Recording 60, page 87
Exercise 18 Childhood stories and fairy tales. Listen and match the characters with the stories.
1
My mother made a cake and told me to take it to my grandmother. When I arrived at her house, I found somebody else in her bed.
The person had very big eyes, ears, nose and teeth – it was a wolf!
The wolf ate me but later some men came and opened up the wolf and took me out.
2
Once I was sold as a slave to the Sultan. I had to keep his bees all day long, and in the evening, I drove them back to their hives.
One evening I missed a bee. I noticed that two bears had attacked her for the honey she carried. I took a hatchet and threw it at the bears.
But I threw it so strongly that it flew up to the Moon. Luckily, I remembered that Turkish beans grow very quickly and very high.
I planted one immediately; it grew, and it fastened itself to one of the Moon’s horns. I climbed onto the Moon by this beanstalk. I arrived safely.
But it was very difficult to find my silver hatchet because everything on the Moon was silver. At last, however, I found it in a heap of straw.
I was ready to return now: but, alas! The heat of the sun had dried up my bean; it was totally useless for climbing down.
So I twisted a long rope of that straw. I fastened the rope to one of the Moon’s horns, and slid down to the end of it.
I cut the long, now useless end of the upper part, and tied it to the lower end. I repeated this several times.
This brought me a good deal lower. I was four or five miles from the Earth at least when it broke. Luckily, I fell into the sea.
3
We lived with our parents in a little house near a wood. One day our father took us into the wood.
He left us there. It was getting dark. We called our father but nobody answered. We were lost. We began to cry.
Then we saw a strange house. It was made of chocolate, cream and sugar.
We were hungry and we began to eat a window. Then an ugly old witch came out. She invited us into the house.
When we were inside, she locked my brother in a cage. I had to help in the house, while he had to get fat because the witch wanted to eat him.
But one day I pushed the witch into the oven, freed my brother and we ran away. We went back home and our parents were very happy to see us again.
4
I lived with my two ugly stepsisters and my stepmother. They were horrible.
They said I couldn’t go to the ball at the prince’s palace. A fairy gave me a wonderful dress and I went to the ball.
I met the prince and danced with him. I stayed until midnight. When I wanted to leave, I dropped a glass shoe.
The prince found it and sent out his men to find the girl with the other glass shoe.
When the prince’s men came to our house, my stepsisters tried to put on the glass shoe, but it was too small for them.
When I tried on the shoe, the prince’s men knew that I was the right girl. The prince asked me to become his wife and we had a big wedding.
5
I lived in a castle with my stepmother. She was horrible.
I ran away and stayed with seven dwarfs. But my stepmother found me. She wanted to kill me because I was beautiful.
She gave me a poisoned apple and I ate it. She thought I was dead, but I wasn’t. I slept for a long time.
When I woke up, I saw a prince. The prince said he loved me and we got married. I felt very happy.
