Номер 1, страница 65 - гдз по английскому языку 4 класс книга для чтения Верещагина, Афанасьева

1. Read the text and say why Beatrix didn't have many friends when she was a little girl.

BEATRIX POTTER

By Elizabeth Levy

New words:

Beatrix ['biətriks] — Беатриса
elder ['eldə] — старший
Noel ['nəʊəl] — Ноуэл

Beatrix Potter has written a very interesting book called “Peter Rabbit”. This book has become the most favourite children's book of all times. Would you like to know how she wrote it? Then listen to me, please. When Beatrix Potter was a little girl, most little girls did not go to school. Beatrix didn't and that was why she had no friends. Her elder brother went away to school, but Beatrix stayed at home. Most of the time she was alone in her room. Beatrix learned to read and to do many other things, but she never had anyone to play with.

She had a lot of free time and began to make up stories. Sometimes she drew pictures for her stories. Beatrix loved the summer most of all. June was among her favourite months. Her brother came home from school, and the Potter family went out to the country. “How fresh the air is! How high the sky! How deep the water in the lake!” cried Beatrix happily when they arrived.

Beatrix and her brother loved the outdoors. They could watch frogs in the lake for hours. Sometimes they stopped to have a look at a mouse or other animals.

They decided to make a collection of plants and animals, but they couldn't show their collection to their mother in order to keep it. Their mother didn't like to have frogs and snakes at home.

Over the summer Beatrix and her brother made pictures of their collection. They drew pictures of rabbits, birds and flowers.

Most of the time Beatrix tried to paint the animals and plants the way they really looked. However, sometimes she drew a mouse with a little hat on or a rabbit wearing clothes. She became a real specialist at this.

One day she found a rabbit. She called him Peter and became friends with him. Beatrix's mother didn't want Peter Rabbit in the house, but Beatrix found ways to keep him in her room. When the summer was over and her brother was back at school, she was not alone any more. She had a friend.

Beatrix grew up and became a very quiet woman who knew and thought a lot about plants and animals. She also became someone who knew how to draw and was always happy when she could go away to the country.

She liked the quiet life in the country and flowers of many different colours — red, yellow, blue and white. She liked green grass, green trees and friendly people living there.

One summer, at the end of August, when she was leaving the place where she lived, one of her young friends became ill. It was a boy named Noel. Beatrix came home and started to write letters to him. Most of the time she wrote about Peter Rabbit and his tricks. But Noel was ill for a long time however.

So, sometimes Beatrix made up stories herself. Noel loved her letters. He showed them to all his friends. Everyone loved the stories about Peter Rabbit and so Beatrix thought it was a good idea to make these letters into a book.

Прочитай текст и скажи, почему у Беатрикс не было много друзей, когда она была маленькой девочкой.

Ответ: Beatrix didn't have many friends when she was a little girl because she did not go to school and stayed at home. Most of the time she was alone in her room and didn't have anyone to play with.
(У Беатрикс не было много друзей, когда она была маленькой девочкой, потому что она не ходила в школу и оставалась дома. Большую часть времени она была одна в своей комнате и ей не с кем было играть.)