Номер 1, страница 60 - гдз по английскому языку 4 класс книга для чтения Верещагина, Афанасьева

1. Read the fairy tale and say how big the tailor's son was.

TOM THUMB

After Sarah and Stephen Corrin

New words:

a thumb [θʌm] — большой палец руки

a knight [nait] — рыцарь

a palace ['pælis] — дворец

a magician [mǝ'dʒɪʃn] — волшебник

to notice ['nəʊtɪs] — замечать

to smile [smaɪl] — улыбаться

a couple ['kʌpl] — пара

windy ['wɪndɪ] — ветреный

to tie [taɪ] — привязать

a yard [jɑ:d] — двор

to struggle ['strʌgl] — бороться

a market ['mɑ:kɪt] — рынок

Have you ever heard of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table? Well, in the palace where they lived there was the famous magician Merlin. He used to go around the country and help the poor people. He was always wearing old clothes and he tried to make people happy.

One day Merlin stopped at a tailor's cottage which was situated not far from the forest. The tailor and his wife invited Merlin in and gave him food to eat. They were so kind that Merlin decided to do something special for his host and hostess.

"What would you like to have most of all?" he asked the tailor. The tailor and his wife could hardly believe their ears. What could this old man wearing old dirty clothes give them? Then the tailor said, "Have you noticed how sad my wife is? We have lived here for ten long years and we have no children."
"Oh, yes," said the tailor's wife sadly. "I would love to have a son of my own, even if he was not bigger than my husband's thumb." Merlin smiled, thanked them and left.

A few days later the good tailor's wife had a son. He was very clever and very strong. He was even good-looking, but he was very small. A couple of days passed, but little Tom could not reach the table though he tried very hard. He never grew bigger than his father's thumb. So, Tom's mother and father called him Tom Thumb. Tom Thumb was full of tricks.

One day Tom's mother was in the kitchen. She was making a cake. Tom wanted to see what was happening. He climbed up to the edge of the plate and he fell in. Tom was in danger because Tom's mother wanted to put the cake on the fire. Luckily she saw that somebody was moving in the cake and helped Tom to get back out.

The next day Tom's mother went to the field to milk the cow. As it was rather windy, she tied Tom to a leaf. But the cow liked the leaf and put it in its mouth along with Tom.

"Mother! Mother!" cried Tom. "I'm inside the cow's mouth. Get me out." The cow opened its mouth and Tom's mother caught him. Then she took him home, gave him supper and put him into bed.

The next day Tom ran out into the yard, but a big bird caught him. It flew into the sky. Tom was afraid and began to struggle and remember he was strong though little and so the bird let him go. Tom fell right down into a river. A big fish ate him up. The fisherman caught the fish and took it to the market where the King's cook bought the fish. When he began to prepare it for supper, he found a little boy in the fish. He took the boy to the King himself. King Arthur, his knights and ladies were sitting at the King's Round Table. Tom was on the table. He relaxed and showed the King many funny tricks that he knew. The King laughed a lot. But Merlin, the magician, smiled as he knew who the boy was.

King Arthur asked Tom, "Tell me, Tom, how big are your mother and father? Where do they live? What do they do?"
Tom answered the King's questions. He also said that his parents were poor and worked hard all day long.
The King loved the boy very much. He gave him a gold coin. Tom went home. When he reached his parents' cottage, they were glad to see him and were proud to have King Arthur's gold coin too. Tom was tired after his long journey and went to bed.
In the morning King Arthur's men came to the cottage and asked Tom to live in the palace as the King missed him very much. Tom certainly went to the King, but he never forgot his parents and often went home to his native land to visit them.
Tom's parents were very proud of their little son, but they never knew that they had to say "thanks" to the old man, the King's magician called Merlin.

1. Прочитай сказку и скажи, какого размера был сын портного.

Ответ: The tailor's son, Tom Thumb, was very small; he never grew bigger than his father's thumb.
Сын портного, Том Тит, был очень маленьким; он никогда не вырастал больше, чем палец его отца.