English Legend
Read this English legend and do the exercises.
In the French castle near Paris there lived a young princess Isabel de
Vermont. She was looking forward to getting married to a young English prince Edward whose
portrait she had once seen on her cousin’s wall in Louisdeville.
“Henriette! Listen! How handsome the prince is!” she said to her
maid. “I am very much in love with him!”
“Oh, my lady!” the maid said. “There is one problem you’ll
face.”
“What is it?”
“Well, the language, I mean, the English language. You can hardly say
a word in English.”
“Oh, I can say ‘hello’, ‘good morning’ and ‘my lame is
Isabel’.
“Ah! Not ‘lame’, say ‘name’!” said the maid, who, could, of
course, speak English as she had been in England while a child.
“Yes, what a pity I did not take any lessons,” said the princess.
“But it is never too late to learn.”
“I’ll ask my papa about it at the evening meal.”
In the evening the princess came to her papa.
“Good evening, Daddy! I’ve got to speak to you.”
“All right, my darling! I’m listening to you!”
“I think it’s a good idea if I start learning English.”
“Ah, I see, you look bored. You want to have something to do. I’ll
ask old de Montagne to teach you, it’s not a problem.”
The next day Monsieur de Montagne arrived at the castle. He was wearing
his old-fashioned clothes, a curly wig and big dark spectacles.
“Hello, my child! Let’s begin our first English lesson. This is
a hat”, he pointed to a hat and then said: “a green hat. Un chapeau vert”.
So Monsieur de Montagne pointed to almost every object in the room, spoke first an English
word, and then a French one.
It was really difficult for the princess to remember all the new words
he had explained. So she mixed up a chair with a window, and then the
floor with the ceiling. When she didn’t know how to say ‘a sofa’ she
started crying.
“Calm down, my dear child. Calm down! You’ll say it again, ‘a
sofa’. Look! And I forgot my spectacles. These are my spectacles”, he said this
word three times and patted Isabel’s head.
So the princess was more or less relaxed and repeated every word after
her teacher. She was much better.
So, every day the old teacher would come to the castle and they would
have a talk. Then he taught her the alphabet.
After a month Isabel decided to set off to England to meet her love and
practise her English.
The prince was informed by a letter that a young French princess would
visit him the next morning. He was really looking forward to that event as he had heard a
lot about her from his servant.
The fact was that his servant George and Isabel’s maid were cousins.
“She’s got long curly blonde hair and blue eyes. She is so pretty,
you’ll surely love her”, George used to say many times. “If the princess was not
rich, I would marry her”, he added.
So the princess arrived at the castle. The prince was really happy. He
went out of his room and said ‘hello’ to her. The princess decided to speak only
English. She thought she would impress Edward, and he would quickly fall in love with her.
“Good day, isn’t it?” she started.
“Well, yes, it is a nice day”, said the prince.
“You look so…”, the princess to her surprise simply forgot the
word she wanted to say and another word came to her mind, “ugly, really ugly”.
And she smiled.
“Oh, no!” the prince twisted his hands, “She can’t have said
that!”
So the prince immediately ran out of the room looking very
disappointed. And Isabel didn’t understand what the matter was. She started crying so
loudly that Edward’s servant who was in the next room came in.
“Why are you crying? Did anybody hurt you?” he asked.
“Oh, nobody hurt me! I was speaking to the prince and he said “Oh,
no!” and something else that I couldn’t understand and ran out of the room. He
doesn’t like me.”
“Calm down, my dear princess. I’ll go to the prince and find out
what the problem is”.
After a few minutes the servant appeared in the room. The princess
stopped crying, but looked sad.
“Well, can you say again what you told the prince?”
“Yes, of course. I said that the day is good and he said the same,
and then I wanted to tell him that he is very… oh, handsome, but I said… did I say
ugly?”
“Exactly so! He was angry with you. Why did you call him ‘ugly’
”?
“That’s my English! I forgot that English word. What a fool I
am!”
“Never mind! I’ll go to my prince and explain the situation”….
…So in the evening there was a ball. Musicians played their musical
instruments. At the ball the prince invited Isabel to dance with him, and she was happy.
They told each other they were in love, and then they got married.
Isabel continued her English lessons with the old teacher, so she
wouldn’t make any more silly mistakes. Edward and Isabel lived happily ever after.
I’ve got to Мне нужно
wig парик
spectacles = glasses
If the princess was not rich Если бы принцесса
не была богатой
came to her mind пришло ей в голову
EXERCISES
1. Find in the text the English equivalents.
Как же красив принц!; ты едва сможешь
сказать слово по-английски; ты выглядишь
заскучавшей; хорошо бы начать учить английский
язык; показывал почти на каждый предмет в
комнате; перепутала; через месяц Изабель решила
отправиться в Англию; он с нетерпением ожидал
этого события; у неё длинные волнистые светлые
волосы; Джордж повторял много раз; принц заломил
руки; выглядеть печальной; так точно; на балу
принц пригласил Изабель на танец.
2. Answer the questions.
1. Where did Isabel live?
2. What problem did Isabel face?
3. Who decided to take English lessons: Isabel or her father?
4. What was the first word the teacher taught Isabel?
5. How did Monsieur de Montagne teach Isabel?
6. Did she have English lessons every day?
7. When did the princess decide to set off for England?
8. How did the young prince hear about Isabel?
9. What did she say when she met Edward?
10. Which English words did she mix up talking to the prince?
11. How did Edward’s servant help them?
12. What happened at the end of the story?
3. Choose the best title for the story.
a) A silly mistake.
b) Eternal love.
c) Love has no borders.
d) Isabel’s experience in learning English.
e) It is never too late to learn.
4. Using the text and your imagination give a description of:
a) Isabel;
b) Isabel’s maid;
c) Isabel’s father;
d) Monsieur de Montagne;
e) Edward;
f) Edward’s servant.
5. In pairs role play the dialogues between.
a) Isabel and her maid;
b) Isabel and her father;
c) Monsieur de Montagne and Isabel (during the lesson);
d) Edward and his servant;
e) Isabel and Edward.
6. Discuss the following.
1. Why do you think Isabel mixed up some new English words at the
lesson?
2. Have you ever mixed up some English words so the meaning changed to
a very funny situation? Give an example if possible.
3. What was the method Monsieur de Montagne used to teach? Was it a
good one? Would you like to be taught English with the teacher like him when you first
started the language?
4. How do you think Isabel would be taught English today? Would she be
more successful?
5. What is the moral of the story?
7. Retell the text as if you are.
a) Isabel;
b) Edward’s servant;
c) a guest at the ball in the castle.
By Alexander Derbaremdiker,
Polytechnic College No. 8, Moscow
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