeance on Sir Guy. / Месть господину Гаю.
12.Robin Hood’s Wedding. / Свадьба Робина Гуда.
13.Little John’s Trick. / Проделки Малютки Джона.
14.Trapping the Sheriff. / Западня для шерифа.
15.Rescue from the Rope. / Как разбойники выбрались из петли.
16.The Merry Widow. / Веселая вдова.
17.Alan-A-Dale’s Wedding. / Свадьба Алана-а-Дейла
18.The Black Monks. / Черные монахи.
19.Robin Hood and the King. / Встреча Робина Гуда с королем.
20.Robin Hood at Court. / Робин Гуд при дворе короля.
21.Robin’s Homecoming. / Возвращение домой.
22.The Death of Robin Hood. / Кончина Робина Гуда.
Chapter 1. Greenwood Dreams
“Mother!” called a small lad, as he came into the house after a morning’s wandering in the forest. “Is dinner ready?”
“Yes, Robin,” came his mother’s reply from the kitchen.
Dinner was already on the table when Robin walked into the kitchen. He sat at the rough wooden table and started to eat. Afterwards, when Robin’s mother was washing up the dishes, the boy sat for a time gazing out through the open doorway into the depths of the greenwood.
“Mother,” he said suddenly, “is the true that Sir Guy of Coventry was your uncle?”
“Why, yes, Robin,” was the answer. “Who told you?”
Robin walked into the kitchen and picked up a cloth to dry the dishes with.
“And is it true that he killed the wild boar by himself?” he went on.
“Yes, he did,” laughed his mother. “It was a very brave deed, Robin.”
“Tell me about it, Mother,” asked Robin.
The good woman, who was dressed in a long blue gown, drew up the footstool on the rush-covered floor of the kitchen, and told her son the story of Sir Guy’s deed. Robin sat by her, listening intently.
“Sir Guy had set out into the forest to attack, single-handed, the wild blue boar that had killed several country-men as they passed through the forest. Alone, Sir Guy had trapped the beast and plunged a long knife into its heart. Then he had carried home its grizzly head, with its enormous tusks, as a trophy.”
Robin sat for a time, picturing again his brave ancestor going alone into the forest, knife in hand.
“It’s not like you to miss the afternoon sunshine, Robin,” his mother said, as she picked up a pail to fill it from a nearby brook.
“No, Mother, but I was just thinking.” He stood up and picked from his worn hose bits of rush that had clung to him as he sat on the floor. “There are still wild boars in the forest, aren’t there?”
“Yes, but not so dangerous as the beast killed by Sir Gay of Coventry,” explained his mother.
Robin walked down the grassy path that led from the cottage, and was soon happily skipping through the belt of tress that marked the edge of Sherwood Forest.
Tea-time passed in Robin’s home with no sign of the boy. His mother, well used to her son’s ways, saved his tea for him and began to prepare a meal for her husband on his return from work. But when the sun had gone slowly to rest and the old oil-lamps had been lit to brighten the dark cottage there was great anxiety about Robin’s safety.
His father decided to search for the boy, and he was setting out towards the dark shapes of the trees when he saw a figure running towards the house. It was Robin.
“Where have you been?” stormed his father.
His voice brought Robin’s mother to the door. Robin’s clothing was torn and dirty. He went to his mother. She held him tightly.
“Answer my question! Where you have been?” thundered his father, eyeing a riding-whip that was hanging on the cottage wall.
“I – I went deep into the forest to see if I could find a wild boar. I meant to slay him, as Sir Guy did!”
“It is lucky for you that you didn’t find one,” said his father. He led them back into the house. “But,” he continued, his rage calming as guickly as it had risen, “it was brave of you to go and seek the boar. It is lucky for you and for us who love you that you did not come up with him.”
“All the same, it was exciting,” said Robin. “I met a crowd of rough men, who wanted to know how I came there. And when I told them they laughed at me.”
“You are but a boy”, - said his father gently.
“Then they gave me something to eat and drink,” went on Robin, “and they said that perhaps one day I should find a home in the forest myself.”
“Heaven forbid!” cried his mother. She hurriedly brought him the tea she had saved.
“It must be a fine life,” said Robin, almost to himself, “Imagine sleeping in the forest, and living in the open-air all day long!”
As Robin lay on his rough wood bed, watching the rising moon as it sent silvery glimmers through the breeze-blown leaves outside his room, he wondered how he could ever settle down to learning a trade when the greenwood around him offered a life of freedom and adventure.
Through the years, while he was growing from a boy into sturdy manhood, Robin never forgot that first adventure in the forest. He spent his leisure time wrestling, leaping, and running with the other boys. He learnt to fight with big poles, called quarter-staffs, and with great sticks with handles like baskets, with which two fighters tried to crack each other’s heads. He became quite at home on the back of a horse, learning to set it at high fences, and leap them. But his favourite sport was with his bow-and-arrows, aiming at a target.
So he grew up, a manly, robust young fellow, who could run swiftly, ride with great skill, wing an arrow true to its target, and fight bravely with his fists or with staves.