新北市新莊區新泰國小 101 學年度英語朗讀比賽高年級題目 1
The Rotten Apples and the Wife
There was a poor farmer in the country.
He had a wife with a warm heart.
The only things they had were a small piece of rice field, a farm and a horse.
One day, the farmer said to his wife. "We have to exchange the horse with
other goods, tomorrow at the market." "Yes, we do. We don't need a horse
because we have no chance of going far away. " His wife agreed with him.
The next day, the farmer went to the market riding on the horseback. He
found a good cow while he was looking around the market. "Well. The cow will be
good. We will be able to drink fresh milk every day." The farmer smiled and went
close to the cow.
"If you want to sell this cow, how about exchanging your cow with my horse?"
The owner of the cow took a look at the horse for a while. He felt strange because
the horse was much more expensive than the cow. The horse looked healthy on the
whole. The owner of the cow laughed loudly and agreed to the deal.
The farmer was very happy, too. "Everything's okay. Now I have to go back
to my house." As he walked not a long distance with the cow, he saw a plump,
soft-haired goat. Suddenly he wanted to have the goat. "It would be much easier
to raise a goat than a cow, and goat's milk tastes good."
"Hey, why don't we exchange your goat with my cow?" The owner of the goat
thought that was a golden opportunity, after he heard the farmer. "Of course, I'll be
glad to." This was how the farmer exchanged his cow with the goat.
"Today is my lucky day." The farmer even hummed to himself. After a while,
he saw a young man holding a goose tightly with his two hands. "That goose looks
very healthy. Its hair is rich. It would be nice if we could raise such a great goose
in our depression." The farmer wanted to have the goose, so he exchanged his goat
with the goose.
After a short time, he met a guy who was holding a cute hen in his arms.
"Cock - a - doodle - doo! Cock - a - doodle - doo!" The hen's voice sounded very
healthy. "What a nice hen!" This time, he also wanted to have the hen. The
farmer approached the guy and asked him to exchange his goose with the hen. Of
course the owner of the hen agreed to his suggestion.
It was already late afternoon when he exchanged his animals several times.
"Oh, I am hungry! I am going to have lunch in a restaurant." The farmer held his
hen and headed to a restaurant. A young man was carrying a heavy bag on his
shoulder in front of the restaurant.
"Look, young man. What's inside of that bag?" He looked at the bag and asked.
"Oh! These are rotten apples." The young man said.
"Rotten apples? We had only one apple from our apple trees last year.
That's amazing that he has such a lot of apples. If we use those rotten apples as
fertilizer, our trees will bear lots of apples, too." The farmer exchanged his hen with
the rotten apples.
Then, he went into the restaurant and had lunch. And he told his story how he
happened to exchange one thing and another, and finally he got the rotten apples.
A rich old man listened to the farmer's story and said, "You are such a hopeless fellow.
If you go back to your house, your wife will be mad at you." "No way. My wife has
never been angry at me." "All right, if your wife will not be angry about your story
today, I will give you a package of gold coins."
After that, the farmer went back to his house with the old rich man. And he
told his wife the whole story about how he came back with the rotten apples. Then,
his wife said, "Oh, that's great. We will have as many apples as those rotten apples."
The farmer's wife even smiled happily.
In the end, the old rich man had to give them a package of gold coins.
Therefore the farmer became very rich.
新北市新莊區新泰國小 101 學年度英語朗讀比賽高年級題目 2
THE STRAW, CHARCOAL AND THE PEA
A long time ago there lived a poor grandmother. “Today, I will make a dish out
of peas.” Grandmother prepared to light the oven furnace with firewood and straw.
“Ouch! Ouch!” “Oh, my goodness!” As soon as the peas were poured into the
pot, each one cried out.
Just then, when the grandmother wasn’t looking, one pea jumped out of the pot
and rolled in front of the straw. “Whew! I made it. But where am I?” The pea
whispered to himself.
Right about then, a lump of charcoal that was burning in the furnace made a
small cry and flew out. “Gosh! This is hard.” The charcoal squinted his eyes and
wiped his sweat away.
The straw first questioned the pea. “Pea, how did you get here?” “From
grandmother’s pot, just as the fire was being lite up to cook me and my friends, I ran
away.” The pea proudly boasted.
Next, the straw asked the charcoal. “How did you get here?” “With all my
strength from the pot, I just barely got out.” Charcoal replied weakly.
When the straw heard this, he poured out his heart too. “My fate is similar to
yours too. All my brothers went into the fire, but luckily I slipped out through the
fingers.” “Oh I see!” “Really?” The pea and the charcoal each said a word and
nodded.
Charcoal said in a worried voice. “What should we do now?”
escaped luckily, let us live together in this strange land.”
“Since we all
In hearing pea, charcoal and straw thought for a moment. “What should we
do?” “I think we should do what the pea said.” So, the pea, charcoal and the
straw decided to leave that place.
It hadn’t been long since they left when they came across a stream. “How can
we cross the stream?” “There’s no stepping stone, if only there were some logs?”
“We can’t go back. Can’t there be a better way?” They stared at one another and
worried.
A little while later, the straw thought of a good idea. “Since my body is light
and long, if I lie down and stretch myself across the stream, you guys can cross.”
“Will it be alright?” “We will have to see.” On the one hand, pea and charcoal
couldn’t help in worrying.
The straw lay across the stream. “Hurry up! You must cross quickly. If you
stay in one place too long, I would catch on fire.” Charcoal quickly began crossing
over the straw.
But, as charcoal was crossing, he looked down. “I'm scared! Oh what should I
do?” Charcoal could no longer move. “Hurry up and cross!” Straw said with all
his might.
However, just at that moment, from the charcoal the straw caught on fire. “Oh
no!” The straw broke in two and fell into the stream. “Ahh!” At the same time,
charcoal fell into the water.
Pea, who was watching this scene, couldn’t help laughing. “Ha Ha Ha!” “Ha Ha
Ha!” The pea laughed so hard that he broke in two. “Oh no, I’m dying.”
Luckily just then, a tailor was crossing the bridge. “I will rest here for a while.”
“Help me” the tailor heard a faint voice and found the split pea.
The sympathetic tailor sewed the split pea back together. “You are lucky that
I’m a tailor.” “I’m really fortunate.” As the tailor was finishing sewing the pea, the
pea said gratefully.
The pea thanked the tailor. “Thank you very much.” “But, because the
thread is black there will be a mark.” Just like the tailor said, since then there was a
black mark down the middle of the pea.